Fiche anglais oral bac

Places and forms of power 

     The notion I'm going to talk about is places and forms of power. First, I’d like to

give a definition of the notion. Power is the ability to exercise authority and influence over others. It can be exerted in different spheres : economy, politics, media but power is both a source of integration and conflict. Places can also refer to a country or a state, which is powerful enough to influence events through out the world..  As a consequence the idea of power implies the existence of a counter power , which can limit or even resist to the power … Thus, in relation to the notion, the topic of my presentation will be the voice of protest against the power.   We may wonder to what extent citizens can protest against a government ?

-to illustrate this notion we have chosen several documents which show the several means that have citizens to prostest here, against the vietnam war : a frontpage of an american magazine, a song and articles from the BBC  

1 )The role of the press and media

      First we analized a front page of an american magazine entitled « Life » , a very popular magazine in America. This cover is a photograph of a young civilian Viet cong who has his eyes his mouth tapped he is scared and  he is held prisonners by US marines.

       The aim of the photographer taking this photo is to prove to american citizens that the war is senseless and brutal. Here we see that the role of the press and media is very important because they allow citizens to awaken and inform them of what is really happening, showing every day images of the war.

     Media can have a strong political influence or can shape the way we perceive certain groups of a society. Media is powerful because it makes us believe what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour 

2) The popular culture and the artists

     Secondly, we listened to a protest song written by Pete seeger in 1966 entitled Bring them Home  the aim of this song is to protest against the war and to claim the U.S. government to bring their soldiers at home.  This song also emphizes that people have the right to expess their ideas to every body.

      This also highlights the fact that artists may influence their fans. Indeed songs have always been, a very popular means of protest. From the civil war to the civil rights movement and more recent conflicts, americans have often expressed their right to express themselves freely in songs.

3) The popular gatherings

     Finally, we saw other means of protest : social movements for exemple are an other way t expess oneself showing our disaproval. So we analized several extracts of articles from the BBC, published in 1965

       It was about «  the peace monotarium » which was the most important and largest demonstration in U.S. There were  more than two million people mobilized who protested against the continuing war in vietnam, and demonstrations started accross europe and finally a ceasefire was signed in 1973

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