Proposal for Essay Four

Proposal for Essay Four

                The essay that I have selected for expansion is essay three in which the topic is literacy.  I believe that literacy, reading and writing, is an important skill for everyone to possess because it has many positive benefits. The benefits that a person can experience are financial gain, professional success, and society benefits as well because literate people are more likely to have a higher education and earn a higher income so they are more likely to contribute to society. Educated people are less likely to live in poverty and commit crime. I want to expand the essay to include an article by Central Connecticut State University titled, “Americas’ Most Literate Cities,” it is about study that defines the most literate city and the least literate city in America, it explains what makes a city more literate than another and gives interesting facts about why a city is more literate than another. Another article I want to include is, “Adult Literacy in America”, by National Center for Education Statistics. The article has many facts that will help back up my claim. The articles will help explain why I believe that literacy can benefit society.

Key terms I will use to find additional research:

•  most literate
•  city 
• America 
• adult literacy
• education

Enough about You

P472 Enough about You by Brian Williams

In his article Enough about You, Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News, is worried that people are too busy celebrating themselves to receive the important news that he works hard to report. Williams says “many have been lured away by the dazzling array of choices and the chance to make their own news” .the audience for his work is routinely ten million or more viewers, but it is nothing like it used to be, he works just as hard as his predecessors did at gathering, writing and presenting the day’s news but to a smaller audience because it is now possible for Americans to consume only what they wish to see and hear. There are internet programs that filter out all but the news that people want to hear, and television programs that already agree with their views. He is saying “The general public would be missing out on some great things”, and “there’s a lot of information out there that citizens in an informed democracy need to know”. Williams believes that people are becoming increasingly distracted with concern for themselves, thus becoming less aware of the important events that take place in our world. I agree with Williams in part because I do not own a television, so I do not watch television to receive the information broadcast from stations such as NBC. On the one hand I am missing out on news and current events, but on the other hand I am not exposed to the propaganda and advertising that regular television viewers receive. I prefer to only receive the news and information that I want. Most of the content on television is entertainment, and I do not have much time for entertainment anyway. So in a way I am too busy celebrating myself. My time is better spent with my family and the people I interact with everyday are where I usually receive news and information. People have time to celebrate themselves because they have turned their attention away from the television, people have alternative ways to see and hear news and information not only from nationally broadcast television stations.

Masters of Desire

   Signs of life in the USA, (542) Masters of Desire: The culture of American Advertising. 

         

          Author Jack Solomon describes a contradiction in American society, he writes "The American dream, in other words, has two faces: the one communally egalitarian and the other competitively elitist." I agree with Solomon, people desire to be superior to others and simultaneously desire social equality. He calls the American Dream a "myth" and describes it as having a dual nature. Solomon reads the signs that are in the ads that the advertising industry in America publishes, he analyzes it and how it plays both sides of the field, how it manipulates people, and how it changes the way people behave. It feeds on society's desires of wealth, wildest fantasies, and deepest fears. Advertisers use status symbol and well known personalities to create illusions of happiness or pleasure and society is mesmerized, they can make a poor man feel like a rich man if a certain product is purchased, or fool a woman into believing she can acquire instant beauty when she purchases a product. Americans as consumers are getting what they want, but the results are unequal social rewards. In Solomon’s last paragraph, he states “The success of modern advertising, it penetration into every corner of American life, reflects a culture that has itself, chosen illusion over reality.” For this reason, I do not watch television; I gave it away many years ago. I was sick and tired of seeing fake people and their lame stories and ads interrupted a program every minute or two. The programs that are broadcast on television are illusions that advertisers want society to see. What if society turned its attention away from the television and the broadcasting?