The Braindeaed Megaphone By George Saunders : The Braindead Megaphones

He remarks on how most Americans seem much more interested in what goes on in the daily lives of celebrities and reality television, as opposed to the detrimental health of the nation, the “bank collapses, wars, mounting poverty or the criminality of its financial class.” He goes on to compares Americans to psychopaths, stating that they share many similar traits like an incapacity for feeling guilt or remorse, grandiosity and self-importance, and a need for constant stimulation. We Americans are only concerned with ourselves, we view fame and fortune as the ultimate goal and have no qualms with stepping over friends and family to achieve it. With consumers in this state of mind, media and corporations make billions of dollars by helping assure everyone that we don't have to worry about others, that “everything is

George Saunders writes about human behavior with some modern and not so modern examples. He invites the reader to imagine themselves at a party where someone is speaking into a megaphone. Soon the focus of the party becomes the topic the megaphone speaker is flooding into the party atmosphere. Saunders also talks about new broadcast,he mentions a news reporter reporting busy shopping activity at a mall during holiday season . What a surprise!

Advances in technology has altered the world as we know it, and it can only progress farther. Through the minds of many intelligent and devoted individuals across time technology has developed into a twenty first century deity. A young child one hundred years ago could never envision a world like ours today, ruled by ones and zeros. The media has affected us in ways that we can’t even comprehend and will continue to steadily provide humans with a faster and faster flow of information for years to come. But what is the cost to have all of the information you can imagine at your fingertips? The exponential increase in information that we process in all forms of media is affecting the way that we live by making society more alienated.

Imagine; you’re at a party with your friends just having a casual chat, when all of the sudden a man with a megaphone starts yelling about whatever it is he’s thinking about in that moment. How are you and your friends supposed to continue your conversation when all you can hear is this stranger yelling about how much he loves early mornings in spring? George Saunders begins his essay “The Braindead Megaphone” with this exact scenario - the megaphone being used as a metaphor. Saunders uses the metaphor of the megaphone to depict, and further - criticize the way news media has been corrupted and how this impacts the people that have become subject

The article "Mind Over Mass Media" by Steven Pinker uses logos, ethos, pathos, and other rhetorical elements to effectively communicate that mass media is a positive development and is not a reason for panic. The first noticeable rhetorical element in Pinker’s essay is the presence of a rhetorical triangle. A rhetorical triangle is made up of a rhetor, the audience, and the rhetor’s purpose. In this essay Steven Pinker is the rhetor because is the one trying to make a point to the audience. The audience is the reader of the article who is listening to the rhetor. Finally, the text or point the rhetor is trying to make is that e effects of mass media are not a cause for panic. In fact mass media is an effective way for humans to keep up with the modern age. The clearly defined rhetorical triangle in Steven Pinker’s essay is a surface level example of rhetorical elements in the text.

The media in American society has a major influential impact on the minds and beliefs of millions of people. Whether through the news, television shows, or film, the media acts as a huge database for knowledge and instruction. It is both an auditory and visual database that can press images and ideas into people's minds. Even if the individual has no prior exposure or knowledge to something, the media can project into people's minds and leave a lasting impression. Though obviously people are aware of what they are listening to or watching, thoughts and assumptions can drift into their minds without even realizing it. These thoughts that drift in are extremely influential. The massive impact it

Once Jim Morrison said that whoever controls the media controls the mind. This shows that he had recognized the immense power and influence that the media has in our day to day lives. The media plays a very important role in the society as the source of information for every person. Hence, it is very hard for the modern society to live without the media. As a result of the media being the major source of information in our society, it is an undeniable fact the media shapes people’s opinions, attitudes and actions on particular issues (Czopp & Monteith, 2006).

The mass media interperts the views of the majority of the people, the working class, to have their greatest influence on individuals over time. Through continiouslly observing, the media can have an influence on personal values and beliefs. It plays a significant role as it illustrate social comparison that eventually leads to the change of peoples way of thinking. Luois Althusser explains that the "representation of the structure of every society as an edifice containing a base (infrastructure) on which are erected the two 'floors' of the superstructure, is a metaphor..." like a building, society is build the same way. Is the base of the superstructure, the idea to which the media advertices to a widespread audience. Throughout time it has gained so much power that its impact begins to shape a person view and mentality of the things that sorounds us.

The media has intensely affected society, an effect so immense that people don’t notice its presence sometimes. Individuals become solely

The power and consequently the responsibility of media, especially mainstream, is something that shouldn’t be underestimated. It often sets the agenda amongst the general public and is the reference point for the majority of the discussion surrounding it. For many, what they see and read in the media forms the basis of their opinions on most important topics. Despite warnings not to, many believe that everything they read in the media must be true.

The media in American society has a major influential impact on the minds and beliefs of millions of people. Whether through the news, television shows, or film, the media acts as a huge database for knowledge and instruction. It is both an auditory and visual database that can press images and ideas into people's minds. Even if the individual has no prior exposure or knowledge to something, the media can project into people's minds and leave a lasting impression. Though obviously people are aware of what they are listening to or watching, thoughts and assumptions can drift into their minds without even realizing it. These thoughts that drift in are extremely influential. The massive impact

In today’s society, media is present in our lives 24/7 allowing it to have a major influence on our culture in both positive and negative ways.

Your mind holds, maintains and knows the knowledge within your head, but who says you can’t be influence by the mass media and be affected as well? The mass media is any form and means of communication such as your town or state newspaper or even your TV that can reach a large sum of people, based on the knowledge they

“The media are a primary source of those pictures in our heads about the larger world of public affairs, a world that for most citizens is ‘out of reach, out sight, out of mind’ and what we know about the world is largely based on what the media decide to tell us” (McCombs).

Brainwashing and Mind Control are “best thought of as a series of techniques that are used over time to shape a person’s perception, cognition, emotions, decision making and behavior to such an extent that they have lost their freedom of choice” (Mind Control Today). These techniques, once in existence within authoritarian and totalitarian governments, are increasingly being practiced by advertising companies and mass media. There are extensive similarities among the political and economic standards that cause negative impacts on society, as a result of adopting these mind control tactics. As Malcom X pointed out, “The media is the most powerful entity on earth, because they control the minds of the masses”.