This week we are suppose to explore the idea of fear and how the media can dictate and manipulate us with different topic focuses and literary devices. This is an exert from the chapters we have been reading about fear. 

"Watch enough brutality on TV and you come to believe you are living in a cruel and gloomy
 world in which you feel vulnerable and insecure. In his research over three decades Gerbner found that people who watch a lot of TV are more likely than others to believe their neighborhoods are unsafe, to assume that crime rates are rising, and to overestimate their own odds of becoming a victim. They also buy more locks, alarms, and- you guessed it- guns, in hopes of protecting themselves. 'They may accept and even welcome,' Gerbner reports, 'repressive measures such as more jails, capital punishment, harsher sentences- measures that have never reduced crime but never fail to get votes- if that promises to relieve their anxieties. That is the deeper dilemma of violence-laden television.'"

I believe that there are many industries out there that are benefiting from the news's priories to focus on topics that cause irrational fears. Guns, locks and alarms are obviously selling fast so that might be an influencer of why these topics are being promoted so much. 

Other than benefitting those few industries and the news getting more views, this over saturation of news on random topics like razor blades helps no one. 

The short story we read this week I believe was a perfect metaphor and really interesting. It talks about how this society was perfect but in order for them to be happy and live in this Utopia, they had to let this child suffer. Everyone was so afraid of what would happen if they helped this child but ruined their society that they didn't even help him. The brave ones who saw this injustice and were brave enough to do something about it, left and went somewhere even better. I felt like this were an awesome metaphor to the gated community idea of the "other" and that this child in the broom closet is an "other" so we are fine with him suffering, but if we could all see this wrong doing, our society as a whole would be a lot better. 

~Sahale