TOW #22: Written Text: Obsession?

This text written by CNN’s reporter Sally Kohn, a progressive activist, wants her readers to consider why we are focusing so much on the missing Malaysian Flight 309. While she clearly addresses that the story should be important because of the hundreds of missing people, she juxtaposes this situation with what else is going on in the world. Therefore, by comparing this issue to the many issues we face worldwide, she comes to a conclusion that when it comes to human behavior, people will only focus on the major catastrophes and ignore the smaller ones.

Kohn definitely builds her sense of ethos by including citations from people experienced in this field of study, such as writers from the New York Times, and also statistics from researchers who develop data in their fields as well. With this Malaysian flight catching so much of the world’s attention, the audience of this text could be any reader as long as they know about the missing flight because if they do not know about this current event, the rest of this article will not make any sense to them.

This text is quite successful because of Kohn’s use of juxtaposition to clearly illustrate how the Malaysian flight story has found so much attention on the news recently. By comparing the hundreds of people missing on the plane to the amount of people who die from cancer each year, the innocent kids who are part of child sex trafficking, and the women who suffer from AIDS. The use of comparison strengthens Kohn’s argument because the reader will now realize that while this flight is important, the immense focus on the story should be nearly irrelevant because of the issues we face everyday as 

people.

Additionally, the use of juxtaposition leads into Kohn’s conclusion that people only focus on the events that are unknown to us, such as the missing flight. On the other hand, we do not focus as much on solid evidence we are sure of, such as men and women’s 25% risk of getting cancer in their lifetimes. I think the author clearly achieved her purpose by truly exposing how “irrelevant” this story is contrast to how much attention it is getting from the public. 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/opinion/kohn-flight-370-obsession/index.html?hpt=op_mid