Evaluation Argument:

Information Plus Satire:

Why The Daily Show and The Colbert Report Are Good Sources of News for Young People

Christopher Moore

Media commentators often complain that college-age students, along with much of the older population, are uninformed about the news. Fewer people today read mainstream newspapers or watch network news than in the past. Hard-core news junkies often get their news online from blog sites or from cable news. Meanwhile, less informed people use social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook for instant, unofficial news, often about popular culture or their favorite celebrities. Another possible source of news is The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. By presenting information and entertainment together, these shows attract a young audience, especially college-age students who shy away from newspapers or news networks like Fox or CNN. But are these actually good news sources? I will argue that they are, especially for a young audience, because they cover each day’s important news and because their satire teaches viewers how to read the news rhetorically. The content on these shows provides up-to-date news stories and compels consumers to recognize that all news has an angle of vision demanding thoughtful processing, not simply blind consumption.

The first thing a good news source does is keep consumers up-to-date on the most important worldwide news. Since The Daily Show and The Colbert Report both air every weekday except Friday, they constantly present viewers with up-to-date news. Furthermore, all broadcasts are available online, as well as archived—if you missed Tuesday’s episode, it’s easy to backtrack so that you can stay current. Content published in these shows is trimmed to about 22 minutes (to allow for commercial time), so only the most pertinent information is presented. Consider, for example, the content published in January and February of 2011, which focused almost exclusively on the revolutions in Egypt and the volatile political climate in Tunisia. In these episodes, the show pulled information from different news sources, both liberal and conservative, showing clips, news anchor commentary, or primary sources just the way other news sources do. In one episode during the turmoil in the Middle East, Stewart interviewed CNN reporter Anderson Cooper, who had just returned from reporting on the revolution from inside Egypt. Viewers watching Stewart might have had more insight into the controversial issues surrounding these revolutions than watchers of network news.

Skeptics, however, may argue that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report aren’t providing real news but just satire. After all, the shows air on Comedy Central. Yet even a satirist needs material to satirize, and these satires always focus on current events, politics, or social trends. Moreover, watching The Daily Show offers deeper coverage than many network news programs because it focuses on what is most significant or important in the news. Whereas network news broadcasts tend to move quickly toward sports, weather, humanitarian “feel good” stories, or “breaking news” such as fires, robberies, or traffic accidents, Stewart and Colbert keep their satirical focus on major events with social or political significance.

The satirical methods used by Stewart and Colbert lead to my second and most important reason that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are good sources of news: The satire teaches audiences how to “read” the news rhetorically. Unlike conventional news sources, the satire in these two shows unmasks the way that traditional news is packaged and framed, encouraging viewers to be skeptical of news. The satire in these shows functions by pointing out a new source’s angle of vision, which promotes specific ideologies and presents news with an agenda. Consider the satirical character played by Stephen Colbert, who presents at one moment a far-right conservative ideology, only to compromise these beliefs at the next moment. His dramatization helps viewers see how rhetorical strategies create an angle of vision. For example, in an interview with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, Colbert told his audience that he would show two versions of the interview: one of the unaltered footage and one that deliberately edited the footage to serve an agenda. Network news programs often employ the same tactics as Colbert, but in a much more subtle fashion. Editing may be one strategy, but opinion show hosts like Bill O’Reilly and other conservative news commentators employ a variety of tactics, like selective interviewing, cherry-picking news topics, following “fair and balanced” news with tacit conservative thinking, or any number of other methods. Showing the two versions of Colbert’s interview is just one example that reminds viewers that information can be manipulated, presented out of context, edited, or reshaped. Foregrounding these strategies helps viewers criticize and analyze the news they digest.

The satire on these shows also points out the absurdities and pretensions of politicians, media commentators, and other public figures. An episode that discussed the Wisconsin labor protests in early 2011 focused on newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker’s decision to slash union benefits and collective bargaining rights to cover deficits in the state budget. When protestors took to the streets, Stewart showed clips from CNN, MSNBC and CBS, that called these protests “inspired by” or “having strong parallels to” revolutionary political action in Egypt or Cairo. However, Stewart rejected this comparison. He pointed out that “no citizens have died, no reporters have been abused, and Republican Governor Scott Walker was elected with 52 percent of the vote—dictators like Mubarak typically hold about 92 percent favor.” Stewart’s point, in other words, is that comparing two dissimilar things, as traditional news media had done, is unjust to both the Wisconsin protestors and the Tunisian and Egyptian rebels. It belittles those Tunisians or Egyptians who had the courage to raise their voices against dictators just as it distorts the very different political and economic issues and motivations to work in Wisconsin.

