The media plays an important role in defining who we are, what we desire and what is acceptable (or not) in our reality. In this talk, we discuss the current state of affairs and discuss how we improve upon it.

1. How Can Media
Reconnect Us With
Our Humanity?
Dr Tyrone Grandison – CTO/co-founder
Lisa Mae Brunson – CEO/co-founder
EqualityTV

2. All the opinions we share are solely our own.

3. provides an online stream of
culturally diverse media to give a
platform for marginalized
communities and expand society
views to embrace new ideas,
lifestyles and social customs while
boosting ethical, social and
consumer consciousness.

4. Dr Tyrone Grandison
Dr Tyrone Grandison is a senior leader in the computer science
industry who has successfully managed small and large, matrixed
teams across geographies, divisions and functional units in the
spaces of data security, privacy, RFID data management, privacypreserving mobile data management, text analytics and healthcare
management systems. Dr. Grandison has over 20 years experience
in software engineering and research in enterprise and startup
environments.
More information at: http://www.tyronegrandison.org/bio.html

5. Lisa Mae Brunson
Lisa Mae Brunson has been on a mission for the last 20 years to impact the
world on a global scale as a writer, author, entrepreneur and
“Inspirationalist.” Founder of the Love, Hugs and Inspiration Campaign, 21
Days of Fearlessness and 40 Days of Kindness, she is no stranger to the
art of inspiration. Her motto: “There is no joy in living ordinary!” In an effort
to produce media that inspires people to begin “Celebrating Humanity!” and
tackle every issue in support of Equality, Lisa Mae developed EqualityTV, a
multimedia broadcasting network. The goal: To make Equality go viral! She
has inspired thousands to ‘skip to their bliss’ and reconnect with their
childhood dreams, through her Creative Visionaries workshops. On sunny
days you’ll find her skipping, hugging, or passing out food and hugs on the
streets of Los Angeles.

6. What We Are Covering Today?
1. The Basics - Defining The Principles.
2. Media’s Current Approach To The
Principles.
3. The Current Trends in Media.
4. Media’s Path to Improvement.
5. Your Role.
6. Conclusion.

7. The Basics –
Defining The Principles

8. #Humanity101
There are seven (7) principles that are critical to
success and professional relationships.
These principles transcend boundaries of
community, class, generation, discipline, etc.
and connects us with our humanity.
But, what do they mean?

9. #Humanity101 Principles
1. Compassion:
sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of
others.
[ from Latin compati- ‘suffer with’ ]
2. Empathy:
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
[ from Greek empatheia (from em- ‘in’ + pathos ‘feeling’) ]

10. #Humanity101 Principles
3. Forgiveness:
the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven.
[ from Old English forgiefenes, from forgiefen (past participle of forgiefan ‘forgive’) ]
Forgive:
stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense,
flaw, or mistake.
[ Old English forgiefan from for- ‘completely’ + giefan ‘give’ ]

11. #Humanity101 Principles
4. Integrity:
the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles;
moral uprightness.
[ from Latin integer ‘intact’ ]
5. Kindness:
the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.
[ from Old English ‘courtesy’, ‘noble deeds’ ]

12. #Humanity101 Principles
6. Respect:
a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by
their abilities, qualities, or achievements.
[ from Latin respicere ‘look back at’, ‘regard’ ]
7. Self-Reflection:
meditation or serious thought about one's character, actions, and
motives.
[ from Old English sylf ‘one’s own person’ &
Latin reflectere ‘bent back,’ from the verb ]

13. NOW
We can ask ourselves How does the media help us connect with our
humanity using These Principles?

14. Media’s Current
Approach To The
Principles.

15. COMPASSION
How does media enable us to be sympathetic and
concerned about the sufferings of others?

16. Findings: PEW Research Center’s report
“The State of the News Media 2013”
• Opinion dominates reporting.
•
•
•
Airtime devoted to interviews rose from 39% (2007) to 51%
(2012).
Percentage of evening programming filled with interviews
jumped from 30% (2007) to 57% (2012).
Commentary and opinion are far more prevalent on the air
throughout the day (63% of the airtime) than straight news
reporting (37%).

17. • Average story length on local television news
decreased substantially.
•
Time for local news content:
•
From 1998 to 2002, 31% of the stories were more than a
minute long and 42% were under 30 seconds.
•
In 2012, only 20% of the local television stories exceeded
a minute while 50% lasted less than 30 seconds.
•
Time devoted to sports, weather and traffic on local
newscasts rose even higher.
• From 32% (2005) to 40% (2012).

18. Programming Philosophy
• Fear Based Storytelling.
• Creating/Fabricating Trending Stories.
“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is
when you fall into an open sewer and die.”
– Mel Brooks, Film Director
• Comedy, not Compassion.

