Start
by taking a survey similar to those conducted by polling companies and
news organizations regarding what issues are most important to you. you
can find the survey here.
Next take a look at how your responses and the responses of your classmates compare to national polls here
Then you can test your knowledge of recent news based on news quiz from The New York Times or Newscurrents.
Finally please post a comment describing your reactions and reactions to your classmates comments. You can use any or all of the following prompts as a starting point if you wish.
Finally please post a comment describing your reactions and reactions to your classmates comments. You can use any or all of the following prompts as a starting point if you wish.
- Choose one of the items you listed as extremely important (or less important) and explain why.
- Are the issues that seem to be the most important to you (or to the rest of America) being covered well by the media?
- How did you feel about taking the the news quizzes, what was covered, how you did, and how those topics are or are not covered by the news?
- What conclusions can we draw from the way that the issues that dominate the polls and media coverage are similar or different?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe economy was something that I would deem as very important but sometimes overlooked. Unemployment and climbing prices of say gas are topics that are very relevant to the day to day functioning and quality of life for citizens of the US. Currently the media seems to be more centered around foreign policy, especially that of the Middle East and ISIS. In this sense, I do not feel that adequate attention is being allotted to relevant issues here at home. We expend so much money into the military, and will use more and more dollars to produce ammunition, but will turn a blind eye to how all that money could benefit battling poverty/homelessness, or other issues, which are prevalent issue here.
ReplyDeleteThe news quiz was interesting to me. Half of the questions were directly related to news overseas. The news that was actually tested on it, that was from the US were very irrelevant, such as the man that climbed over the fence of the white house, or asking what headlines of the following was not included. They almost seem as if they are fillers, or “infotainment.” I thought maybe since I watched the news this week I would do good, but a lot of the things tested were so irrelevant that it affected my score, I only got about half right
Just as the reading was describing, the media sets the agenda of the information that we receive. We take it in, but it is not always necessarily what we want to be watching or information we care to be covered, we are simply conditioned to tolerate what we get. It was interesting to me that Healthcare and Economy were amongst the top rated for a majority of the polls, yet both the media and government's agenda is so focused on happenings overseas that there is no attention to the evading problems we have at home.
When looking over the various poll reports, it was no surprise to me that the economy persistently made it to the top of most citizen's priority list. It also made it to the top of mine. The financial wellness of this country tends to directly effect other issues such as unemployment, health care, the budget, and even education. Many people view the economy as the root of all the other issues that exist today in this country. This may or may not have to do with the information we receive on a daily basis from our media.
ReplyDeleteWhen there isn't "Breaking News" flashing on the screen of our news channels, we are often receiving commentary from channels like CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News on the economy and how/where money is being spent. This repetitive information tends to drill in peoples minds that America's finances is a topic more worthy of attention than issues such as immigration or gun control. These three news channels are typically the only ones that will focus in on federal deficit and attempt to chip away at why we're in such large debt. People also love to seek out information that attains to them. With the recent rise in unemployment, many people are losing their jobs and are having difficulty finding new career paths. Consequently, many will tune into the news looking for data involving the economy and the rates of unemployment. Other local news sources love to focus on crime and bizarre events. Therefore, one who only watches local news channels may prioritize addressing gun control or human/drug trafficking. Personally, I like to avoid the depressing news stories covered by my local channels and tend to zone in on more national based coverage. Consequently, I chose the economy, budget, education, and foreign policy as extremely important issues. As stated earlier, those who like to stay local may prioritize other issues than I would.
We have discussed many times in class how information tends to find us. I thought it was extremely interesting that when taking the news quizzes, I got a majority of the corrections correct just from hearing key words from that particular story. Although I didn’t know extensive details of each news worthy event, I did recognize little bits of information that I had heard or seen throughout the past week.
It is clear that media has an enormous effect on citizen's intake and representation of information. Overall I believe that mass media is far too concerned with grasping viewers attention. We need to get to the root of our issues in order to solve them and entertaining citizens on news channels isn't going to get us there. We need to separate the desire to entertain and the need to expose important information. News media is made up of of sensationalized pollution that distracts viewers from what they need to know to become informed citizens in the voting booths.
