Start by taking a survey similar to those conducted by polling companies and news organizations regarding what issues are most important to you. you can find the survey here.
Next take a look at how your responses and the responses of your classmates compare to national polls here
Then you can test your knowledge of recent news based on news quiz from The New York Times.
Finally please post a comment describing your reactions, reactions to your classmates comments. You can use any or all of the following prompts as a starting point if you wish.
Finally please post a comment describing your reactions, reactions to your classmates comments. You can use any or all of the following prompts as a starting point if you wish.
- Choose one of the items you listed as extremely important (or less important) and explain why.
- Are the issues that seem to be the most important to you (or to the rest of America) being covered well by the media?
- How did you feel about taking the the news quizzes, what was covered, how you did, and how those topics are or are not covered by the news?
- What conclusions can we draw from the way that the issues that dominate the polls and media coverage are similar or different?
I agree with most in that the most important issue is the economy. I honestly think we’re heading towards a catastrophic collapse, worse than that of the Great Depression. All the numbers point to it. Nothing has changed in the banking industry. With the “financialization” of the economy, Wall Street has never been as powerful as it is now. In the early 50’s, bankers offering loans and investments accounted for about 1/10th of the wealth in America. Today they account for nearly 1/3rd. The derivatives market, at $1.2 quadrillion, is roughly 21 times the size of the global GDP. All the money in the world literally could not stop a derivatives collapse. Credit default swaps are still being used to hide billions in toxic assets. Investment banks are still fiddling around in commercial banks.
ReplyDeleteMany still think the millionaires are job creators (it’s working-class spending) even though, in 2012, US companies stashed away $1.5 trillion in cash. They’re didn’t invest it, they didn’t expand their businesses, and they didn’t hire more workers. They’re just sat on it. Investors actually sued Apple that year to make the company pass some $137 billion it was sitting on down to shareholders. In addition, corporations are still outsourcing millions of jobs to places where they can dodge taxes, dump chemicals wherever they want, and pay workers whatever they want. Four companies control 90% of the grain trade, three control 70% of the beef industry, and four control 58% of the pork and chicken industry. Add all that up and we have free-market globalization.
We no longer have anything close to a strong middle-class. By 2008, the average American family was in debt by 130% of their average annual income. The poorest 20% of Americans saw their incomes decrease by 7% between 1979 and 2008 (in the 30 years prior their incomes grew 118%). Credit card debt has reached over $860 billion. Mortgage debt is over $10 trillion. Fifty cents of every tax dollar goes to war. The trillion dollar student-loan bubble keeps building. All this before even considering global repercussions, since all the economies of the richest nations are more intermingled than ever. Add all those numbers and percentages up and I think it leads to one thing: meltdown.
"Ashley Surinak"
ReplyDeleteLike Robert and virtually all of the polls of other Americans, I too chose the economy as the most pressing issue facing the country. I think that it's extremely interesting when it's broken down by issues because sometimes, the news doesn't quite reflect the overwhelming importance placed on the economy. I think that this is because as certain events happen, the issues related to those events take center stage (even if only for a day or a few days).
For example, when certain issues surface in the news, issues get more air time dedicated to them. So, when major deadlines with the Affordable Care Act approach, the news is definitely going to dedicate more time toward healthcare. Or, when there are shootings (like when Sandy Hook occurred), you would see a lot more coverage dedicated to gun control.
The economy is something that is always sort of lurking in the background. It's there, it fluctuates, but for the most part, there are no major occurrences that translate into more air time for it (at least recently). This leads to the sort of disillusionment that Robert mentions with what the state of the economy is really like, especially for Americans who might not watch financial news. And, for those who don't, most of the news (for example, local nightly news) is unrelated to the state of the economy, which could create serious gaps in what people think of how the economy is doing.
I think this just points to other problems of how people self-select into different channels and news programming. Those who favor entertainment value will watch local news whereas those seeking financial news will go to other sources, like Fox News. However, the tendency to overwhelmingly say that the economy and jobs are the biggest issue just seems like a reflection of a more general tendency than related to news coverage itself.
