Saturday, January 30, 2016

Evaluation of News Magazine Stories

Online news magazines can be a great way to find current and past information.  This post is going to look at a couple of these stories and analyze their arguments.

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Story #1:  "Here's How Hard it will be to Unpoison Flint's Water" - Wired.

1. What is the debate, disagreement or argument in the story about? Explain concisely, but with specificity and precision. Name specific people, places, things, events, dates, times and/or other identifying details.

The debate/argument in this story is about how the state of Michigan is arguing that it can only get Flint, Michigan's water problem fixed in nearly 15 years, while the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters are saying they can get the job done in 2 years but they need the funding.  Flint, Michigan has been under a water health crisis for a few weeks due to poor political management by the state and governor Rick Snyder.

2. Who is the most sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why do they evoke feelings of sympathy from you?

The most sympathetic characters in this story are the people of Flint, Michigan, who are living without access to running water due to the unsafe lead levels in the city's water.  I am sympathetic towards the people of Flint have done nothing to deserve what is happening to them.  The people are being forced to take baths with bottled water which is terrible.

3. Who is the least sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why can't you easily sympathize with them?

The least sympathetic character(s) in this story are Michigan governor Rick Snyder and other politicians in Michigan.  It is due to these politicians and their decisions that led to the Flint health disaster.


Story #2 "Millennials' Political Views Don't Make Any Sense" - The Atlantic

1. What is the debate, disagreement or argument in the story about? Explain concisely, but with specificity and precision. Name specific people, places, things, events, dates, times and/or other identifying details.

The argument in this story is that the millennials (people between 18-29)  do not know much about politics, and are wholly wishy-washy.  The article brings up various polls and surveys taken by millennials and analyzes how little political knowledge the results of these polls show millennials have.

2. Who is the most sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why do they evoke feelings of sympathy from you?

The sympathetic character in this story would be moderate, non-millennials.  They are involved because they have to deal with the misguided political decisions that millennials make.  They evoke feelings of sympathy because after seeing what the millennials believe in, it makes me feel bad that other people have to deal with these sketchy political decisions.

3. Who is the least sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why can't you easily sympathize with them?

The least sympathetic character in this story would be the millennials.  The millennials are young adults between ages 18-29, and are the main focus of the story.  It is easy to not sympathize with them because the entire article is just pointing out the flawed way of thinking the millennials have in regards to politics.  On a little side note, it is kind of startling to see how many millennials want socialism.

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