EOTO Reaction- Blog Post #11

One of the presentations that caught my eye was the Overton Window. The Overton window is the theory that current news topics are being covered as they are acceptable, popular, and demanding toward the audiences. However, what makes it into the Overton Window and why? Sometimes you will see multiple mainstream news covering the same topic over and over again. However, sometimes they have different agendas, whether they are for or against the topic. The image to the right contains and image that I saw when the presenter went over the Overton Window. There are things that are considered to be popular, policy or sensible that get news coverage. 

News reporters and politicians must be very aware of issues that are impacting the public if they want their issues to be covered in the Overton Window. One could argue that it keeps people accountable to address real world issues that may be happening in our society. 

Something that really stuck with me was when the presenter talked about coronavirus and what that would have looked like in the Overton Window. For months all we heard about was this deadly disease that then turned into a pandemic, there were constant briefings and multiple stories that were coming out about Coronavirus. I remember that it got to a point where you could turn on any mainstream news coverage and in the bottom right there would be a number of those who had been infected, as well as though that had ultimately died from this disease. Prior to this mask wearing and social distancing would have simply been unheard before January 2020. This news would have never made it into the Overton Window.

Overall the presenter did a really nice job on how the Overton Window is constantly changing and adapting to keep up with our ever changing lives. Even though most people do not even know that the Overton Window exists, it would go on to influence our news for decades and even generations to comes.