Television the Drug of a Nation

some words

to breed

apathetic

to pump out

remedy

a special

to abhor

to take precedence over

commercials

spotless

wet nurse

One Nation under God

has turned into
One Nation under the influence
of one drug

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V., it satellite links
our United States of _____________
Apathetic therapeutic and extremely ____________
the methadone metronome pumping out
a 150 channels 24 hours a day
you can _______ through all of them
and still there's nothing worth watching

T.V. is the reason why ________ than ten percent of our
Nation reads books daily
Why most people think Central America
means _________
Socialism means ____________
and __________ is a new headache remedy

absorbed in it's world it's so hard to find us
It shapes our minds the most
maybe the _________ of our Nation
should remind us
that we're sitting ____ close to. . .

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V. is
the stomping ground for political ___________
Where bears in the woods
are chased by Grecian Formula'd
bald eagles

T.V. is ___________ politics

remote control over the _________
co-sponsored by environmentally safe ________
watch for the PBS special

It's the _____________ of the two party system
where image takes precedence over __________
Where _____  _______ politics are served to
the fast-food culture

Where straight teeth in your mouth
are more important than the _______
that come out of it
Race ________ is the way to get selected
Willie Horton or
Will he not get elected on . . .

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

T.V. is it the _____________ or the director?
Does it imitate us or do we __________ it
Because a child watches 1500 murders before he's
twelve years old and we wonder how we've created
a Jason ____________ that learns to laugh
rather than abhor the __________

T.V. is the place where
____________ generals and quarterbacks can
experience first hand
the excitement of video __________
as the theme song is sung in the _____________

Sugar sweet sitcoms
that leave us with a bad actor taste while
pop stars _______________ into soda pop stars
You saw the video
You heard the soundtrack
Well now go buy the soft drink
Well, the only cola that I support
would be a union C.O.L.A. (Cost of Living Allowance)
On Television.

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation

Back again, "New and Improved",
we return to our irregularly programmed __________
hidden ___________ between heavy breasted
beer and car commercials

CNN ESPN ABC TNT but mostly B.S.
Where ____________ language like
"virtually spotless" "fresh frozen"
"light yet filling" and "military intelligence"
have become ___________

T.V. is the place where phrases are ____________
like "recession" to "necessary ___________"
"crude oil" on a beach to "mousse"
"Civilian death" to "collateral damages"
and being killed by your own Army
is now called "__________ fire"

T.V. is the place where the _________
of happiness has become the pursuit of _________
Where toothpaste and cars have become sex objects
Where ____________ is sucked out of children
by a cathode ray nipple
T.V. is the only wet nurse
that would create a _________

Television, the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
On Television . . .

Television

Features of the language

Find examples of 

Euphemism

Metaphor

Oxymoron

Consonance

Assonance

Rhyme

Allusion

Repetition

Acronyms

Phrasal verbs

Punning or double meaning

Slogan-esque language

Chomsky's 5 Filters

According to American linguist and political activist, Noam Chomsky, media operate through 5 filters: ownership, advertising, the media elite, flak and the common enemy.

Watch:

Chomsky's 5 Filters


Write some notes about each of the five filters:

Listen

Do you agree with the points below?

In what order are the points made in the video?

The owners of the media corporations make money by attracting audiences and then selling advertisers the opportunity to engage those audiences.

In the end the owners of the media care more about money than the public good.

To have influence in the media you have to have friends in high places.

The media likes to have a villain – someone everyone agrees is dangerous.

If you say anything that challenges the convenient story, you’ll find yourself being isolated.

In the end the owners of the media care more about money than the public good.

The owners of the media corporations make money by attracting audiences and then selling advertisers the opportunity to engage those audiences.

To have influence in the media you have to have friends in high places.

If you say anything that challenges the convenient story, you’ll find yourself being isolated.

The media likes to have a villain – someone everyone agrees is dangerous.

1. ownership




2. advertising




3.the media elite




4. flak




5. the common enemy

Discuss

1. What does it mean to manufacture the public’s consent? 

2. Is there a difference between consent and consensus?

Vocab

What do these phrases mean?

to stray away (from) 

the powers that be 

discrediting 

boogie man 

to corral 

take second place 

complicity 

media scoops 

to fall in line 

through the lens 

co-authored 

to act as a check 

conglomerates 

end game 

in bed with each other 

whistle blowers 

In groups try to remember what order these phrases were used.

Listen once more, and check the order.


Script

1 OWNERSHIP
The first filter has to do with ownership. Mass media firms are big corporations. Often, they are part of even bigger conglomerates. Their end game? Profit. And so it’s in their interests to push for whatever guarantees that profit. Naturally, critical journalism must take second place to the needs and interests of the corporation.

2 ADVERTISINGThe second filter exposes the real role of advertising. Media costs a lot more than consumers will ever pay. So who fills the gap? Advertisers. And what are the advertisers paying for? Audiences. And so it isn’t so much that the media are selling you a product — their output. They are also selling advertisers a product — YOU.”

