The Culture of Fear-- Chunk 2

Barry Glassner's "The Culture of Fear" talks about the different things we should be worrying about in our youth. Glassner says how the youth of today are at risk of suicide. And that to prevent suicide we should put tighter laws on guns because the kids that succeed at suicide is because they used guns. He also says how the majority of kids have gambled. How a kid got so much into debt that he "decided to end his gambling and his life". He also mentions how there are many teen pregnancies. How these parents are unfit to be mothers so then the kids grow up in an unstable household. Having an unstable household is what causes kids to suicide, to runaway, and and in the end get them hurt.
Vocabulary: None
Tone: Informative
Discussion Questions: What do you think is the main reason kids get depressed and want to commit suicide?
What do you think can be done to stop child suicides?

The Culture of Fear -- chunk 1( ch 1-2)

Barry Glassner's "The Culture of Fear" argues how the United states is scared of all the wrong things and ignoring the real things they should be scared of. Glassner states the studies done by various sources on road rage and on other crimes portrayed on tv. He then goes on and finds facts that prove them wrong and show how the media exagerates statistics just to get viewers. He also states how people ignore the real problems because they are unsure how to fix them. So instead doing something about them, they just ignore them and blow a different problem out of proportion. Making a problem seem bigger than it is "represents opportunities to avoid problems [they] do not want to confront". His purpose is to prove how we are scared of the wrong things in order to make us aware of the real problems.
Vocabulary: none
Tone: Informative, Aggressive, Sarcastic
Questions: What do you think is the most exagerated fear in America?
Why do you think the media prefers to blow a statistic out of proportion rather than to give the real facts and inform the people of what they should really worry about?