And Survey Says… (Post 5)
Public opinion matters, we learn a lot.
Overall Survey Content
I conducted a ten question survey with thirty-one responders and successfully got their feedback. The survey’s purpose was to gauge how much people knew about the current situation of Brazil’s indigenous people and the Amazon rainforest, and how informed they are when it comes to the news or what’s happening around us.
After analyzing the results, I found out that 80.65% of the responders didn’t know about Brazilian President Temer’s declaration of opening up Renca, a land reserve, for foreign investment and job opportunities. But despite that, 74.19% knew that there are more indigenous tribes we haven’t made contact with. Also, 93.55% recognize that natives deserve land rights as well. Most importantly, many of the survey takers get their news from social media platforms (48.39%) or online news articles (35.48%). Towards the end of the survey, I asked basic demographical questions such as age, gender, ethnic background, city of residence, employment status, and education level.
Online News
I was convinced that not many people knew about what happened recently in Brazil. Millennials were a big part of my survey, and it proves how reliant they are on social media or online news sources to get their news. I’m the type of person who watches the news from time to time, but lately my race and resistance class requires me to know what’s happening in the world.
As expected, not many knew about the Brazilian president opening up the land reserve, Renca, in the Amazon rainforest. At the same time, a big part of the survey takers said that despite getting their news online on social media. I noticed many of the survey takers are full-time students and employed either full-time or part-time. They are so busy because of the time they spend studying and working. This may mean that they don’t have much time to watch or read the news. Besides that, it makes sense why most millennials are reliant on online news sources and social media because news is easily accessible there, and most of them have smartphones too.
The Role of Mass Media in Spreading Awareness
One of the main reasons why some of the survey takers didn’t know about the Brazilian President’s declaration could be because of how mass media doesn’t cover a lot of things concerning the natives or indigenous community. The U.S has brainwashed us that their issues aren’t of priority, which leads to many people not knowing what truly is happening outside of the U.S borders. We only find real world news from online news sources or news blog sites such as The Guardian, Democracy Now!, Vice News, Al Jazeera, New York Times, and so on. They provide the facts and necessary news that people should know. Although there are some news that are relevant in the U.S, but many U.S news broadcasting companies have biases and corporations that funds and supports them. Lastly, despite mass media’s slight censorship, many of the responders believe that the natives or indigenous people deserve land rights and that the government should demarcate land for them.