Arielle's Paragraph

In the excerpt "Regarding the Pain of Others," by Susan Sontag, she claims that "there is no such thing as collective memory, but there is collective instruction." Sontag uses the idea of collectivity to help explain that memories of tragic events such as the Holocaust are not necessarily permanent or important to each person.The reason for this apathy is that each memory is based on the individual and the effect this memory might have on the individual. Consequently, there is a need for direction. Collective instruction encourages people to care and demands for horrific events such as the Holocaust to be remembered, without any excuses. Commemoration is one method of forcing people to learn about historical tragedies. Therefore, museums such as the Israeli Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, purposefully designed the museum in an architectural manner which forces each visitor to pass through each exhibit and stimulates introspection amongst all. Memorialization methods, such as the layout of Yad Vashem, promote awareness and activism. Other commemorative ways, such as representation in the media and photographs, help with the progression of history, and ensure that there are constant reminders of the past that help shape our future. Archives  and memorials are crucial in aiding everyone to identify with the tragedy.

Andrea Varnava-Introduction

Through out history people’s obsession with disaster exploits affected families for their own entertainment and gain. After major disasters occur many movies are made and these movies soon become apart of history and this is what people remember. In these films the major disasters are down played while there are smaller fictional sections that become the main focus in the story. Therefore undermining the importance of the event that actually occurred. Now a few major questions are, are these movies appropriate? Do the people writing these movies take into consideration the people that were affected? And how do these movies affect themselves and the public? Does it affect anybody at all? In this paper I will research and discuss a variety of things like the way movies undermine the importance of a major disaster by creating smaller fictional sections and making them focal parts in movies. Another will be the writers connection with the event; do they have any or is it just because they want to make a good movie that make profit? And lastly how do they affect the families and what are the pros and cons between movies and documentaries.

Melissa's Introduction

On April 16th, 2007, a gunman shot a killed 32 students and faculty at the Virginia Tech University then killed himself. In the National Ledger on April 17th, 2007, journalist Jon Shanks wrote an article revealing the identity of the gunman, “Virginia Tech University officials have identified an undergraduate student from South Korea as the gunman who shot and killed at least 30 students and professors on Monday. Police identified the classroom shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior from South Korea who was in the English department at Virginia Tech and lived in a different dorm on campus.” According to Susan Sontag in Regarding the pain of others, “American prefer to picture that evil was there and from which the United States … is exempt.” The way the identity of the Virginia Tech University shooter was revealed, by constantly repeating that he is South Korean, it seems like they are saying that because Cho Seung-Hui was South Korean had something to do with why he killed 30 people. Americans like to believe that this country is better and do not have problems. In this example we could see that by labeling the gunman as South Korean, the Americans feel that they did not cause such a tragic event, that they had nothing to do with it, it was not an American but a South Korean that caused so much grieve. The Americans constantly blame others when a tragic event occurs so that they can still feel that they are better and they do not have problems.

Elizabeth John Introduction

When the death of an important individual occurs the media plays a significant role in how the death of this individual is reported to its viewers. The media portrays these stories with key missing information, and stories with something interesting about the story itself with a certain emphasis on the story because of its uniqueness or lack of details. Two examples of reports that are incomplete and unique is the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and the unfortunate drug overdose of Heath Ledger both of these stories contain skeptical details on the cause of their deaths. By comparing CNN.com and FowNews.com this paper will examine the reporting of these two tradgic stories. There is a certain phenomena that occurs when media reports are released about the death of an important individual, the story evolves around the events of what happened in the person's last minutes alive, and how the person passed, these are key questions that need to be answered by the media because as a viewer when a death occurs these questions are of interest, and the media is a basic source to recieve this information from, and when the media cannot produce the details they become obsessed with the missing information since they are not reporting the whole story to the public.

