Th The Onion: An Analysis

When thinking back, the most influential course I took in undergrad was a survey on social contract theory and theories of justice. Our professor juxtaposed democratic theories, with Marxist, anarchist and fascist formulations of the state and social justice. For most of my classmates, the course served as intellectual provocation. The theories which they were predisposed to agree with served to reinforce their positions, and the theories they disagreed with served as whet stones to sharpen their thinking. I however found myself in a fugue state. These theories revealed the shallowness of my deeply held political orthodoxies, moreover when evaluating these theories against each other I found them to be equally unconvincing. When I broached this quandary with my professor, she proffered that I could adopt doubt as an ideology and recommended I read Peeling the Onion by Günter Grass and Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler.

Clay Shirky who wrote Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable (1993) argues that society doesn’t need newspapers society needs journalism to save society. Shirky supports this argument by giving a historical background to the problems newspapers face and how the problems have developed over time and the solutions society has came up with. The blogger concludes that in order for journalism to go farther new models must be created in place of past molds. Shirky directs this blog toward the current and future generations in attempt to motivate new models and methods of journalism.

Surrounding the first portion of, “Our Cell Phone, Our Selves”, the author wrote about the early 1980s and the cell phone beginning, but I believe 1990s to the most important time frame. Notably, if she would have not added this, she would have missed a step in explaining the issues with the cell phone. The reader can conclude that technology was in full throttle, changing the cell phone from this large ugly brick, to something

The first mobile phones, due to its “smaller” size, would still be considered very large in today’s world. Many of the early cell phones were considered “car phones” because they were shaped like a brick and could not fit into one's pocket. The first cell phone was called the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x and was commercially available in 1983. The cellular technology to call these phones was analog frequencies. In the early 2000’s, cell phones became smaller is size and the software got faster. The introduction of the Blackberry popularized the use of the technology allowing more and more people to be involved. Cell phones became popular with the introduction of text messaging, short messages that can be sent to another person. Texting has become an easier and quicker form of communicating with others. Teenagers and children grew to love this feature as a main form of communication. They took on this mainly because it is very private and did not have to be loud in a situation that was not appropriate. “Today’s teens will carry the technology with them as a part of their repertoire of communication possibilities. Where older generations, when

In the world today, cell phones are being used more than ever before. Everywhere you go, cell phones are present, and its users range from almost all ages. There is no avoiding the fact that cell phones are a prominent way of communication. They have become so influential in peoples’ everyday lives that many can not imagine life without a cell phone. Cell phones are not necessarily a bad tool, when used in moderation. Cell phones are changing the way people communicate and the way they live their everyday lives.

He states “We love our phones for good reasons. It’s hard to think of another product that has provided so many useful functions in such a handy form.” By using words such as “we” and “handy” Carr creates something akin to casual conversation with the reader. Eliciting this diction includes him into the topic showing that he too uses smartphones and relates to the reader, forming trust and catching the reader’s attention. Along with this, Carr creates more of a personal connection by starting a factual statement with “So,” using phrases such as “using it some eighty times,” and using words to refer to the reader like “you’re” and “you.” This casual diction builds a connection between Carr and the reader, making Carr direct the reader’s attention to the topic as well as build trust with the reader through tactful wording. Then he expresses “Their extraordinary usefulness gives them unprecedented hold on our attention and a vast influence over our thinking and behavior.” In this statement, Carr uses strong, hyperbolic, diction, such as “extraordinary” and “unprecedented,” to represent his claim in an eye-catching manner and to show how strongly he must feel about smartphones and their impact on those who use them. Overall, Carr uses strong and casual diction to appeal to the