Ranya Abdellatif
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the economy as well as education are the most important topics to focus on. Many young adults have been deciding to not go to college simply because they cannot afford it. Unfortunately, the ones who do go to college are stuck with loans of thousands of dollars, making it harder and harder to pay back. Besides the economic part of this, education is something every person should have the opporutunity to do. Education can create a more developed society, with people contributing socially, politically and economically. In terms of economy as a topic, it reflects everyone day to day. As a nation, we are overwhelmed with many economic mistakes, including wars and well let's just name Wall Street to sum it up.
In terms of the NY Times quiz, it focused on several different topics that people are assumed would talk about. I did farely well in terms of all the political questions. In terms of sports or national game history events, I had no idea. I don't think personally I need to know who is going to win a college basketball game or what was David Letterman known for. It makes me realize how important these weird facts actually are to people. I'm pretty sure many would've known the answers to those questions, but I would rather know who had a large earthquake or what bill did they pass, since that would affect me more instead. In all, media is very important factor in terms of how people and what they will know about. Media covers everything, it is not always necessarily political.
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ReplyDeleteIn response to question two, I believe the media does do a good job covering the issues Americans consider most important. This does not mean, however, that I agree that the issues covered are in fact the most important. As a business model, the media statistically calculates which topics are currently most important to Americans, and then sets its agenda accordingly to generate the largest audience. Quick and ‘catchy’ surveys, such as the one we participated in for this blog, are one way the media can determine citizen interest.
ReplyDeleteAs the survey points out, immediate concerns drive citizen interest. It logically follows that media coverage on these issues will reel in the most viewers. For instance, immediately after 9/11 surveys suggested that national security and terrorism were the most important issues at the time. Terrorism headlined every news organization nearly every day. Reason being, Americans found a sense of attachment to the threat. However as years passed, American citizens became less and less attached to this issue. The media had to react accordingly to maintain their viewers. They recalculated the next major citizen interest and changed their agenda. Other than Snowden's recent revealing of the NSA's intelligence intrusions, national security and terrorism have become far detached from the majority of Americans. In fact, several of the surveys we examined on "polling-report" did not even mention either issue.
Whether national security and terrorism should be on our government’s main agenda is up for debate. However absent any significant event that reattaches citizen interest, this issue will not receive much coverage.
Even though every survey confirmed, they were not necessary in determining the most important citizen-interest today—the economy. Everyone in our nation is attached to this issue and everyone in our nation has felt some impact from our current economic state. As a result, the media has dedicated extensive coverage to the economy. For these reasons, I reiterate that the media does indeed cover issues ‘considered most important' by the most amount of people.
Reading everyones comments and looking at the survey results, we can all agree that economy and jobs was by far the most important and pressing problem we feel that we face today. I ranked it as very important because unlike abortion or illegal immigration, the economy affects everyone. Whether you are a farmer or top business worker, the economy and its stability affects your day to day action. This is not to say that national security or terrorism are not important but I feel that they are not as relevant as the economy is.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that did surprise me was the low results Education received. Not only from our classmates but from the others as well. I feel that education is just as important as the economy. A proper education creates a domino affect to a better society and with a low level of importance placed on it, it kinda worries me as to why society does not feel education to be very important.
I agree with what everyone else has been saying, that the economy is the most important issue facing America. Especially being a college student, we need to be concerned about whether or not we will find a job when we graduate. The economy has been recovering but it is still a bad time to be entering to workforce. I think this issue is being covered pretty well by the media. The economy is always on the front page of the news, and the networks talk about it all the time. I thought the New York Times news quiz was pretty interesting. I got a 8 out of 10 and I thought that was pretty good. Some of the stuff I guessed on, and I do not think many of the stuff was covered very well by the media. I feel like the only thing on the news has been the plane and the ferry story. I think what it tells us about news coverage is that Americans like to hear about tragedies. That is was gets the highest viewership. Sad stories sell so the news puts those on the forefront.
ReplyDeleteI as well agree with the notion that economy and jobs is greatly the most important issue to help rehabilitate our nation. Especially for our age group and moving forward, that is what will greatly impact our livelihood after college in the immediate future. The economy is the single most driving factor that starts out to help aid our education, abortion rates and all the other societal issues. Even for those set out to not seek an education and enter the workforce, the economy still affects what jobs are available and in the greater picture causes greater issues such as poverty rates, homelessness and so forth.