19. Examples
• Sweet Brown turned into viral parody.
• Charles Ramsey also turned into a viral
parody.
• A 9.1 earthquake off the western coast of
Indonesia.
•
•
Created 30 meter Tsunami wave that displaced 1.8
million and left 230,000 dead or missing.
Mainstream news focused on Boxing Day sales.

20. Hot Coffee
* Used with the permission of Susan Saladoff - Director, Hot Coffee (www.hotcoffeethemovie.com)

21. • Media sways public opinion by presenting
skewed ‘facts’ that provide an advantage
for mainstream media.
• Social media is used to manufacture stories
and to make them go viral, driving public
opinion.
•
When something is shared enough, it must make
them true, right?

22. Have you heard of these stories ?
Mante Teo’s Girlfriend
The Gas Station
Karaoke Couple
Letter To Santa
With An Amazon
Link
Waitress not tipped because of
her sexual orientation

23. • This trend has enabled opportunistic media
companies popping up and gaining popularity.
•
When Nelson Mandela passed, a tweet from Paris:
"RIP Nelson Mandela. Your 'I Have a Dream' speech was so inspiring.
An amazing man”
•
Later, it was discovered that @DeletedTweets, a parody account,
had manufactured the tweet.
• The mainstream media creates hoaxes to simulate
‘feel good’ stories. Why?

24. EMPATHY
How does media enable us to be able to understand and share the viewpoint
of someone different from us?

25. University of Michigan Study
• A study measuring empathy finds that:
•
•
The current crop of college kids to be less empathetic than
generations past.
Also found a marked decline in the qualities of kindness and
helpfulness.
• It is not just college kids, but society in general is
less empathic than it once was.
• Media bears a large part of the blame.
•
Violent media a factor, making people insensitive to others’ pain.

26. • Common themes of Television Shows:
•
•
•
•
Crime thrillers
Reality Shows
Raunchy comedy
Violence, sexuality, race and gender stereotypes, drug and
alcohol abuse
• Contributes to a society that views these
influences as typical, safe and acceptable.
• This lead to behaviors being imitated in
society. Thus, a copy-cat culture is born.

27. • Sensationalism and glorification of crimes in
the media spawns a lack of integrity in others
and inspires ‘copycat’ crimes.
• Sensationalized Aggression
•
•
Albert Bandura’s study (1960s) found that people can
learn to be aggressive, especially if they saw the
person being rewarded for the aggressive act.
In copycat crimes, the main hypothesis is that the
attention these crimes receive in the media acts as a
reward for those wishing to copy them.

28. • Recent examples of sensationalized
aggression and copycat crimes include:
KNOCKOUT Game
STEUBENVILLE CASE

29. • Charles Williams, a professor of psychology
and education at Drexel University in
Philadelphia, says some young people are
desperate for attention.
• He called it the "Miley Cyrus effect”, where
teens will do anything to get noticed, no
matter how heinous or unconscionable.

30. FORGIVENESS
How does media enable us to be able to completely give up being angry with
people who wrong us, knowingly or unknowingly?

31. • The antithesis of forgiveness is: Revenge
the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an
injury or wrong suffered at their hands.
• Lack of forgiveness in media breeds
revenge.
• Revenge is one of the most common
themes in media.

32. • Popular shows like Revenge, Scandal, and
Betrayal depict a disturbing trend in media
that has spanned generations.
• Media networks use marketing campaigns
like ‘Revengenda’ to expand their audience
and provide an interactive environment
where viewers can learn and share savvy
revenge techniques.

33. • Revenge has been a consistent motivator in
many of the films of 2013, and will continue as
the years goes on.
•
"G.I. Joe: Retaliation," "Iron Man 3," "Star Trek Into
Darkness," "The Lone Ranger," "The Wolverine,"
"Prisoners," "Carrie," "47 Ronin" …..
• Media created a ‘Revenge Culture’.
•
That drives the message: “If you take revenge publicly
via media, you will get heard, and get action”.

34. What do you think?

35. INTEGRITY
How does media enable us to be our highest moral self?

36. • The root of the lack of integrity in America.
•
•
Selfishness and having no empathy or love for others.
Many people just no longer care what their own actions do to
others.
• It is all about "me" and that is why this is called
the "me generation”.
• Finding: Uni. Of Essex’s Integrity study
•
An erosion of trust between people can have economic as
well as social consequences.

37. “We’re living in a time when everybody is so
obsessed with delivery systems and gaming the
system and business. It is actually very, very
soul destroying”
“We do not have enough respect for content
anymore”
- Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast
Brown asserted that without more respect for the integrity
of news, we will be a “very ill-informed nation.”

38. KINDNESS
How does media enable us to be friendly, generous and considerate?

39. There is a distinct lack of kindness portrayed
in media (traditional and newer forms) by:
Body Shaming
Male characters often negatively comment on average
and above average weight females' body shapes and
weights and audiences usually react by laughing.

