The Importance of Being Earnest

in the Information Age

Presented to
Dr. Jan Strever

Presented by
Joe Student
In partial fulfillment of
English 201
February 22, 2004

Audience:  Readers of San Rafael Times

The audience for The San Rafael Times is an intriguing group of peoples, as they are both rural and educated. The families are traditional as the majority of them stay in the area after going a way for six years or so (college and world tour); often return with spouses from diverse cultures. Families are religious of the Protestant variety, attend church, devote from six to twelve hours per week in service and volunteer work, and develop a habit of critical reflection on their experiences, enabling them to learn more throughout life. Many are curious and motivated to learn and tend to work in environments that strengthen their ethic of social and civic responsibility. Many feel more committed to addressing the underlying problems behind social issues and understand problems in a more complex way and imagine alternative solutions; they demonstrate more sensitivity to how decisions are made and how institution decisions affect people's lives, and show a healthy respect of other cultures and value cultural differences; they teach their children how to work more collaboratively with other people on real problems and they realize that their lives can make a difference. What you do is more important than what you own. Performing Arts is valued, along with all other types of cultural events. They divorce rate is low, but live-in relationships are not frowned upon. No homeless people reside in San Rafael, as residents, have turned their garages into homes for the people, as they mentor the less fortunate back onto their feet. They know quite a bit about the topic and thus are sympathetic, yet they don't any reason to get "fired up" about such a topic