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.

Philippe Petit - Someboday Has to Trespass

Philippe Petit is probably best known for walking on a high wire suspended between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. He was arrested as soon as he came off the wire, but his act was captured in the Academy Award-winning film Man on Wire. Petit has continued to perform on the high wire, as well as to draw, teach, and to challenge himself constantly. "If you are not taunted by artistic challenge at least once a day you're dead," he says.


Lead in:

Twin Towers

What is another word for high wire walker?

What are other words for "walk"?

What are other words for "horrified"?

Listen out for them in the video.


Discuss

Have you heard of Philippe Petit?

Do you think he is a "dare devil" or is he so well trained that what he does only looks extremely dangerous?

Watch:

Philippe Petit: Somebody Has to Trespass

Part 1. 

2:30 - 9:16

1. Which is the hardest moment in wire walking, according to Philippe?

2. What does Philippe compare the wire with?

3. Why was he arrested by the New York Police?

4. What was his "coup"?

5. Who taught Philippe to wire walk?

6. What does Philippe say about artists and their tools?

7. In what sense does Philippe believe he never takes a risk?


Discuss the questions.

Part 2.

"Impossible, impossible, impossible."

9:16 - 12:30

1. What made Philippe's dream of walking between the trade towers seem impossible to him?

2. In what sense do the towers still exist for Philippe?

3. What does Philippe say about negative space? - what does he mean when he says "someone has to trespass" 

4. What does he always make before a performance?

5. What does Philippe mean when he talks about a "pull"?

Discuss the questions

Discuss:

What things "pull" you in life? Are there things you are just naturally attracted to doing?

Do you sometimes feel prevented from following natural attractions and interests? Why?

Language focus: from 4:40-7:11

My parents tried to stop me but to no a______

It was _______ natural that __________ many zig-zags in my young life I became a ____________ high-wire walker.

I had to ______________ everything

I decided to take the steel cable as a __________

This is not an _______ piece of steel

Look at these samples of Philippe's English:

put them to life

I learn to know how its design make friend the life of the cable.

to ask its forgiveness to allow me to

Now we pass 45 years later

Discuss:

1. Can you "correct" Philippe's English?

2. If you speak French, can you explain to others why Philippe expresses himself in this way?

3. Is Philippe a good English speaker, in your opinion?

Discuss:

 "If you are not taunted by artistic challenge at least once a day you're dead."

Is this true for you? In what sense do you need a challenge to feel alive?

The Perfectionist Trap

Discuss

 

1. Are you a perfectionist? What kinds of things do you like to be perfect at?

 

2. Are you an ambitious person? What are you ambitious about?

 

3. Are you sometimes hard on yourself? Give an example of how you might be hard on yourself.

 

4. "One of the greatest obstacles to a good life is the expectation of perfection."

Do you agree?

 

5. Have you thought a lot about what you really want to be?

In an ideal world, what would be be?

 

6. Do you feel limited by "reality"?

 

 

Language used:

 

prac______r

someone who practices a learned profession

intre___d

fearless

accl_____ed

publicly praised

be_____th

under

to s____k

cause, stimulate

med______y

the state of being average or unremarkable

p________x

a contradiction or dilemma

to ig______

to set on fire

cong______

existing at birth

ine____tude

incompetence

t____p

something that we can be caught or stuck in

to at_____n

to achieve

cur____ed

carefully selected

d___ft                                         

 a first attempt at a complex piece of work

s____e                                          

mentally healthy

to em____e

to copy, to imitate

a______y

agonizing physical or mental pain

to w____p

to cry

 

Vocabulary Quiz:

24 terms

For notes and later discussion:

We f________ate our ambitions by....
We form our career plans on the b____s of....
We end up the l_____t able to....
Our media ed___s out....
It starts to a_____r as though....
Our p_________n is imbalanced because.....
We should f_____s on....
We need to re______ise the legitimate and necessary....
Allow o_______s to do things quite....

 

 

Language focus: expressive adverbs

 

What do these words mean?  Try to define them in your own words?

 

markedly

imperfectly

absurdly

largely

typically

deeply

actually

primarily

closely

 

Listen for them in the clip and write them in the order you hear them.

Check

typically

deeply

markedly

absurdly

actually

primarily

largely

closely

imperfectly