1. To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News?
I do side with Alain de Botton's views to an extent especially when he discusses our use of technology now compared to before. People aren't being informed of how the content has developed and established itself over the years which means we would neglect its legacy and take it for granted. This could be why people take the news for a joke including the news institutions publishing news like 'Osama Bin Wankin' which could be used as a strategy by the Government/country to distract audiences from the real story - what else did they find Osama? Furthermore, audiences are being flooded with news daily which makes it hard for people to be able to make sense of whats going on around the world. These news stories are mainly irrelevant and won't impact our lives in any way and important news based politics and economy is being foreseen.
2. How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?
Alain de Botton showed a link between his views of the news and marxism and hegemony. This is evident when he discusses the bias in news because he believes we need it in news to show a more realistic perspective of two sides of stories. He says particularly in economic news, people aren't listening to more ideas and opinions through news because news institutions like BBC want to have balance and sugarcoat some panics in society. This is because of people in power controlling what should be news (ruling classes) so preferred readings can be met.
3. How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?
We could argue that new technology has lead to audiences having more control on what news they want to view. Alain de Botton believes that news is constantly publishing/presenting news of any scale which audiences aren't too worried about. So the fact that news has many ways of being accessed certainly affects the amount of news people can view. Therefore, audience's ideologies and values can be challenged because the same news stories can have a number of different perspectives.
4. Choose two news stories from the last six months - one that supports de Botton's views and one that challenges his belief that the News is used for social control.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2224956/quality-street-bosses-risk-chocolate-lovers-wrath-by-refusing-to-bring-back-beloved-toffee-deluxe-sweet-other-than-in-limited-edition-christmas-tins/
The Sun has an article on the changes of chocolates that will be exported to the UK being of Brexit.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3953518/Nigel-Farage-vows-fight-Commons-seat-Thanet-South-backed-Donald-Trump.html
Ukip leader in discussion with Donald Trump.
No comments:
Post a Comment