Sam Donaldson spoke at WSU a few weeks ago, and one of the comments he made
about TV news was that people tend to treat what they see on the news as
typical of life, rather than the exceptions.
Then about a week before Sam Donaldson, Hart (a scholar in political
rhetoric from UT) spoke about the pervasive cynicism that is "stylish" now.
He laid a lot of the blame for this dis-empowering language-style on
television news and late-night talk shows.
Both of these "observations" lead me to value even more the Moscow Daily
News, which I think has been making a great effort to combine reporting of
the exceptions (traditional view of what is "news"), with other important
purposes of the mass media: providing a context for interpreting what is
going on, and contributing to a shared set of social expectations and
values (Ann Landers is particularly good at this (!)). There seems to be
good coverage of the efforts of local groups and individuals who are
"making a difference".
Now it would be nice to see them tackle some of the stickier areas: for
example, generating some public discourse on... new school district
requirements for high school graduation; the appropriate role for real
estate developers in local government; involving area youth in civic
activities and volunteerism; etc.
I'm never sure if Vision2020 is the place for discussion on these later
topics, or just where (!)...but suspect that sometimes what we read and
post here would be interesting to a wider audience, and that a "cc" of a
posting might make an appropriate "Letter to the Editor". And so an even
wider public discourse might be stirred.
Gens Johnson