ReplyDeleteThe media will always prove to be a big factor in shaping what we concern ourselves with in society. The more press that takes place about a certain topic, we will be more inclined to put our attention towards. People will always have differing opinions on what they believe to be the most significant to their own personal situations and that won't ever change. In the end, the media will always put forth the biggest issues at hand for the people to in turn decide for themselves to take action against. News is very diverse and widespread and is all out there in some way, shape or form, but some people obviously put certain issues before others, which is where the bias stems from with the quizzes. I think the media generally puts out the most relevant, appropriate news stories that we need to know for the betterment of our society.
While I do believe that the economy and education are very important, I believe our foreign policy to be one of the most important. I believe America’s world strategy and relations with foreign nations are both the most volatile and important thing to be focusing on. Both because there is a need to make sure America has good relations with foreign nations as well as keeps an eye on our own power.
ReplyDeleteThere is as well a crucial different between covering foreign policy and covering certain news stories that happen around the world. While I do not mean for this to sound cold hearted, the ferry incident in South Korea is a good example. It is a tragic news event and did deserve courage. The constant news coverage in every single nightly news program and hours of time on CNN is not a good use of time. The incident itself does not impact world relations or change the way the world is at all. There is no practical reason for it to be given so much attention. Maybe a 30 second clip in each nightly program.
In addition, the true nature of the economy should see more news coverage. Not prepared segment of the President saying whatever it takes to win his party the next election. The amount of produced news by self-promotion of politicians makes the news of today more a gimmick than anything else. It is not particular concepts I would like to see better covered, but rather just a new attempt at news in general.
I chose education as extremely important because how it affects politics and the economy. A high school education is not enough to secure a job in today’s market. The economy is demanding a higher skilled working force. The media is constantly covers the expense of higher education. However, it does not pay enough attention on primary and secondary education systems such as how they are not improving.
ReplyDeleteI got 9/10 correct on the NY Times quiz. The only question that stumped me was the location of one of the incidents. I felt confident on taking the quiz because I feel that I am well aware of today’s news than the average American. I feel that certain media outlets do cover what the polls or people want, while others have a more balance approach. For example todays cover of The New York Times seemed pretty balance of offering variety of news. For the media, covering what people want might be for a matter of survival of that particular outlet.
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ReplyDeleteI agree what many was saying, the economy is one of the most important issue, especially as a college student, many of us including myself are concern with finding a job after we graduate. I also agree that the education is an important topic, high school diploma has not enough to secure a more decent job, and I think the expectation for higher education had also increase in job wise. Based on some of the comments, I believe the media had covered the economic issue pretty well, but I'm not sure on the education part. I was not too familiar with some of the quiz questions, except the ones that I feel had been brought up more as frequent, such as the news with Ukraine, the Plane, and the ferry.
ReplyDeleteAcross the board, the list poll results shows that society thinks that the most important issue that America faces is the economy and unemployment/job availability. As many other posts have mentioned, the success of our economy and job availability is particularly important for college students like us because we want our economy to be booming and the job market to be thriving so we can start our professional careers with ease. Unfortunately, that is probably not going to be the case for us, because the economy is still recovering from the 2008-2009 recession. While the media was pretty thorough about covering the state of our economy and unemployment in the couple years after the recession, lately (the past 2 years) I have seen a drop off in relevant coverage. Still, Americans think that the economy is overwhelmingly the most important issue we still face today. I think the reduction in coverage about the economy is largely due to the fact that many media outlets are still acting in their best interests and still want to thrive for as many viewers as possible. Covering the economy and unemployment is old news (especially since that was all over the news for 3+ years during and after the recession) and airing news reports about gay rights, gun control, illegal immigration, and other less important issues will get more viewers. These issues, though many believe are less important, are more appealing to viewers because people are more willing to listen to controversial stories even though they are more trivial. The media’s job is to keep the attention of American citizens, so maybe that explains why CNN loves covering the story of flight 370 while the important stories of Russia and Ukraine or the state of the economy go uncovered.
ReplyDeleteOne important political issues that needs to be addressed is education.Growing up all we heard was “You cannot get anywhere without and education”. At a very young age we had it instilled in your minds that with an good education you will make it in life or achieve the "American Dream" How achievable and equal is the American dream for Americans when are starting points are unequal. Trying to achieve the American dream is hard for the next person because we all don’t have the fair chance.
