A Justice Site

RESOURCES: Community Building - Visual Sociology - Message Building
RESPOND: Transform-dom: Open Discussion Group on Yahoo
SEARCH: - Site Index - Topics Index - FAQS on Navigating Site
FACULTY ASSISTANCE: Letters of Recommendation - Susan - jeanne
UWP Criminal Justice Dept. - CSUDH Dept. of Sociology

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

WWW www.habermas.org

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: October 8, 2006
Latest Update: October 8, 2006
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Focal Things

Focal things are things that really matter. Sometimes the story part of current event shifts our attention to gossip and entertainment. I complained of that, as have many, many others, with the Foley scandal. Sure, it matters that Hastert covered up the whole nasty business of a Congressman behaving inappropriately with congressional Pages, but what really matters is the coverup, not the titillation of Foley's sexual exploits.

Today's technology permits us all to speculate in almost real time on this juicy bit of someone else's life. Entertaining? Maybe. But it distracts us from the focal things that we should be focused on. Torture, unwarranted detention, the whole worldwide immigration mess, tax breaks for the rich while our armed forces lack adequate upkeep for the equipment on which their lives depend.

This series of "Things That Matter" is designed to help us keep our eye on the ball. Remmber the shell game? Don't let Congress or anyone else dupe you with suggestive titillating stories to distract your awareness and slip by infamous agendae we didn't even notice going by. This isn't a football game. Sustainability and the lives of our children depend on our practicing the skills of not being conned by a shell game.

Believe It. Investigate and Understand It. Then Own It. And do something about it. Talk. Talk to your friends, your neighbors, your community members, your councils, your congressmen, your city officials. Don't be complicit through lack of awareness.

 

Axis of Evil Attacking American Freedom and Democracy
Distracting Us From Things that Matter

Don't worry about oil spills and the environment - protect the American Way

News Ratings Up. News Ratings Up.

The American Way Triumphs

Discussion Questions

1. Why would the news plaster trivial stories all over, and ignore stories on things that really matter?

   The American Media are almost completely corporatized. Their objective is the bottom line. Sensation intrigues us. We watch it. The advertisers want an emphasis on things we watch. That's what gives them access to us to sell their products. The publisher of the Los Angeles Times was forced to resign this week by the Tribune for his refusal to cut his news staff on the grounds that it would reduce the quality of the news. The issues here are privatization and our right to know.

References:

• Reference

---

---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
Individual copyrights by other authors may apply.