1. There is an old adage in the news business: if it bleeds, it leads.
In other words, bad news or sensational news is going to be prioritized in terms of attention and coverage because that’s the stuff that makes us stop and turn on the news in the first place.
Consider how that idea impacts how we receive the news and how it is put in front of us.
If it bleeds, it leads. What do you think of this? Is it a good idea or a bad idea for driving editorial decision making about which stories to give attention to and highlight? Please give me a brief (paragraph or so) critique of this idea and how you feel it impacts the news and the news media in either a positive or negative way.
2. Your author’s state: “Studying sociology is beneficial both for the individual and for society. By studying sociology people learn how to think critically about social issues and problems that confront our society. The study of sociology enriches students’ lives and prepares them for careers in an increasingly diverse world. Society benefits because people with sociological training are better prepared to make informed decisions about social issues and take effective action to deal with them.”
So, knowing this information, please describe what your authors define as the “sociological imagination." After you define it, please give an example of how people fit into society using your own family. For example, pick your great grandmother or great grandfather and state in a brief paragraph what values they would have learned being born in their time in history. Then describe the values your grandmother or grandfather would have learned in their time frame in history. Then describe a few values that your mother or father would have learned growing up in their time frame in history. Then describe one or two values you would have learned from your parents in your current time and history.
This exercise would show you how individuals fit into society and are effected by their “social location” -time and place in history and how the sociological imagination would use a broader view of society to define their values.