zhi yang: introduction

Have you been aware of the fact that when a mass killing is brought to the conversation, you actually only remember the names of the ruthless killers other than that of the victim? Isn’t it weird that you have vivid images of the murderers but fail to recall those of the victims? As supposed, our moral won’t allow such villains store in our mind for such a long time. They appear to be erased by the passage of the time. However, that doesn’t apply to the reality. In the real world, we seem to be stuck by all the stuff associated with the killers. Never mind the victims; they tend to be forgotten in our memory. What on earth is happening to our mind? Are we brain-washed or something like that? Let’s not rush to find the answers. Just have a second to think about how these horrible accidents come to our mind in the first place. Yes, it is the newspaper. Newspaper plays a prominent role in our daily life. It strongly affect the way how we view this world. Yet the point is that of the newspaper’s excessive coverage of the killers. The newspaper tends to cover much more about the killers than the victim and his family. In other words, the newspaper pays primary attention to the killers other than the victim. That can be partially understood as to satisfy reader’s curiosity. Moreover, newspaper appears to escape their responsibility to report those victims who need help and support, which can be resulted from their difficulty to find the victim or victim’s refusal to cooperate with them. The excessive report of the killers can have an adverse effect on the teenagers. The teenagers might consider it’s a cool thing to kill people. They can get famous by slaughtering people. In addition, the insufficient report of the victim does not raise the social mood to have sympathy for the victim or to awake general’s conscious to blame the killers.

Magdalena's introduction

Can you imagine how cold it is in Syberia? It is one of the coldest places in the world. It is really hard to survive there in a normal condition in a warm house with a fireplace. It is hard to imagine how people were working there , outside during WW2. The concentraton camps which were functioning during WW2 were set up by the Russians and Germans. The Russian ones are unknown for many reasons. First of all there are not so many books about this and most people are confused about the camps. People don't get into Russian history because it is a very poor country and is not able to pay off to the victims families. People tend to think that WW2 was about Jewish suffering and the don't pay attention to other things in history. the truth is that The Jewish people were the first in line in German camps but right after that were the Slavic, Gyspies ans so on. The same thing was with the Russian camps. Germany and Russia were speeding up and were pulling everyone to the camps. I think now both countries have attachments; Germany=WW2, Russia=Communism. The misunderstandings about the camps are connected to the political system. During history my mother didn't learn about Russia invading Poland in 1939 because the teacher had to say that the Russians were good.

Magdalena's outline

People usually know a lot about concentration camps made by the Germanns but they know nothing about the Russian camps. The truth is that the Russian camps also killed a lot of Jewish people and others. The Russian camps are not in history book that much. This could be only one of the reasons why they are so unknown. Russia is a very poor country so people think it is not important to mention this. German camps are described in more detail and cruelty in almost every book of history. People can go to Poland and view the actual place of the tragedy which is Aushwitz -Birkenau. People don't go to Russia to view the camps. Russian camps are not clear and the murders were discovered after so many years after WW 2.

Russian camps are mysterious and the murders were discovered so many years after the war. In Katyn, Russians killed 10,000 of Polish officers and others. This was presented 65 years after the war. People worked in very bad conditions and had to amputate parts of their bodies to survive.The book called '' History of Poland, God's playground'' written by English writer Norman Davies explains the conditions.
Not so many people know that Both Germans and Russians attacked Poland in 1939 . It was only two weeks of difference between the German ocupans and the Russian. Usually man were in the Russian camps but German had everyone in it.
''The Jewish people on the way to gas chambers were impatient and didn't know where they were going so the Germans said to calm them down'' You are just going to take a bath''. This is what my own teacher in Poland told us in fifth grade of elementary.

The book by Davies describes some interviews with real Gestapo and SS. It describes the typical life of the prisoner.
Sources ; God's playground- Norman Davies.
The Pianist, also the movie Katyn nominated to Oscar.

Golda Markowitz- Introduction

“Two hundred fifty million dollars given by the federal government to a state in response to a tragedy” might arouse many different assumptions about the government's way of responding. Such a case occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in response to the bridge collapse that occurred there. The public responses to tragic events often correlate with the magnitude of the attention they receive in the media, which in turn is greatly influenced by the socio-economic classes of the victims of the tragedy. For instance, due to the fact that Minneapolis is a wealthy, upper class area, it attracted major aid from the government and the public in response to the bridge collapse that occurred there.

Elizabeth John Outline

I. Introduction
a. Subject of Essay: This essay will discuss the phenomena of how the media portrays stories with key missing information about the story, a unique story that has something interesting about the story itself, and how twenty four hour news channels are always demanding more information and when it is not there, the channel needs something to talk about so they obsess over certain details of a story.
b. Argument: (2 or 3 sentences)
Thesis: There is a certain phenomena that occurs when media reports are released about the death of an important individual, the story evolves around the events of what happened in the person's last minutes alive, and how the person passed, these are key questions that need to be answered by the media because as a viewer when a death occurs these questions are of interest, and the media is a basic source to recieve this information from, and when the media cannot produce the details they become obsessed with the missing information since they are not reporting the whole story to the public.

As a story progresses through the media the story evolves and changes. There are certain details that are skeptical because of missing or insufficient evidence. The media becomes obsessed with the missing or uncertain information because they are not reporting the whole story to the public, or there is a phenomena about the story itself, and twenty four hour news channels demand more news and when there is nothing to report about they find something to obsess about.
c. Method by which this paper will prove that argument: This paper will compare how CNN.com and FoxNews.com reported the assasination of Benazir Bhutto and the unfortunate death Heath Ledger.
II. Body
a. Paragraph 1: (state the overall point in a complete sentence.)
When a media report is released about the death of an important individual, there are important questions that need to be answered in regards to how the person passed and there last seconds alive. When the evidence is not recovered right away to answer these key questions or is skeptical information the media becomes obsessed with the story and the missing information.
i. Evidence for that point: (generally, this will be a cited quote from your research and an explanation of its relevance)
When the report on the Assasination of Benazir Bhutto was released by CNN it read "Conflicting reports about what caused the death of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto are fueling questions about the circumstances of her assassination."(CNN.com). For example "An Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, said Bhutto "fell down or perhaps ducked" and apparently hit her head on a lever connected to the car's sunroof. Cheema added that the lever was stained with blood." Then "Cheema's version of events conflicts with that of the government-run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan, which at first quoted the Interior Ministry as saying shrapnel from the bomb blast killed Bhutto. The suicide bomb killed more than 20 others, and at least 100 were wounded." Lastly "On Thursday, an initial report from the Interior Ministry said Bhutto died of a gunshot wound to the neck. Bhutto's death did not result from a bullet or shrapnel, Cheema said, and nothing entered her head.
ii. (If needed, further evidence for the point)
As in the death of Heath Ledger the intial reports released by CNN read "Actor Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday of a possible drug overdose in a Lower Manhattan apartment, the New York Police Department said. The Academy Award-nominated actor was 28.
Ledger was found naked and unresponsive, facedown on the floor at the foot of his bed by a housekeeper trying to wake him for an appointment with a masseuse, said police spokesman Paul Browne.
"Pills were found in the vicinity of the bed," he told CNN.
"This is being looked at as a possible overdose, but that is not confirmed yet." CNN becomes obsessed with skeptical details of the person passed.
b. Paragraph 2: (Repeat format of II (a), as necessary) (state the overall point in a complete sentence.)
As in the deaths of Benazir Bhutto and Heath Ledger FoxNews also reported the stories of these two individuals. Fox News reported the same confusions with how these individauls died and did not stop until the official cause of death was accepted.
i. Evidence for that point: (generally, this will be a cited quote from your research and an explanation of its relevance)
"Bhutto was killed Thursday when a suicide attacker shot at her and then blew himself up as she left a rally in Rawalpindi. Authorities initially said she died from bullet wounds, and a surgeon who treated her said she died from the impact of shrapnel on her skull.
But Cheema said she was killed when she tried to duck back into the vehicle, and the shock waves from the blast smashed her head into a lever attached to the sunroof, fracturing her skull, he said.
Cheema said Pakistani security forces would hunt down those responsible for her death: "They will definitely be brought to justice."
He said other senior politicians were also under threat of militant attack, including former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who promised to boycott parliamentary elections on Jan. 8 in response to Bhutto's assassination.
ii. (If needed, further evidence for the point)
"The doctors — one in California, one in Texas — are believed to have supplied the "Brokeback Mountain" star with the painkillers Oxycontin and Vicodin, law enforcement sources said. Authorities want to know if the drugs were prescribed illegally.
"It's an ongoing investigation," a law enforcement source told The News Tuesday. "It's not clear if there was any wrongdoing."
The New York City medical examiner ruled Ledger, 28, died on Jan. 22 of an accidental overdose of six prescription drugs, including the two painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has subpoenaed the medical examiner's findings as part of its probe into the doctors, the sources said.
People magazine claimed to have confirmed the Daily News' report.
"We are investigating doctors in Los Angeles and Texas with regard to Ledger’s prescriptions," a source told People."
III. Conclusion
a. Summary of Supporting Information: (2 or 3 sentences)
From the information supplied it is concluded that important media reports initially contain details about the death of an important individual, but the cause of death may not be accurate as in the case of Benazir Bhutto because of the lack of evidence. Therefore the media becomes obsessed with the causes of death because of their uncertainty due to insufficient evidence and different explanations in the possible reasons and ways of their death. The media then reports and reports the story and different versions of how the death occured unitl a conclusion is reached.
b. Conclusion Reached:
Media reports want to tell the full and truthful story of a celebrity death and will not come to a hault until the full details are released because of the public's concern and interest in celebrities.

