On Thu, 8 May 1997, Gens Johnson wrote:
> Actually Bill's posting about television news reminded me...
>
> 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
>
>
>