Relating past theorists to
Bourdieu’s reading, in our interactive class today, helped me understand his
theories in greater detail. One passage thoroughly discussed today in class was
“TV news suits everybody because it confirms what they already know and, above
all, leaves their mental structures intact” (Bourdieu 254). This quote suggests
that the news reports to the general public in a way that is repetitive,
modifying our behavior in a way that keeps our mental structures in tact. We become
accustomed to this expected format and don’t think twice about what we see.
In
local news we are informed of topics and stories, repeating them over and over
again, resulting in an overall desensitization within our society. Day to day,
we have a predetermined knowledge, of what to expect when turning on the news.
Past theorists, Horkheimer and Adorno, have stated that “mass culture gives
tragedy permanent employment as routine” (62). In the news we are familiarized
with the crimes that happen around us, but since it is such a constant in our
media, we have become desensitized and fail to be outraged by these stories,
examining what we can do as a community to put an end to them. These
conventional news reports, are subconscious longings within our society, and
without them the general public would be dissatisfied.
Another passage that I found
extremely intriguing from Bourdieu’s text was “Our TV philosophers are called
in to give meaning to the meaningless, anecdotal, or fortuitous event that has
been artificially brought to stage center and given significance”(333). I had
never thought about the use of proximity when constructing reporter’s credibility
before, so I was impressed when this idea was recognized in lieu of this quote.
By placing reporters or other “TV Philosophers” with someone of a greater importance,
the media suggests to the public that the reporter themselves are also
something greater. This strategy results in the misrepresentation of these
reporters as the experts.
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