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Connor Gilman
Professor Forcina
Business Pathways II (008)
10 February 2017

Single Story Reflection

When my family and I took a European cruise last summer, we asked some of the

European tourists that were with us if they had been keeping up with American news and

what they thought of the United States. During this time, the presidential candidates were

still campaigning, and naturally, Donald Trump came up as a topic. They said that they

had read articles that described some of Donald Trumps rallies and how large numbers of

people were supporting his policies, which they believed would negatively affect the

countries they lived in (two of the members in our tour group were from Turkey). They

had a sort of tone that they used while explaining their feelings that suggested that my

family and I had values that lined up with what they had read. From what they were

saying, I felt that they were wrongfully lumping all Americans in as Trump supporters

that hated foreigners and Muslims. I found this single story that they had created to be

wholly inaccurate, and a little bit offensive in its own right. After we told them that we

didnt agree with some of Trumps polices and that we werent all that happy with the

current candidates, these tourists asked us if we were big Hillary supporters. They

explained to us that they had been led to believe that anyone who was not a Donald

Trump supporter was going to vote for Hillary. This was yet another single story about

that had been written about all Americans.

I fear the idea of a single story because it can lead to harmful stereotypes which

can manipulate the way relationships are formed. In this case, these tourists believed my

family and I did not like foreigners or Muslims. This perspective could have led to our
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tour group being apprehensive, and maybe a little rude, towards me and my family. I was

glad to see, however; that this was not the case. After we explained to our fellow tourists

how we felt about the election and how there where millions of Americans that didnt

necessarily agree with Trumps policies, they began to understand that the single story

they had read wasnt a correct depiction of all of America. After we were on friendly

terms with one another, I began to question the stereotypes, or single stories I had read

about their countries. Since we were on an excursion in Cannes, France, I asked our tour

guide about the terrorist attacks that had occurred in Paris the previous year, and how that

had impacted French citizens. I had previously been led to believe that armed guards

have begun to patrol more often in French cities, and that they have begun stricter with

bag searches and security barriers. I had also read that tourism numbers had dropped and

that was negatively affecting the French economy. I learned that these changes, were

limited more to Paris and cities the French government felt were at more of a risk for

terrorist attacks. Our guide also told me that she believed that the bag searches and

introduction of security barriers had been exaggerated a little bit by our American news

organizations. I then realized, that since entering France (I had even flown into the Paris-

CDG Airport), I hadnt really been impacted by any intense security measures. I had even

noted that Pariss airport security was a little bit more relaxed that some of the TSA

security I had been through. This new information helped to change my perception of

France from the single story I had created in my head.

My experience from this tour group taught me that our news and media

organizations can paint single stories by what they focus on reporting. I believe this can

be harmful, because like our fellow tourists had taught me, other countries read our news

too, and they base their knowledge of the United States off of this information. This
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concerns me very much. I currently do not know how we could effectively change the

way other countries perceive us without completely changing the way our news

organizations report the news. A lot of the current news seems to be opinion based

responses centered around some fact. This opinion could very well be the source of the

single story about Americans that is presented to the citizens of other countries. Lately,

news organizations like CNN have been called out for reporting fake news by President

Trump and online social media sources such as YouTube and Reddit. This makes me

hopeful, because I believe the news changes around TV ratings and public opinion. If

Americans start to prioritize factual based news, I believe these news organizations will

change to meet the demand. If the news becomes more factual based, I think the citizens

of foreign countries will be able to make of their own mind and create their own stories

about Americans.