Media Urban Legends About in Our Culture,

Media

Urban legends about in our culture, as Neal Gabler points out in "How Urban Myths Reveal Society's Fears." Some urban myths started out as true stories but were later exaggerated to become the hyperbole they are now. For example, some rappers really are from the projects -- the ghetto. Some of them might even have had someone pull a gun on them, or pulled a gun on someone else. Yet many rappers exaggerate the things that went down in da hood, because it enhances their reputation as a gangsta. A few might embellish crimes, because doing so makes them popular. Other urban myths are complete farces, like the alligators down the sewers in New York.

When I am in the line at the supermarket, I usually glance at People magazine with disdain. The covers are just glossy versions of cheesy tabloids like the National Enquirer, which at least does not pretend too much to be real. People disguises itself as real journalism about celebrities. As a result, it presents a sordid portrait of real people's lives. The articles have a certain degree of credibility, however. Because of the litigious society in which we live, the editors would not print anything that could get them in too much trouble. Yet I get the sense that they have enough money to cover the odd lawsuit settlement every now and then, because their sensationalist headlines and paparazzi pictures sell copies.

3. I recently wrote an essay on comparative religion with the works cited page as follows:

Das, Subhamoy. "Top 10 Hindu Deities." About.com. Retrieved online: http://hinduism.about.com/od/godsgoddesses/tp/deities.htm

"The Origins of the Universe." BBC. Retrieved online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/environment/hinduismbeliefsrev1.shtml

Whereas the BBC source is deemed credible because it is an established news agency with a strong editorial board, the About.com reference is not a solid one from an academic standpoint. It is authored, so a little more accountability is expected from the source. However, it is not necessarily more credible than Wikipedia.

My classmates' works cited are similar to mine, in that they contain a mixture of credible academic sources and some questionable Internet sources. The latter are easy to locate.

4. The paragraphs in Neal Gabler's essay are remarkably well-formed, evenly spaced, and evenly sized. The author structures his argument beginning with a clincher story, and then he progresses through an introduction to what urban myths are and how they are like modern fairy tales. Without veering from the argument, the author comes up with the thesis that urban legends are like dark, meaningless fairy tales because unlike traditional fairy tales, urban legends offer no hope for resolution. They are only built on fears. Gabler's structuring makes it easy to read the essay, even though it goes on two pages, which is a lot for an Internet article. By the end, there is a sense of closure and Gabler has made his point rather than leaving the reader wondering why I wasted my time.