The Onion has several articles on gunviolence but honestly how they get thier point across is the same no matter what perspective or ideals you believe. The Onion tells "fictional" stories that seem so far beyond what is true that it draws attention to it. They create stories that seem like they could be true but are really such an exageragation that they are taken as a bigger deal than they are just to make it interesting. However false these stories may be they actually do bring up concepts or ideas that need attention. They make the topic under discussion so absurd that people will remember it and enjoy reading it.
Politics and The English Language
"Politics and The English Language" was an article that strenghened my own beliefs about how the english language is. It wasnt until after reading "Literacy Behind Bars" That I actually got this concept that language can be manipulated. In this article it discusses how the english language can be used as a weapon. Politicians have always used language (along with propaganda) to reach out and pull people in. Language, in a way, is a very unique thing; as in through speaking or writting we are able to express ourselves into words, and as the articles both express how you express yourself can be used to reach out to other people, how we can manipulate the words that we or others put out and change it to mean what we think or want it to mean. This article also discusses the idea that our language changes over time and how some words mean different things to people who live in different areas or different incomes or even different ages. I learned this a while back but there are always two sides to a word; connotative and denotative definitions. One being a societal definition and one being a dictionary definition.
The Daily Show
The Daily Show has some very similar qualities to that of satire in The Onion however it doesnt exagerate. From the Eps. of the Daily Show I watched they just took clips of videos or news or something interesting or discussable and just made fun of it. It was extremely entertaining but also at the same time the issues discussed were spot on. How they pulled and poked at different concepts and made them seem so funnys it you just can't take it seriously. This show uses curses and foul language but bleeps it out just to entertain and use keep interest. However funny or entertaining this show may be they still backed up a lot of thier concepts with facts or quotes making it seem like real new just with a funny twist.