Two-Column Notes

Date: 9/14

Name: Gregory Silcox

Class/Subject: EDTL 2760

MR Title(s): The Democracy Ranking of the Quality of Democracy, America is NOT the best Country in The
World! - The Newsroom Clip
MR Source(s): Home. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2016, from http://democracyranking.org/wordpress/, Sorkin,
A. (2009). The Newsroom First Scene. YouTube Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=BJWKccHQFOA

Page #
Website

Website

Video

The Text Says

I Say

Notes (key concepts, direct quotes, etc.)

My notes, commentary

Quality of Democracy = (freedom & other

characteristics of the political system) &
(performance of the non-political dimensions)
The non-political dimensions are: gender, economy,
knowledge, health, and the environment

I think that this is a good representation of democracy. The

definition given by Google for Democracy is, a system of
government by the whole population or all the eligible
members of a state, typically through elected
representatives. The website accounts for both the
government and also the overall population. All eligible
members have a gender, part of the economy, have some
knowledge, health, and effect the environment.
US Rankings:
These rankings are very important. Overall it is good that
2008: 12th
2009: 16th
the US is staying steady in our rankings. But at the same
2010: 15th
2011: 15th
time this is also a bad thing. In the United States there is
th
th
2012: 15
2013: 15
always talks about being the best country in the World and
2014: 16th
being based off of Democracy. But as these rankings show
that we are not the country with the best democracy. Overall
I still think that its more important that we have stayed
steady and have not had a drastic drop.
Half way into the video a student askes Will if he
In this part of the video clip, Will is your typical American.
considers himself a democrat or republican. Will says Yes, some people are on one side or the other but most
he is a New York Jets fan. The professor brings up that people vote for candidates not parties. The professor brings
Will never said which side he is on; then brings up if
up a good point about Wills job. In many situations the
its because hes a news anchor. Will says he will take company already has a party that they back, and it can hurt
that answer.
someones career if they chose to back up a candidate.

Politics are hard to talk about for most people and like Will,
we avoid it for as long as we can until voting.
Video
The next student asked why is America the greatest
This part of the video gets very interesting. Im going to
country in the world. The women said diversity and
talk about the other two responses before Wills. The
opportunity. The other man then answers the question women brings up a good point; because in America there is
and said Freedom and Freedom; so lets keep it that
a lot of diversity (The Worlds Melting Pot), and even
way.
though the opportunities arent as great as they once were,
opportunities are still present. The man also brings up a
good point. America is founded on freedoms and has many
freedoms that other countries do not have.
Video
Will then breaks out and says that it (US) is not the
The last 4 minutes of the video are the best and most
greatest country in the world. Then he goes off on the intriguing parts. It is very bold to say that America is not the
other two people on stage about liberals and how other best country in the world. And it is also bold to point out
countries have freedoms. Will says that we are 7th in
what the other two people were saying, was completely
the world in literacy; 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th wrong. Then this is when it gets really interesting. Will has
in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, 3rd in
evidence to back himself up in saying why the America is
median household income, 4th in labor force and
not the best country in the world. It is very compelling facts
exports. We only lead the World in 3 categories;
and he brutally lays it all out there. This is what really made
number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of me think; that because of all these things that we are not
adults who believe angles are real, and defense
tops in should we be classified as the best country in the
spending. Then says the college students are part of
world. Yes, this country is great but we are not the best. I
the worst generation/period ever. And at the end he
think that Wills points really relate to the world today. We
concludes with saying it was the best and we have to
have so much bad going on and we are still one of the better
recognize the problem so that it can get better and we countries but still not the best. Also I agree that my
can fix it.
generation and future generations for the most part are
worse than the past generations. But the best thing we can
do is recognize the problem and try our best to fix it. As a
side note I really think that fixing the problem, has to be
with schools. Just look at how low we are in the world
standards for some of the major subjects, it is said to see.
Connections to previous MR: Before I write my connections I would like to say that this video was great. It was very thought
provoking and it just made me steep back and think; are we really the best country in the world? The video is a great
representation of how people are when it comes to politics. You are on one side or the other or in the middle. Relating it to last
week is why do we teach Social Studies; its the last 4 minutes of the video. Social Studies is for people to interact with other
countries, make them better citizens and look at our past. We are also supposed to look back and question; why was this done this

way; and can we somehow improve on this. In the video Will is very bold for saying that America is not the best country in the
world, with more people like that we can fix our problems and become a better country. Just like the end of the video; we were the
best country and now we have to fix the problems and we can be the best country in the world again, and thats when a lot of
people in the audience really started to relate with what he was saying. In the What is Social Studies reading from last week it tells
us what should be taught and in a way the website shows how good it is taught. Social Studies is about making people active and
better citizens and the graph shows, the opportunities and the people of certain countries. First in a country you have to have
opportunity and then from there people should and will get involved. And because of Social Studies we try to teach students to get
involved and become better citizens. So in return the country needs to provide those opportunities to continue to thrive.