Choices Internal Assessments

a) Extension of scene from ELIC
b) Editorial for the Economist on Copenhagen
c) counter ad for coca cola
d) ad for country involved in Copenhagen

Annotated Bibliography Sources Oral Commentary:The Death Of Newspapers

Annotated Bibliography for Sources on “The Death of Newspapers”

“Out of Print”- The Death and Life of the American Newspaper- by Eric Alterman

This long article discusses the issue of the death of the printed press in the coming years. Firstly introduced to the history of newspapers, it states the question who will read the last printed newspaper. The source is very valuable since it takes it as a given that newspapers will die out. In order to survive, newspapers will have to adapt by decreasing employees, going local, targeting the audience more with ‘different’ news, and going online. The internet is, according to this site, the way for newspapers to survive. The readers are changing their lifestyle, little time and interest in celebrities and sports as opposed to world news or finance. The news have to change to directly speak to the reader, through blogs and internet sites. A great example discussed is the Huffington Post, which lives online and is becoming more and more popular among readers (although their standard isn’t set very high). The article also gives a few quotes from famous individuals such as Murdoch on the future of newspapers.

“Clay Shirky is Right: Newspapers Death is Journalisms Loss”-Tom Watson

This article is very useful,written by a media critique who directly targets the facts of dying newspaper markets. He gives concrete lists of newspapers that are going bankrupt or that stopped publishing in the past year- a direct example of how newspapers are losing their readers. He also states how the newspaper market is changing now, through going online and changing their medium. However, he also explaines that he will never stop reading newspapers in print, since articles online are often just revisions of published articles, and not the actual articles themselves. Also, Watson discusses that news are still news, whether online or printed, however the internet kills the printed press slowly. Displays of facts on more online users of newspapers are good to visualize how newspapers are losing their readers for printed press, but Watson comes to the conclusion that nothing can ever replace the printed news.

Newspapers Death Watch.com

Newspapers death Watch is a site showing the figures of the dying newspaper market. The figures are helpful in comparison to other documents read, but the facts are determined on a reader voting, and not from any given ‘credited, valuable’ source. It is merely a tally, to see how the public sees newspapers I the year 2010, and wether newspapers have a future. The overall result from the data is clear; newspapers will die.

“Murdochs Game”- John Cassidy

This article is very long and focuses on Rupert Murdoch, press giant and owner of the Post, 20^th Century Fox and other huge corporations. The article emphasizes how Murdoch, despite the increased talk on “death of newspapers”, still keeps buying news companies of newspapers. Also, his involvement in the media is huge, since articles published by his newspapers represent his opinions in most cases, and his political position. He only supports those headliners which content he seems to view as successful for the reading audience, and is so involved in politics and on good terms with leading politicians, that he possesses a lot of power. The articles Murdoch’s newspapers publish even influence elections in the world, such as the election of Prime Minister Blair in England. Murdoch is very conservative, and aims his news at the conservative society. By directly speaking to the audience with published article topics, his newspapers seem to (for the most part) manage to survive the “death of newspaper” era.

“Erich Schmidt tells Newspapers: Create Products People Want and Advertising is the Future”-The Huffington Post

As already read in the title, the article speaks to the future of newspapers, and ways in which they can survive on the market. According to Google CEO Schmidt’s speech, advertisements are the future, and online blogs and websites are not the answer to newspapers survival. This directly opposes other sources, which see the internet as the future. According to Schmidt, websites are too slow to read, and therefore will not be successful. The secret is to figure out what the reader/consumer wants, and give it to them.

“Are newspapers burnt out?”- The Observer

This is a very valuable source, since it seems to contradict the main idea that newspapers are dying. According to Peter Preston however, newspapers will remain a vital part of the future. Although more readers go on the internet as opposed to buying newspapers, the printed press will not go out of business. The article offers facts on the declining sales of newspapers, also in Europe, in the past years. The sources solution to the reduction in readers: going tabloid. Tabloid news (or Tabloidisation) corresponds to the modern human, with little time and need for brief, summarized articles. Also, the article stresses that the new market in India and China have a booming newspaper market, since not everyone in developing nations owns a computer. Examples of successes with tabloid papers can be seen in Britain among others, and the newspapers will have to adapt to the reader to ensure its survival. “Zero-value” news are news with less content and easier understanding to match a broader amount of readers, and this is also, besides tabloids and ads, an element to ensure survival of newspapers. Very helpful and useful are the media- experts opinions in the end of the article, giving different outlooks on the future of newspapers.

