Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Frostburg students strongly opinionated toward recent media coverage

By Shawn Pillai


With communication tools such as the Internet widely available to all students, opinions about who and what the media covers are not in short supply. Almost everyone on campus has an immediate and assertive stance on everything ranging from American politics to atrocities committed overseas.

History major Sean Schnably from LaVale, MD claims interest in the 2012 political race. “Political campaigns always interest me,” he states. “The fact that it is possible for Rick Santorum to be our next president is frightening and relevant to all of us.” Schnably, a Senior graduating this May, also shows interest in the Occupy Wall Street movement. “I’m lucky to have a stable job in which I can move up, but many graduating students are faced with unemployment.” Sean defends the Occupy Wall Street protesters and argues that the movement was undermined by the media portraying them as “jobless hippies.”

Alex Brant, History graduate and English Junior born in Berlin, PA, conveys approval of recent media coverage involving Astronomy. “NASA has been in the news a lot lately, and I think it’s time to continue exploration of the final frontier, the cosmos.” Celebrity physicists and astronomers such as Neil DeGrasse Tyson campaign to re-popularize the space program in America. “However, some things just don’t belong in the news,” Alex professes. “If anyone had bothered to read the transcript of Sandra Fluke’s testimony before congress, they would’ve realized that Rush Limbaugh is a non-newsworthy hack that doesn’t deserve any coverage, good or bad.”

Student interest is not limited to events on United States soil. Legal Studies Junior Sam Einbinder, expresses concern for the massacre of 16 Afghan citizens by a United States soldier last week. “He killed children,” laments Sam. Incidents involving soldiers in Afghanistan reaching their breaking point serve as a poignant reminder of the escalating hostility stemming from 11 years of tension.

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