Web Blog Post #2

Chapter 4:

· Notorious trials are fantasies, and a mechanism to repress cultural anxiety. This cultural anxiety includes moral anxiety, epistemological anxiety, and socioeconomic anxiety.

· All notorious trials carry hidden social costs, and every notorious trial denies factual reality, results in a cultural debt that must be paid. This debt is paid must be paid, and comes back to haunt use through future notorious trials.

· Notorious trials can be a catalyst for social and cultural change, but rarely is this opportunity taken advantage of. In most occasions, the social or cultural issue is not addressed, and therefore, must come back to haunt us in the future. The use of “No society, no individual, can be at peace with himself if his past is repressed is dishonest” in regards to the Nazi Holocaust, was very persuasive (Page 77).

· Notorious cases serve as social barometers of their time.

Chapter 5:

· By nature, court cases are messy. Lawyers must make the decision of whether they want to portray a case as neat and whether or not to leave out details. The details of the case are change its meaning. The case of Randall Dale Adams is an example of this point.

· The modernist’s mindset for certainty and closure provide reasoning behind a lawyer’s urge to make a case neat.

· Due to the fact that the verdict of a case can result in grave consequences to the individual convicted, it is important that the judge and jurors make the correct decision.

· Some lawyers use techniques to undermine the rationality of an argument by leaving out pertinent details or bringing the focus away from an argument. They may do this to confuse jurors.

Chapter 6:

· Culture teaches individuals how to perceive, speak, think, and feel. It defines the world around us, giving us knowledge to base opinions off of.

· The manner in which the media manipulates and proposes facts spark the attention of the public, not necessarily the fact itself.

· There is a close relationship between popular culture and public opinion. An individuals perception of personal and social reality may be manipulated through mass media and the images it presents. Television is the main medium for this manipulation.

· Television viewers are attracted to programs that provide entertainment while giving quick gratification through intellectual relaxation, emotional excitement, and escapism. (Page 143) The media takes advantage of this resulting in the manipulation of individual’s social and cultural reality.