Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on the graduate scenario. The Graduate Scenario: Social Media Arguments Recently social media sites especially Facebook and twitter were on a heated argument between televangelist Pat Robertson and his twitter followers over a remark that he made in his live TV show on 700 Club. The preacher was conducting an interview when he was asked on whether he would consider travelling to Africa on a missionary tour to combat the deadly Ebola outbreak which had engulfed West Africa countries. The televangelist responded by saying no he would not travel to those nations due to the outbreak of the deadly virus that had out broke in the West Africa. He went ahead to claim that he will not even travel to East Africa as the region was infested with AIDS. He said the people of Kenya are infected with AIDS even he would contract the disease from hotel towels in Kenya.

The remarks ensued to a heated argued in his handle via twitter that attracted numerous responses not only from Kenyans but also from other people across Africa s they viewed the comments to be careless, derogatory and discriminatory. AIDS is a global disaster that is a problem across the world and thus it should not be used as a weapon of discrimination against African countries by viewing its inhabitants as affected by AIDS. However, despite the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS case in African nations it is imprudent to make a blanket conclusion that the entire continent is infected with AIDS. Moreover, Pat Robertson had not conducted prior research before making such comments since from a scientific perspective AIDS can only be transmitted through body fluids, transfusion of contaminated blood, engaging in unprotected sex, deep kissing or sharing of sharp objects e.g. razors and needles with an infected person.

Therefore, I think it was prudent for Pat Robertson to make an apology via his twitter handle, claiming it was just an outburst, because his argument was not founded on any scientific facts. Moreover, even though it is true there is a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS cases in African it is discriminative and reckless making such statements on a televised programme.

References

Crooksandliars.com. (2014). Pat Roberson Tells Viewers “The Towels Could Have AIDS” In Kenya. Retrieved from http://crooksandliars.