Jessica's Introduction

Media's presence in our daily lives is very important and crucial as it connects us everywhere around the world without stepping a foot outside our countries, cities, town's, neighborhoods, or even our homes. It is a reliable source of information found and passed on to the viewer with a truth to every story whether it may be altered a bit. Still an average person can see through all the theories, exaggerations, alternations, and added information and can grab the basic input of the story. Sources of media make our lives much easier as it can connect us around the world, provide us with knowledge, pass around helpful tips and precautions, help us prepare our day, and saves our time by providing substantial amount of information in the least amount of time. Media sources helping important situations to be encountered and dealt with can be added to the lists of media's importance in our society. It can be claimed that Media cares more about helping with issues than any other person or group elsewhere. Examples of media's standing and hold on each important issue can be determined and demonstrated by references of the Tsunami in Southeast Asia case where various sources of media's input of the story will be presented from Newspapers to the Internet and from the television to Photographs.

Rena Adler- Introduction

Although newspapers such as The New York Times argue that their portrayal of news is accurate, “in a world of second opinions, get the facts first”, in reality newspapers are politically slanted and display differing points of view to meet their readers needs. As illustrated by Davidson and Lytle in Where Trouble Comes, even when regarding a news story, “the report of the morning’s story becomes distorted, not only by height but by distance…” The above assertion can clearly be seen through news coverage by The New York Times, New York Post and The Guardian regarding the tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Nikita 's first paragraph

Media has become a larger truth then truth itself. All kind of people have faith and trust in media; therefore, media companies take advantage. Television and news channels reporters have learned to play with issues, such as victims of disasters are shown has they were given proper care and help; however, these reporters forget to demonstrate the truth. Tsunami victims are left behind to rebuild their lost lives, while many media companies show that billions were given to these victims. Yet their houses remain in ruble and smashed pieces. Many newspapers such as New York Times reveal that first there is no warning system, and then it shows that people are living in ruble. Some people still searching for their loved ones; while there no clear evident that aid was given direct to victims, but many videos display that Red Cross and private help was given to victims. The media figures are so corrupted, yet they explain to society that the information they disclosing is true. Why isn’t anyone there to question them and ask for proof? Is there limit to stop this media plaque? The larger issue then is we violating their right to freedom of speech? While victims of hurricanes and tsunami are trying to survive.

3.30.08

At a parade today with my son, saw this van, which puts the World Trade Center into an odd context.

