Presentation Link

http://www.courant.com/videogallery/65423198/News/HTFD-Public-LBG-play

True Enough and Advertising

                I was most interested in the last chapter of True Enough about “Truthiness”.  It was eye opening to think about how consumerism has affected our lives so much.  In this chapter of the book Manjoo talks about how news stories can be tainted by endorsements.  In stories presented on the news, many times the anchors find ways to casually embed product endorsements in the news.  The first example presented in the chapter was about Robin Raskin’s crusade of telling everyone about how video iPods are dangerous for children to own because she claimed that they would be a gateway for children to watch porn, or as she put it, “a pedophile’s playground” (183). 

                Raskin continued to bash video iPods and her views were expressed on several news stations.  In her news story, she suggested several “kid friendly” tech products better suited for children.  Suddenly her anti-iPod campaign became less about children pornography and more about endorsing products for other companies.  In approaching news stations to run her story, she had the goal of finding more outlets to promote the products of her sponsors.  What was most concerning to me was that Raskin wasn’t even hiding her endorsements.  She herself said “I actually joked with my own colleagues that, ‘Hey, I’m off to go do Whore TV’…I was fully aware that that’s what it was.  And yet it’s such a commonplace thing.  I mean, there are people hawking drugs, guns, war.  The worst that could happen to someone watching my segment is that you might buy a game you don’t like” (188).  Although by reading True Enough we have learned a lot about how it is impossible to be totally unbiased and that people naturally (and sometimes by choice) perceive things differently, but the fact that the media has taken a step further to shove advertisement in our faces just seems so disconcerting to me.  Already, we are constantly surrounded by advertisements and companies are trying to find more ways to reach consumers.  Allowing advertisements to be finagled into the news adds more bias to the information we are receiving. 

                Incorporating advertisements into the news is making information even more biased and takes away from the important information and focuses it on the endorsements.  Manjoo also talks about how the government uses money to sway people’s opinions as well.  He talks about how people were paid off to promote No Child Left Behind and a platform focusing on strengthening American marriages during the Bush administration.  By paying people to promote these ideals, the promotion becomes a conflict of interest and it is hard to trust that the person endorsing the idea; because all they care about is making money, not supporting an idea they strongly believe in. 

                Although it is important to have a critical eye when evaluating the credibility of information, it is apparent that there is another thing we should keep our eyes open for: advertisement.  Our society has become too focused on spending and making money, and this is evident in the fact that when watching the news and trying to learn about what is going around in the world we cannot escape advertisements sneakily telling us to buy stuff.       

News Sources

I thought that it was interesting to read about how people hear news and which news sources they find most credible.  I was surprised to read that in a survey conducted in 2006 that 80% of people surveyed said that they read/watch/listen to news.  I think it is generally assumed that most people, especially people in my age group, don't really pay attention to the news.  I think it would've been interesting if the survey included the ages of people who were surveyed.  It's also interesting to think about how news sources have changed.  In the past most people depended upon TV and newspapers to find out the news, but now more people get their information off of the internet.   

I also thought it was interesting to read about the news sources that Democrats and Republicans find most credible.  Because I personally don't watch TV news that much unless I'm with my dad, I didn't know that Fox is typically favored by Republicans and Democrats typically favor CNN and NPR.  Thinking about it now though, when watching the news with my dad (who is pretty liberal), we don't really watch Fox News often, but he does always listen to NPR on the radio.  Manjoo says that most Democrats don't believe much information heard on Fox News, and most Republicans don't believe what they hear on CNN.  I wonder if more people started listening to different news sources with an open mind, if they would find some overlap or maybe even begin to form different opinions on the news.    
 

Selective Exposure

To be honest, I find it very hard to read True Enough.  I get pretty bored while reading the book and often find myself reading for a long time only to suddenly realize that I haven't absorbed anything that I've read.  I don't really enjoy reading about politics which makes reading True Enough difficult, but I did come across a concept that I found very interesting.  

In the second chapter of the book, Manjoo talks about a study conducted to learn more about selective exposure.  Although I had never really thought about it before, I think that it really makes sense and is very accurate.  People (generally) don't like to hear about things that contradict their beliefs.  I thought the example of the study in which people chose to listen to static rather than someone on the radio talking about something they don't believe in was really interesting. Also, I was interested by the story about the cult who thought that the apocalypse was coming but then when it didn’t come the leader claimed that God told her that he decided to spare the planet. 

On page 30 Manjoo says “But changing your beliefs isn’t easy, and it isn’t fun.”  I think that this is a very accurate statement because most people don’t like criticism and can’t stand being told that what they think is wrong.  I consider myself to be a flexible person, but when it comes to the opinions that I strongly believe in, I don’t think that even a very persuasive person with a strong argument could sway me to change my beliefs.  And when it comes to someone who I don’t find credible or whose opinions I don’t want to believe in, I really don’t want to hear their argument.