How the media shapes YOUR thinking

In a past life, I taught high-school English (for a very short time). My approach wasn't to lecture with facts while bored teens daydreamed about dates and basketball and the latest dance craze. I thought the most important way to teach facts was to teach how to think about information.

In short, I wanted students to think for themselves, to carve their own opinions based on evidence because I believed learning to think and analyze is the way to learn and draw strong conclusions.

This past month, down with illness, I was watching the news on TV. The moving headlines at the bottom of the screen (officially called chyron) was scrolling along with short blurbs concerning important topics of the day.

One particular crawl caught my eye and reading this, I got to thinking ... is this leader board reporting or indoctrinating ("helping" you shape an opinion by the way a sentence is worded?)

The Potential Headline

Let me give you an example of a headline that could have worked its way across the bottom of the TV screen.

Four people killed, four seriously injured in head-on crash.

What are your thoughts when you read that? Do you wonder where the crash occurred? Do you wonder if you might know any of the victims? Do you immediately empathize with the families of the victims? Do you want to know if children were involved? Do you care that four human beings were snuffed out of existence in an instant? Do you think, "How sad," or "There for the grace of God," or "rest in peace"?

If you do, then you are indicating that you are a thoughtful human being who cares about his or her fellow human beings.

The Real Headline

Now the example I gave was an edited (by me) headline of one that was actually broadcast and it would have been correct because it reported one thing--a traffic accident claimed four lives. But that's not how the network headline read. Read the actual wording and tell me how whether your reaction changes:

Four illegal aliens killed, four seriously injured in head-on crash.

Do you still care about any of these human beings and the fact that they lost their lives or do you see this as fuel for a political issue--in this case immigration?  Do you wonder why the network decided to write the headline this way or if the local station made this decision?

Do you see how two words can completely shape how you think--or fuel the way you've already been taught to think? 

It seems that gone are the days when a news reporter would report information without injection personal opinion specifically to bolster decisions or opinions you've already made or to sway you into the opinion of the media you are watching. Sometimes the "influence peddling" is blatant opinion disguised as real news and sometimes, as with the example here, it is kind of shaded as real news. And it's almost always distinguished by the political leanings of the news source, be it radio, TV, newspaper or internet.

Do you let media do your thinking for you?

10 Modern Clichés to Avoid or Stop 'Thinking Outside the Box!'

 I recently spent some time cat sitting for a friend. In the process, I managed to get in a few hours of television watching, something that takes up very limited amount of time in my home. After messing around with the remote for a while, I discovered many shows and people I had never heard of before. Now ordinarily, this would not bother me ... but it did make me realize that cutting the cable and relying on just two networks (one of which is public television), I was getting close to the morass of ignorance with regard to what is going on in the world beneath the heavy veil of politics.

Not only did I discover a whole world of reality personalities, cooking celebrities, and detailed forensic methods for murdering women, I discovered also that either the writers or the unscripted dialogs have created a new wave of clichés or there is very little creative effort by media.

I call this phenomenon "modern clichés" because while the combination of words has not been around as long as the true cliché, the rampant overuse leads me to believe I can call them clichés.

In just a week, I heard these worn phrases while surfing various channels and shows.

• Think outside the box. Really? How many times have you used this?
• Kick it up a notch. Now this one was used six times on six different cooking related shows.
• You know what I'm saying? This is kind of like adding "you know" to your statements.
• I'm just saying. (Don't we know what you are saying; after all, you just said it.)
• I mean. (Have you noticed how many speakers answer questions by using these two words to preface their responses?)
• It is what it is. Ah, this needs no further discussion.
• To be honest ... (Oh, so otherwise what you have to say is dishonest?)
• I cannot even ... (I cannot even think of what this means!)
• That's a game changer.
• That's my final answer. (Is that show still on TV?)

Now, the 2nd Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1989) has 21,728 pages in 20 volumes. I have no idea how many words that equals but I would wager it is at least 13,000,000. Not surprisingly, English-speaking Americans use only (an estimated) 3,000 of 20 volumes of words.

I realize that broadcast media has to get a message across quickly, but I wonder if they assume the public will not be able to understand what they are trying to convey if they use more than the 3,000 words.

Surely with this many words available to us, we could cease employing these "clichés" and become more descriptive.

Where or where have 18 months gone?

A year-and-a-half ago, I input my last blog. The subject matter was New Year's resolutions, and I listed five things I planned to do but did not resolve to do. Here's the list I was considering:

• DRINK MORE WATER 
• EAT MORE CHOCOLATE 
• READ MORE BOOKS 
• BREATH MORE AIR 
• LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC

I ended the list by stating I might post a follow-up now and again -- that didn't happen.

The 18 months passed as timely as 18 months should. In that time, I did manage to carry out most of the list.

(The biggest disappointment was the music promise. The battery gave out on my trusty Ipod classic so I could no longer carry it with me on long walks or don its earphones while checking email and scanning facebook. Luckily I was able to pick up a used Ihome at the thrift shop next door so I can still use the Ipod. Also, since I bought a new phone, I transferred a lot of my music to my old cell and I now use that as my walking music player.)

 One thing I did not expect to do during that time, and it became one of the biggest contributors to lack of input on the blog, was learning to use Wordpress. Also, I returned to my second favorite pastime (art), designing t-shirts for Amazon. I guess it's a matter of focus. (I do tend to spend a lot of time on new projects, often neglecting old ones.)

I'm still not sure how much effort I'll manage here because I did discover that blogging, like building websites, took time away from other writing, which does not please me. Just last week, I opened my backup laptop and looked at the list of unfinished work sitting in a documents folder, saved for later updates --- two non-fiction books, three novels (one nearly complete, one in rough draft and one in outline form) and a dozen short stories I planned to put together in a collection. This is not good, especially when that list gets added to the miscellaneous writing in progress on this desktop.

That said, I'm going to pretend today is the beginning of the new year. I put a few sticky notes on the desktop with reminders to share time between all projects and to walk away from the computer more often. Perhaps I'm relearning the discipline one has when involved with the work force. I'm not sure I want to bring all of that back because I enjoy the impromptu life too much. However, I have already opened the oldest novel to read and refresh my train of thoughts and look forward to seeing where all this leads.