The Big Onion...(see what I did there?)

             By reading the New York Times and the Onion, Jarvis’s idea of a press sphere became apparent. A few days ago I read an article in the Times about the No Child Left Behind Act. Apparently Obama is going to release some states from the ridiculous 100% proficiency requirement and allow them to reach goals that they set in their own time. Thank goodness. Cutting funding for failing schools is not the way to make them better. But anyway, that same day I got on theOnion and saw they had something to say about No Child as well. They demonized students and said we’re really not worth teaching. To quote the sub-heading: “Officials say these vicious little bastards are beyond any kind of help.”

           

We are in the age of the press sphere where our news comes to us through many different channels. When keeping up with the news, it could get a little hectic trying to sift through every source. The great thing is most of our news sources today, whether it is Facebook, a newspaper, or a favorite blog, tend to comment on the same events. And an even greater thing is that they all typically interact with the event in a different way. The New York Times (as a reputable news source) provides the factual report while the Onion provides satirical commentary. I find this a much more entertaining way for the news to function. If I get on the Onion and see “Iran Worried U.S. Might Be Building 8,500^th Nuclear Weapon” my attention is caught. I’ll read the article, get a few laughs, and then jump over to the Times to see what real event it sprang from. Blogs provide the little entertainment needed to keep people interested; they don’t have to follow the rules of true journalism so they can be more creative. 

Sources in the sphere don’t always overlap, which is also a good thing. If we only had access to the same ten stories everywhere our view would be very limited. Take for example another story I read on the Onion: “Intelligent, Condescending Life Discovered InDistant Galaxy.” Obviously, the Times wasn’t running anything on aliens that day.