My idea
is to focus in on Thoreau’s comment to the news and how it inundates our lives.
I will specifically focus on the major quotes in his paragraph anchored towards
the news. "We are determined to be starved before we are hungry",
"After a half-hour's nap... What's the news?” "News is as
indispensable as the breakfast”, and "To a philosopher all news, as it is
called, is gossip.” I want to focus in on discussing the opinion of news in
Thoreau’s piece and comparing it to the media's influence on life today. The
media today, shapes most parts of our life. In todays society we only know as
much or what we are told. Media influence effects social reaction to events,
elections, and the severity of a situation. In my essay I will use Thoreau
to explain why we are so attached to trivial things like the news. I might
include an interview, playing off of the news, with Thoreau.
Cory, this is great! I think that it will be very interesting to see what Thoreau thinks about the news. Are you going to use specific examples from your life or is it more just society today? Maybe also think about how it effects daily life in smaller situations or the way people think about different things and such.
ReplyDeleteCory,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cirkine that this is an excellent topic--and perhaps one of the points that Thoreau makes relative to our lives here in the 21st century. Once you've used Thoreau to introduce the idea of news as "gossip," feel free to leave him behind and hold forth on your own views about the current media. I'm anxious to see what you have to say!