One of the item I listed as extremely important was education. This issue is the basis to settle many other troubles in the United States, such as unemployment. There is a significant correlation between the means allocated to education and the condition of the job market. The most important issues for Americans are mainly domestic: terrorism comes way after jobs. It seems to me that those themes were fairly well covered by the overall media. Of course, it depends on where you are looking, for instance newspapers tend to tackle more international affairs than TV. Since the demand for news is similar to the supply, it proves that the taste of the audience does dictate to the media what should be on the news.
ReplyDeleteI took the New York Times test and scored 8 out of 10. Apparently I don’t follow enough American sports news! A wide range of subjects were tackled, though some were more treated by some media than others. A good example of that is the climate change march in New York. Indeed, we can see in the polls that environmental policies are listed as “important” more often than they are listed as “crucial”. This is a difference between my responses to the survey and the rest of America, but maybe that’s just because I am French. Still, I found that the American media are really US-centered in general. They talk more about an ISIS beheading if the victim is an American, whereas in European media, “all beheadings are equally covered” if I may say so. This is to be related to the fact that Americans long for domestic news.
I chose education as being extremely important. Looking at the United States in the long run I think focusing on education (also the environment) should be the main priority. Education is where it starts, and by giving a little more attention to it, I believe many of the other issues will be solved, including the economy. Having the best military cannot be the only thing the United States has in order to remain a world power.
ReplyDeleteOn many of the polls, education isn’t even an option. I don’t think there is enough stimulating/entertaining news about education that news programs will cover. Therefore, less coverage leads to less concern/ less exposure about the dangers of a poor education system. The issues that rank the highest are definitely a direct result from what gets covered the most in the media. And a lot of this coverage comes straight from politicians that relay information to the news media because they are expert sources.
For me it would have to be Climate Change. For decades now politicians have made promises towards preventing and fighting it. The Reason I believe this is a huge issue is because this goes beyond the U.S., this effects all of humanity, all life on earth. Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" comes to mind, that Earth is our only home and we have a responsibility to take care of it.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that Climate Change is being presented well at all. Whenever it is discussed the press makes it sound like that it's still an issue we can take care of at a later date, that we still have plenty of time to fix it when in fact the repercussions of it are already being felt. What even worse is some news organizations still like to present it as if it's existence is in question. They would bring on experts and pendents to argue about it. Which gives its audience the illusion that this is a more widely disputed fact among the science community then it is.
The quizzes were fine, I got a 9/10 with the Ebola question being the only one I got wrong. The quizzes covered a wide array of topics and issues that are going on in the world. Some of them were more redundant then others, I think the strikes on ISIS would have been more important to discusses than Obama's sexual assault speech.
What makes me sad is that jobs and the economy are still at the fore-front of issues that are being discussed here. While yes it is important, this is the same topic for the past 7 years that politicians talk about to their audience. This is a child's play topic for veteran politicians, they have made the same speeches and have a bunch of statistics to support their claims to either raise themselves or lower their opponents. I think we need to stop being selfish or unoriginal of this issue. It is a subjective issue that will eventually get better, that is how economics works, and what are we going to discusses after things get better economically? most likely it will be how to keep it up or expand it.
I find it sad that our generation is following the same mistakes as our parents and putting gas prices above everything else. I'm tired of the media not actually making an effort on informing Americans more on anything else but the economy.
I agreed with Mehreen and Katie in regards to the economy/ unemployment being extremely important. I also agreed with the fact that unemployment remains a matter that needs to be further addressed, yet the U.S. government is focused on foreign policy most of the time. Do not get me wrong, I listed foreign policy as extremely important, but I also listed economy/ unemployment, national security/ terrorism, health care, and the federal deficit budget. However, I think the topic that should be addressed first and foremost is economy and unemployment. If our economy is not in a beneficial cycle, how can one expect the U.S. to have efficient economic growth? Going hand and hand with the economy, unemployment is another problem that has arose immensely over the last few years. There were/are so many people that had to support families, but could not get a job. I feel as though the President and the federal government should come up with a method that helps prevent unemployment. I understand that the cyclical business cycle calls for a point where the economy is in recession, but the unemployment rates a few years ago were simply devastating. After looking at the poll results, I would say that the majority of Americans feel that economy/unemployment rank as the most important. The CBS poll had economy as 38% (which was the highest percentage) and economy was ranked as the majority in the CNN poll as well, with a value of 30%. Although the media does cover this topic, it does not cover it as if it was America’s leading concern. If this was voted as the most pressing concern by Americans, then why is the media not covering it more on the news? To answer the question, no, I do not think the economy and unemployment are being covered well in the media. For that reason, I do not think what Americans regard as extremely important has any influence on what will be covered in the news. Ultimately, it is a decision for the producer, editor, and the reporters.
