Response to Readings

The first reading was rather interesting from a perspective of observing what a good rant on the subject at hand looks like. The lack of support is over powered by a strong belief in the message that the author is attempting to present to his audience. Having said this, it is a good article for the reader to be able to get a nice, simple, and basic understanding of what the believers of hate speech in  news media believe in. It makes complete sense what the author, Henry Giroux, is saying. With freedom of speech and very vocal and angry commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck it is clear that hate speech exists. the examples that are sighted are good but one thing missing would be to see how what the commentators who are being accused of using hate speech, how they affect the audience and how the outlook of the person who is receiving the information changes. The second article, by Weatherby and Scoggins, is one that uses a data collection method that in the end proves, not really, that hate speech doesn't exist on hate groups web pages but rather the groups focus on getting new recruits instead of just spreading the message of hate. This article was rather interesting but puzzling in the fact that it left the question that isn't a group that is already against certain races and is attempting to get more support, isn't that in itself hate speech and a promotion for a very negative affect on society. Both articles were nice reads and in the end the conclusion that would be adopted by me would be that hate speech exists in the media, obviously, but the affects of it aren't directly clear but it needs to be stopped regardless of if it's affects are significant or not.

Racism in America

To say this country is perfect would mean that you would be admitting to complete ignorance and stupidity. To say this country is going the right way would just mean that you are just ignorant. After the reading that were assigned for this week it is safe to say that this country promotes an idea of free speech that is utterly ridiculous. Everyone should be upset in this country about the way, a kind of educated nation like America, treats their president for the sole reason of his skin color. America has not grown up since the Civil War and the heated racism that is still between whites and blacks is a concern that needs to be dealt with immediately. No one who judges someone for their skin color should be allowed to vote and make public decisions. It can be said that this is an opinion but its isn't. No person should be holding back the development of everyone to be able to see past skin color when it is clear morally and even scientifically that their are no difference between whites and blacks. This nation is taking steps back by suppressing freedom of speech in the wrong areas, like religious quarells and discussions, and allowing for unnecessary freedom to allow people to threaten killing individuals. Freedom of speech is a great gift but no one put restrictions on it and when they did those restrictions make no sense. Fighting words are a non sense as it is all based on how you interpret the words and who is saying them to you. This nation has a lot of freedoms but those same freedoms that make people cross the boarder could be the reason chaos and tragedy that seems to be imminent.

Information Society

After doing the reading my argument on the topic at hand didn’t change. The first argument did a good job in using real data to support its conclusion that in our modern day society people are better informed. The no side of this debate didn’t use concrete data. In turn used a more theoretical approach, which focused more on the idea of being better informed, from this approach the author doesn’t feel that our society is better informed now. I have had my argument for this question set for some time and even though I did the reading I didn’t really get too much out of it. The fact of that mater is that our society is better informed but at the same time the society and especially the younger generations are not being encouraged to be informed. The question itself for this debate is not correct because the amount of resources that we have make it obvious that we can be better informed, but the real question is are we better informed considering the potential that we have and not compared to previous generations which had very few resources in comparison. The abilities of computers and the Internet give the public an amazing resource but very few people use the resources available to their full potential. In the end the potential for people being more informed are very high but the reality is that the public is still very oblivious to many things in the world and in turn is still very uninformed.

Arab Stereotypes

The issue of how Arab’s are described in the media is an issue that I have previously dealt with and discussed before. In one of my philosophy classes at Foothill College my professor showed us a debate on the issue that included politicians, authors, and individuals who have been persecuted for what the stereotype of Arab’s is in the media right now. What I got from that discussion and from the readings we did in class is that to say that the media describes Arab’s correctly and fairly is very difficult to argue for, but to add to that the media doesn’t describe any group fairly and justly as the bias of culture, recent events, and tradition are very present in the description of any group in the media. Since the United States has had very bad encounters of what we consider Arab nations, it is impossible to think that public media will depict a proper image of that group. In this country, especially post 9/11, Arab people are the scapegoat and the enemy of all things that are bad in this world and the depiction in the media of them is going to reflect the negative view that people have regardless of it being fair or not. It is also bad when a group is looked up to too much as in the United States being “white” or European gives a sense of undeserved priority and privilege. The media makes being white skinned, a genetic trait, something that gives you some societal privilege and that just like the Arab negative view in the media is also unfair. The media never depict the proper view of groups as they always show them being good or bad and in doing so the media is just a public opinion that speaks to mostly an uneducated group who share the same ideas.

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