The Media: Is It Really all the Truth?

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Malcolm X once said “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” In 1990, fifty-nine year old Delbert Ward was accused of killing his brother Bill Ward. Delbert was one of four brothers who lived on the family’s land operating a small farm producing milk from cows. During and after Delbert’s trial, loads of media preyed upon the ill-educated man and the village like vultures. Given his impoverished surroundings and his appearance, the media depicted Delbert as a salvage who killed his brother on the same bed that they shared for years. The documentary “Brother’s Keeper” investigated the truth behind the death of Bill Ward. It presents the argument that media manipulates public opinion. Media does manipulate public opinion using many techniques to influence the minds of the mass. The media’s effectiveness, level of bias present, and types of the media source used to portray information to determine how media influence public opinion, as well as address the opposing view to the argument.
Various different media techniques are used to inform people about the important things happening around them, including guilt by association, making it funny, ridicule and labeling. Guilt by association is to link a person to something looked down upon by society. Another technique media use is making it funny. It is different from other media techniques because it uses humor as a way to manipulate people. Ridicule and labeling is a method in which media use interesting adjectives that fit the situation to describe people to influence how the public portrays them. (Victoria) When Delbert trial w...

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...Manipulates - World of Psychology." Psych Central.com. Psych Central, 1995. Web. 23 May 2014. .
Mckenna, Kristine. "The Truth Behind 'Brother's Keeper' : Movies: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky Made the Film Not to Prove Guilt or Innocence, but 'to Reveal Emotional Truths about the Human Condition.'" Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb. 1993. Web. 24 May 2014. .
Oak, Manali. "Positive Effects of the Media." Buzzle. Buzzle.com, 2000. Web. 20 May 2014. .
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. directed by Chuck O’Neil/ performed by Jon Stewart. 2012; New York City, Comedy Central. 2012. Television.

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