The Yes Men

On December 3rd, 2004, Jude Finisterra appeared on BBC as a representative of Dow Chemical, who owned the company, Union Carbide, which was responsible for the Bhopal disaster that killed thousands and left over 100,000 people needing lifelong medical care. Finisterra apologized to the people of Bhopal and then claimed that Dow planned to liquidate Union Carbide and use that money to pay for the damage they had caused including medical care and cleaning up the site. A few hours after this broadcast was made, it was revealed that it was a hoax created by a group called The Yes Men.

The Yes Men are a group of activists who “[impersonate] big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. [Their] targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else,” (theyesmen.org). The Yes Men have been successful in many past pranks and the reason behind that is due to what Sturken and Cartwright claim how we, as the audience, “rank modes of news media in terms of importance or credibility,” (Sturken and Cartwright 230). With the rise of new media such as blogs and networking sites that allow for easy distribution of information and also easy distortion of information, consumers have become more aware of where they are receiving their news. Sites such as CNN.com and Newyorktimes.com are given more credit because they have a long history in providing us with credible news but sites such as Wikipedia.org which its content can be altered by the public is seen as less credible (even though everyone uses it).

In addition to its past, Sturken and Cartwright claim the way the news is presented makes a big difference too. Using the television format as an example, they cite the age, gender, and appearance of the newscaster as well as the space of the newsroom, and the graphics of the news segments all affect the way we rank the credibility of the news. If we use online sites as an example, we judge their credibility maybe based on its reputation and the appearance of the website. If the website looks like something (or is something) that was on Blogger who can be made by anyone, we wouldn’t trust it as much. If the website has nice graphics with clickable links and an interactive interface such as the fake websites The Yes Men created, we would trust them more. The Yes Men when impersonating corporations or people got invited to many big name events and that only occurred because the events thought they really were the big name corporation or power figure. Whether we like to admit it or not, appearance and reputation are two things that are weighed heavily in our society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI