Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Marxism & Pluralism: Alain de Botton on the news

We are currently doing some excellent work on the News and Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony.

As part of this work, we've watched a couple of fascinating videos featuring philosopher and Media theorist Alain de Botton and his views on the news as a form of social control. In order to further explore this so we can refer to it in an essay, we have some additional homework on Alain de Botton's and the news.

Here are the two videos we watched in class this week - you may want to watch them again (particularly the first one).




Now watch this lecture by Alain de Botton presenting his views on the News:



Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News?

2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?

3) How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?

4) Choose two news stories from the last six months - one that supports de Botton's views and one that challenges his belief that the News is used for social control. 

Due: for your single exam lesson next week

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