#artetv

🎧 Compréhension orale 📰 Compréhension écrite 🎯 A2 --> B2

🇫🇷 Bande-annonce d’une mini-série disponible sur Arte.tv au sujet de la dopamine et de notre addiction aux réseaux sociaux. À regarder... absolument! ----- 🇬🇧 Teaser of a mini-series available on Arte.tv about dopamine and our addiction to social media. A must-see!

Scripte 🇫🇷 “T’es accro’ à tes applis? Tous les matins tu checkes snapchat? Pas de métro sans Candy Crush? Tu ne rates aucun tweet? Instagram est irrésistible? Facebook addictif? T’es accro’ à Tinder? Tu passes tes nuits sur Youtube? Et tu pètes les plombs quand t’as plus de batterie? T’inquiète pas c’est normal! Toutes ces applis sont conçues à la base pour capter ton attention et te rendre complètement accro’ en activant dans ton cerveau la molécule responsable du plaisir, de la motivation et de l’addiction: la dopamine. - Ton cerveau reprend le contrôle ici -” Vocabulaire et expressions

First of all, know that Arte is an incredibly trustworthy TV channel, probably the most neutral we have here in France, with incredibly accurate and precise content. It’s not perfect, but it’s the nearest to it I’ve seen.

So I just watched the documentary I mentioned; unfortunately neither the French nor the German version have English subtitles (yet?) so I can’t really ask you to watch it but. The documentary deals with the funding of the campaigns of US representatives (be it on a local or national scale). The funding of candidates by private interests is basically illimited, because this funding is seen as an expression of the liberty of speech. And of course, as everyone knows, nothing is for free; while the private parties involved are not allowed to ask the cadidates whose campaign they funded for specific votes on specific topics, it is heavily implied that that funding can always be cancelled for the next election. So the question is, does it influence the votes of the representatives on a daily basis?

I’m not gonna re-write the whole documentary, but here are the main issues it deals with. It presents both point of view, for and against (though I’ll admit it might be prejudiced against) this system. But I’m no here to argue about that.

I’m here because this documentary made me realize that I actually know very little about the rules of campaign funding in my own country. Or if such a situation as the “red map” of 2010 (when the Republicans, who earned most of the spots in that year’s elections, re-defined as it is done every 10 years in the US the electoral districts, and made it so that the distribution of voters gave an advantage to the Republicans in future elections) is possible in my country.