1) To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News?
I agree that there is a lot of absurd news being produced and not enough important and beneficial news is being released by the press. I think that a lot of this is due to the fact that audiences seem to care less about more important factual stories and would rather hear stories about minute "issues" in society. I found that this has caused corruption in the ness industry as a result since the wrong things are being reported and not enouigh attention is paid to authentic information.
2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?
I think that the idea that excessive news is used to drown the public with often useless information fits in with Marxism as is demonstrates the manipulation that occurs between producers and consumers to ensure that people are in line with the "status quo" and continue to conform to the constant demands of society produced by the reactions to all of these news values and ideas.
3) How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?
Pluralism would argue that the new technology allows for a range of views and opinions to be shared and this increased information can be presented to an audience who get to actively choose what they do with the information and aren't mindlessly influenced and overwhelmed by the information. This is because they would argue they are an active audience as opposed to a passive one.
4) Choose two news stories from the last six months - one that supports de Botton's views and one that challenges his belief that the News is used for social control.
For: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34444233
Against: http://www.skees.org/story/scooping-international-news-while-empowering-women-global-press-institute/
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