Insia Saleh - First Paragraph (Introduction)

The media is an intricate part of the society, intertwined with the practice of democracy with huge extent influences public opinion. In today’s modern day society, media plays a very important and powerful role. Media can make or break the society. It is truly said, “The pen is mightier than the sword” i.e. words are more powerful and effective than weapons. And this is what media takes advantage of---advantage of their writing. It is almost like having a war in their writing. But in this modern era, media is facing fierce competitions in their own world and as such always reports incidents dramatically and sometimes even in sleazier way to attract the viewer ship. I believe that media also sometimes gets biased and shows only one sided story, pushing a viewpoint, instead of reporting news in an objective way. They exaggerate certain irrelevant stories while ignoring some of the important parts and give little thought to the ramifications and consequences behind an eye-catching coverage of the story. The way of their reporting the facts is as such that people get a false impression for the sake of a good story. In order to get good ratings and to get rich, media is often held in a similar level regard, like politicians, in blaming other kinds media like violent movies, video games and music. But they always fall back on the mantle of public interest just to get fame. In this essay, I would like to draw attention towards what media is showing and what it is ignoring and also what can be done to prevent media from doing such things and as such affecting the society as a whole. I would like to give some examples from the newspapers about how media is throwing its bombshells on public.

3.27.08

If all goes well, you'll have my comments on your outline here by the end of the weekend, so if you haven't posted that you'll miss out. In addition, write the first paragraph of your essay and post it here, thinking about the elements we discussed in class:

1. captivate the audience
2. establish the subject/argument
3. establish your authorit
4. establish thesis (optional)
5. establish/describe the method by which the paper will prove its point.

In addition to posting that first paragraph, try to find what I was calling an appropriated image: an image in which an iconic image is placed into a new setting, such as the Abu Gharib children's halloween costume, or those that I've posted here. See what you can come up with, and bring a copy to class monday.

Arielle's Outline

EN 110

Spring 2008

Henkle

 

The Outline

 

The outline will follow the traditional format, and will display your paper from beginning to end.   These should all be full sentences.  The outline must follow this format: 

 

I.                Introduction

a.     Subject of Essay: Representation of the Holocaust in Society and its’ impact on the Individual

b.     Argument: 

In the excerpt "Regarding the Pain of Others," by Susan Sontag, she claims that "there is no such thing as collective memory, but there is collective instruction." Sontag uses the idea of collectivity to help explain that memories of tragic events such as the Holocaust are not necessarily permanent or important to each person.

c.     Method by which this paper will prove that argument:

The reason for this apathy is that each memory is based on the individual and the effect this memory might have on the individual. Consequently, there is a need for direction. Collective instruction encourages people to care and demands for horrific events such as the Holocaust to be remembered, without any excuses. Commemoration is one method of forcing people to learn about historical tragedies. Therefore, museums such as the Israeli Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, purposefully designed the museum in an architectural manner which forces each visitor to pass through each exhibit and stimulates introspection amongst all. Memorialization methods, such as the layout of Yad Vashem, promote awareness and activism. Other commemorative ways, such as representation in the media and photographs, help with the progression of history, and ensure that there are constant reminders of the past that help shape our future. Archives  and memorials are crucial in aiding everyone to identify with the tragedy.

II.             Body

a.     Paragraph 1: (state the overall point in a complete sentence.)

People tend to have difficulties in accepting tragedy as “habituation is not automatic, for images (portable, insertable) obey different rules than real life” (P653)

Evidence:

People require evidence in order to believe something. People are not prone to just believe things without having a photograph or video to substantiate them. Just imagine reading an article online about a nuclear bomb going off in china without any proof. The reader would just dismiss such a notion as hersesay. However, if images or even a video were presented (even if it was fake) the individual would be more susceptible to believing the event took place. It is only after the photographic evidence is presented that the individual can decide if they are moved by the event. It is for that reason that it is imperative to maintain the concentration camps. It would be difficult for any individual to fathom that such atrocities could have taken place in our modern civilization. However, when individuals visit the camps they are overcome with emotion, when they see the beautification present after such an atrocity.

Quote: “indeed, the very notion of atrocity, of war crime, is associated with the expectation of photographed evidence”

President Roosevelt understood the importance of the evidence, and it is thanks to him, as well as the Nazis, that pictures were taken of the victims and of the camps during the war.

The significance of representation in society as it applies to photography is one in which

Paragraph 2: (Repeat format of II (a), as necessary)

Photographs are also able to evoke certain memories of other tragedies.