ReplyDeleteWe are taught that education provides an equal opportunity but, education cannot provide everyone with an equal opportunity because in today’s society the education that children are receiving isn’t equal. Depending on your parents social economic status can determine a lot about how your future is going to look. This is sad because if you born into a poor family chances are your local school is not going to be able to provide the necessities that essential for a proper education. I believe that the school system is a reminder that we are still in the mind set of separate but equal. Our children are in a caste system and they don’t even know it. I say that children are in a caste system based on the schools that they attend and it is unfair to the children because none of them asked for it. Therefore I feel like the American dream shapes life’s outcomes before we are even born and its sad because in today’s society it is becoming harder and harder for children living below the poverty line to do as well as the next considering the resources that are available to the school are limited. How we do continuously allow people to sell this notion of the American dream when we cannot even give them the proper tools for them to advance in life. I do not believe that all students who live in poor communities don't advance in life and do great things, I just believe that the percentage of these students are very low. I believe that post secondary education have these same inequalities, the difference with post secondary education is that we can choose to determine what type of education we get.
While reading everyone's comments I think we're forgetting that all these issues often play into each other. The economy is not within a bubble, it's a living organism that reflects many issues. The market is often a score keeper when a country is not stable or can't govern itself well.
ReplyDeleteAll the factors that were polled are added or subtracted somehow within the economy. It judges all aspects of our nation.
From health care to the budget to immigration and even the abortion issue, these all play a role within the economy. Of course, some play a larger role than others, but still play a role nonetheless. The abortion issue shows our inability to agree to disagree and to focus on the past. It's another side effect to our partisan politics. These are the same partisan politics that can't reform the banking industry to a large degree or better yet our healthcare system (instead of placing this bandaid onto it). Of course, investors and other financiers take advantage of the issues preoccupying the minds of Americans.
The major issue as I see within the comments and within the news are talking about these issues as if they don't coexist to some level. I don't think the news does a bad job in the coverage, but I think we as citizens have done a bad job at understanding the issues and educating ourselves. We can't fault the media fully for covering these issues, we have to fault ourselves as well. They too don't work within a bubble.
There seems to be a general consensus that the economy and education are some of the most important issues to us as students. I am in agreement, especially when it comes to education. Education is such a fundamental part of understanding and solving the world's problems. With better education, as a society, comes better discourse and hopefully creative policy solutions. However education is not a particularly sexy topic to cover in the media and does not get covered very frequently. It's not a rapidly changing field or has quite the controversy of other topics. Therefore it gets pushed aside, as many important issues do. This phenomenon fits perfect with the "versus" news coverage we were discussing in class. If there's no competition or something controversial, the topic doesn't get covered. Although in the media's defense there hasn't been any groundbreaking educational legislation in a while, but maybe the media could change the conversation, so people demand new policies.
ReplyDeleteI agree with pretty much everyone else who posted before me that the economy is the most important issue today. I think that the issue is being covered more than most issues not because the media thinks it is important, but because the media knows we think it is important, and thus we expect to hear about it, so they fulfill our expectations. I think that the economy overwhelmingly took the crown for most important for two reasons; 1.) because all the other issues factor into it, and 2.) we feel it the most. Some people may feel passionate about health care, others may feel strongly against the president or immigration, but one thing everyone can I agree on is that our economy is not in great shape; the fundamental reasons behind our economic situation is debatable, but the numbers are not.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the quiz is concerned, I only got the ones right, aside from Ukraine, focusing on stories within our country. This isn't surprising considering we just talked about how the media is too focused on domestic stories, but this quiz really put it into perspective and made me realize I really do need to broaden my horizon and start looking at the foreign press for some of my news.
Addressing question 3, I got a 7/10 on the weekly quiz, which I felt wasn't a terrible score considering the few I did miss were things that were barely covered in the major news outlets. Even if they were, they were pushed to the back for more "pressing" issues and by pressing of course I am talking about the things that will get the most views and best ratings because in the end that is what matters most. I also, like a few of my classmates, picked the economy and unemployment as what should be the most important issue on America's agenda. The beauty of America is that our economy is always under the magnifying glass because we have always realized that it was vital in strengthening our state. We have television channels such as CNBC that are dedicated to watching the economy and analyzing data and developments throughout the week.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that these polls are vital because they give our representatives an idea of what we are looking for. This system will better inform the representative to things they may not have already known and will help shift their agenda towards the priorities of the people they represent because they know it will help them in the future when they are trying to get re-elected.