TOW #16- (IRB) Bossypants

Most think of Tina Fey as a comedic actor who appears in SNL, 30 Rock, and Mean Girls. Most people, however, do not know that a majority of Fey’s hilarious jokes are from her talent of writing. In her book Bossypants, Fey uses her gift of comedic writing to convey a humorous tone in order to explain her life leading up to becoming the stable writer and actor she is today. She uses a mash-up of personal anecdotes and looks at them through a comedic lens in order to make the issue at hand not as serious as it once was.  For example, after graduating college Fey struggled to find a job. She explains an interview with a local small theatre for the job of a box manager. She says “We talked (meaning she talked) about playwrights we (she) liked. It was between me and another girl for the job… I tried a joke, ‘I like to think of myself as the most beautiful woman in the world. But where will that get either of us, really?’ The other girl got the job” (68). She turns a simple story about interviewing for a job with her comedic recounting of the tail. Also, in many instances Fey points out her own literary techniques. For example in this hilarious quote discussing her resemblance to Sarah Palin she states, “Lorne and I discussed the overwhelming public opinion (hyperbole) that I should play Governor Palin," (202). She put hyperbole in parenthesis herself to use slight sarcasm to show that no, not everything thought she looked so similar to Palin. This is another normal sentence she turns comedic through her hilarious tone. I could use almost every sentence in the book as an example of Fey’s comedy. It is jam packed on every page with comedic comments and stories. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

TOW #15- Fox says Dish is ‘censoring’ the news as blackout drags on (Article)

Fox News is by far the most watched news channel with more than double the viewers then CNN and MSNBC. If they bring in the most viewers, what would have to go down for Dish to stop showing it? According to the CNN article by Brian Stelter, it was a dispute on per-subscriber fees and possibly digital distribution rights. This article uses implied ethos and photo/video evidence. It is stated that CNN is directly related in the conflict at hand, giving the website of the article (CNN.com) an obvious up hand. If anyone were to know what was going on and to be held credibly it would we the direct source. CNN and other Turner Broadcasting channels were blacked out for a month in November, showing they are directly related in the conflict with Dish. Another way this article gets across its point is through photo/video advertisements. They link and discuss video advertisements by Fox showing they’re urge for viewers to switch from Dish in order to watch their channel because of the dispute. They use not only video/television advertisements but also online advertisements on their website claiming that Dish is “censoring news” because of the cut off channel. The article shows no obvious bias, but one can assume it is for Fox due to their history with Dish. The purpose of the article was to inform viewers of the conflict at hand and the true reasoning. It wasn’t so much to persuade, as there was no true bias to the article.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/11/media/fox-news-dish-blackout-censoring/index.html