Satire also points out inconsistencies in news reporting, or the logical pitfalls into which politicians regularly stumble. In a skit in which Jon Stewart interviewed a conservative political candidate, he exposed inconsistencies in ideological views about when life begins. On the abortion issue, the candidate argued that life begins at conception, but on constitutional issues of citizenship, he argued that life begins at birth. Stewart took these two conflicting Republican ideologies and used a humorous either/or fallacy to show their inconsistency. Stewart argued that Obama was conceived by his mother in Hawaii. Therefore, if pro-life Republicans believe life begins at conception, then logically Obama is a natural citizen of Hawaii. Either Obama is a citizen, or life does not begin at conception, contradicting the fundamental right-to-life belief. Arguments like these help show how poorly constructed arguments or logical fallacies are common tools of news media for political discussions, facilitating a certain agenda or ideological perspective.

Viewers of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report will not get the same kind of news coverage they would get from reading hard-copy news or an online newspaper, but they learn a healthy skepticism about the objective truthfulness of news. To many young people, entering a discussion on current affairs can be intimidating. Both Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart make it easier for younger audiences to analyze the rhetorical dimension of news stories, thus allowing the viewer to see bias and angle of vision. The use of satire is a means of allowing entertainment and information to mingle together on a critical level. These approaches to delivering news are energizing, providing an alternative to lackluster news sources that can make us feel like we’re drowning in a sea of information. The conservative Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly once called my generation “a bunch of stone slackers” who sit at home unengaged in politics and watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Yeah, right. But I wonder, where did he get his information?

 

As the CEO of a health system, you want to avoid getting blindsided, as you have been before, by public policies that are almost a fact of life and too far along to influence.

You used to have an officer with the title “Policy and Governance Coordinator,” but when the last person left that position, it was not refilled due to budgetary constraints. Now that the organization is in better financial standing, the hiring freeze has been lifted and you are now tasked with fixing the organization’s lack of policy oversight as soon as possible.

You need to define the policy work that needs to be done going forward and to suggest an organizational structure that supports it. The Board wants to know what institutional process will be in place for tracking policies through the policy cycle.

In particular, the Board wants to assure a process is outlined to identify policies as they arise on the agenda, that follows their progress through the policy making process, and that give them advance warning when it looks like policy changes (like rulemaking, modifications, etc.) would influence the health system.

The Board has authorized you to make immediate structural and personnel adjustments that can assure someone is watching policy developments. The Board suggested the possibility of reinstituting the old policy position, but they are not sure what such a job would entail, what reporting structure should be, and what kind of person would be appropriate for the role.

You must describe the nature of the work that needs to be done, what kind of person should do it (listing at least three required and three preferred qualifications), and to whom the person will report.

Be sure that qualifications cited are clearly justified by the description of the job, or if not obvious, please justify. Any other structural/functional changes necessary to achieve the Board’s goals should be outlined.

In addition, note that the person designated to perform these activities could be the same or different from whoever will be managing the actual implementation plans for HAC that you talked about last week.

With a very short time to accomplish this recommendation (and an impatient Board), you must develop a report not more than four pages long (this translates to 1000 words or less) to present to the Board.

