Finally, a Keyboard For Me---The Pirate Keyboard!
posted by Jeff Martinek @ 3:21 PM
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Previous Posts
- Say Hello To Our New Honors Secretary -- Ursula Tr...
- MSSU Honors - An Evolution of the Mind!
- Student blogging recommendations
- Suggestions for Improving The Oxford Experience
- Ladies and Gentlemen, the 2005 MSSU-Merton Summer ...
- My Engagement/Wedding Announcement
- Another Lesson in Perspective
- I'm Home
- Final Tea Time -- Don't Cry Ladies!
- Blogs and Scrolls
2 Comments:
Rrrrrr! Rrrr Rrrrr RRRRR!!!
Dr. Martinek:
They finally published the article for The Carthage Press, so I put down all of my thoughts in regard to this mess of media information on my blog. Let me know if you want that article by Postman back, and otherwise, I will see you on Thursday. My blog is as follows:
I have now been home for a couple of weeks and can honestly say that I am glad to be home, but that I do miss Oxford more than I thought I would. It really is an eye opener to live in a different culture for more than just a couple of days. My mother and sister traveled to 9 different countries in three weeks (several years ago) and I just can't imagine how they were able to really experience "life abroad" in such a short period of time.
Nevertheless, I stopped into the honor's office the other day and Dr. Martinek played me the news clip taken from the phone interview on the Thursday of the second bombings. To be frank, I was stunned. I don understand that stations have a need to keep their audiences "engaged" in the story at hand, but changing the whole feeling of the story seems to border on lying. Adam and I both explained how we had been affected by being in London on that second Thursday. We described the place in which we were able to see the destruction from the bus exploding two weeks prior and how it made us feel as though we were suddenly a part of this destruction...it made us all feel sad, not scared. The news station really played on a "fear" that really didn't exist. They mentioned how we were "anxious" to get home-while Adam and I mentioned that we were looking forward to coming home, but that we had little fear in staying in England. In an article from Dr. Martinek by Neil Postman ("Amusing Ourselves to Death"), the article describes how "television sells its time in seconds and minutes, in part because television must use images rather than words." Hmm...so does that mean that because they had no film footage of us in England that they had to make the story seem that much more dramatic? I agree with Postman that reports of death, cruelty, and such horrors seem to be greatly exaggerated and that this "disinformation" makes stories very misleading.
Having a husband in Iraq, I often watch the news and find myself hanging to every word in regards to Marines that are killed and what kind of action is going on. I do get to speak to Landon (my husband) occasionally and when I tell him of all things on the news about the area he is stationed in, he often gets very upset. He, also, says that the news over exaggerates what is going on. So how are we to know what the truth really is? Doesn't it seem like there should be a better way to monitor such stories?
After I arrived home, KODE called and asked if I would be willing to do another interview, in person, for information on the England experience in conjunction with Landon being shot. In addition, the Carthage Press interviewed me and put the story on the front page of the paper on August 10th. Though KODE seemed to do a better job of portraying my feelings accurately, the Carthage Press seemed to capitalize on fear again with the title: "Marine's wife struggles with separation." Though I do have a hard time, the strength is not what is brought out in stories, it is the weakness. Maybe this is why it so hard to find feel-good stories in papers, news, etc. People would rather be drawn in by horror than be bored by anything remotely mundane.
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