ReplyDeleteI had no problems with the quizzes. I really liked how one of the questions asked how important I consider the environment. It is an issue that has been around for decades now, but is constantly being put on the “back burner”. There are so many pollutants in the air, while many regions of the world have stagnant and contaminated water. These conditions are very harmful, yet the government and the media are overlooking the topic. It is considered as something that we can get to later. As a side note, when I saw the question involving abortion, I selected not as important. I selected not as important because I think that the topic of abortion should not be a federal/Congress topic, but instead, it should be a matter that each state discusses, votes on, and then enforces that decision. I noticed that the topics of education and gun control were not as prevalent in the polls. I did not consider the topics to be extremely important when I filled out my quiz, but I thought that within a groups of people being surveyed, education would be one of the primary concerns.
Maybe I tend to over analyze things, but the first thing I began to ponder while reading the various poll results was the wording of each poll. I think that, for me anyhow, changes in the wording might have lead me to respond differently. For example, what would most affect my vote might differ from what I am most concerned about for the future, which might differ from what I would most like to hear candidates debate. Things that ranked on the bottom of the June 2013 Gallup Poll regarding greatest future concerns for the United States, was telling of things people might find very important but they are not actually concerned about, i.e. education and defense.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the choices provided on the test might have unknowingly pulled me a little to choose one of the topics the news organization found to be worthy of listing, or to forget about or devalue my “unimportant” issues. A similar idea might be found in the results in addition to the test itself. There were a few cases when “other” was offered, especially on a self-provided answer survey, and there were very large percentages that did choose to write something else in, but only a very few largest answers were chosen. It would have been interesting if the news poll had decided to give us more in depth coverage and provide all the concerns found in their poll.
I agree with multiple people that flawed and poor education is the root of societal problems. If corrected and left to work, over time I believe that it would fix the main concern that the polls seem to have found, the economy and other fiscal issues, as well as many other issues such as gun control, crime rates, etc, etc, etc. I also agree that the environment was hugely missed as important by those who took, and many times even those who created the polls. It is very possible that the reason the news does not cover education and the environment is because as we have learned the media is first and foremost a for profit business, so why wouldn’t they give the people news on fiscal problems more often? I think many people aren’t aware of the depth and breadth of the educational and environmental problems, and how in the future we will deeply regret not fixing these issues first. As it is, our economy is going to change anyhow as a result of these two problems. However, these are not as exciting and not as well known, and therefore understandably not as “newsworthy”. As a side note, I was certainly surprised that more people didn’t rank overseas engagements higher, because I feel like content of that sort makes up at least a third of what I see each day.
Rebecka Bronkema
ReplyDeleteEducation, to me, is probably the most important issue that our country faces, and I was surprised how low it was, if it even appeared, in the polls. I knew the economy would top of the list for concerns, but I did not realize how far behind education trailed. The state of public education in the United States is practically in ruins. Chicago Public Schools are a prime example of the failed education system in the States. The selective enrollment schools prosper because they can afford to choose the best students to continue to project the “best education” reputation in the city; neighborhood schools continue to struggle for funding and giving their students quality education due to the standards needing to be met just obtain funding in the first place. Education should be about teaching the students rather than teaching for funding; the United States is so eager to not fall behind other countries as far as intellect and education go that their standards have become the education system. It is disheartening how little attention the education system receives due to the economy being in ruins; we forget that if we invest in education that the next generation will have the tools necessary to create, invent, and help resolve the issues that their generation will have. If we continue to invest only in short-term jobs, we will pass on the problems of the current generation to the next rather than resolving any issue.
The quizzes covered every major headline topic for the last week. I was not surprised I knew very little due to falling behind in following the current news. The quizzes were on a national setting, geared towards U.S. politics and some major international news. It reminded me of the Wolfsfeld article because all news is local; whether it be on the local cable channel or a national nightly news program, news is directed towards a certain audience within a viewing area. With the Internet, this has changed, but the news program is not going to change its presentation based on its online viewership when majority of the viewers come from television watchers. The quizzes demonstrate how specific national news can be.