The report can be in bulleted or outline form, as long as intent is very clear, and include the following:

Recommended organizational structure
Job description and reporting structure
Title
To whom the position will report
At least 3 required qualifications and at least 3 preferred qualifications (i.e. experience, education, and etc.)
Nature of work and job responsibilities
Process for tracking policy developments

you developing a theoretical and historically-informed definition of the genre of short story. As with any genre, establishing the bounties between one type of writing and another is an important step to understanding it better. (oral traditions vs. short stories). Develop a definition of short stories and then pull quotes from:

– Charles May “but even when the moralities disappeared supernatural elements, either from religious myth or from folklore- persisted these short fictions even as their focus slowly ” displaced” toward everyday reality by their accommodation to evolving social context”

“motivated by verisimilitude rather than by theme”

– Native American oral tradition

“audiences apprehend the structure of a story through the slightly varied repetitions of incident, respond to the characterizations highlighted by changes in voice volume and pitch or wait in the full silence of a pause”

– Mexican folklore “La Llorana”

-Ernest Hemmingway In Our Time, Indian Camp (explain differences in interpretations)

– Hemingway’s Primitivism and “Indian Camp” by Jeffrey Meyers

“The husband cannot bear this defilement of his wife’s purity, which is far worse than her screams. In an act of elemental nobility, he focuses the evil spirits on himself, associates his wife’s blood with his own death-wound, and punishes himself for the violation of taboo”

Paper #4: Research Paper
The last paper that you will write this semester will be an extended research paper. This paper will be seven to ten pages in length (more successful and fully developed papers tend to be at least eight pages) and it will present an explanatory discussion and related argumentative analysis on an topic of your choice from your general field of inquiry for this semester. In order to develop your topic fully, this paper will require you to engage in analytical, explanatory, and argumentative writing, each of which you have engaged in at various points in this class. This is an admittedly and purposefully broad and vague description of the assignment; an important part of this assignment is to be able to establish one’s own topic, perspective, and scope. At all points in the writing process for this task you are also encouraged to review appropriate sections in The St. Martin’s Handbook that can serve as models for your writing strategies.
In addition, you will be required to use at least four outside sources to develop your discussion, and the use of up to eight sources is acceptable, depending on how they are used. These sources should be from established, reputable academic and high-end journalistic media, but in some cases mass-media journalism and more informal web-based sources may be acceptable (subject to approval by Dr. Carlson). While in rare situations the use of more than eight sources can be effective, in a paper of this length the use of more than eight sources will often diminish your voice as an author, so use them carefully. How you use these sources is up to you, but keep in mind the following strategies:
• Use outside sources as supporting information for your own claims in the paper.
• Use outside sources to establish background information and/or the necessity for exploring a certain topic. Use sources to introduce a problem or a concept that you feel warrants discussion or argumentation.
• Use outside sources to inform your audience of current scholarship on an issue or topic.
• Use outside sources to introduce counterarguments and/or alternative perspectives regarding your topic. Likewise, outside sources can be used to deal with or refute counterarguments and alternative perspectives.
Also note that you do not need to use all outside sources with equal weight. Some sources may serve to provide you with a great deal of information regarding your topic, and naturally you will draw upon such sources more. Other sources may only provide you with more minor points of information, and perhaps you would use them sparingly at only one or two points in your discussion. The point that you must keep in mind is that sources must be used appropriately given the nature of your discussion.
In your paper you must provide proper in-text citation of sources according to the standards of your major field of study. (If your discipline uses APA style, for example, then use APA for your research paper.) This includes situations in which you quote your sources directly, paraphrase them, or make use of the general ideas of another author. You must also include on a separate page (not part of the seven-page minimum) your works cited, also formatted according to the standards of your major field of study. It is likely that your professor will be checking sources, both print and online, as part of your grade, so make every effort to include all necessary information regarding your sources on your works cited page. If you have questions regarding citation of sources and works cited, consult The St. Martin’s Handbook. Conscious failure to cite sources, both in your text and works cited, is tantamount to plagiarism, and can result in severe penalties, as were described earlier in the semester.

(1 )For your assessment: Write a critical analysis of 600 words on an issue of safety for the nurse that you explored in some depth, ensuring it is specifically related to Mental Health.
Module one looked at the specific rights and responsibilities of the registered nurse in a specialty clinical area, from the perspective of keeping the nurse and/or her/his patients/clients physically and emotionally safe. It also raised the issue of legal responsibilities and identified issues specific to the specialty area.

