Primetime War on Drugs & Terror

At the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, we've produced research demonstrating the profound impact that televised entertainment can have on audiences. Whether we like it or not, people are moved by entertainment content and, if the depictions seem realistic, there is a good chance they will apply what they see on the screen to their lives.This is one reason that we decided to develop a research project with the American Civil Liberties Union that would help us understand what Americans (and the rest of the world) might be learning about the War on Terror and the War on Drugs from the most popular shows on U.S. television (which are watched by billions of people around the world). With the assistance of Princeton Survey Research Associates International, we conducted a very detailed analysis of 49 recent episodes of popular primetime dramas (Fig. 2).We selected episodes that addressed the War on Terror or the War on Drugs from ten highly-rated one hour network dramas: 24, CSI, CSI: Miami, The Good Wife, House, Law & Order, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Law & Order: SVU, NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles. All of the episodes aired during 2010, except for eight shows which aired in late 2009 as part of the network 2009-10 season. The aim was to analyze how terror or drugrelated plots were portrayed rather than to assess how frequently these plots appeared. We subjected each episode to a codebook with 145 variables and over 800 sub-variables (see the Methodology section on page 27 for more details). In an effort to contextualize this research and how it might come into dialogue with other conversations about the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, we include recent public opinion survey data about these wars as well as data about how the government and the justice system, in particular, are conducting them. We think viewing these three types of data together -- that is, depictions on television, public opinion and statistics about real world practices -- is the best way to begin an informed conversation about how these wars are being carried out and understood in America

The drill down

textThe town of Millerton, Pa., has always been a small, rural farming community. Settled atop of the famed Marcellus Shale in the foothills of the Appalachians, there have always been rumors of natural gas in the hills around town. In 2008, natural gas companies arrived and began drilling. For a select few lucky enough to have property around the gas wells, their arrival means big money. But not all residents will get so lucky. For many folks in Millerton, the arrival of the gas companies means more traffic, more pollution, more crime and more inconvenience without a monthly royalty check to buffer the pain. The sheer amount of natural gas scientists predict is in the Marcellus Shale will forever change how the U.S. and the rest of the world use energy. Politicians tout it as liberation from foreign oil. Scientists see it as an alternative to “dirty” coal. For this small town, natural gas means change. The money the natural gas companies are pumping into this local economy will change the lives of the townsfolk- and the town itself- forever.Journalis

The Cowl - v.62 - n.6 - Oct 9, 1997

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 62, Number 6 - Oct 9, 1997. 24 pages

THE DANGERS OF FIGHTING TERRORISM WITH TECHNOCOMMUNITARIANISM: CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS OF FREE EXPRESSION, EXPLORATION, AND UNMONITORED ACTIVITY IN URBAN SPACES

Part I of this article examines how some commentators can plausibly argue that constitutional liberty and privacy protections do not protect the individual liberty and privacy that modern individuals have come to expect in many public spaces, particularly in urban environments. Constitutional liberalism, this section points out, makes this question a difficult one, because it is marked by scrupulous neutrality towards different visions of “the good life.” In other words, the constitutional order does not condemn those who choose a communitarian way of life and favor those who prefer individualism. Rather, it tolerates both of these (and other) preferences about one’s social and cultural environment, and leaves citizens free to opt for the life of their choice. Part II suggests that it is difficult to make sense of our modern jurisprudence of First Amendment rights, especially as they relate to anonymous communication and association on the Internet and elsewhere, unless one allows room in our constitutional law for a jurisprudence that “captures” and preserves social incarnations of liberty and privacy that were not yet in existence when theConstitution was drafted. Therefore, it is possible for for courts and others to find that freedom-enabling institutions that did not exist earlier in American history, and might cease to exist in the future, deserve certain constitutional protection while they are here. Part III explains that like the virtual liberation offered by the Internet, city life offered and continues to offer an invaluable refuge for substantial expressive activity and intellectual exploration that would be far more elusive without this type of urban existence. It provides individuals with an incredibly rich bazaar of ideas, and allows them to browse among these deas, substantially free from outside monitoring or control. While First Amendment law does not single out urban environments for protection, it protects such environments indirectly by preserving certain opportunities that are characteristic of modern urban life: opportunities for giving speeches to large crowds, for confronting strangers with ideas they may find unfamiliar or provocative, or for speaking or gathering information in the anonymity of the crowd

Silver Screen Tarnishes Unions

[Excerpt] Organizing a film festival of pro-labor Hollywood films would be rather difficult. When unions do appear, they are often part of the subplot or the background for the main story line

The Cowl - v. 70 - n. 4 - Sept 22, 2005

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 70 - Number 4 - September 22, 2005. 24 pages

Spartan Daily, November 1, 1985

Volume 85, Issue 46https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/7367/thumbnail.jp