Post by brianmo116 on Dec 5, 2012 5:22:43 GMT -5
In America today, every person has almost unlimited access to the greatest amount of knowledge and information in the history of our existence. All anyone needs to do is walk in to a library or sit down at a computer and can instantly have millions of facts, opinions and statistics literally at their fingertips. With all these media outlets some have begun to grow concerned about the influence the content’s creators have on what we are presented. The biggest question to ask when reading or watching any kind of media presented story is to understand the bias and how it affects how the story is presented. At least, that’s how it is for a small percentage of the population.
Americans in this sense are very lazy, many unwilling to assess the accuracy of the information they’re presented with and are surprisingly willing to take most things at face value. As a result, media sources who reach the greatest amount of people attempt to pander to this ignorant demographic, using buzzwords and easy to remember facts so those impressionable undecided on today’s issues need a minimal amount of effort to form their opinion. A great example is in this past presidential election, during the debates, there was very little attempt to sway the informed undecided voter. The majority of the talking points for either campaign was to secure the vote of the uniformed, the ignorant, those too lazy to actively assess both party’s platforms and make an informed decision on who would be best suited to lead the nation. Both candidates used easy to remember terms to describe their opponent’s policies and their own, each phrase designed to conjure a certain emotion; “Obamacare” and “47 Percent” are two which immediately spring to mind. An average American could have no idea what Obamacare actually entails, or what Mitt Romney’s intentions were with the 47 Percent speech, and yet they were both a deciding factor for some voters. All they would have to say is “Obamacare is hurting this country” or “Your views on the 47 Percent aren’t accurate” and all of a sudden you have people who haven’t read one sentence on the subject becoming instant political scholars, going back and forth about how they agree or disagree when in reality they don’t even know what they are agreeing and disagreeing to. This is the most dangerous rhetoric of consensus for the simple fact that it isn’t based on lies. In The Crucible, there was never any witchcraft, and those who were accusing others of it knew that. The only reason they continued was to gain power within the consensus. In the real world, there is a true meaning behind every piece of information, but the viewer is just too lazy to figure it out. Power within the consensus is obtained by feeding biased information to those who want to take a side in the political debates, but can’t be bothered to learn the opinion of other side. This gives right and left leaning media sources a huge amount of power over the population, with the ability to convert that valuable group of ignorant independents to whichever party they have allegiance to.
To conclude, there is a great danger that lies within the borders of the United States, and that danger is us. People don’t form their opinions from research and assessing multiple sources with an informed objectivity. A vast majority of people simply tailor their views to that of a single, most likely unreliable, source of information. People like this have descended the intellectual level of discussion to a rudimentary, almost pandering gist of actual topics so that political parties can gain ground without actually saying anything of significance.
Word Count: 584
Works Consulted:
Granderson, L. Z. "Don't Let Ignorant People Vote." Editorial. CNN. Turner
Broadcasting System, 12 Apr. 2011. Web. 3 Dec. 2012.
<http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-12/opinion/
granderson.ignorant.vote_1_ignorant-voters-political-system-ignorant-people?_s=PM
:OPINION>.
Americans in this sense are very lazy, many unwilling to assess the accuracy of the information they’re presented with and are surprisingly willing to take most things at face value. As a result, media sources who reach the greatest amount of people attempt to pander to this ignorant demographic, using buzzwords and easy to remember facts so those impressionable undecided on today’s issues need a minimal amount of effort to form their opinion. A great example is in this past presidential election, during the debates, there was very little attempt to sway the informed undecided voter. The majority of the talking points for either campaign was to secure the vote of the uniformed, the ignorant, those too lazy to actively assess both party’s platforms and make an informed decision on who would be best suited to lead the nation. Both candidates used easy to remember terms to describe their opponent’s policies and their own, each phrase designed to conjure a certain emotion; “Obamacare” and “47 Percent” are two which immediately spring to mind. An average American could have no idea what Obamacare actually entails, or what Mitt Romney’s intentions were with the 47 Percent speech, and yet they were both a deciding factor for some voters. All they would have to say is “Obamacare is hurting this country” or “Your views on the 47 Percent aren’t accurate” and all of a sudden you have people who haven’t read one sentence on the subject becoming instant political scholars, going back and forth about how they agree or disagree when in reality they don’t even know what they are agreeing and disagreeing to. This is the most dangerous rhetoric of consensus for the simple fact that it isn’t based on lies. In The Crucible, there was never any witchcraft, and those who were accusing others of it knew that. The only reason they continued was to gain power within the consensus. In the real world, there is a true meaning behind every piece of information, but the viewer is just too lazy to figure it out. Power within the consensus is obtained by feeding biased information to those who want to take a side in the political debates, but can’t be bothered to learn the opinion of other side. This gives right and left leaning media sources a huge amount of power over the population, with the ability to convert that valuable group of ignorant independents to whichever party they have allegiance to.
To conclude, there is a great danger that lies within the borders of the United States, and that danger is us. People don’t form their opinions from research and assessing multiple sources with an informed objectivity. A vast majority of people simply tailor their views to that of a single, most likely unreliable, source of information. People like this have descended the intellectual level of discussion to a rudimentary, almost pandering gist of actual topics so that political parties can gain ground without actually saying anything of significance.
Word Count: 584
Works Consulted:
Granderson, L. Z. "Don't Let Ignorant People Vote." Editorial. CNN. Turner
Broadcasting System, 12 Apr. 2011. Web. 3 Dec. 2012.
<http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-12/opinion/
granderson.ignorant.vote_1_ignorant-voters-political-system-ignorant-people?_s=PM
:OPINION>.