At the beginning of Saunder's essay, I think he gives a pretty clear idea of what the megaphone represents, and I agree with this idea. The thought that most forms of media, the news on TV in particular, influence are minds greatly and have an affect on how we think. Likewise, when carefully planned by newsrooms or news directors or who ever really runs the show (no pun intended) at a news channel, this form of media can be used to manipulate what and how people think- to an extent. Where I disagree with George when he starts implying how gullible most people are and how easily people can be manipulated. I believe most people when the watch the news can tell what is just filler stories and what really happens at breaking news stories.
Comparing the megaphone in the first few sections to the last few sections, I find a difference in their representations. Saunders then switches to how the manipulated mind responded to 9/11 and invaded Iraq, all without proper planning. I disagree with this, every military decision is well thought out before action, and when they are poor decisions, the population can see through them and not blindly agree.
I think you make some interesting points here. Personally, I think that Saunders isn't accusing the public of being gullible, rather he highlights the fact that when a filler story is on the air, people have become compliant to being fed useless information, to the point where they don't fight to elevate the conversation anymore.
ReplyDeleteI do agree wit the megaphone representing the media. Although I think alot of people do not want to accept that we are gullible in the sense of what the news tells us, I do think that it is true. We feed into it too easily
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