Politics, Power, and the American Media
As Americans, we believe that world events over the next few years will unfold from September 11th. The safety and security that we all felt before will never be the same. While Americans continue to recover our enemies continue to plan a way to bring us to our knees once again. Many of us will never again be able to fly without a fear of what if and many of us will never again be able to turn on the morning news without the fear of what if. We tend to have the attitude that terrorist attacks are events that happen in other countries like Israel where peace is unsteady. Many of us never dreamed of having it in our own front yard and to compound those affects by seeing parts of the world celebrating at the sight of a super power falling to its knees.
While the attacks themselves are a focal point for many scholars, I will focus not on the attacks, but rather I will ask questions as to why the attacks happened and why it hurt so much to see others smile happily at the sight of our pain. Americans are shocked to see that others would ever wish us pain. Much of this is taught to us at an early age, that everyone wants to be American and that the “American Dream” is the only way to live a full and happy life.
What role does the media play in continuing this naiveté of American society and how does the media in other countries account for our pain? How does our super power mentality play in this picture and why do many citizens of the world feel ill will towards Americans? I will address these questions by reviewing foreign newscasts and magazine articles, interviewing international politics experts, and finally interviewing an expert in American foreign policy. As citizens in a democracy we deserve the truth. The truth about how our government treats citizens of other countries and other accounts of how bad U.S. Foreign Policy creates negative feelings towards American citizens themselves.
To understand how the American media plays into a bigger picture of the foreign media it is important to understand how they both operate. In The Politics of Illusions by Lance Bennett he writes about notable media differences. Lance writes:
A fascinating example of how these work routines affect news content was discovered by Timothy Cook in a study of Gulf crisis coverage in the United States and France. Immediately following the ...
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• Li, Chi-Dooh. “Why Do They a.) Hate, b.) Fear, c.) Envy, d.) Resent US?” Seattle Post-Intelligencer 21 Oct. 2001 http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1021-12.htm
• Moises, Naim. “Why the World Loves to Hate America” Foreign Policy Magazine December 2001 http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagemane=View&c=Article&cid=FT3FIPEYWUC&live=true
• Rogge, Malcolm. “Rule of Force v. Rule of Law: The Global Lock-down on Civil Liberties.” Canadian Dimension Magazine December 2001: 60-66.
• Schlesinger, Stephen. Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala. New York: Anchor Books, 1990.
• Williams, Patricia. “This Dangerous Patriot’s Game.” Observer of London 2 Dec. 2001
• The World is Watching. Director Peter Raymont. With Elizabeth Gray. First Run / Incarus Films, 1988.
• Zapp, Kenneth. “The Naiveté in Asking ‘Why Do They Hate Us So Much?’”
• Minneapolis Star Tribune 13 Oct. 2001 http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1013-01.htm
Erick Erickson created his theory of psychosocial stages of development based off of his interpretation of Freud’s psychosexual stages, and with added aspects of social development. Erickson describes nine, age related, stages in which a person faces conflicts that could have positive or negative outcomes. Successful development through a particular stage helps the person develop ego strength (competence) in that area of life. Assuming that all developmental stages can be successfully traversed then provides a framework of normal development that psychologists can use for, “understanding and intervening with clients whose development is not processing according to normal expectations” (Rubin, 2001, p.226).
In Carol Dweck’s article titled, “Brainology” Dweck discusses the different mindsets that students have about intelligence. Some where taught that each person had a set amount of intelligence, while others were trained that intelligence is something they could develop and increase over time. in Dweck’s article she writes, “ It is a belief that intelligence can be developed that opens students to a love of learning, a belief in the power of effort and constrictive, determined reactions to setbacks” (Dweck pg. 2). Dweck is talking about a growth mind-set in which is how students perceive the growth of knowledge and that no one person is born with a certain amount of intelligence, it too can be trained and developed over time. By introducing Dweck’s ideas of a growth mind-set to students, students will enjoy learning and be less devastated by setbacks, because they know they can develop intelligence. Dweck also writes that students with a growth mind-set, “believe that intelligence is something that can be cultivated through effort and education. They
Chapter 3 in the book Mindset taught me that students with a fixed mindset give low effort because they think they were either born smart or stupid and there’s no way to change that. The fixed mindset people try to avoid challenges and think mistakes as they are a failure and aren’t smart enough to accomplish it. If they happen to get a challenge they give up after the first setback. They think that it’s too challenging and that they can’t do it. People with a fixed mindset think that there’s no point in effort, you are either born smart or stupid and no matter how hard you try you can’t change that. They also believe that there is no need to study. They are smart enough to pass or to dumb to even do anything. They think that there
Both were given a workshop with skills on how to study, but one was also given lessons on what a growth mindset was and how to develop one. The group given the lessons on growth mindset was extremely fascinated by the thought that they could control how much knowledge they were capable of learning. Overall, the growth mindset group excelled while the control group continued to not do so well. After receiving these results, Dweck was so inspired that she developed a growth mindset computer program called “Brainology,” that would be available to students all around the world. Dweck concluded that it’s extremely important to teach students that it takes hard work to achieve
More than a year and a half ago, on September 11, 2001, a group of terrorists from the al Qaeda network hijacked four airliners and successfully used three of them to attack the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the World Trade Center in New York. These attacks marked the first time in American history that a full-scale attack was executed on our own soil, and they affected the American people on a number of different levels. Americans found themselves shocked that such an event could occur, as well as reeling with grief for the more than 3,000 people who died in the tragedy. Soon, the shock and grief that penetrated the hearts of the American people gave way, in part, to a sense of national pride. American flags waved from every overpass, and “God Bless America” could be heard on every r...
