The Media: A Source of Information or Manipulation?

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The role of news media is imperative to modern democratic process. For most of the people news media is a dominant source of information about the world they tell us what matters, who matters so the quality of democracy depends upon the information media provides (Lewis, 1997). If we want to understand how media works we have to look at its institutional structure for example how it is organized, who controls and funds the media (Chomsky, 1997). Now the big questions is does all the information we get from mainstream media is authentic? Or some views are dominant while others are excluded. In past 30 years there has been a large research that the media is influenced by wealthy businesses and conservative interests (Herman, 1997). My thesis statement for this paper will be who really controls the media, through which filters media news passes and what is the credibility of information which through these filters. In this essay I will focus on the other side as well for example some people believe that the media have no choice but to depend on these filters if they want to work effectively. Herman and Chomsky (1989) present a series of five "filters" which effectively remove news from the media that could affect our current societal order and thereby protect the interests of elites. These five filters include corporation ownership, media funding sources, sourcing which includes government and large corporations, flak, and anti-communist ideology. This model suggests the existence of a set of news “filters” which dilute the raw news content into content, which suits governmental, and corporation’s interests. The first filter is ownership these are huge corporations and media is increasingly concentrated in the hands of these private... ... middle of paper ... ...m would have expired’’ (New York times, 2004). Whereas media boost public anger by reporting this news as Governor had a homosexual affair with homeland security in charge. Media didn’t report this news, as there are chances of terrorism in fact they just wanted to create fear among citizens. So this example proves that how media content was changed to create panic and fear. Thus in the end idea of a liberal media is a myth because when we do the systematic analysis of media institutions the idea of liberal media looks thoughtless (Lewis, 1997). As these five filters narrows the range of news and question arises on the credibility of media news. I believe the media are just promoting and protecting the interests of certain groups. Media should realize what the impact of the news would be on the audience`s mind especially when they believe what they see in the media.

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