Stop, Drop, and....Listen!

So we've been reading this book, What Orwell Didn't Know for a little while now. We just got done reading an essay entitled "Bad Knowledge" by Alice O'Connor and one called "Reporters and Rhetoric" by Geoffrey Cowan. Bad Knowledge is basically about how scientific and social knowledge is being replaced by ideas. She really rails on the right winged side of things and talks about how ideas, or beliefs based on faith are often passed off as facts. The other essay we read was "Reporters and Rhetoric" by Geoffrey Cowan. Cowan focused on NBC's decision to call the struggle in Iraq between the people a "Civil War" instead of going along with the White House in calling it a war on terror. It really demonstrated how much power mainstream and big time media has to influence issues and debates through a simple choice of words.

I really enjoyed Geoffrey Cowan's essay. O'Connor's essay wasn't bad, but lets face it, you can't just blame people who lean right for throwing ideas, and faith based beliefs out there as facts. Both sides do it, but nobody will admit they are wrong so whatever I'm not gonna focus on that essay. haha.

Instead I want to focus on what Cowan wrote about. He is absolutely right. And until i had read this i had never really thought twice about how much power media and news networks have to influence the way people feel or think about an issue. Most news networks called it the war on terror while only NBC called it out for what it truly was, and rocked the boat a little bit. Cowan's essay was generally targeted towards journalists and reporters because they are the ones that must choose their words very carefully. It happens alot if you really think about it, just sit and listen to the news for an hour but go between stations to see how every one of them will use slightly different rhetoric depending on what that stations political agenda is. (Get real most news stations now have a political agenda) We all have to be more aware and actually listen to what reporters are saying and how some say things differently than others and what effect or response they are hoping to get by using different words. Its not a matter of "tomatoe-tomato", its a matter of things like "economic crisis" or "recession". "Pro-choice", "Pro-abortion". These are just a couple examples of how media twists words to communicate different ideas, or merit responses. So stop, and LISTEN to what the news is saying, don't just listen, but truly listen and take it in because you may find that things are not always what they seem.