Read: Composition essay
For your final composition, you’ll be writing about the movie FYRE: the Greatest Party That Never Happened.
fyre promo.png fyre.jpg
With hindsight, it’s easy to see that Billy McFarland, and possibly some of the people on his team, were knowingly and actively deceiving the public, their investors, and their own employees.
How did Billy take advantage of his own positionality and other people’s biases to sell his fraudulent festival?
Make sure to address this at the individual, group, and societal:
a. individuals – for example, Andy (the event coordinator), Carola (the big investor), Marc (music festival consultant/yoga instructor), Shiyan (product designer for the app),
full cast list with photos: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9412098/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast (Links to an external site.)
b. groups – for example, the social media influencers, FuckJerry media (the advertising company), Great Exuma residents, investors in general, the Fyre and Magnesis companies, the (mostly) upper-class people who bought tickets
c. society as a whole – for example, social media and influencer culture, investment culture and capitalism, celebrity culture and “the American Dream,” white privilege, “never-take-no-for-an-answer” culture, perception versus reality
individual-hi.png Group.png world.png
Your primary concepts for analysis will be bias and position, but you will also explain how at least one other critical thinking concept, appeals, incentives, or fallacies to support your thesis.
The FYRE film is your primary source, but you can include outside sources if you want to – remember to cite any source that you include following proper MLA format.
5 pages long
Include extensive analysis of Billy’s positionality and other people’s biases.
Use extensive quotes and detailed descriptions from the film to support your thesis.
Rough draft: (I need rough draft by July 23)
It’s time for your rough draft!
-Take the ideas from your pre-writing and idea maps and apply them to an academic essay.
-be about 2 page long
-have a clear thesis that answers the prompt
-include supporting evidence (at least three quotes)
be written well enough to be understood easily (I need to be able to understand your ideas)
-be typed following general MLA rules
-a brief analysis of some parts of Fyre, including quotes and a claim about how Billy’s positionality or other people’s biases had an impact on the festival.
-one other critical thinking concept that can help explain what happened (maybe an appeal, incentive: moral, social, economic , or fallacy)
-some connection to an example or quote from one of the podcasts we listened to or a chapter from Freakonomics
material:
Read: Bias and Position
bias is a pre-existing idea or position that affects how new ideas are evaluated.
Singular Noun Plural Noun Adjective
Bias Biases Biased
Mr. Page has a bias for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Mr. Page’s body has biases against pollen, dust mites, and animal fur. Mr. Page is biased for El Camino College.
Bias can alter the way information appears:
here, the perspective of the viewer alters the information.
Bias is also highly related to the experiences and culture of each individual. For example, someone who has been the victim of a robbery is more likely to lock their doors at night, be careful where they park, or be suspicious of strangers. Likewise, someone who grew up in France is more likely to enjoy the taste of snails (escargot) than someone who grew up in Beijing.
Biases can be weak or strong, positive or negative; one may have a weak bias in favor of tall people, or another may have a strong bias against people who wear earrings. Because there are a wide variety of biases, the consequences of each one can also be small or large, meaningful or trivial, weak or powerful.
Every source of information, no matter neutral it may appear, will have some amount of bias.
A biased source is not necessarily an untrustworthy one, but a critical thinker will always take the bias into consideration.
For example, if I tell you that reading and writing are the most important part of college, you should go through the following steps:
1. what is Mr. Page’s probable bias? he is a college English teacher, so he is probably biased for reading and writing over other disciplines.
2. what effect will this bias have on the source’s claims? he is likely to argue that his field is the most important, and he may exaggerate or distort the facts in his favor.
3. does the bias totally negate the source’s experience or expertise? no, Mr. Page is still an English teacher, so he has some experience and expertise to back up his claims.
4. how should we interpret this claim now that we understand the bias? claim isn’t totally insane, so there is probably some truth to it – perhaps an adjusted version that we can call true is that “reading and writing are an important part of college.”
There are many specific types of bias that affect a wide range of situations;
recency bias plays a strong role in hiring and recruiting
the most recent candidate for a job may seem the most qualified
equality bias is prevalent in reporting and argumentation
anytime there are two sides to an issue or debate, each side is assumed to be of equal validity even if they are not
confirmation bias is common to almost all situations, and is particularly strong in research settings
any information that supports my position is considered more reliable, persuasive, and credible even if it is not
A general way to think of bias is that people are more inclined to agree with or accept information that confirms what they already believe or requires the least amount of critical thinking, personal accountability, or immediate action.
Position and Positionality
In this case, “position” refers to someone’s current social, political, economic, legal, professional, gendered, racial, religious (and so on) status or circumstance. This can affect both what information is deemed “true” and who is “qualified” to deliver it; consider the same message below delivered by people from different positions:
Even though the statement is factually accurate, how it is interpreted by society may vary widely.
Note how similar this is to ethos! In a philosophy class, this might be called “facticity.”
Position (or positionality) doesn’t determine outcomes completely, but it can have strong effects on them, sometimes in unexpected ways:
Being taller than average doesn’t mean you will like or be good at basketball, but it might make your parents, friends, teachers, coaches, or recruiters push you in that direction; and once you’re on a team, you might get more attention from the coach, which results in more practice, more playing time, and faster improvement, which may then lead to a much wider range of education and employment opportunities. Did being born tall cause this to happen? no. Did being born tall have an impact on this? yes.
So, position refers to everything a person is born with (genetics, family attitudes and behavior, place, etc.), everything people in the world around them do (social and political changes, large economic booms or recessions, big technological developments, and so on), and everything that individual does themselves (how they vote, their successes and failures in education, romance, career, etc.).
It’s impossible to know everything about any one person’s positionality, but knowing some things can help us understand the different ways they may behave, be treated, or be perceived. Position is also a good way to understand biases; a bias very often comes directly from positionality.
Monica may have a bias that favors small business owners because of her positionality as the daughter of a restaurant owner.
Jordan may have a bias against Buddhist immigrants because of his positionality as a Lutheran Minister.
Shawnna may have a bias that favors FOX News over other news stations because of her positionality as a republican or conservative.
Dimitri may have a bias that favors large cities because of his positionality as a life-long New Yorker.
Karen may have a bias against memes because of her positionality as a person named Karen.
Remember that position isn’t destiny, and being biased doesn’t mean being wrong, but these are both important things to consider anytime you think critically about something.
Who is the idea coming from?
What might be their motivation?
Who benefits from the idea?
Who is harmed by the idea?
What evidence, examples, expertise, or feelings is the idea supporting by?
(I ask the customer support that you guys can find the movie)
This is the book link for chapter 1-4:
http://christophe.heintz.free.fr/bgt/Freakonomics__A_Rogue_Economist_Explores_the_Hidden_Side_of_Everything__Revised_and_Expanded_.pdf
I add the file for all the information.
