"The Tea Party & the Politics of Insecurity"

            Professor Andrew Rojecki gave a lecture on “The Tea Party & the Politics of Insecurity”. Professor Rojecki studies political discourse and its origins and effect; how it makes us think. He also focuses on globalization. At the beginning of his lecture he right away proved that the youth are not interested in the news by taking a quick survey. He also engaged the class by asking them about their worries after college and most said finding a job. He tied that into globalization, the Tea Party, social security, and much more giving a simplified background of each.

            If I was sitting in Professor Rojecki’s lecture, I would have been one of the students who raise their hands for not keeping up with the news. As much as I tell myself to read the news, I steer away from doing that because of the other media that is available to us. While waiting around, instead of going on the news app, I choose to go on facebook app. I don’t read the news unless I know that I am personally effected by it. When I do read it, I can sense the bias and the opinions that are put into these news article by these journalists. I have always been a strong believer of following by own lead and having my own opinions. When I see these articles that are steering me in a certain direction, I get very irritated and stop reading. I know this doesn’t give a good reason to not keep up with the news but there need to be better sources out there that can present news in an effective way.  Because of my beliefs I am creating a veil of ignorance. I want get rid of all the bias on certain topics and I can do this by looking into other news sources. That will require more time for me but atleast that way I will be up to date with the news.

            News today has been very socialized. Articles are published for entertainment. This can be a good thing but it tarnished the newsworthiness of the article. I can relate this to when we talked about the cultural gate keepers in our society. Who is responsible for forming are standards and beliefs. When I hear political news, I always think to myself is it ethical for politicians to make all these promises to the public, when they know that they can’t be fulfilled. Sure freedom of speech and press are always here for individuals but is right for influential people to cross this ethical line?

            From Professor Rojecki’s lecture I realized that I have not been keeping up with the news. Sure I knew what he was talking about but I had no personal input that I could put. Even though I am not a huge fan of politics, I realized that even the little changes effect the me and the people around me.