11/29 Eng 107 : "Neither Snow, Nor Rain, Nor Heat, Nor Gloom of Night...

Navasky believes that big media is replacing "Big Brother" as the biggest danger to limit open public dialogue that makes democracy. He believes that there are 50 or so companies that control all parts of the media ( Music, Movies, Entertainment etc. etc.) He also thinks that with due time that the number of companies will go from around 50 down to about six.

Navasky thinks that because of the corporate ownership of most of the media it will end up keeping us from speaking our minds and expressing ourselves. This just goes to show that a lot of the things we see on T.V. now are not always real and somethings are strung out just so that it can get more viewers and give the channel and owning company higher ratings.

11/22 Eng 107 : Reporters and Rhetoric

In this essay Cowan seems to agree with a lot of the things that Orwell said. He knows it is true how politicians use metaphors and other tricky things like that to say something that they want you to believe but in reality it is something else completely. The example he uses is about CNN saying "Civil War" and how there is no real definition of democracy.

They just tells me more about how a lot of politics try and hide their true intent or meaning in order to get something done. This reminds me of when Bush said in his speech that we were going to war againt "terrorism" which could mean any type of force that opposes us. Which is what I believe they we're trying to do from the start anyways.

11/15 Eng 107 : "Welcome to the Infotainment Freak Show"

Martin Kaplan the author of "Welcome to the Infotainment Freak Show" says that the news has changed from giving out real news to a show that is all about ratings and making money. He talks about the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers in 2006, and how it was put out to be the start of WWIII and would become a huge oil war...but instead it was just "crisis porn" which was probably the reason for the escalation of the problem. He believes that the major goal for most is to make money and not to report the news and that's what they care about the most.

I think a lot of what Kaplan is talking about is true. It shows a lot when say a child goes missing or someone that has an abnormal case goes missing. A lot of the time news stations will over cover a certain story and keep saying things like "Breaking News" just so they can hold viewers and obtain higher ratings which in the end will lead to more money.