{"id":11077,"date":"2024-08-25T19:26:11","date_gmt":"2024-08-25T23:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=11077"},"modified":"2024-10-08T18:03:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T22:03:00","slug":"august26newmedia2024","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/newmediafall2024\/august26newmedia2024\/","title":{"rendered":"August 26th: Consider Media-ted Arguments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Plan for the Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Leave with more questions than answers&#8230;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jump back to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/cultignorance\/\">Asimov<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Today&#8217;s Readings<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Future Assignments<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/americanculture\/\">Locating American Values<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Richard Conniff&#8217;s \u201cIn the Name of the Law\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This reading was more amusement, but, as you think about it, where (out there in the world) do you read\/see\/hear arguments that compare one group or another to NAZIs? If you\u2019ve never noticed this, tell me what you think after reading David Mervin\u2019s piece from yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201c<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Godwin's_law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Godwin\u2019s Law<\/a><\/strong>\u2026holds that the longer an argument drags on, the likelier someone will <em>stoop<\/em> to a Hitler or Nazi analogy\u201d (emphasis mine, para. 2)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Discussions of genocide\u2026why don\u2019t speakers go back further and point to the genocide of indigenous cultures in the Americas?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prepackaged, ready-made arguments: \u201cThese little laws [e.g., Godwin&#8217;s Law] allow us to sound intelligent without having to do any homework\u201d (para. 3)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What other prepackaged arguments do you hear?\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You can never trust the government.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Taxes hurt businesses and economic growth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Environmental regulations kill jobs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Meredith Whitney on the Crisis with the Contemporary Male<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/oracle-wall-street-expands-why-203534373.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The article<\/a><\/strong> is written by Alena Botros, but she&#8217;s using Meredith Whitney&#8217;s argument and finding data that might support the claim that the American male is in crisis. Here are some questions for us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What exactly is the crisis she&#8217;s lamenting?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Who or what is to blame for this &#8220;crisis of the American Male&#8221;?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What does she claim is the &#8220;bigger picture&#8221; of this supposed problem? What will it lead to?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What values does Meredith Whitney (and presumably the source, Yahoo! Finance) have?\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What is she privileging directly and indirectly?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What assumptions does she have about the economy and culture, specifically family?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The author of the article does try to locate information that contradicts Whitney&#8217;s arguments, but she doesn&#8217;t address everything. Consider the following quotes from Whitney:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>para. 4: &#8220;&#8230;a portion of young, single men &#8216;haven\u2019t had sex in the past year and don\u2019t seem to be bothered by it.'&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>para. 6: &#8220;Mid-2000s video games, in Whitney\u2019s mind. &#8216;You have an ability to feel like you&#8217;re gaming with a group of friends or community, but you&#8217;re really just at home alone,&#8217; she said. &#8216;And so the socialization of the young American male really started to break down significantly around that time.'&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>para. 7: &#8220;&#8216;Unless you\u2019re creating a household, there\u2019s no reason to buy a house,&#8217; Whitney said, touching on household formations and birth rates.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Did anyone read the comments?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It might be worth looking at the Pew Research study cited, specifically the table <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/social-trends\/2016\/05\/24\/for-first-time-in-modern-era-living-with-parents-edges-out-other-living-arrangements-for-18-to-34-year-olds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Since 1940, year when young adult demographic&#8230;&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Future Assignments<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Time permitting, I&#8217;d like to talk a little bit about your future essays, so you can be thinking about them early. If I didn&#8217;t mention it already, the Miterm and Final exams are on the reading and class discussion. The note should help you refresh, but there&#8217;s no substitution for careful reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>American Culture<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I have other course pages devoted to this listed below, so check them out for more information. Don&#8217;t worry about getting this all at once; we&#8217;ll be exploring American culture all semester, and you&#8217;ll be arguing for (or against) what seem to be essential <em>American<\/em> qualities in your writing. Although it might seem that American culture in monolithic, it isn&#8217;t. However, we will often focus on the hegemonic aspects of American culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>More Discussion on Our Semester&#8217;s Topics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/rhetoric-an-introduction\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/rhetoric-an-introduction\/\">A brief Introduction of Rhetoric<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/\">Cultural Studies<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/marxism\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/marxism\/\">Critical Theory Approaches<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/americanculture\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/americanculture\/\">American Culture, an Introduction<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ways of assessing the truth&#8230;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tastes and Convictions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Opinions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Theories\/Laws<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Facts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Locating American Values<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Because this course is a theoretical exploration of how we can locate a society\u2019s values by \u201creading\u201d its texts, we ought to think about what those values are.<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.uncc.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/americanculture\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">This page asks you to think about American values<\/a><\/strong>&#8211;it&#8217;s from a different class, so don&#8217;t get too attached. The goal of this next exercise is to identify values that we might be able to \u201cread\u201d in technologies from American society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Are You Normal?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the US Census Bureau&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/library\/visualizations\/2017\/comm\/cb17-51_educational_attainment.html\" target=\"_blank\">One-third of the US population has a bachelor&#8217;s degree (or higher)<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/library\/stories\/2019\/02\/number-of-people-with-masters-and-phd-degrees-double-since-2000.html\" target=\"_blank\">In 2018, &#8220;13.1% of U.S. adults have an advanced degree&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 2018, it looks like 2.6% have doctoral degrees (same link)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>2022 and 2024 Updates (read critically and closely)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2022\/educational-attainment.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Census Bureau 2022&#8230;<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.collegetransitions.com\/blog\/percentage-of-americans-with-college-degrees\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Percentage of Americans with College Degrees in 2024<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/michaeltnietzel\/2024\/02\/01\/percentage-of-us-adults-with-college-degrees-edges-higher-finds-lumina-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Percentage Of Adults With College Degrees Edges Higher, Finds New Lumina Report<\/a><\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Is there a difference between a college &#8220;degree&#8221; and a college &#8220;credential&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Keep up With the Reading<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You readings for the semester are on <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/canvas.charlotte.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Canvas<\/a><\/strong>. We&#8217;ll discuss David Mervin&#8217;s &#8220;The News Media and Democracy in the United States,&#8221; and I want you to read <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/founding-docs\/declaration-transcript\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Declaration of Independence<\/a><\/strong>. You will probably be very surprised. These are short readings, but our readings will get longer after this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan for the Day Richard Conniff&#8217;s \u201cIn the Name of the Law\u201d This reading was more amusement, but, as you think about it, where (out there in the world) do you read\/see\/hear arguments that compare one group or another to NAZIs? If you\u2019ve never noticed this, tell me what you think after reading David Mervin\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":11036,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11077","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-2SF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11077"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11229,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11077\/revisions\/11229"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}