Monday, July 16, 2007

Informed America?

Thomas Patterson, a professor of government and the press at Harvard who conducted the survey, said that young people today do not make an appointment with news every day the way older adults do.

“We found that most young adults don’t have an ingrained news habit,” he said. “Most children today, when watching television, are not watching the same TV set that their parents are watching. So even if their parents are watching the news every day, the children are likely to be in another room watching something else and aren’t acquiring the news habit.”

“What we found is that what people mean when they say they are engaged in the news has much more of a glancing, superficial basis than anything we would have hoped,” he said. “Young people seemed to think that just listening to the radio in the background was listening to the news.”

I don't believe this surprises anyone in the liberal media. This "glancing, superficial" attention to the news is why the liberal bias of negative headlines, and liberal-leaning sound bites are so effective and necessary if the mainstream media is to control the national mood.

This is how the media can pick out the "one" negative aspect of this roaring economy with its record Dow and low unemployment... Stick the negative story in the headlines... Bury the good news in paragraph 10... And make everyone think we're living in "hard times" - until a Democrat president is elected.

4 comments:

Tsofah said...

Righto! That and not knowing what is REALLY going on in the world. Kinda reminds me of the old TV show/movie "Logan's Run". We can get to such a complacent place that we never ask questions unless something happens that directly affects us.

Personally, things are not all that great for our family economically. I mean, we've never owned a home, a new car, etc. No one asked me, but imho, the prices of cars and especially homes are so artifically inflated it isn't even funny. Whatever happened to nice, roomy, three bedroom ranch homes that were $75,000 just 10 years ago? If you can find one, it costs close to $300,000 now!

Ok, ok, I'm digressing AND griping!

OUCH! That rubber band on the wrist thing really DOES hurt!

Tsofah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bryan Alexander said...

People might disagree with me on this, but it's too bad that we don't have to pass at least some kind of basic knowledge test before we can vote. If we don't even know who the vice-President of the United States is, and know even less about major issues facing us, what foundation do we have on which to make a decision when casting a ballot?

Malott said...

I'm with you, Bryan.

I also think veterans... Who put their lives on the line to preserve Americans' right to vote... Should get "2" votes.

Good to hear from you. Hope you're well.