Here are my responses to the transcripts :
-
How does the format of a text change the way a person might understand the
information?
The first time I heard about “This American Life” was in this class. It was also the first time I actually read
and heard facts about what was going on in our economy. I knew from the
beginning that learning the facts and understanding the story wouldn’t come
easy. I listened to the radio show and heard terms I’ve never heard before.
Such as, CDO’s, mortgage crisis, adjustable rates and NINA loans. I realized
there was a lot of missing pieces to the story that I probably should know to
fully understand it. While listening, most of the information blew me away and
went in one ear and out the other. I picked up that whatever they were talking
about was not good. I still didn’t understand what the words meant. I was
forced to keep continuing on with the story even though I didn’t understand.
Then, I read the transcript. This time I set the pace of the reading. I got a
chance to highlight upon things I didn’t understand or thought were important.
I then could go back and research the terms or reread things. Another important
thing I realized by reading the transcript was how big of a role the music
played in the story. The music set a tone of how the speakers wanted the reader
to feel about the topic. It also related to the topic. For example, at one
point in the program, “The Giant Pool of Money”, the music is relatable to
1920’s jazz. It’s sneaky sounding with the saxophones playing, just like the
people on Wall Street who knew what the outcome was going to be the whole time
of them sneaking around and playing the system. Also, by listening to the audio
program you can hear the emotion in the people’s voice. This is especially
important when they interview real people talking about their situations. For
example, they interviewed a marine about his situation now from the NINA loan.
In the audio, you can hear he is emotionally upset and in tears. The emotions
played a big role in how I took in his story. By him crying, the listener hears
he is a real person like everyone else. The reader gets none of the emotion
through the text.
Another thing important about the
format of the information is that it has to be appropriate for the audience.
When we watched the video in class with the man drawing, it was clear the
presentation was for an audience who did not have much grasp on the situation.
This was obvious because of the drawings, bullet points and ticking time
sounds. He just wanted to get across to the audience the main points of the
economic crisis in a short time. For example, a person wouldn’t play the “This
American Life” programs to a 7th grader and expect them to
understand what was being said. Even I didn’t understand what was being said.
The information in the transcript was written for a radio show, to be heard, if
it was to be presented in an essay format, the writer would not include
commentary and vice versa. It would be boring to listen to the radio hosts read
an essay on the same information. A written essay is not meant for an audio. If
they did so, they wouldn’t keep the listeners attention; therefore, the
listener would not understand the information. The way the information is
presented is important to how a person understands information.
- How does the economy affect you?
Before this class, I heard things on the news pertaining to our economic crisis. I never paid attention to it or
thought about what was being said. I never thought it affected me. In reality,
the effects of the economic crisis are seen everywhere on a daily basis. I knew
college would be a lot of money but it’s even more this year. The tuition had
to be raised because the government could not afford to fund as much money. The
regular funding by the state was cut by 50% this year, which of course, the
students have to make up for in their tuition. The stereotype of students in
college are poor is even more true today.
Not only is it affecting the people
in college but the college graduates. People out of college cannot find jobs
because of the economy the way it is. At the same time they can’t find jobs,
they have to be paying off a higher amount of loans than before. For example,
my major is special education. Teachers are having a hard time finding jobs out
of college because the state is cutting funding and schools cannot afford to
have more teachers. Yes, they may need them but they force more children in
classrooms so they can avoid paying more teachers. Schools are cutting art
classes and other things too, leaving people out of jobs.
It’s not just in the education system
that the economic crisis has affected people. On a day to day basis, regular
people have trouble paying bills and buying food. The middle class people are
not strong in our economy anymore. There are far extremes, the super-rich and
the poor. People who didn’t struggle with money before are now struggling. Tons
of hard working people get laid off every day and have families to take care of
on no income. Anyone you ask will say the economy has affected them. It affects
everyone every day.
This video is the one we all watched in class. I chose to look at this video because it was clear that it was made for people who don’t have a good understanding of the economy. While watching it, some questions came to mind. He said in the beginning that the economy doubled in size since the 80′s. I wasn’t sure what that meant. I figured it meant the the amount of money we have in the world doubled in size. Then the question arises, how did the economy double in size? What made this happen? Reich says that the super rich have all the money now and all the power. How did they get the money? Was it due to the housing market crash and the people who used the system to get rich? The last topic he covered was anemic recovery. I had no clue what this meant. He said it was a result of all his previous points and I know recovery is a good thing. I googled the words anemic recovery. Of course, I did’t get what I wanted. I got free dictionary sites for anemia symptoms. But, the definition of anemia is weak or lacking vitality. So, I assume Reich is saying a weak recovery and what I make from that is our economy is in a weak recovery or slow moving from the housing crash in the early 2000′s.
I saw this video title, How the Middle Class Got Screwed, and thought it would be helpful because it would pertain to regular people. So, I watched it. It was from the same people who made the Robert Reich video. Of course, they had the same format, the drawings in the backround. Big Mike talked about what we can do fix the economy. Something I found interesting was he said the middle class has been being screwed since the 70′s. I thought it just went down hill in the early 2000′s. Since, he says all the rich people have the politcal power, I thought, well, shouldn’t that make people want to vote for a president who will help us and who is on our side. I don’t know much about the elections or the current president, but, I know the elections are coming and I think it should be a big part of who is voted president. I think it would be safe to say that the economy will only get better if the middle class gets better first.
I watched many other videos as well. Most of them I didn’t think were worth posting, because by the end of this I realized that it is very frustrating not understanding it. I don’t know if there is truly any one person who understands it all. Almost every video talked about different points and why they thought the economy collapsed. At this point, I know that it is not good. As to why it’s not good, I don’t understand. I don’t believe it was any one person or event that led us to this crisis. I think that people have all kinds of views of how to get us “back”. I think it will just take lots of time for anything to get back to the way it was and there are many things that need to be solved before it is fixed. The things that need to be fixed are going to take many years.
