Week 9: Can we tune back in and turn back inequality?

Wanner states, in his essay in Inequality Matters that "the poor have become increasingly inactive and politically ineffectual as their relative economic position has deteriorated" (p. 210). No wonder they've become tuned out, right?

What are your takes on Mindich's advise for getting people to tune back in? His solutions are #1: Take back the airwaves, desktops, and newspaper offices; #2 Change our expectations: college Admissions and Civic Knowledge; #3 Make Politics Meaningful Again; #4 Create, Consume, and Teach Quality Journalism" (p. 115-123). The floor is now open....

Week 8: October 11, 2006

Inequality Matters: Skocpol (Skah-ch, pole), "America Disconnected", Bakan, "Corporations Unbound."

Tuned Out, "The Decline of General News and the Deliberative Body."

This week's readings are more closely connected than all of the readings we've done this semester. Skocpol and Mindich, I think, are making the same argument; the more tuned out people are from society, which means community involvement as well as being informed about the news of the day, the more strained our democracy becomes. To add to this problem, corporations, as Bakan points out are taking on the role of psuedo-government leaders because of their enormous economic and hence, political power.

It seems like we are heading in downward spiral, but your insightful comments last week left me with a glimmer of hope. Please cast more light on the subject of Americans who are disconnected with society and the role this plays on our fragile democracy. Just to get the ball rolling...some of you will soon be working journalists. How can working journalists turn the tide? Or can they?

Week of October 2:
Civic Society and the Media....What is the relationship between the two? In Chapter 5, p. 86, of Tuned Out, Mindich states that civic knowledge is one of the best indicators of being a good local citizen, if more and more citizens are becoming tuned out, what does that mean for the future of democracy? Is being engaged on line (a virtual community) the same as being involved in a community organization?

In Rowe's article, The Vanishing Commons, p. 151, he argues that traditional sectors of public domain are dwindling...being privatized. Could this apply to a public trust as well, such as the television airwaves? What are the implications of the total privatization of the airwaves? ...i.e. a situation in which the government takes a total backseat role to television's commercial interests?

Week 6: Cold Truths about Class, Race and Health
I commend those who contributed to this week's discussion and for offering candid and thought provoking comments.

The Cold Truth(s) is...to a certain extent you are ALL correct. This issue, like many others you will be covering doesn't necessarily have a black and white explanation, which is why it's hard to pin-point what's going on, and even more difficult for journalists to cover.

Making direct links between poverty, class and race and any social ill (crime, ill health, drug addiction) is a dangerous declaration, but as future journalists, I challenge all of you to look at the big picture. What social, economic, cultural forces exist that might influence behavior? Education, emotional/mental state, feelings of helplessness/hopelessness, institutional discrimination and or racism, access to health care?

Let's take the issue of access to health care...in some Southern Arizona rural communities there are no maternity clinics. Why? The cost of malpractice insurance is too high for rural doctors, who see less patients and make less money. The bottom-line, the patient-to-income ratio does not make it cost-effective for O.B./Gyns to work in rural communities. This increases the chances of women having problems with delivering babies, unhealthy pregnancy, babies born with illness, etc. Two more facts: people who live in rural communities are on average poorer than those who live in urban areas; and in many rural agricultural areas, there exists a large percentage of minorities (i.e. migrant workers). In this case, is there a direct correlation between unhealthy babies and poverty and race/ethnicity? No, but circumstances disadvantage those who live in rural communities without adequate access to health care, making it more likely that women who live in some Southern Arizona communities have problem pregnancies, unhealthy babies, etc.

At the same time, the mythology (and often true) of U.S. culture is that anyone can pull himself/herself up by his/her bootstraps and forge a better (healthier, wealthier, happier) life. The problem arises when a significant number of people who want to make a better life for themselves cannot because of social, economic, and political realities. As journalists, your job is to put all of this into context...not an easy job.

As students of journalism, your job is to find the connections between a person's overall health and tuning in or in many cases out from news.

Week 5: Discussion
To get the discussion ball rolling...
What are the connections between Lewis's essay, "Of the Few, By the Few, For the Few" and the fact that less people are watching the news?
What role should journalists play in turning around the Tuned Out?,...that is, to get them tuned in?

Week 4 Discussion:
Tuned Out:
In chapter three, Mindich tries to fill holes that statistics cannot. He tries to go beyond the numbers and conducts interviews to discover why some are or are not watching the news. How do the comments of those interviewed in Tuned Out compare to your news habits?

Also, Mindich gets at what many have brought up in class already-the news is boring...people would rather watch entertainment. To what extent should news producers go in order to make news interesting to lure viewers?

Inequality Matters:
The first chapter for this week focuses on the growing trend to have separate but equal schools. How does this apply to your secondary school (high school) experience? What's the danger in having separate but equal schools? Or is there a danger?


The second chapter focuses on a real life experience of an Asian American woman who talks of about the relationship between ethnicity, class and economic inequality. Give some examples of the connections of ethnicity, class and inequality that you've seen.

Connections:
Is there anyway to connect the readings? How so?

What I've just posted are starting points. Feel free to take the discussion in another direction.

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