Tea For Two or Maybe More -

The "aboutness" of this  story
is becoming increasingly slippery . . .

Dr Phil McGraw's TV show on this coming Monday September 10th will feature Mark and Sondra Osterman, who are friends of George Zimmerman, and Alicia Stanley-Martin, the woman who raised Trayvon Martin on a day-to-day basis. A preview of the show is available.

I am linking to an entry on another Blog which follows this case because the blog entry addresses an issue which has become increasingly cogent in the Mainstream News Media: the relationship between Astroturfing and Semiology.

In the field of Semantics
they often say: The map is not the territory.

That means that the sign is not the same as the thing which the sign is describing or pointing to. This is an important distinction.

Journalists are taught to get not only the basic facts, but they are also taught to collect as much detailed information as they can because one can not predict whether some little factoid will become much more pertinent and important at some future point in time.

It has been reported that Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton were Trayvon Martin's parents. But what does "parent" mean?

The word has numerous and diverse meanings: sperm donor, biological parent, birth parent, custodian, significant adult, etc. It turns out that "parent" can be a fungible issue. It may take a village to raise a child if his parents are serial polygamists and busy elsewhere.

Who were Trayvon Martin's real parents and where were they after they abandoned the teenager on somone else's private estate which conspicuously warns: You are under surveillance; any suspicious behavior will be reported to
the police.

Of course the Dr Phil Staff has to come up with an "angle," because that's what the Media does. Will the "aboutness" of this story still be the same after the Dr Phil Treatment?

I don't know and can't predict that, but
I'm going to try to catch the program, too.

:: Last Refuge Blog :: on Dr Phil Show ::

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