Friday, June 27, 2014

Does Netflix take the place of TV?

I was surprised this week to hear one of our speakers at Lakeside say she doesn't have a television. She subscribes to Netflix (online video rental). So that means she doesn't know about the IRS scandal (but neither do millions of others who watch broadcast news). She doesn't know that our administration's policies have encouraged parents in Central America to send their minor children on a very dangerous journey and now they are in camps spread around the U.S. at the states...' expense (but TV broadcast news has told viewers they are fleeing violence, instead of looking for a free college education). She doesn't know her president of 5.5 years is still blaming his predecessor for his inability to cobble together a defined foreign policy, a safe exit from Iraq, and a flailing economy (but if she were watching the news this week she would know about celebrities' babies and hair styles, the World Cup, and that the climate is changing and it's all our fault). She also didn't know about a huge story in her field that broke that day--until her audience told her.

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