“It was inevitable that the photographs of emaciated Bosnian prisoners, at Omaska, the Serb death camp created in northern Bosnia in 1992, would recall memories of the memories of the photographs taken in the Nazi death camps in 1945” (654).

Moreover, “photographs of atrocity illustrate as well as corroborate.”

“The familiarity of certain photographs builds our sense of the present and immediate past” (654).

“Photographs help construct-and revise-our sense of a more distant past, with the posthumous shocks engineered by the circulation of hitherto unknown photographs” (654).

“All memory is individual, unreproducible-it dies with each person” (654).

“Photographs of the suffering and martyrdom of a people are more than reminders of death, of failure, of victimization. They invoke the miracle of survival” (654).

 

III.           Conclusion

a.     Summary of Supporting Information: Photographs are crucial in sparking emotions in individuals. With regards to the tragedy of the Holocaust, photographs aid the viewer in identifying with the event that took place. For this reason, museums, such as Yad –Vashem serve as an important function  in the memorialization process.

b.     Conclusion Reached:  Accurate representation of a tragedy is extremely significant in helping observers relate to the event. Photographs, archives, television footage, and other media tactics enlighten each individual, and hope to evoke emotion and awareness, encouraging people to contribute and realize that there are atrocities are ubiquitous.

 

 

Andrea Varnava-Outline

Outline

I) Introduction:

a) Through out history people’s obsession with disaster exploits affected families for their own entertainment and gain. After major disasters occur many movies are made and these movies soon become apart of history and this is what people remember. In these films the major disasters are down played while there are smaller fictional sections that become the main focus in the story. Therefore undermining the importance of the event that actually occurred.

b) I have a few things I would like to research and discuss. One would be the way movie undermine the importance of a major disaster by creating a smaller fictional section making them a focal parts of the movies. Another would be writers connection with the event; do they have any or is it just because they want to make a good movie that make profit? The last two are how do they affect the families and what are the pros and cons between movies and documentaries

c) I will prove these arguments by researching different types of movies made with major disasters and compare and contrast how they are portrayed. Two examples of movies would be

Ø Pearl Harbor

Ø World Trade Center

II) Body:

a) Discussing in dept my first argument of movies undermining the importance of the event with fictional sections

b) My second; do writers have connections to the events or are they using the peoples emotions to get a profit.

c) The effect movies have on people either w connections or not

d) Documentaries and movies

III) Conclusion:

Come up with an answer on why people are so obsessed with movies and disaster

Golda Markowitz- Outline

I. Introduction

a. The public and government responses to tragic events correlate according to the socio- economic classes of the victims of the tragedy.

b. The public responses to tragic events often correlate with the magnitude of the attention they receive in the media, which in turn is greatly influenced by the socio-economic classes of the victims of the tragedy. For instance, due to the fact that Minneapolis is a wealthy, upper class area, it attracted major aid from the government and the public in response to the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota

c. The New York Times, Minneapolis City of Lakes, and Minneapolis City Radio all mention the responses that the public and government gave to the event. For example, Minneapolis City of Lakes newspaper mentions in one of their articles that on August 15, 2007: “In his first speech to the City Council since the I-35W Bridge collapse, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak today said that the City’s response to the disaster showcased Minneapolis’ significant investments and planning in public safety and emergency preparedness over the last five years.” So it is shown that due to the fact that Minneapolis is such a wealthy upper class area, it attracted major aid from the government and public in response.

II. Body

a. Favoritism to wealthy areas such as Minneapolis is shown by the fact that there has been continued cooperation between all levels of government to build a new I-35W Bridge and make necessary investments in public infrastructure in the state.
i. The Minneapolis City of Lakes quoted: “The best way to show respect for those lost on the 35W Bridge is to make the tough decisions that lie ahead with dignity, sustained compassion and continued cooperation,” Rybak said. “We should remember a lesson from this tragedy: when you invest in quality government you get quality results; when you don’t invest, there are consequences.”
ii. The New York Times said that: “The state’s congressional delegation was pressing leadership in both chambers to fast-track the bill (HR 3311), which would authorize the government to give the state as much as $250 million to reconstruct the bridge and relieve congestion until it is rebuilt.”

b. However it is easy to argue and say that not all favor the socio-economic classes.
i. Minneapolis City Radio said that “Gov. Tim Pawlenty is contemplating extra aid for the worst-hurt bridge collapse victims. Pawlenty told The Associated Press on Monday that he still supports a $400,000 limit on compensation for individual victims of the Interstate 35W bridge disaster. That's the approach endorsed by the Minnesota Senate last week.”