• Chosen Issue of safety ‘Burnout’. Also known as Compassion Fatigue. Burnout has been defined by Maslach and Jackson as a sustained response to chronic work stress involving the 3 dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and a perceived lack of personal accomplishment
World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) defines burnout as a “state of vital exhaustion.”
• Burnout us not a recognized disorder in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
• Physicians and other healthcare workers are believed to be particularly susceptible to burnout compared with the general public

References to assist:
VERY HELPFUL RESOURCE, PLEASE USE https://lifeinthefastlane.com/ccc/burnout/

Lim, J., Bogossian, F., & Ahern, K. (2010). Stress and coping in Australian nurses: a systematic review. International Nursing Review, 57(1), 22-31. doi:10.1111/j.1466-7657.2009.00765.x
Gifkins, J., Loudoun, R., & Johnston, A. (2017). Comping strategies and social support needs of experienced and inexperienced nurses performing shiftwork.Journal of Advanced Nursing, 73(12), 3079-3089. 10.1111/jan.13374
This final link discusses the concept of ‘burnout’, and although the focus is on medical burnout, the author makes some important and relevant points that can be applied to nursing (updated 2015)

Submission – Part B: 600 words: Information disclosure to carers in mental health (ethical vs legal dilemma)
(2) For your assessment: Write 600 words on your understanding of the dilemma of providing information to carers while considering the confidentiality concerns relating to the patient/client. Don’t forget to consider the ethical implications in your consideration of the issues (ethical vs. legal dilemma for nurses). Ensure it is specifically related to Mental Health
Module two looks specifically at the rights of patients/clients and in more depth the rights of carers in the process of treatment and recovery. It raises some questions about how the nursing profession views and deals with the rights of the carers and their need for information, particularly in the context of patients/clients who may lack insight in their care needs.

Disclosure of health information (retrieved from https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/mental-health/practice-and-service-quality/mental-health-act-2014-handbook/oversight-and-service-improvement/disclosure-of-health-information)

Key messages
• The Mental Health Act 2014 enables health information to be disclosed in specified circumstances, to ensure that people with mental illness receive effective treatment and care.
• Health information may be disclosed if the person to whom the information relates consents to its disclosure.
• Where a person is unable to consent or refuses consent to disclose health information, the Act permits information to be disclosed in specified circumstances.
The Mental Health Act 2014 enables health information to be disclosed in specified circumstances, to ensure that people with mental illness receive effective treatment and care.
Health information may be disclosed if the person to whom the information relates consents to its disclosure.
Where a person is unable to consent or refuses consent to disclose health information, the Act permits information to be disclosed in specified circumstances.
Disclosure of health information
The following people must not disclose health information about a consumer, except in the circumstances outlined in the remainder of this document:
• the mental health service provider
• any member of staff or former member of staff of the mental health service provider
• any person who is or was a contractor of the mental health service provider
• any volunteer or former volunteer at the mental health service provider
• any member of the board or former member of the board of the mental health service provider.
Consent
Health information may be disclosed if the person to whom the information relates consents to its disclosure. Health information may also be disclosed if the person to whom the information relates is dead and the person’s senior available next of kin consents to its disclosure:

Disclosures to relatives, friends, or third parties
In a critical care setting, it may seem unreasonable to refuse to provide information to a next-of-kin when a patient is seriously ill as this may be in the patient’s overall best interests. There is no legal definition of next-of-kin, although, under Section 26 of the Mental Health Act 1983, the patient’s husband or wife, including civil partner, takes precedence for taking responsibility for the patient in the context of mental illness. In this context, if separated, the partner remains the legal next-of-kin until they are divorced unless an alternative person is nominated. Channelling information through one next-of-kin places some limits on the extent of disclosure.
Information is accessible to third parties when requested by employers, insurance companies, and lawyers. Doctors are required to maintain an honest statement, not give opinion, and use substantiated evidence. Complaints procedures may also require access to personal data. This must be made with the explicit consent of the parties, although the GMC and Audit Commission are permitted access to records via statutory legislation

