What's Going On?

It's interesting how much people hear about the news from immediate family and friends. I admit I'm guilty of this too; my Mom is an avid political news reader and she tells me the latest every time I talk to her. My friends are not very interested in the news. In fact, I'm the one informing them what's going on.

It's also interesting how many people get their news from comedy shows like Saturday Night Live. I usually think these shows cater to people who are already informed about the news. I guess this is not necessarily true. Interesting.

These are all forms of relatively passive news gathering. People are busy. Outside this class, I'm not following the news as much as I used to because I'm either doing school work or other activities. I may be getting my news passively right now, but when Christmas break comes around I'll be right back to checking the news daily.

Despite what Carr and Hedges believe, the Internet does not appear to be diminishing civic literacy. Rather, the Internet makes finding news and being informed much easier.

I think being informed and alert about politics and events is very important, even if you are not all that interested in politics. Our kind of government, democracy, assumes that citizens will be interested and informed enough to vote for people who will stand for the same principles as the voter. Also, being informed allows people to petition for new laws, protest bad ones, and hold the government accountable when necessary. I sometimes fear that the people in government will pass bad laws and legislation while I'm not paying attention and I would have done nothing to stop it. Thus, being aware of politics and events is significant even if you don't care about, say, party politics in Washington or a Senate race in another state. Besides, if you are aware of politics, then Saturday Night Live, YouTube videos, and other late night comedy sketches are much funnier and more enjoyable. You have access to a vast discourse community.