When comparing both articles’ online webpage, you can see the four main principles of design being followed: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. The contrast can be seen in both articles with their black wording against a white background. The repetition is evident in the fact that the same fonts and colors are used throughout the website and all of its articles, respectively. Alignment can be seen from both articles having their main article on the left, advertisements at the bottom, and latest news on the right. Finally, proximity can be seen in both articles when they group similar topics together and have links to different topics. Along with the webpage being formatted identically, the article itself is also formatted in a similar method. Both articles have a big, bolded headline that attracts the attention of the reader, use quotes from people involved, and present pictures as proof. In the Associated Press article, the author included quotes from the vice president of flight reliability for SpaceX and included a picture of the SpaceX rocket (Dunn). In the article from The Onion, the author included quotes from the president of Planned Parenthood and a picture of the “abortionplex” along with it’s floor plan. The Onion’s article obviously fabricated the quotes and pictures. One thing that sets the two articles apart, however, is that The Onion included the volume and issue of paper to create a greater sense of reliability. This explains why people mistake the article as a legitimate piece of journalism. The next step is to explain how the author uses the genre of journalism to incorporate the genre of satire.

In the reading “The Onion” by Bernie Sanders argues that Americans are spending on unnecessary items. However, Alyssa Battistoni argues that Americans spend more on food than any other country.

In the video, 39 cents by SNL, and the article, The Onion, satire was used to provide commentary on the social issues of poverty and hunger in Africa. In SNL’s example, they made the video comical, or a parody. Using a parody helps to keep the person watching’s attention and helps them realize how serious the issue actually is. The video started out by saying “the only mistake was being born poor”, as if they could help it. This is trying to get you to think and feel bad about how it’s not their fault. They then go into saying that for just 39 cents, or the amount of a coffee you can save a life. As this is being said the “poor” people are asking for more money saying that that isn’t enough. He also then goes onto say that they are very LUCKY

There are many contradictable pieces of evidence that are used throughout the article, “Have Smart Phones Destroyed a Generation?”, by Jean M. Twenge. Some of the evidence utilized, can be very manipulative towards the readers. By Twenge including some of her opinions in this article, what and how the readers should feel about smartphones changes. It has negative aspects and becomes very strict on what she is portraying to the readers. Twenge has some good evidence and arguments in this article, but it turns out to be weak because she is using insufficiency, irrelevance, and typicality.

c. The author uses literature as he cites other literary works, websites, and research findings from other authors in order to support his main points throughout the text. In addition, the text’s citation style is APA in-text citation as Waisanen uses research findings, words defined by other authors, and examples of video clips from the Onion News Network to compare, support, and define his thesis and central idea of his paper. This is shown throughout the text; for instance, an example of research findings is on page 510 where Waisanen states the researcher findings of Achter (2008) on “… understanding and comprehending new parodies such as The Onion yet there is still much work to reveal the parody that is portrayed and illustrated to news

The critique in the article by The Onion is revolved around marketing techniques such as outrageous claims that advertisers make in an attempt to convince their audience to buy their product. This critique is made using a sarcastic tone and caricatures of the characters commonly seen in commercials. Not only are caricatures and hyperboles used but also a use of overly scholarly language to make the product out to be much more than it’s worth.

With products such as Shamwow, Oxyclean, and the Bowflex, flooding our modern-day market, it seems as though today’s advertisement challenges the intelligence of the American populace with a single daunting task, to force people to stop thinking rationally. Intelligence is measured upon a variety of elements all stemming from rational thought; The Onion satirizes the seemingly infinite quantity of irrational thought in the world today, in an ad for a new and improved, $19.95 (plus shipping and handling), solution to any person’s foot problems. “MagnaSoles” depicts the gullibility of people by showing their reliance on various modes of the media to obtain information. In this case, lustrous qualities lure the customer, while other

In the article by the Onion, the Onion displays the rise of a prison firm as an ingenious success story. By the clever use of satire and overstatements about the company’s work, he achieves the purpose of over-glorifying a simple government corrections group while highlighting the need for prison reform. The articles uses plenty of satire and sarcasm to achieve his purpose.

The media portrays things in a way which leads readers to believe what they, the newspaper or author, want them to believe. The intention behind writing an article is never as simple as just providing information. Almost every news