The World Will Not

            In the now wildly media popular Game of Thrones series, writer George R.R. Martin warns readers to, “never forget who you are, for surely the world will not.” It is a simple yet loaded quote. Martin is reminding anyone who encounters this quote that the first foot you put forward, the image that is most projected of yourself- that is what the world sees. As a matter of fact, the world is always watching, and it is important to keep this in mind when it comes to every action taken. 
           This is one of the great powers the media holds. In today’s society, one far different than the world Martin wrote about, the media is the platform that reaches the world. Whether it is through newspaper articles, online journals, television interviews, the media is constantly shaping who we are and what we remember. It is the vehicle that has the greatest capacity for manipulation. This can either be seen as a major achievement or a great downfall.
             Each day spent in my new position of PPE-STGPRESS8 came with a new task. That was part of what made the internship interesting, an assignment was always coming up that offered a new learning experience. This week is my introduction to the notorious Strasbourg week.

            So here’s the quick run down of Strasbourg week: the European Parliament does not have one headquarters but two. One located in Brussels, the main office, and another in Strasbourg, France. Plenary sessions are held in Strasbourg once a week every month, except for the two weeks it’s held in October. Strasbourg week had become a running joke around the apartment, because apparently at this time the Brussels location became a ghost town where interns were free to do whatever they please without the watchful eye of their supervisor. The week is also just a running joke to many Europeans, because it was seen as an excessive waste of money to have Parliament in two different buildings.

             The first two days of the week were how people had described it, a long study hall period. Okay, so I wasn’t only studying for those two days, it included lengthy Facebook sessions as well as learning about the people I would be working with for the next several weeks. It wasn’t until day three that Mr. Stellini would call with an assignment for us. The task was to look up the newly passed Tobacco Products Directive for 2013 into Google to see what news sources were reporting, and then send these articles to him.

            The Tobacco Directive for 2013 is a revision to an earlier tobacco directive that was in place. To confirm a stereotype that many Americans have of Europeans, yes they all smoke everywhere and all the time. European lawmakers being keen to this felt that it was important to make changes to the way cigarettes were being sold, because of the way it is glorified within the society. This directive approved stricteradvertisement meaning that sixty-five percent of the packaging will now be one large health warnings for purchasers to see.

          Mr. Stellini never clarified how many articles he needed, so I sent him an article from every news source under the sun that was reporting on the issue. Pauline suggested that I only use articles from Euractiv and the EUObserver, two popular new sources in Europe. It didn’t seem like a comprehensive view if I only focused on those two news sources, after discovering that literally everywhere was talking about this new groundbreaking directive that would change the Tobacco Industry. These two websites were both European ran and only focused on European Union Issues.

            This all made me think back to lecture that was held in one of my classes at study abroad institution, Vesalius College. The lecture explored the different types of power that existed. There was military power which is most identified with the United States. Then there is civilian power most employed by the United Nations and their missions around the world, Lastly, there was normative power, which one of the authors from the required reading claimed the European Union had. The European Union had this ability to influence the world by its mere existence. When a new legislation is passed among the member states, the rest of the world takes heed. Many countries follow suit, because if the EU is doing it, then it must be path that every other nation should be taking.

             After sending Mr. Stellini an abundance of articles, only a few were actually sent out to the general public. I noticed that any article that may have had a trace of negativity or criticism of the new directive was excluded. It was interesting to see how the EPP Press was controlling, which stories people read about legislation and which stories didn’t. Of course, anyone could just Google the directive and find the sources that my supervisor excluded, but in this day and age people expect their news to just be handed to them. The power of the media and what the media releases is important to preserving the self the world will not forget.