The polls indicate exactly what the news media tend to cover. They care about the economy and national defense (well, war politics and spending) rather than education and healthcare. All topics are important, but the investment in short-term fixes rather than long-term solutions is going to end worse than when we started. Many blame the President, some blame Congress, but the blame, I believe, is on the people. We should use our democratic system to redirect the conversation and make it about education reform, healthcare, and actually caring for the citizens, rather than the quick fixes that are often proposed and passed.
One of the items that I listed as the most important was the issue on education. Taking on class on education and politics has shown me the importance of it and this is why i believe it is an issue that we should look over. Education is important because as it learned it prepares the youth to become responsible citizens and prepares them for the future. If we not focus on education then we are going to be the ones to blame why on children grow up to be irresponsible or not have as much knowledge as children from other countries. Talking about other countries, children in other countries are more advance than the children in the United States and the United States already is known for having problems with their education. Personally I think that a country as powerful as the United States having a problem with education is embarrassing, one would think that education should not be an issue but it is.
ReplyDeleteI do not feel that education is cover enough by the media. Whenever i see anything covered by the media is the issues with foreign policy, the heath care, and if i'm watching the spanish news their main concern is immigration. I think this is why nothing is really being done with education because if the media does not cover it than people tend to push the issue aside. If there was a point where the media did somewhat cover education was here in Chicago when the teachers were protesting. This was a big issue that was covered by the media that it even hit the cover of the wall street journal so you know that this news was covered nationally. Besides this event like I have mentioned since the media does not really see a big drama with you, nothing worth seeing to them then they ignore it and if they ignore it it seems as though the citizens do too.
Taking these quizzes made me realize that I am not aware of the news that os going on around me as i thought I was. When i watch the news its local news so they just cover obviously things that are mainly happening around us. I was unaware about what was happening in China or which President was India. This made me realize that I need to expand my sources for news.
Climate change is probably the most important issue to me because of the long term damage it will cause to the planet. Unfortunately every time the issue is raised it seems like the media and government give small solutions to a very big issue. Climate change is a global problem and it seems like a lot of the solution we come up with are more symbolic rather then effective. It is a problem that requires a fundamental shift in the way we live but it doesn’t seem like anyone is really prepared to make that change.
ReplyDeleteI took the New York Times quiz and I got a 10/10, but I guessed on a few of them. It was mostly headline news about foreign policy, domestic issues, and celebrity gossip. It makes sense to have these types of stories in a news quiz because they are the things we hear and read about the most. Having said that, this type of reduction of stories cannot be beneficial way for the general public to get their news. Even though I did well on the quiz, I still don’t know the context or implication of half of the stories covered. I think it is important to stay mindful as a consumer of media that even though these types of headlines surround us constantly we still have to put in the time to find out what’s behind the headline.
Personally I thought that international conflict/foreign issues, the economy and healthcare were the three most important issues. Though I did admittedly rank almost every issue as important. I particularly thought that the issue of the economy was most important though the potential for an increase international instability is a close second. I feel the economy is most important mostly because it’s an issue that’s largely fixable, if only Congress would actually take steps to pass legislation to get the economy moving again. There has been a recovery from the Great Recession, yet we still are nowhere near the place we need to be at.
ReplyDeleteClimate change, education and others I thought were very important, but overall I feel that without significant steps being taken to get consumer spending up, income inequality down, and the creation of new, lasting, middle class jobs, the real substantive changes needed to battle climate change and reform education can’t happen. Education for example is vital but, thus far were still lacking in the creation of middle class jobs needed for people who would receive a higher quality education to fill.
Among all the issues listed, I did believe that the question of the Federal Deficit is an issue that I have very little concern over. While undoubtedly the debt is a growing problem in the United States, we will not begin to solve it and reduce our debt in the long run until we have developed a more stable path to do so, eg. Rebuilding the economy and then by improving healthcare and education. Once we have a more stable infrastructure and an economy with more participants, then we can begin to make significant cuts to the deficit without hurting long term growth.
