Join the Campaign
I began my capstone with the curiosity of the upcoming election in mind and constantly watching shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (when it was still airing), the Colbert Report (also when it still existed), and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. First, what is my capstone about? Well if you may guess, its roughly a series of moves discussing the effects of media deviecs and political elections or issues. After all, the shows I listed must have some effect on the way I think and make my opinions, just like anything else we take in from our world, and then interpret for ourseles. But, I want to see how media has been used to manipulate people over the history of America to change the way an election may turn out, or even campaigned.
For my introduction to this topic, I chose to read Amusing Oursleves to Death by Neil Postman. Neil Postman was a writer and profesor who was known for works that covered topics usually about soociety and technology. This particular book was about how the evolution of technologies has affected society in the way they think, whether good or bad. The lay out of this novel is what inspired the way I designed my capstone, as I begin with the 19th century going all the way to the present, and how we've come from the printing press to social media. To briefly summarize the ultimate thesis of this capstone: as technology and the "medium" of the message advances, people think less by themselves.
Introduction
Neil Postman and Amusing Ourselves to Death