3 THE MEDIA ELITE
The establishment manages the media through the third filter. Journalism cannot be a check on power because the very system encourages complicity. Governments, corporations, big institutions know how to play the media game. They know how to influence the news narrative. They feed media scoops, official accounts, interviews with the ‘experts’. They make themselves crucial to the process of journalism. So, those in power and those who report on them are in bed with each other.

4 FLAK 

If you want to challenge power, you’ll be pushed to the margins. When the media – journalists, whistleblowers, sources – stray away from the consensus, they get ‘flak’. This is the fourth filter. When the story is inconvenient for the powers that be, you’ll see the flak machine in action discrediting sources, trashing stories and diverting the conversation.

5 THE COMMON ENEMY
To manufacture consent, you need an enemy — a target. That common enemy is the fifth filter. Communism. Terrorists. Immigrants. A common enemy, a bogeyman to fear, helps corral public opinion.

Vocab review

Lamb to the slaughter

She stepped back a pace, waiting, and the funny thing was that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds, gently swaying. Then he crashed to the carpet. The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped bring her out of the shock. 

Beginning middle or end of the story?

Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come home from work. Now and again she would glance up at the clock, but without anxiety, merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by made it nearer the time when he would come.

Beginning middle or end of the story?

a.     Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all. It occurred to her that perhaps he hadn’t even spoken, that she herself had imagined the whole thing.

 

 

b.     She watched him as he began to sip the dark yellow drink.

 

 

c.      After a while, the photographer and the doctor departed and two other men came in and took the corpse away on a stretcher.

 

 

d.     ‘This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I’m afraid,’ he said. 

 

 

e.      Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come home from work.

 

 

f.      Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven. It’ll be cooked just right by now.

 

 

g.     She stepped back a pace, waiting, and the funny thing was that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds, gently swaying.

 

 

h.     Both the smile and the voice were coming out better now. She rehearsed it several times more.

 

 

i.      The car came very quickly, and when she opened the front door, two policemen walked in.

In exactly thirty words

 Say it in exactly thirty words

What is a lake?

What happened to you last week?

How do aeroplanes fly?

What is a good friend?

How do misunderstandings arise between friends?

What is the difference between mud and soil?

What makes you unique?

Why do people get angry?

Why do we have hands?

What is an ant?

What is a question?

Is it better to sleep on the right or left side of the bed, and why?

What does confusion feel like?

Which is better - chocolate cake or lemon cake? Why?

What makes someone educated?

How many feelings are there?

Why is colour important?

What is the best kind of haircut for you?

In what situation is it best not to think deeply?

Where are we exactly?

How much money is Mount Everest worth?

How would you be different if you had been born in 1950?

What happened in 2020?

What do you know about me?

What is a frog?

What is the universe?

Where are your family right now?

Describe a triangle

Describe a horse

Describe a robot

Describe a radio station

Describe an airport

Describe the Covid pandemic

Describe an alien

Changes

 

Changes

Bowie

 

I still don't _______ _______ I was looking for
And my ______ was running wild
A million dead-end ________
Every time I thought I'd got it ______
It seemed the taste was ____ so sweet
So I turned myself to ______ me
But I've never caught a _________
Of how the ________ must see the faker
I'm much too fast to _______ that test

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the stranger)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't want to be a richer one
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the stranger)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different one
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

I watch the ________ change their size
But never leave the _______
Of _______ impermanence
So the days _______ through my eyes
But still the ______ seem the same
And these _______ that you spit on
As they try to change their _________
Their immune to _______ consultations
They're quite ________ of what they're going through

Syllables and word stress

You have three minutes to think of a multi-syllabic word beginning with each letter of the alphabet.

1-syllable word = 1 point

2-syllable word = 2 points

3-syllable word = 3 points

4-syllable word = 4 points

5-syllable word = 5 points

6-syllable word = 6 points

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N|
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Book Project

  

Each week I start at zero. I go as deep as I can into negative numbers then head back to zero. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes, the billboards are the only refuge of colour. 

 

 

 

 

An armchair on an asteroid. 

 

 

 

Cascade 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He had a convincing voice. He barely needed to open his mouth before you were convinced completely. He didn’t even need to open his mouth, or his eyes. He just sat there convincing everybody, including himself.  

 

 

 

 

 
 

The residents of Zodiac Street keep strange pets. 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Wabi-sabi police 

 

 

 

 

 

Spirit supermarkets are not arranged in aisles, but isles.  

 

 

 

 

Conversations in K-Mart look different when you can see auras. 

 

 

 

Imagine passing habitable planets as uninhabitable ones. 

 

 

 
Wake up at sunset, work all day at sunset, go to bed at sunset. 

 

 

 
Drive around the bend, into the restaurant, up to the counter, through the kitchen, up the wall and across the ceiling.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The blue tree