Yet while I could provide a near limitless amount of information proving these assertions, they are not significantly investigated by the media. I felt that the coverage of vital domestic issues like the economy for example were covered at an inexcusably low level. The vast majority of the issues discussed were international and health issues, spanning from subjects such as the unrest in Hong Kong, to the new campaign against ISIS, to the coverage of the spread of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Yet never were there mentions of the poor outlook of the American economy or the results of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, a bill that has changed several key aspects of the American Health Insurance Industry.
Mostly I saw this as a result of news organizations wanting to grab headlines, and items like the new conflict with ISIS in the Middle East, the protests in Hong Kong, the Scottish Independence vote and the Ebola crisis are stories that are undoubtedly more interesting to a wider audience than articles about the state of American healthcare or education.
Megan Daley
ReplyDelete1. I chose the economy and unemployment as extremely important because it’s something that directly impacts my life. Within the next 9 months, I will have finished school and be looking for a job. The reality of the job market is that there simply are not enough jobs out there, in journalism or otherwise. It’s something that will impact my ability to find a job and put my degree to good use after graduation.
2. Issues such as the economy and unemployment as well as terrorism and national security do receive a great deal of coverage from the media. I think these issues are ones that impact a large number of people and that’s why they’re covered more frequently and with more urgency. People want to know news that will effect their everyday lives so these national issues will be covered on national networks as well as local news networks.
3. I enjoy taking news quizzes in order to test how well I’m actually paying attention to what’s going on outside of the bubble that is DePaul. I did decently well, the biggest problem was knowing more specific details about a topic. I can identify the larger issues but I should be more aware of the specifics of the story and that’s something I struggle with because I read the news so quickly throughout the day. I think the issue of Ebola is the most interesting because people didn’t seem to care as much until it started to impact Americans, then it started to receive even more coverage, especially now with the case in Texas. It just goes to show no matter how important the global news, until it effects a greater number of Americans, people don’t seem to put much thought into it.
4. As I mentioned earlier, issues that impact a greater number of people will always receive more attention. National security and terrorism as well as the economy and unemployment effect a large number of Americans so more people will want to get updates (i.e. ISIS/ISIL). Also, our country always seems to be involved in a conflict so I think national security tends to be on the minds of Americans regardless of whether there is a legitimate threat or not.
The fact of the matter, while looking at the survey, is that all of those issues are very important.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, the issues I’d like to see play a larger focus in the media (like gun control and climate change) do not get the kind of coverage because they lack immediacy.
Immediacy plays a crucial factor to how the media decides what is of importance. The media, though, does not seem to be reading these polls. The economy seemed to be number one on most lists, and yet has been getting minimal coverage of late. Wait until there is a crisis with the economy (knock on wood), the coverage will increase. Immediacy is their motto.
It does seem the government warps the media’s perception on what to cover. ISIS dominates news coverage and leaves little room for any other issues. Now do not get me wrong, ISIS is very important, but this has become the main focus for the media because it seems to be the main focus for the US government. Why is that?
The only item I selected as extremely important was "Education". The quality of education in America seems to be in a decline, judging by the overall state of the country. I see education as the root of all the issues listed. The government has attempted to do much in things like the "economy" and "terrorism" without much conclusive/direct evidence of improvement. The cost of quality education is increasing and poor-quality education or lack of education is running rampant. How can we expect issues like the state of the economy, terrorism, healthcare, immigration, and etc... to be resolved when a poorly educated citizenry is what we depend on to push legislators to act on such issues? And who can we depend on to develop those solutions, and ultimately what quality of citizens will be entrusted to carry them out?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn’t seem like “Education” issues get much coverage at the global scale. Although there is some education coverage at the local level, other issues/problems seem to overshadow it. The education system seems to be flawed, and I believe that there is a legitimate need for national attention.
I got a 70% on the first quiz and 80% on the second, witch I consider fairly well. Some of the questions didn’t really seem like news (“which celebrities got married?”), although I still knew the answer. This fact just brings attention to the idea that we are constantly bombarded with information that we don’t necessarily need to have.
One of the issues that I felt to be extremely important on the survey was Terrorism. I also selected "extremely important" for education and the economy, however, with the recent increase in hostilities in the Middle East and elsewhere, I feel like it is critical that the public is cognizant of the fact that what happens in war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq can have effects on us here at home. While there aren't any American ground troops deployed to combat ISIS (at the moment), there are still American pilots that are carrying out these airstrikes. We, as civilians, can become so entrenched in our own daily lives here at home that it can be relatively easy to forget that the United States is engaged in yet a new military operation.