“K. Rupert Murdoch”-newscorp.com

This article is a summery of Rupert Murdoch, his profession, his background, his successes and his failures. The article is helpful to get to know Murdoch better, and to understand his actions explained in other articles. The article shows how powerful he really is, owning Newscorp and Paramount, the New York Post, the Times, the Sun, and numerous other newspapers and corporations. He is a billionaire, who owns both up-market newspapers and also tabloid lower-market news such as the Sun.

“Paper Tigers”- Nicholas Lemann

The article is very useful for information on the history of the power struggle between newspapers. Starting with the biggest newspapers in the past, Joseph Pulitzers New York World, and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal, the two biggest newspapers nowadays are the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Pulitzer and Hearst both built their newspaper empires from little newspaper businesses, through the use of colorful articles and single-copy sales with large pictures and articles that directly aim to attract the reader. Advertisements in the forms of posters brought popularity, and their newspapers became the leading papers in the USA. These strategies of becoming media moguls are compared to Rupert Murdoch, who in a similar fashion become very powerful and successful. Using the same techniques as Pulitzer and Hearst, he brought up many newspapers like the Journal, and constantly buys new newspapers in times of declining sales. The article analysis the main skills successful media moguls need: the ability to package news of the world and display them in an attractive fashion to the readers.

“State of News Media Survey: Things are Bleak in Journalism”- David Bauder

This article from the Huffington Post shows that according to the annual study of the Journalism industry, not all hope is lost in the Newspaper sales. Despite the fact that four newspapers filed for bankruptcy last year, the Times and Washington Post are getting more readers than ever before (including online reader). There is apparently no indication that people are losing interest in the news. Tom Rosenstiel summarizes it well when stating that it’s not the industry that is dying, that the industry is just disorientated. Therefore, the newspapers online have to find a way to catch themselves in the market again, and not get caught in remembrances of newspaper sales from the past. The article gives a very optimistic outlook on the future, not at all opting that newspapers are dying- they merely need to restructure themselves.

intro poem commentary

Why would someone run over a hill, if they knew they’ll get killed at the top? The poem by Wilfred Owen “Spring Offensive” and the poem “Attack” by Siegfried Sassoon both cope with scenarios such as this one. While both poems speak of war in different ways and through the use of different devices, the two lyric poems have many similarities. Despite the fact that both were written during WWI, Sassoon’s “Attack” is an elegy, while Owens “Spring Offensive” has elegaic elements to it. The main idea portrayed in “Spring Offensive” speaks of man and the destruction he causes through war to nature and the earth, but also himself. “Attack” also speaks of the horrors of the war, and partly mentions how the individual is affected by it. Therefore, the two poems are very alike in content, since both are set during an attack on the front against the enemy, and the horrors this attack and the state of war brings with it. These main ideas are portrayed and displayed in the pieces through mainly imagery, both sensory and figurative, as well as tone, rhetoric, persona, structure and language. Although one may be more present in one of the poems than in the other, both use imagery as their main device to emphasize the horrors of the war, and criticize those that initiate the fighting in the first place.

Haikus

A rich green lawn lies

Sown to the earth, a heavy rug

Tickling my feet

A clear blue surface,

Dancing in trembling circles

The leaf strokes water

In the dry silence,

the willow firmly stands

Another ring richer.

poem

Suicide in the Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

S. Sassoon

This is an elegy!

Passage One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

Analysis of pages 171-172

Context:

This is the scene on page 171-beginning 172 in which McMurphy breaks the glass of the Nurses station after the Nurse takes away the tub room in a meeting.

Themes:

Themes that are present in this passage are mainly Control and Oppression, but also Living vs. Apathy, Perspective vs. Perspective,and possibly Be a Man or Sanity vs. Insanity .

Motifs:

Motifs in the passage are big vs. small, gambling, machinery and also cigarettes.

