Argue - Politics & Culture

      (1) Kenneth Cole is a credible clothing company that also partners up with an organization called Take Part. The political cause that Take Part addresses is the world’s most pressing challenges which include but is not limited to the environment, social justice, human rights, global health and development, food, and education. The goals are to bring awareness and touch individual’s lives, families and community to show how these issues affect lives. The Kenneth Cole foundation wants to raise awareness that supports organizations that foster health, end homelessness.  The foundation has teamed up with not just Take Part but the St. Luke’s Foundation for Haiti, which provides education and aid in the island nation, Help USA which works to end homelessness, particularly among veterans, and Sundance Institute that nurtures and develops some of America’s most talented filmmakers. Although Kenneth Cole INC is having its roots in clothing, it does unite with organizations for world changing causes. (2) I think that social groups have played the strongest role in my political socialization of the four agents of socialization that are identified in the textbook. The reason for this is that since going to college, I have lived in Wilmington and Charlotte, where I established friend groups that were unique in and of themselves, but which were especially different from my high school friends. Along the way I have met a much more diverse group of people and seen many more viewpoints than are possible through family, school, and the media today. And I have certainly benefited intellectually from discussion with my social groups than from watching opposing sides bicker on cable news, from many of my biased family members, and more than could solely be provided through school. One agent that I think could be added to the agents of political socialization is distinguishing media from its various different components. For example, you could distinguish print media and books from internet communication. I believe this could be useful in distinguishing how different the two modes truly are from each other, and could provide useful in looking at where extremist views are most prevalent or which format is more fact based.