ReplyDeleteAs far as media coverage, I think the media has done a decent job covering terrorism. Although, I feel like they can engage in scare-mongering at times. Especially the more partisan outlets. As far as education and the economy, less time is spent covering these issues, which should probably change. Unfortunately, our news is mostly negative...and as the economy slowly starts to improve, it receives less coverage.
I enjoyed the news quizzes and intend to take them more. It's almost a way to keep myself accountable in knowing what has happening around the world, which is something I think is really important. I got a 9/10 on both quizzes, which frustrated me! However, I liked that both quizzes covered a myriad of topics that included domestic and foreign issues. It seemed like virtually all the items that were on the quiz were in articles that I have read over the past week. Unfortunately, I did not know the name of the President of the Palestinian Authority. But now I do! I think that's probably the biggest benefit of the quiz; you come away knowing more.
To conclude, I felt that most of the topics that are considered the most important on the polls we looked at are covered pretty thoroughly by the media. However, the overwhelming choice for the most important issue seems to be the economy. As the economy is improving (albeit, slowly), it seems like there is less coverage about its health and growth.
I picked the budget deficit as the most important issue that congress and the president should tackle. Even though I admit that this issue is a lot less concerning now than a few years ago. I would say that the economy and unemployment are the most important, but think the budget deficit and overall debt are much more pressing, given that a series of economic and/or foreign crises could easily make the debt and deficit unworkable causing bond rates to sky rocket. In turn a default on American debt would cause the global economy to plummet. I also think that a lot of issues like American foreign policy, the economy, and the environment are so intertwined they’re almost one mega-issue.
ReplyDeleteI think the issues that matter most to me are somewhat covered, but usually in a skewed light that doesn’t present all the information. I think generally the mainstream media focuses too much on lame meaningless issues dealing with sports or celebrities. In my opinion the mainstream media generally are part of a system that tries to keep people distracted with fringe issues of generally no importance.
I think things like polling and media coverage pretty much have to do with what’s going on. It can almost go without saying that the economy would not have gotten a majority on those polls if unemployment and the general economy were at pre-2007 crisis levels.
The news quizzes were fun and interesting to take. I got a 10 and 9 respectively. I did have a couple of pet peeves. It didn’t feel like some of the questions were not exactly “news this week” and had to do generally with things that have been going on all year. Also the wording and presentation of some questions I found odd and a little random. Like the PM of India question. Yeah it’s news that he’s visiting America, but I don’t get why his name should be a news question. I didn’t know he visited America this week, I just happened to know his name. Seems like some of the questions in the NYTimes quiz were better suited for people who regularly read it. Like the Republican Strategy question, I just guessed getting the Senate, because I think both “Maintaining the House” and “Winning the Senate” are right. I didn’t read the NYTimes analysis of it telling me why they think they’re gunning for the Senate. I know the Democrats can’t really win the house, but the Republicans still generally want to maintain the House and make gains, after all that makes controlling it much easier.
1.I would argue that addressing health care, which is usually polled somewhere in the middle of other issues, is extremely important. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision to uphold major components of the Affordable Care Act, our nation’s healthcare industry and system is still flawed. Perhaps addressing issues relating to pharmaceutical company integrity, preventive medicine, and medical care access would make our country more healthy, productive, and economically viable. How well we preform at work (our economy) and school (our education) is dependent on the health of citizens.
ReplyDelete2. I would argue that the issues that are most important are less salient in the popular press and media outlets than issues that are less imperative, but perhaps more interesting or entertaining. Even with an issue such as the economy, the media only covered the financial collapse insofar as unemployment rates had skyrocketed or that there was conflict between policy makers on how to improve the economy. On the other hand, the press covers issues such as terrorism, which tended to be important to Americans according to polls, very frequently. However, the coverage on terrorism to me appears to be oversimplified and reductionist to resemble a good versus evil storyline that is accessible to the masses. In reality, terrorism has roots and often these roots are much more than religious fervor, but are consequences of international hegemony that the popular press fails to report.
