Monday, October 17, 2011

JON RONSON: CHAPTER 7 SUMMARY!

The chapter begins with Ronson having a conversation with his friend, Adam Curtis. Ronson was explaining his visit to Shabuta, Mississippi, and the sculpture collection of predatory animals and his giant oil paintings of himself. Al Dunlap is a characters of interest because he  is hired to fire employees of Sunbeam which eventually leads to the closing of Sunbeam and the demise of  Shubuta. Curtis then goes on a rant about the "madness of journalism". Ronson mulls on Curtis's rant, and decides to do some research. Through research, he meets Charlotte Scott. Charlotte Scott is a relatively young retired show producer. Scoot was the producer of shows where raised on social issues, such as: drugs,incest, adultery, and cross dressing. It was her job to call the people who wanted to be on television and listen to their story. Scoot often felt as if she had to feel removed from the person on the other end of the phone- she was describing the process of dehumanization. People find ways to erase empathy and remorse from their  jobs, so they can perform their jobs better. Scott reveals a producing secret to Ronson. She exposes her methods of weeding out the boring from the mad. Scott would ask people what medications they were on. If they where on Prozac- they were perfect for the show.
I enjoyed this chapter. Mostly because it was nice, short read. I also gain some insight to how TV producers go by creating interesting shows. It was cool to read the job description of Charlotte Scoot, former bookkeeper of Jerry Springer, Trisha, and Jeremy Kyle. I always figured that the people on these shows where on some sort of medication. The interview of Al Dunlap really, didn't shock me. It wasn't as gory as compared with earlier interviews. He's not that "bad" of a psychopath.

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