1) To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News?
Alain de Botton raised some noteworthy points in relation to what news organisations deem as 'news', such as: "the news flood us with so much news puzzling audiences" and "the news is a distorted picture of our society". In response to his first point, I to agree with the fact that news organisations are able to produce extensive amounts of news per day - yet not all of it is even relevant and most of it reinforces a negative social climate and ideologies onto passive audiences, leaving them confused and only recognising some stories more than others. Also, I also agree that news organisations do created a "distorted picture of our society" as they in fact mould it into an illustration of a place full of "murders and peadophiles", ultimately creating a moral panic to scare and worry the public. The lecture is comprised with many important points in relation to the news such as the reoccuring stories that are injected onto audiences - such as, "dark stories", "celebrities" and "archetypal". In my opinion, it is as though news organisations have established that the only way in which audiences will engage with their content is through presenting the "disasters and misfortunes of others", which is Aristotle's eyes, is something we enjoy. And I agree with this concept, however, I think it is important to reduce the amount of negative and catastrophic stories and replace them for news that helps better and improve our society. In particular, Alain de Botton addressed the idea of the news' trait of 'archetypal' stories, which proves the increasing unawareness which consumes audiences as they still chose to consume into news which they have heard previously - I agree with Alain de Botton's point that audiences need to recognise this.
2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?
The news are able to constantly repeat (archetypal) stories onto passive audiences who are unable to identify this, which shows the dominant hegemony that exists within both society and the news. In terms of Marxism, the bourgeois (news conglomerates), who depict the daily headlines, ultimately convey news that is idealistic in reinforcing negative ideologies onto the mass public. For instance, the moral panic's associated with Muslim terrorists, is a news story that journalists would instinctively use as it would inject fear upon an audience while fundamentally accentuating negativity associated with the ethnic group. In addition to this, news organisations maintain a strong sense of power in brainwashing audiences into identifying valid and relevant news. This is prominent through the example provided by Alain de Botton, "Taylor Swift's legs are now the front cover as oppose to the Arctic melt", which highlights the control that news organisations in swaying audiences interests onto stories that in fact hold no real significance, leaving their experience of news consumption as merely irrelevant and brainwashing.
3) How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?
Pluralists dispute de Botton's view through the fact that the news are growing to suit a wider cross section of audiences through new technological developments such as The Daily Mail's smart phone application, that allows audiences to consume news more accessibly and continently. Additionally, the rise in new technological developments have enabled audiences to add their own views and opinions onto news articles, which de Botton described as "a lot of anger" and something that we should ignore. But the pluralist view would strongly argue against this as the comment feature improves the democracy within the news as audiences are able to have their own say. Moreover, the news provides us with information that taps into our audience pleasures (Blumbler and Katz), such as 'Celebrity' news which is something that audiences enjoy to consume. Also, in terms of Aristotle's theory "the disasters and misfortunes of others is something that we (as consumers) enjoy", clearly captures the underpinning positivity within the news as it caters for the desires of the consumers.
4) Choose two news stories from the last six months - one that supports de Botton's views and one that challenges his belief that the News is used for social control.
One news story that would support de Botton's view
One news story that would challenge de Botton's view
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