Main Themes and Characters:

Control and Oppression is the driving/main theme in the passage, since:

• scene serves as the major confrontation of the Nurse and McMurphy
• The Nurse, playing a rigged game, wants to exert her power and show fully that she is in control by taking away the tube room, indirectly expecting to win over McMurphy
• She does this especially through the use of language: her tone is condescending and patronizing, and her diction is sophisticated (syntax simple to be understood by Acutes) to show her powerful position and control over the entire ward.

"We must take away a privilege. And after careful consideration of the circumstances of this rebellion, we've decided that there would be a certain justice in taking away the privilege of the tub room that you men have been using for your card games during the day. Does this seem unfair?"

• Through the use of this rhetoric question at the end, she addresses especially McMurphy but also all other Acutes, and makes it clear that she holds the power in the ward. The fact that she doesn’t look at McMurphy after saying this also emphasizes how sure she is of her being in control.

• McMurphy's reaction seems accepting, but through sensory imagery explained by the Chief, it is clear that he believes he is in control.
• calm tone "So, if there is no discussion on this ruling, I think the hour is almost over…"

Motif big vs. small

• McMurphy explained as "big" through figurative and sensory language ( imagery): "he's big as a house", "he said in his slowest, deepest drawl", "the iron on his boot heels cracked lightning out of the tile. He was the logger again, the swaggering gambler(motif of gambler), the big redheaded brawling Irishmen, the cowboy…"(simile, metaphor, description of McMurphy's action)
• Shows complete disregard for Nurses punishment through his behavior, as if he accepted it- won't loose his face "He stretched and yawned and scratched his nose and started strolling across the day room…"
• McMurphy breaks window for 'cigarettes'= freedom from oppression (and BIG PICTURE from Combine)

Structure:

• At first, Nurse talks, Nurses actions described, but slowly view turns on McMurphy and his behaviour and action (shift of view from Chief Nurse to McM)
• Scene shows through structure how Nurse seems in control at first, but slowly loses control to McMurphy, who breaks her window at the end

Theme Living vs. Apathy is a secondary theme, shown through observations of Chief

• Chief and Acutes are the 'apathetical': "I could see it was too late to keep him from doing whatever fool thing he had in mind, and I just watched like everybody else"
• Chief passive, only hears machinery/noises after Nurses punishment- serves motif of machinery (like warning, danger)
• McMurphy is the only one fighting oppression of the Nurse, which makes him the 'living': "But one by one everybody else looked at him sitting there in his corner." (everyone expects him to act -on behalf of them)
• "faces turned to him, full of naked, scared hope" (need McMurphy to resist, otherwise apathetical!)

Short Plan for Modest Proposal

Topic: Obesity (Food)

Big Idea: The Problem of obesity in the Western World will be solved by making everyone obese through large intakes of food.

Problem: The West, especially America, is struggling with the issue of obesity, that has become not only a life threatening health concern, but also a factor for limited living standards. Obese people, although many in number, stick out and are mobbed in the world. Obesity can lead to shorter life span and failure of heart at young age. In order to combat this Global Issue (Food), I propose that all of Americas and West Europe's citizens will be battened, in order to create equality and eradicate the problem of obesity. Sport institutions and exercise will be limited/ erased, and food production and intake should increase. Longer breaks at lunch for workers (to give them more time to eat), more fast food restaurants and food stores in general, as well as shorter walks and making more use of public transportation and cars will increase the obesity per person rapidly. Once everyone is obese, the problem will no longer exist. The economy will thrive through the increased food production, and the average life span will be much shorter, therefore no old people will live and the state will save all the money invested in pensions.

Audience:

Government of USA, Fast Food Industry,( World Health Organization?)

Advantages:

• No longer problem of obesity
• Many obese already, so to achieve this, not much money has to be invested
• The food industry will benefit
• Short-term advantages: clothing, furniture industry will benefit (everyone has to buy bigger things)
• Health Care System-since obesity not a problem if everyone has it, health care system can focus on more important, pressing problems
• Life expectancy shorter--no money spent on old (pensions), and problem of overpopulation solved

Language/Rhetoric used to write Proposal:

• Tone (formal, ironic, dry)
• Listing
• Facts and economics!!!
• Understatement (intended)
• Irony
• Sophisticated language