Chunk #2

In the second chunk of The Culture of Fear, Barry Glassner continues to go on about how the media repetitively are still using facts -- but sometimes, they facts, numbers, and statistics they use are false, wrong, and incorrect. For example, in the chapter called "Youth at Risk", as the title obviously screams, it focus on media and media's take on children. He talks about these "crack babies" and how society decides to refute them. The media also talks about how the youth produce these children and that these young moms and dads are only a menace to today's society. Again, the media is only exaggerating again. But this time, they're not only exaggerating, but they are lying as well. Making out the youth to be something they're not. In this chapter, Glassner again exploits these "fear mongers" he had previously talked about and how they use fear to real in people and get them to buy their lies.

Application Question:
Why is it that the media goes as far to tell a story and not even get their facts straight?

Classification Question:
Do you think that children are purposely having children because they want to?

Precis #2

In this online opinion piece, "Please Stop Screaming At Me" the author, "GE MODEL 19GT270" humorously asserts a claim about how maybe people in general take out their frustration on TV and that maybe people should do something other than watching TV all the time. The author supports his claims by personifying the TV. But he supports his first by showing many points in which the TV suffers being yelled at, or as previously mentioned, having the owner take its frustrations out on it by throwing a burrito for a horrible DVD the owner rented -- as it was obviously not the TV's fault and, if anyone's, it should be the DVD's fault. He again supports his first claim by saying the owner snaps the TV's remote control out of angry due to a golf matching being watched. The author supports his second claim, that people should not watch TV all the time, by having the TV suggest the owner going out more, or at least, doing something that doesn't always involve the television. The TV humorously adds that it has "been on every day for at least a year".

Clarification Question:
Why is that some people feel the need to carry their frustrations about what they see on TV on their TV?

Application Question:
Do you ever find yourself doing this? Do you maybe get angry at your TV when you lose a game? Or pissed when a sports match isn't going the way you want it to?

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/41255