Gross And Gilles Argument

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America and the End of the World- Evaluation of Gross and Gilles’ Argument With today’s technological advancements, it has been made possible for the media to be a primary source for many Americans to receive information about current events happening in society, with a source that may be found trustworthy. The article, “How Apocalyptic Thinking Prevents Us from Taking Political Action,” by authors Matthew Barrett Gross and Mel Gilles, focuses on the predicament that the media is taking advantage of their influential role in society for views that are blinding Americans from serious issues by over exaggerating and instilling fear into the people. Although Gross and Gilles’ argument is valid that the media is using apocalyptic manipulation …show more content…
Gross and Gilles attempted to mock the media’s strategies by stating that, “…any event can be explained through apocalyptic language, from birds falling out of the sky (the Birdocalypse?) to a major nor’easter (Snowmageddon!!) to a double-dip recession (Barackalypse! Obamageddon!),” (Gross and Gilles 1), but failed to tie this reason back to their thesis and explain the reason of this statement and provide an actual example when media portrays these kinds of mentalities. An actual article or headline from a media source would’ve been more beneficial to support Gross and Gilles’ argument of them over exaggerating certain issues. However, to the lack of a concrete example it just makes the reader assume that they are to busy criticizing the media in a jokeful manner that it leaves their credentials even more in question. It’s as if they are not taking the topic serious enough and are just biased to their belief. Not being able to tie that mockery-style comment makes it lose its purpose and causes it to become inconsistent with their argument, due to the reason that it lacks purpose of trying to prove to the audience how dramatic the media

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