3. I got 8 out of 10, on the news quiz, which surprised me because I haven’t consciously absorbed news for a week. However, the questions that related to domestic news, were the easiest to answer. The questions outside the realm of the US are less covered generally depending on the source of your news. Nevertheless, when I was a regular NPR listener (I use to listen about 4 hours a day while at a summer job) I found myself incredibly knowledge of international current events to the point that I could engage in a well-versed conversation with someone living the a foreign nation in which the news for that day was transpiring.
4. On a whole, the issues covered by the media and what polling respondents find to be most important have a moderate degree of relation. What we see, hear, and read the most is presented by our media. In turn, when polled, Americans will most likely suggest that the issues that the media covers the most are also most important.
-David Bryant
This one was one of the met interesting blog posts for me so far.
ReplyDeleteTo start with the survey I took on issues most important to me, I listed the economy and unemployment as ‘extremely important’. Indeed, it is extremely important to me because, as a university student about to graduate, I am worried about economic issues and not being able to find a descent job corresponding to my education and financial investments in it. I assume this is a thought that is on major part of college students’ minds. With our economy still recovering from its descent downturn and the growing production of it and, at the same time, decreasing incomes of families, I think political leaders should be pursuing an agenda to address the growing problem of economic disparity and unemployment. I was not surprised to see that the economy and growing unemployment is at the top of all concerns in national polls as well.
I believe economic issues are being covered by the media, but I am not sure specific problems are being adequately addressed. Problems such as college students not being able to find jobs as well as student debt growing and students not being able to pay off their loans are not specifically addressed, and no concrete solutions are being proposed. The rescission, and the economy being under a recovery now are being mentioned as well as the problems with Social Security, but again, I believe the media is not being specific enough. Political leaders should be asked about what their plans and propositions are for approaching problems of such importance that are worrying a large part of the population.
Last but not least, I took the news quiz from the New York Times, and, compared to my classmates’ results, I found out that I really need to start paying more attention. I did not score well, getting a 5/10, and I believe this is because I preoccupy with school work so much, that I tend to rarely go out the DePaul Bubble. I need to start paying more attention.
This one was one of the most interesting blog posts for me so far. *
DeleteI apologize for this mistake.
Just as the national polls, I too felt that the economy was one of the most important topics to be covered by both the president and congress. I believe that foreign affairs is important and that we should be knowledgeable about what is happening outside of our country and provide as aid to a certain extent. However, it is important for the United States to focus on the internal struggles.
ReplyDeleteI’ve noticed that education, health care, immigration, and abortion have, unfortunately, taken a “back seat” when it comes to news coverage. These are all issues that we still have but aren’t as visible in the media as of lately. Often times the news I do receive is in regards to other countries and our role within foreign affairs.
Again, taking the news quizzes, I was able to answer the questions regarding foreign affairs better than the questions pertaining to news within the United States.
I believe that the media shapes the issues that dominate the polls. If candidates are consistently talking back and forth about their initiative to improve health care and that is being plastered all over the news, I think the general public is less likely to research or even care about the candidates policies on other aspects such as education and immigration.
In line with plurality of respondents to the poll, I believe that the economy is at the top of the list of issues that I think are important for our country to focus on. I believe that America needs policies in place that will lead to shared prosperity, as opposed to an economy that disproportionately benefits the wealthy and well-connected as we have now. I believe this is one of the great challenges of our time.
ReplyDeleteThe media is doing a better job in the past couple of years of focusing on the growing disparities in wealth and income in our country. I believe that this is an important angle to approach the coverage of our current economic state of affairs. Where I believe some of the media is mishandling their responsibilities is the increasing emphasis on balance over accuracy. This does a disservice to the consumers of these news outlets. This also minimizes the impact of the educational component of journalism, which is truly important aspect of any free society.
I ranked the general issue of “jobs/unemployment” as the most important, just as most people did in the other surveys conducted in the link provided. I would say that I chose this issue as being most important because it is probably what is most relevant to my life at this point in time. I graduate next year, and since it is coming up so fast, being able to compete in the job market is a top priority. Other issues, such as health care and immigration, are not something I am necessarily as closely connected to. For instance, I am still covered by my parents’ health insurance and have a few years until I have to worry about that. Of course, it is foolish for me to say that other issues do not affect me just because I am not directly connected with them. All of these broad issues end up having an influence on my life in some way, but my reasoning for listing jobs and the economy as the top answer is definitely its relevance to my life as a person soon to graduate.
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