References to assist:
National Mental Health Strategy and Policy (please use)
The National Mental Health StrategyOpens in a new windowis a commitment by Australian governments to improve the lives of people with a mental illness. It aims to reduce the impact of mental disorders on those affected, their families and the community and assure the rights of people with mental illness.
Government policies and strategies for carers
The rights of Australia’s carers are recognised by special national, state and territory acts. This legislation underpins government strategies and policies aimed at making life easier for carers and those in their care.
Rights and recognition of carers (please use)
The Carer Recognition Act 2010Opens in a new window states that carers should be treated with respect and considered as partners with other care providers. This includes ’The Statement for Australia’s Carers’, which sets out 10 guiding principles that focus on carers having the same rights, choices and opportunities as other Australians. Australian public service agencies and government-funded service providers must ensure their employees are aware of The Statement, and that they take carers’ needs into account when developing and implementing services.
• Victoria: Carers Recognition Act 2012Opens in a new window (please use)

INSTRUCTIONS:
After reading the following instructions, see the case below. This is intended to be your individual work
and should be submitted to the Dropbox. When submitting assignments be sure to complete at least two
pages per assignment. A single paragraph is unlikely to earn the full points. However, when preparing
the assignment, please make sure that you pull the case from Lexis Nexis as instructed under
the CASES module. In some instances, although your text provides a copy of the case, it is not a
comprehensive set of facts and arguments. The format of your assignment should be the same as the case
you are referencing.
Conclusion – What was the conclusion drawn by the court?
Rule – What rule(s) is being applied in the case?
Application – State the facts of the case, reiterate the rules and explain how and why the rules apply to your
set of facts. Additionally, indicate why the court ruled in the way that it did. This section accounts for
90% of your points and should be at least one-page long. Make sure it is thorough and includes your
arguments for why the case was decided the way that it was.
Conclusion – Restate your conclusion from paragraph one.
CASE:
Hartsoe v. Christopher (Sup. Ct., Montana, 2013)—Hartsoe, who had legal issues in the state district
court of Judge Christopher, sued her in state and federal court for violating her constitutional rights. A
federal district judge in Montana dismissed the federal suit; the 9th Circuit affirmed that decision. The
state suit was dismissed in state district court. Hartsoe appealed to the Montana high court.
After reading the case on Lexis Nexis in its entirety, answer the following:
Decision:
What was the decision in the case?
Question 1: Why would constitutional rights not be treated differently than issues that arise under
statutory law or common law?
Question 2: What can a party to a case do if they are convinced the judge is biased against them?

In this section of the training manual, in 1 – 2 pages, address the following scenario

A customer currently has a desktop PC which, among other things, has a 970 Gaming ATX AM3+ motherboard, with a PATA hard drive that has 150 GB storage and 3600 RPM spindle speed. The customer is complaining that the PATA hard drive is running out of storage and is slow. They indicate that they have a budget of $200 and would like this hard drive to last for the next few years. They have several videos and photos that they currently need to store, which will take up at least 100 GB. They anticipate the need to store at least 75 GB of data over the next few years.

For this project, make use of the PC Part Picker website to identify appropriate components. Based on your readings and PC Part Picker, what do you recommend they purchase? Explain your reasons for your choice. For the “Parts Picker” research the “bay” part. It refers to the placement of the hard drive in the case.

After you purchase the hard drive, explain the procedure for installing what was recommended within their PC.

•What cables, if any, are used?
•What bay, if any, on the PC is used? ◦Are any bay adapters needed? If so, which one?

•What safety procedures will you follow? Why?

Be sure to list the resources you used in your research within the project using in-text citations and at the end of the assignment on a reference page, formatted according to APA standards. For help with formatting references in APA format, see the Reference page of the APA Guide.

