Question 2:
When the author states: “Of course, the entertainment industry isn’t increasing the cognitive complexity of its products for charitable reasons. The Sleeper Curve exists because there’s money to be made by making culture smarter,” he is proving his over-all argument that TV producers are making TV more difficult to follow and full of information to make America smarter. When the majority of young people are spending more than a few hours a day watching TV, the best way to get knowledge to them is through the TV shows that they watch. Steven Johnson uses his essay to show how the entertainment industry is becoming more complex and intellectual, making it more beneficial to the country as a whole.
Question 3:
When Jennifer Pozner says: “…anti-Rosie backlash is indicative of nothing so much as the stiflingly limited range of debate allowed within the corporate media, whose gatekeepers want to erase true leftist dissent in America,” she is trying to show how the corporate media is trying to squash the opinions of those who do not share the same ones as they do. Right wing commentators such as Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Tucker Carlson did all they could to encourage ABC producers to fire Rosie O’Donnell, because of her ability to speak her mind, which they may not have agreed with. I think that Pozner makes a great point, but there is nothing that can be done about it. We live in a country where the press has the right to print and say whatever they want (to a point), and just as Rosie had the right to voice her opinions, the hosts of shows on Fox and MSNBC have the right to bash her just as she does them.
