This has been the most interesting chapter so far, especially the section on the immigrants held in the detention centre in Australia and the various elements to their story that allowed fairly disenfranchised and marginalised people to grab the national headlines and become the centre of political debate - and in doing so swing popular opinion behind their cause. I found this story interesting as their protest could easily have gone unnoticed had it not been picked up by sympathetic and powerful forms of media & social media.
The first audio feature "Debating Politics" was set in Manchester, but the first noticeable thing for me was nobody seemed to have a stereo-typical Mancs accent - perhaps Noel and Liam were elsewhere that day - and I'm not sure the vox pops actually helped move the debate on at all. When the academics got involved in the discussion they discussed whether they have a wide or narrow view of what is politics, and whether they are a political optimist or a political sceptic. While I can see where the arguments were going, whether the academics were Narrow - Optimist, Narrow - Sceptic, Wide - Optimist or Wide Sceptic but I don't believe it is sensible to pigeon hole yourself as one of these 4 options. It seems to me that it very much depends on the issue under examination, the position you take (given the 4 on offer) will depend on how the issue effects you (positively or negatively), if you can effect the debate or outcome and how the decision regarding an issue is arrived at.
The second audio feature, 'Reading across as well as down', is more about the structure and themes of the course than actual course material, so I have briefly listened to it, but I will listen to it again once the first TMA is submitted.
So, 2 chapters left to read and the TMA to be submitted before 1st November.
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