To make an informed decision as to whether you, as a corporate manager, should acquire a
potential target company, you need to do your own research. This assignment will give you an
opportunity to get a full picture of a real-world merger decision by applying your critical
reasoning and analytical problem-solving skills to a real-life case study. You will analyse a
chosen deal and the questions should be answered from the perspective of a corporate manager
or a consultant hired to advise on the deal.
You can choose any successful deal “completed” before 1 Jan 2017: the only requirement is
that both bidder (acquiring) company and target (acquired) company should be listed on the
stock markets (not necessarily the same market for example, target from ASX and bidder from
NYSE, target from NASDAQ and bidder from LSE, etc.), which is necessary for you to
conduct some empirical analyses. Your main task is to provide answers to the following
questions (details in the following) on your chosen deal.
Deal motivation (10 marks)
Why does bidder want to buy target? Assess the strategic rationale of the deal, motivated from
the acquirer’s perspective with reference to the potential benefits, risks and opportunities.
Target evaluation (10 marks)
• Analyse the bid price as offered by the bidder on the announcement day of the merger.
Your valuation should include target’s valuation on a standalone basis using either
Discounting Cash Flow (DCF) method or price multiples method (P/E, EV/EBITDA,
P/Sales, etc).
• Describe how you would evaluate synergy in general (you are not required to evaluate
the synergy of your chosen deal). How much is the value of synergy as suggested by
the bidder, target or analysts?
• Explain whether the offer price is within a fair value range based on your estimation.
Deal structure and target strategy (10 marks)
• Describe the structure of the deal (off-market takeover bid, scheme of arrangement or
market takeover bid).
• Analyse the payment method of the deal and discuss the capacity of bidders to increase
their bid.
• Has target implemented any defence strategy during the course of the deal and how
effective are these strategies (if any)?
Market reaction (10 marks)
• Evaluate the short-term market reaction (for both bidder and target) around the deal
announcement and the long-term market reaction after the completion of the deal using
event-study method (check lecture slides page 11 and page 50 for a brief introduction
to event study)
• Interpret your estimation in terms of wealth transfer and wealth creation and relate it to
the motivation(s) of the deal.
Presentation and references (10 marks)
• Word limit: 1500 to 1800 including charts and tables and excluding reference list.
• Data resources must be appropriately acknowledged (in-text or in footnotes). Citations
and the reference list must be prepared following Harvard style referencing.
• You can present the answers using a report format or simply answer the questions one
by one. However, make sure to edit your assignment before submitting. The font, size,
alignment, line space must be consistent throughout. Tables and diagrams should be
numbered and captioned. You are expected to use tables and charts to summarise or
emphasise findings but the information in a table/chart must be referred to and clearly
explained in-text.
3. Marking criteria
This assignment will be marked out of 50 marks and he allocation of marks is indicated in
Section 2. The total mark will be scaled to be out of 25 marks, accounting for 25% of the course
total.
The criteria below will be followed when marking the assignment:
• The extent and quality of critical reasoning/critical thinking
• The quality of written English.
• The demonstration of knowledge of relevant theory.
• The successful collection and interpretation of relevant data. All calculations must be
clearly explained. Important assumptions must be justified.
• The extent to which the work is clearly and concisely presented.
4. Data resources
Recent mergers list
You can find the list of public mergers reviewed by ACCC using the following link:
http://registers.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/751043
Please note that not all the mergers reviewed by ACCC are successfully completed. You must
use completed deals to conduct your research.
It is recommended to look at large deals as more information is available.
Share prices and company financials
Morningstar provides a handy way to download past P&L and Balance sheets of most listed
companies. It can save you having to enter every single figure from annual reports into your
valuation spreadsheet. It’s accessible through the Macquarie Uni Library website.
• Go to: https://www.mq.edu.au/on_campus/library/
• In the multi-search textbox type “morningstar datanalysis” and press enter.
• Click the top search result.
• On the ‘Links’ column on the right hand side click “DataAnalysis premium”.
• Search for your stock using its ticker and then go to “Financial Data” and “Download
spreadsheet”, circled below:

Cutler, D. (2004). Your Money or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America’s Health Care System. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN13: 978-0195181326.

The reflection must have the following section headers and should be 2 pages double space in length.

I. Introduction
Provide a brief summary of the book and a summary of the key items that you learned while reading the book.
II. Impact and Influence
Discuss how the book has impacted you, influenced or changed your thinking on your intended or potential career path in health care administration , and how you might use the knowledge you have gained going forward.
III. Conclusion
Provide a brief conclusion recapping the main take-aways from your reflection.

“World History to 1500” has been a course about, among other things, the importance of encounters between civilizations. What has happened as different civilizations encountered one another has been at least as important for world history as any developments within a given civilization. You are to write an essay that describes the importance for world history of any two encounters between civilizations that we have covered in this course.There are many possibilities here! I am not looking for any two particular encounters; I can imagine quite a few that you could make an argument for. This means that you will have to think deeply over what you have learned this semester, and prioritize two examples to make the best case you can. Remember that you are making an argument. Use specific examples to support it