Probably the most obvious topic on a blog about media and power are elections. The event which is about gaining power and is widely commented. The elections were topic of one of my favourite TV show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
General elections (so called Midterm elections) were held on Tuesday, November 4, 2014. Media across the world focused on the Congress elections, but John Oliver says that this attention is unjustified, mostly because this Congress is the least productive in history(the TV show was aired before the elections, now we know that Republicans have won, so it will probably be even less productive). The most important part of those elections is for state legislatures.
State legislatures (legislative body of any of the states) pass way more laws than the Congress, and those laws have usually a big impact on lives of the citizens. Minimum wage, gay rights, abortion and guns laws or environmental legislature - those are all issues that state legislatures deal with. Of course, there are some silly laws and weird behaviours (check out the video to see what politicians do during debates) and the problem is that those are usually facts that state legislatures are famous for.
The main focus is how important is to know who is in a local Congress, unfortunately many candidates have no opponents so they won without a fight (and I bet that many of the presented candidates would have problems winning against anybody).
Topic of elections is usually presented in a serious way, but I simply love the hilarious way that John Oliver presents basically any topic also significant(theoretically not funny) one - try to watch an episode about the death penalty. Many of his videos are much more informative than many of those in a regular news and makes you want to find out something more about the presented issue.
Writing about John Oliver and his show(and others similar shows) was one of my first ideas for my bachelor thesis, but that is not the only reason why I write about right now. On this Sunday there are local elections in Poland. So encouraged by John Oliver, find out who your candidates are and vote! :)
Thank you for sharing this hilarious show! And you're absolutely right about its informative value. The baseline for you would be to think of a thesis statement which would "unite" these shows in a meaningful way. I guess that's your homework for next week :) Great job! And a big "wow" for your civic attitude about elections in Poland!
Thank you for sharing this hilarious show! And you're absolutely right about its informative value. The baseline for you would be to think of a thesis statement which would "unite" these shows in a meaningful way. I guess that's your homework for next week :) Great job! And a big "wow" for your civic attitude about elections in Poland!
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