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Case-study-memo-review
Advanced Professional Communication (COMM-6019)
Fanshawe College
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MEMORANDUM
To: Calum Cunningham From: Name Date: October 28, 2019 Subject: “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life” case study analysis
Introduction I wrote this memo to meet your request to provide an analysis of the article “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco ́s Life” written by Jon Ronson. The objective is to understand the importance of being careful about your posts on social media and the consequences of public shaming for people’s lives.
What happened to Justine Sacco? Justine Sacco was the senior director of corporate communications at IAC. As she had expended a long time on a trip from New York to South Africa, Sacco started “tweeting acerbic little jokes about the indignities of travel” (p). Because of a misunderstood comment about AIDS and racism, she saw her life ravaged by public judgments. She lost her reputation, family respect, and her job.
Context: public shaming Ronson identifies Public Shaming as ′′a common form of punishment′′ (p. 5) in the America history. The author conducts research to understand the reason for the end of public punishment. Ronson had a theory that public punishment had lost strength as the population had moved from villages to cities. Besides, the author finds from his research that there was no evidence that public punishment was over because of anonymity. Nonetheless, there is ample evidence that this kind of punishment can be so cruel that it becomes "a worse punishment than death" (p).
The author describes the early days of Twitter and how it influenced the return of public punishment. He claims he was among the first people to alert social media. "Within minutes, it was everywhere" says Ronson about his Twitter posts. He further states "As time passed, though, I watched these shame campaigns multiply, to the point that they targeted not just powerful institutions and public figures but really anyone perceived to have done something offensive" (p).
Current public punishment cases have some commonalities, as listed below:
First, the initial event is usually due to a careless and naive posting on social media, often a joke. Ronson demonstrates believing that shame campaigns happen with "everyday people pilloried brutally, most often for posting some poorly considered joke on social media" (p).
Memo / October 28, 2019 / page 2
Second, the consequences of going through such experiences reflect psychological trauma and often culminates in the dismissal of the job. "She barely left home for the year that followed, racked by PTSD, depression and insomnia " says Ronson about Lindsey Stone, a Massachusetts woman exposed to public shame for looks like mocking war dead.
Third, people who go through this kind of situation usually don't want to talk about it for fear that it could expose them further and cause more damage to their image. This is confirmed in the case of the man who was fired after joking about "really big dongle, a ridiculous dongle ..." (p). Ronson explains that he only agreed to talk about the case on condition of anonymity.
Analysis: Justine Sacco’s infamous tweet Justine Sacco had no intention of making racist comments by her Twitter post. Ronson quotes her comment about the misinterpretation of this: “Only an insane person would think that white people don't get AIDS,” (p). Her intention would have been to show how people that live in North America are privileged and live as they are in a “bubble” (p).
The channel for such reflection, however, was a bad choice, since through social media information circulates very quickly and is susceptible to misunderstanding. In addition, in the public shames seems to have a disconnection "between the severity of the crime and the gleeful savagery of the punishment" (p). When posting on social media, you need to be extremely aware of possible interpretations. As Quintilian advises “One should not aim at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand”.
Sacco didn't deserve to suffer such serious consequences in his career and in her life because of a Twitter post. However, people feel entitled to judge and make their own interpretation of what they are reading. As Ronson states, "Social media is so perfectly designed to manipulate our desire for approval, and that is what led to its undoing" (p).
Recommendations I will conclude this Memorandum by giving some recommendations to professionals in how to use social media wisely:
First, professionals should avoid expressing opinions that may lead to multiple interpretations. Concise and clear use of language is encouraged as a great ally in avoiding misunderstanding.
Second, making jokes in social media is not appropriate because they may eventually offend a group and cause situations of mass irritation. People acting collectively tend to have far more aggressive reactions than individually.
Third, the best way to deal with public shame is to face it. It is understandable that a person suffering a public shame wants to hide, but a well-planned exposure after such a fact can improve their image and resolve the misunderstanding.
Case-study-memo-review
Course: Advanced Professional Communication (COMM-6019)
University: Fanshawe College
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