With the constant use of many facts, experts’ opinions, and anecdotes, Barry Glassner in The Culture of Fear continues to argue that Americans fear the wrong things due to the failure of the media to convey the real problematic issues. Americans fear African-Americans because the media tends to be prejudice and only portray the crimes done by minorities. The fear has been instilled in to Americans through the continuous portrayal of negative things done by minorities through media. The media fails to depict all the positive things done by minorities. The media also tends to blame rappers and illegal drugs for most crimes and deaths. But the media fails to recognize that other types of music have lyrics that are more violent than the words used in rap songs and that the overuse of legal drugs have led to more death than illegal drugs. The use of illegal drugs has actually declined in the past years but media still portrays the use of illegal drugs as a big issue. The real problematic issue is the overuse of prescription drugs which has led to many deaths. Abuse of prescription drugs “sends adolescents to emergency rooms more often than cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and LSD combined (pg 146).” Barry Glassner demonstrates how the American public is blinded by the media and that they are unable to understand what the real problematic issues are by addressing problems of racism, prejudice by the media, and drug abuse.
Questions
1. Why does the media waste so much time and energy to find stories that they exaggerate and avoid the real problematic issues that are present everywhere around them?
2. Do politicians play a big role in what we see in the media? Do they have control over what the American public sees?
The media in my opinion waste so much time and energy to find stories that they exaggerate on to gain the attention of its viewers or readers. The problematic issues arent intresting enough. Especially for teens or the younger crowd of people. The more publicity on an subject the more attention it gets and the more money put in on it. The media gets more money for the bigger more intresting stories. It seems money is the main motive for these exaggerations.
ReplyDeleteI, honestly think that politicians are two-faced liars and hypocrites who only say what the people want to hear so they can appeal to their desires of a better future. Its hard to trust politicians nowadays because so many seem to strive for their personal gain and its not so often that there comes an honest politician who works for and gives to the people. Maybe this is the reason why many Americans distrust the government who only protect their interest rather than protecting the interests of everyone. Our society is flawed in so many ways, its hard to have faith in our society when it no longer represents the ideals this country was founded upon.
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