40. Physically and Mentally Disabled
Physically and mentally disabled people are often
portrayed as helpless, pathetic and needing to be
institutionalized in some fashion.
Deaf and Hearing Impaired
The deaf and hearing impaired are often the butt of
jokes in shows. They are unfairly treated and common
language includes, ‘deaf and stupid.’

41. Racism
Many shows and films inadvertently use racist
language, stereotypes and themes. Comedy is often
used as a buffer to deliver racist remarks.
Gender Discrimination
Women are characterized as weak and inferior to men.
The language used can be very demeaning and
unkind.
Bullying Behavior
Bully behavior is common in media. Whether a

42. Bullying Behavior
Bully behavior is common in media. Whether a child is
being bullied and taunted at school, or a wife is bullied
and abused by her husband, or a man is being bullied
and pressured by his colleagues, the media is awash
with bulling and unkind behavior.

43. RESPECT
How does media enable us to hold each other in the highest regard?

44. • Similar to the lack of kindness in media,
there is the lack of respect.
• The ‘sitcom formula’ is built on a foundation
where demonstrating lack of respect for
others, is the Golden Rule.

45. • Networks know that the majority of
audiences enjoy offensive language and
comedy.
• Show concepts are created with the intent
to highlight and blatantly disrespect the
differences in others.

46. SELF-REFLECTION
How does media enable us to think about our character, actions and
motives?

47. • There are a large number of characters and
people in media who appear to be shallow and
superficial.
• Rarely do we get an inside look into a
character’s meditative thoughts.
• Deep conscious characters and distinguished
storylines are not common in mainstream
media, but can be found in Independent films
and alternative media.

48. The Current Trends In
Media

49. • Ninety percent of movies, 68% of video
games, and 60% of TV shows show some
depictions of violence.
• Top Shows:

50. • Many shows marketed as ‘reality shows’.
•
but often portray a different reality than you or I
experience.
• Common themes in these shows:
• Competitiveness
• Overinflated sense of self
• Dishonesty
• Disrespect
• Addictive Behaviors
• Blatant abusive language
• Gossip and backstabbing
• Lack of the (7) principles

51. In 2014, MORE of the same shows launching:

52. Media’s Path to
Improvement

53. Firstly
What do YOU think
humanity is?

54. Humanity
“Humanity is the essence and core of our
existence as humans”.
“It is how we connect with ourselves and one
another.”
•
•
We are constantly evolving the definition, as we
humans evolve and are influenced.
Our greatest source of evolution and impact in society
is our media.

55. We Need to See More of THIS:

56. In Today’s Society
• Media constructs our global culture.
•
We are constantly influenced by what mass media dictates for
our present and future.
• Media has the power to directly impact future
generations.
•
•
Our world is a reflection of the media we generate.
For centuries, this media has largely ignored marginalized
communities and promoted mediocrity and inequality around
the world.

57. Emerging Trends
Upworthy: Things that matter. Pass 'em on
“We're a mission-driven media company. We do have a point of view.
We're pro-gay-marriage, and we're anti-child-poverty. We think the
media is horrible to women, we think climate change is real, and we
think the government has a lot to learn from the Internet about
efficiency, disruption, and effectiveness.”
• Their success stems from the kind of
content they curate and share across social
media platforms.

58. Meet Dr. Robert

59. TheDream.US Scholarship: Marcy

60. Humans of New York

61. Celebrating Humanity
• UCLA study of 1,000 TV shows (on 67
cable & broadcast networks) on ‘racial
diversity in the entertainment industry’.
•
more viewers were drawn to shows with ethnically
diverse lead cast members and writers, while
shows reflecting less diversity in their credits
attracted smaller audiences.

62. Celebrating Humanity
"It's clear that people are watching shows that reflect and relate to
their own experiences,"
- Hunt
•
•
•
Reconnecting with our humanity means we must embrace the
rich diversity of what makes each of us human.
We must be exposed to media that allows us to relate to who we
are.
We must also be exposed to media that is drastically different
from our own experiences and personal culture.

63. Remember this?

64. Media is slowly introducing more content with
diverse casts, compelling storylines and
family and relationship dynamics.

65. YOUR Role

66. ACT! ACT! ACT!
• Share and support media that embody the 7
principles.
• Speak out when you see media that does not
connect us with our humanity.
• Create the media you want to see.
•
Positive, uplifting, diverse, informative, inclusive
Summary: Personal Responsibility & Social
Accountability

67. Conclusion

68. • Media has a responsibility to humanity
•
•
Media influences society.
Thus far, it has abused that power.
• Society is changing
•
•
Humans are shifting.
Media is responding.
• We need to make media act consciously
•
To emphasize and engage our humanity.

69. Viewing of
Happy The Documentary

70. Later This Year
• Hacks for Humanity
•
•
An opportunity for software developers, makers,
and humanitarians to create deliverables (e.g.
websites, mobile apps, programs, devices) to help
us reconnect to our humanity.
Tentative Date: September 18th to 21st, 2014.

73. Thank you