Meta-Aware Journalism

WINNEMUCCA, NV—Eight-year-old Ella Neumark said Saturday that in recent weeks she has become increasingly aware of how her adorable physical characteristics make her superior to unattractive girls.

Ella told reporters she has only lately begun to appreciate how her wide, expressive eyes, shiny blond hair, and flawlessly straight teeth cause her to be a far more worthy human being than her less appealing peers.

"I never really noticed it before, but my prettiness makes me better than every girl who isn't as pretty as me," Ella said. "The face I have means I deserve more attention than anyone whose face isn't as good."

"Mrs. Hothan calls on me all the time in class because my eyes, nose, and mouth are a certain way, and that's why she also gives me more time to answer questions," Ella continued. "She likes to look at me, so she's nice to me. Other girls don't get treated as nice because they aren't nearly as good to look at. That's so amazing."

Ella's growing recognition that her cuteness endows her with intrinsically greater value than girls who are overweight or possess thick eyebrows has reportedly caused her to see her friendships differently. The third-grader said she has begun to fully understand that she can in fact exploit her appearance to obtain benefits she believes she is entitled to.

"Girls who aren't as cute as I am will want to be friends with me, because if I like them, they'll feel less ugly," said Ella, adding that, conversely, the opinion of a girl covered in gross freckles wouldn't matter in the slightest. "I bet I can make them do my homework or carry my books or anything I want. If they don't, I can stop being their friend, and they'll be really sad and have to be friends with girls who look as ugly as they do."

"Isn't that cool?" Ella added.

In addition, Ella told reporters she has been equally delighted to discover her beauty has earned her significant advantages at home. Despite the fact that she bears a definite resemblance to her sister Melissa, Ella said her own more exceptional physical features nevertheless seem to have garnered her preferential treatment from her parents.

"If I want to go out for pizza or a movie, all I have to do is ask," Ella said. "I used to wonder why, and now I understand: I'm supposed to be happier than my sister. I'm really cute, and I get to have whatever I want; my sister has a really big nose, so she doesn't. I bet Mom and Dad love me more, too. Who could blame them?"

Ella said she was hopeful her appearance would continue to elevate her far above other girls and was eagerly anticipating being rewarded for her looks for years to come.

"I can't wait to see how being adorable helps me next," Ella said. "I'm excited to find out how far out of their way people will go to make me smile and make my problems disappear. My life's going to be great!"

"I'm a lucky girl," she added

As I read through articles on theonion.com, I found myself compelled to read more, and I completely forgot that I was there for a purpose. As I read and giggled like the schoolgirl that I am, I became increasingly aware of the metatextual elements of the articles. The definition of metafiction is fiction that draws attention to itself, destroying the illusion of fiction that we, as readers, create. In the case of The Onion, their news is most certainly aware of itself. The article above would never be published from a reputable news source: it is irrelevant, silly, and mildly offensive; however, the fact the The Onion presents the article as valid news shows that they are satirizing the very act of journalism. The authors are very aware that what they are presenting as news isn't actually news, but they present it in such a convincing manner that it could lead some people to actually believe it. They write these metatextual articles to make people question the news. For example, the article above. It seems legitimate, is well written, has quotes and photos, and could be taken as real news, but it is complete bogus. Articles from the Onion are not written to accurately depict content, they are written to make the reader be more aware of the places from which they get their news.


It is websites like The Onion that twist the relationship between reader and journalist. On one hand, we have the authors of the articles exerting power over the reader: they write convincingly enough to be read as proper news. If the reader believes what the journalist has written, then the journalist has succeeded in his/her job of proving that people are willing to accept anything as newsworthy as long as it has a professional layout and seemingly accurate statistics. On the other hand, we have the people who realize that sites like The Onion are satirical and metatextual, and then go on to question the role they have in discerning proper news from fake news. Either way, the satirical nature of websites like The Onion is, in reality, metafiction itself: drawing attention to the falseness to show a greater truth.

Radicalism in Print Culture

Nowadays, people take for granted how easily they are able to access any kind of information they desire. It just takes the click of a mouse, a couple of keystrokes on Google, and voila! All of your questions are answered; however, this was not always the case. We are fortunate enough to have affordable supercomputers available whenever we need to access information, but what about in the past?
About 500 years ago there lived a man named Martin Luther. He was a German priest who played an important role in the Protestant Reformation, wonderful things in and of themselves, but more important to this blog entry: he translated the Bible from Latin into a language that everyone could understand. This was revolutionary. He made the Holy Book accessible to the common person. Previously to his translation, only the highly educated (those who could speak Latin) were able to read the Bible, leaving the commoners to just trust their religious leader's interpretation of the words. Now, this isn't exactly a technology, but imagine that you were living in those times, and all of a sudden you had a Bible available to you to read. It's rather moving stuff.
Fast forward to the present day, and we have things like the Gutenberg Project and SOPA. Project Gutenberg was brought into place in order to "encourage the creation and distribution of ebooks." It involves volunteers digitalizing cultural works and making them available to anybody who wants them. Not long ago, this would have sounded like a crazy idea. Ebooks? Who needs those. Good old paper books have never let us down.
But this is not so.
With the release of the iPad, the Kobo ereader, and countless others, eBooks are becoming more dominant in today's society. Projects like Gutenberg are greatly increasing the accessibility of works, making information available to everyone that wants it for 'as free as possible.' That, my friends, is incredible.
On the other hand, we have the dreaded monster, SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act. Without getting into the technical details (not that I know much of those, anyway), let's just say that SOPA would give the US government LOADS of power when it comes to the internet. Sites like Youtube could be  shut down because of one link to a site that could be considered "dedicated to stealing of US property." Now, one in their right mind might just think "But isn't this moving backwards? Aren't we all willing to share information?" and the answer to that is "thus is capitalism." If SOPA were to be passed, our access to information might decrease drastically, especially considering how dependant people are on the internet.


 In the digital age, our access to information is almost infinite. Chat rooms, forums, social networks, search engines. All of these things can facilitate learning if used in the right way. But one must also be careful to note sources and make sure information taken is legitimate. There is a reason Wikipedia isn't a valued source, after all.