Chapter 10 questioning the media

1. What are your earliest recollections of books? Do you read for pleasure? If yes, what kinds of books do you enjoy? Why?



My earliest recollections of books as a kid were a short stories series called Goosebumps. I remember everytime I went over to my Grandma's house on the weekend, I would try and read a whole Goosebumps book in a day. These books were so interesting to me at the time because a lot of them were scary books that had alot of twists and kept me interested to read further. I would read 2 or 3 of these books every week and it would make my Grandma so proud that she promised as long as I kept reading them, that she would keep buying me new ones. Nowadays, I do not read for pleasure. Most of the time I read is for schoolwork or for a job. The only pleasure I get out of reading nowadays, is reading the sports page in the newspaper to find out scores of games.

4. Imagine that you are on a committee that oversees book choices for a high school library in your town. What policies do you think should guide the committee's selection of controversial books?

I think that there are both pros and cons about selecting controversial books for a high school library. Some people may argue that the material would be inappropiate for kids of their age, but I would argue that eventually they are all going to be exposed to it at one point or another. I think with contriversial books, that the committee should only offer these types of books to the seniors and not the under classmen. The geographics of the school could also have some bearing on what the committee decides to do with these books.

6. Would you read a book on an IPod or a Kindle? Why or why not?

If I actually enjoyed reading books in my spare time, then I would definitely read a book on my IPod. The reason would be because it would conserve space in my bag, or it would take away me having to carry the book around in my hand. This would be another good advantage because some people might not want others to see what they are reading so they dont get made fun of. Whenever I go on a long trip and have to fly, then i would read a book on my IPod during the flight because I always bring my IPod with me for flights.

Chapter 9 questioning the media

1. What are your earliest recollections of magazines? Which magazines do you read regularly today? Why?

My earliest recollections of magazines as a kid were magazines named Highlights. I really enjoyed these magazines because they were made for kids. The majority of the time that I see these magazines, are in doctors offices. It seems like that kids don't want to sit still while waiting on the doctors, so they look at these Highlight magazines and do the crossword puzzles and hidden picture searches to keep them busy. The hidden picture searches were by far my favorite. Today I'm not much of a reader, so when I do pick up a magazine its usually something sports related like a Sports Illustrated. Another magazine I like to read from time to time are Playboys because of all the interesting stories and the jokes are really funny.

4. If you were the marketing director of you favorite magazine, how would you increase circulation?

If I were the marketing director of my favorite magazine, I would first look at the methods used to market/advertise my magazine, then make some alternative solutions as to how to better circulate it. I don't specifically have a favorite magazine, but as I mentioned above, I do like Sports Illustrated. If I were to try and better circulate Sports Illustrated, then I would have more commercials for the magazine during sports events like football and basketball games. Another tactic I would use would be to advertise Sports Illustrated in other top selling magazines hoping for a better exposure to not only just the sports fanattics.

7. Do you think that internet will eventually displace magazines? Why or why not?

I think that in the long run, Internet will ultimately the magazine industry. This is because the Internet is continuing to become faster and faster and people can find exactly what they want to find faster on the Internet, instead of skimming through magazine articles to find what they want. There are already large magazine distributors that have online sites of all the articles that are in the magazines, so why would people pay for magazines anymore if they could find the few articles they really want to read in the click of a button. With the slowed economy, magazines are just another expense that people have to pay, for something they may read twice then throw out.

chapter 8 questioning the media

1. What kinds of stories, topics, or issues are not being covered well by mainstream papers?

Mainstreams papers, in my opinion, do not cover things like the war in Iraq well. Their main concerns seem to be things like celebrity status' and sports related events. I know sports are a big thing with people all the time because they love to watch them, but people need to be more informed about the world as a whole and all the devestating things that are going on in it. So what if the news covers some topics like these on television the day they happen, but it is ok to write articles about them and publish them the next day because not everyone gets an opportunity watch the news every night.

2. Why do you think people aren't reading U.S. daily newspapers as frequently as they once did? Why is newpaper readership going up in other countries?

I think that people in the U.S aren't reading daily newspapers as frequently because most people have turned to the internet as their main source for news. This is also cheaper for people to use the internet instead of paying for a newspaper subscription. People can also access news stories faster on the internet instead of having to wait a day to hear yesterdays news today. People may not have as much time to read the newspaper nowadays as before and turn to the internet in order to find what they are looking for faster instead of scanning the newspaper. Newspaper readership is going up in other countries because some countries don't have freeedom of the press and therefore it may be a recent development for them.

5. Will blogs and other internet news services eventually replace newspapers? Explain your response.

Ultimately in the long run I think that blogs and internet news services will replace newspapers. This is because newspapers are expensive to print and less and less people are buying them nowadays because of the downward economy. Also eventually everyone will have access to the internet somehow whether it's in their home or going to the library to get on the computer there. Another trend I have noticed is that more people are starting to blog and more companies are trying to connect with people through internet sources such as facebook or twitter.