In the article, Dweck discovers how students’ mindsets affect their education and their achievements. Students who believed that their intelligence can expand (known as growth mindset) do better academically than children who believe the opposite (known as fixed mindset). Dweck then claims, “... we found that having children focus on the process that leads to learning (like hard work or trying new strategies) could foster a growth mindset and its benefits.” Teachers can apply this to their teachings, and further push their students in reaching higher goals.
Carol Dweck wrote the essay “The Two Mindsets” which was from her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, which was published in 2006. In this essay Dweck argues that the way a person thinks about themselves is the determining factor in whether or not they will develop an appreciation of the learning process and be successful in their life. Dweck does not just give one side but both, she refers to the mindsets as “fixed” versus the “growth” and she then argues that a growth mindset is necessary for a person to achieve their goals to their full potential.
The novel, Mindset, by Carol Dweck, demonstrates how influential a change in mindset can be. By examining numerous circumstances that lead individuals towards success or failure, Dweck sees the different mindsets from those who encounter success or failure. Her research shows that people with the growth mindset realize that their intelligence can be developed while people with the fixed mindset believe that their intelligence is stagnant. She stresses the importance of having a growth mindset by addressing her argument from different standpoints and comparing it to the fixed mindset.
It was not until I read Carol S. Dweck’s “Brainology” that I realized I had a fixed mindset. I care more about getting a 4.0 than actually understanding what I am being taught and I also hate struggling. These habits are part of having a fixed mindset. It was after reading this article that I discovered I could change my mindset and be successful. Having a fixed mindset means that you believe that you and others only have a certain amount of intelligence. A growth mindset on the other hand, is believing that everyone has the ability to reach a higher level of intelligence through effort and hardwork.
There are many attitudes that form certain mindsets. Some of these mindsets can change how a person does and perceives things. Some mindsets that can do just that are Dweck’s example of a growth mindset and fixed mindsets. According to Dweck, a fixed mindset is one in where “.. students believe that intelligence is fixed..” and a fixed mindset is the “..believe that intelligence is a potential that can be realized through learning. As a result, confronting challenges, profiting from mistakes, and persevering in the face of setbacks become ways of getting smarter. Because people with growth mindsets can through setbacks, and find alternatives to better themselves; They turn to perseverance and hard work to achieve their goals.
In Carol Dweck’s “Brainology” the article explains how our brain is always being altered by our experiences and knowledge during our lifespan. For this Dweck conducted a research in what students believe about their own brain and their thoughts in their intelligence. They were questioned, if intelligence was something fixed or if it could grow and change; and how this affected their motivation, learning, and academic achievements. The response to it came with different points of views, beliefs, or mindset in which created different behavior and learning tendencies. These two mindsets are call fixed and growth mindsets. In a fixed mindset, the individual believes that intelligence is something already obtain and that is it. They worry if they
There are two views about intelligence: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, but only one of these views has negative consequences on a student’s academic performance. One of the most basic beliefs that society holds about intelligence is that people are born with a certain amount of intelligence and no amount of learning can change that, which illustrates a fixed mindset. However, many people will argue that intelligence has the ability to grow and expand throughout life, which demonstrates a growth mindset. A student’s outlook on intelligence influences how he or she performs academically. Students who consider intelligence as fixed are disheartened by mistakes and hardships, while students who consider intelligence as changeable learn from
Also, in Carol Dweck’s research article “Brainology”, she states the subtitle “Transforming Students’ Motivation to Learn”. She dishes mindsets and achievement, how do students learn these mindsets, and so on… … Dweck suggests, “Many students believe that intelligence is fixed, that each person has a certain amount, and that’s that. We call this a fixed mindset, and, as you will see, students with this mindset worry about how much of this fixed in intelligence they possess”. Many students believe that the challenge encountered in learning is a threat to their growth path. She put forward two different minds of the ideological study contrast, the finds showed that students studied with a growth mindset were more interested in learning and
Erik Erikson was a psychologist specializing in post Freudian studies. Many ideas and foundations of his theories came from the Freud way of thinking. Erickson could be considered a neo Freudian, someone who is influenced by and still practices elements of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. Erik Erikson’s development theory expanded on Freud’s original five stages of development, consisting of a new eight psychosocial stages of development known as The Life Cycle. The ego and sexual development are a large focus for Erik Erikson’s stages. In each of his stages there are two main terms for the child to learn and they are always opposites of each other. In addition to psychologists today still using Erikson’s stages of development for assessments on patients, research is still being conducted to prove the validity of Erikson’s design. His work is important to various areas of psychology including development and personality.
...g kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior. The right kind motivates students to learn. This leads us to two kinds of mindsets that students can have that effect the way that they look at learning and growing: fixed mindset and growth mindset.