The other night I listened to parts of President Obama’s speech regarding the economic stimulus/bailout package and I was impressed. I was happy to hear him speak bluntly about poor decisions made on behalf of all parties: citizens, businesses and government. I was even more pleased when he announced the launching of a website, recovery.gov.
For the past several weeks, I have been trying to follow the stimulus money trail. I discovered an online newspaper that contained a link to the 407-page stimulus document which I found extremely difficult to wade through.
So today, when I had the opportunity to check out the government’s page I became utterly disappointed by what I read. Mr. Obama’s website does not show detailed information on how the money is distributed. In fact, there are two sections with headings so vague (one literally titled "Other") I wanted to call our dear President up and say, “What the…?”
I advise everyone to check out the website and if anyone knows what exactly the “protecting the vulnerable” group is please let me know.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
TV on the Brain
In my PCM320 class we are studying some of the theories behind media effects and my topic to review is the cultivation effect. The main study behind the cultivation effect is people who spend a good deal of time watching television believe the US to be extremely violent. The book cites that less then one percent of the population is an actual victim of violent crime.
Being the skeptic, I decided to do a little impromptu lunchroom survey at work. There were seven people in the room, five of which considered themselves heavy television viewers. All seven people thought the US to be an extremely violent and unsafe place. I then shared the information from my text (the less than one percent part) and most of my colleagues responded the same: the US is still an extremely violent place. I thought this to be interesting which spurred another thought. Did the word violent hold an entirely different meaning to those I work with?
Perhaps it did, which is probably another reason there is some room for debate regarding this theory.
Being the skeptic, I decided to do a little impromptu lunchroom survey at work. There were seven people in the room, five of which considered themselves heavy television viewers. All seven people thought the US to be an extremely violent and unsafe place. I then shared the information from my text (the less than one percent part) and most of my colleagues responded the same: the US is still an extremely violent place. I thought this to be interesting which spurred another thought. Did the word violent hold an entirely different meaning to those I work with?
Perhaps it did, which is probably another reason there is some room for debate regarding this theory.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