III. Conclusion

a. From examining the responses that came about after the bridge collapse in Minnesota, one might assume that the government and the public tend to cater more to the socio-economic classes. However one can argue and say that this is not true, as shown for instance by the New York Times.

b. Although one might say that the government and the public don’t favor the victims of a tragedy from a wealthier area, it is still tempting and clear to say that major aid is attracted more to such areas. As an effect from this, the magnitude of the attention they receive in the media plays a big factor in the public responses that occur to tragic events.

COLTON HELLER: THESISSSS

There is a basic confusion in the minds of American people as to the difference between fear and respect accounting for their attraction to mobsters. There is a sense in which mobsters think they are respected and trusted by everyone, but in the sense of reality that they are really feared. They have a sense of money, but it doesn’t get saved and invested, it gets spent on cars, bars, and women. Also, mobsters think they are invincible, but in reality, they mostly get caught and spend little or much time in jail. Mobsters such as Capone, Gotti, and Luciano were created into ideal figures of society and viewed as powerful, but never the less were they, because the reality contradicts the illusion of the mobster lifestyle.

Melissa's Outline

Introduction

a) Americans like to believe that evil was there and not in America, therefore blaming others for tragic events.

b) Americans like to believe that this country is better and do not have problems and in tragic events, Americans distinguish the person that’s related to the event from Americans. As in the Virginia Tech event, the media, for example BBC News, The New York Times and The National Ledger referred to the shooter as, Cho as the South Korean.

c) This could be seen in the New York Times and New York Post after the Virginia Tech event. On April 18th, 2007, in the New York Times, Jennifer Steinhauer wrote in the article Korean-Americans Brace for Problems in Wake of Killings “Across the nation, Koreans have braced for harassment in the wake of the Monday shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus that left 33 dead, including Cho Seung-Hui, the South Korean-born gunman.” In addition, according to Susan Sontag in Regarding the pain of others, “American prefer to picture that evil was there and from which the United States - a unique nation, one without any certifiably wicked leaders throughout its entire history - is exempt."


Body

a) In tragic events, Americans distinguish the person that’s related to the event from Americans.

i) On the BBC News on April 17th, 2007, the identity of the Virginia Tech shooter was revealed, “Police have named a student who shot dead at least 30 people at a US university on Monday as Cho Seung-hui, a 23-year-old South Korean.” The media emphasis on that he was South Korean as if the fact he was South Korean had influenced what he did. In the same article, the mention again that he was South Korean and migrated to the United States at the age of 8 with his family.

ii) In the National Ledger on April 17th, 2007, in the article by Jon Shanks, “Virginia Tech University officials have identified an undergraduate student from South Korea as the gunman who shot and killed at least 30 students and professors on Monday. Police identified the classroom shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior from South Korea who was in the English department at Virginia Tech and lived in a different dorm on campus.” This shows that not only one media distinguished Cho Seung-Hui from Americans.

b) Distinguishing the Americans from other Citizens that have been involved in tragic events causes discrimination. On Sept. 06th, 2006, an article in ABC News states “Five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Muslims and Arab Americans say they still feel the sting of discrimination and fear in America.” This article shows that because a few Arabs caused a very tragic event the Americans discriminate against all Arabs.



Conclusion

a) Americans like to distinguish themselves from others when a tragic event has occurred, so that they can have someone else to blame for the event. This could be seen in the way the media reports the event.

b) The media needs to stop reporting events in a basis way that tends to distinguish Americans from other Citizens that causes the Americans to blame someone else when a tragic event has occurred so that people can have the actual events and see what can be done instead of playing the blame game.