Bennett (2011) felt that one of the biggest problems with bias in the American media was its “overwhelming tendency to downplay the big social, economic, or political picture in favor of the human trials, tragedies, and triumphs (177).” Shaiko (2008) alluded to the fact that the American news media is “accountable to the corporate conglomerates” and not “to the readers, listeners, and viewers (205).” Probably the most telling quotation of all can be found in Chapter 10 of The News Media: Communicating Pol...
In “Reporting the News” by George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry, the main idea is how the media determines what to air, where to get said stories that will air, how the media presents the news, and the medias effect on the general public. “Reporting The News” is a very strong and detailed article. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers of what goes on in the news media. This can be inferred by the authors’ tone. The authors’ overall tone is critical of the topics that are covered. The tone can be determined by the authors’ strong use of transitions, specific examples, and phrases or words that indicate analysis. To summarize, first, the authors’ indicate that the media chooses its stories that will air
News is all around us and is readily available to everyone. There are many flaws in the system that hurts the authenticity of the news when you see it. The media is indirectly part of the political system. Most news is either considered liberal or conservative by many.
All of us are sure about the mass media affects every aspect in our lives. The way in which we see our world and our perspectives are designed and influenced by the media; we are affected by what media tells us. That created two kinds of activities; one seeks for creating a better media coverage and the other group believe that the media is clearly a tool for the capitalists class (the government and the big business) to manipulate the other class to maximize their profits. Noam Chomsky, in his book Manufactured Consent, has argued that corporate ownership results in the interests of the ruling class being represented in the mass media. His theory assumes that the mere capitalist ownership of the mass media determines the content of the media. To be sure about this argument, In united states nowadays the 6 largest companies such as CBS, Disney and news crop owned the majority of media outlets. In addition to control the radio, television and newspaper; they control the advertising. Also there are other big companies; who are not involved directly in the media production; but they are major stockholders. They consume the audience and grab their attention through the
Since the advent of television networks, Americans have relied on local and national newscasts to inform them of the world’s happenings. In the 1950’s there were no other mass informational outlets besides the network news and newspapers. Today we have the internet, which allows independent research, but the majority of Americans still depend on network and cable newscasts for their local, political, and foreign news. With the responsibility and power of informing an entire country, are television newscasts as reliable as most Americans assume them to be? Most Americans don’t consider where their news is coming from or who is producing it. Network and cable news are owned and operated by people and thus are not as objective and unbiased as we would like to think. In light of the war in Iraq and the most recent presidential election, critics of television network administration are voicing their concern for today’s presentation of the news. Increasingly more Americans are demanding a rehabilitation of newscasts, starting with ownership.
When discussing the media, we must search back to its primal state the News Paper. For it was the News paper and its writers that forged ahead and allowed freedoms for today’s journalism on all fronts, from the Twitter accounts to the daily gazettes all must mark a single event in the evolution of media in respects to politics and all things shaping. Moving on in media history, we began to see a rapid expansion around 1990. With more than 50% of all American homes having cable TV access, newspapers in every city and town with major newspaper centers reaching far more than ever before. Then the introduction of the Internet; nothing would ever be the same.
News media is a powerful object that shapes the culture of which we live in. Sociology examines in depth, the subject of news media, and how they are biased in structure. Large media outlets have the power to report any event happening in the world right now. This does not mean that they will report on every important issue in the world right now. Media outlets are often unreliable in the content they report, and do not report every important topic. News media corporations are very corrupt in the way they report, often not showing the full news story or an altered version of the story to get more views. Most people may think that the news stories that are covered are the full stories and trust what the reports say, but that is not the
Malcolm X, a human rights activist, once said, “The media´s the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent, and that´s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Through numerous studies and considerable amount of research, it has become clear that the media has a significant effect on society and its perception. This applies to all topics, but mostly to issues that are difficult for the mass to experience for themselves. For example, our views of government and social institutions are largely based on the medium’s reports, not our own experiences.
In today's society, there is growing skepticism about the objectivity of the media. What engenders this skepticism is a feeling of unease and uncertainty about the objectivity of news coverage. As the media and entertainment industry merge into fewer and larger global corporations, the concentration of control over the media raises serious issues about credibility and bias. Although different people have individual theories of media bias, the consolidation and control of the media by larger corporations make claims of institutional and economic bias theories resonate with critics.
“If it Bleeds it Leads”
Nowadays the media have transformed its main mission of reporting news that actually happened in an accurate and objective way into covering stirring and controversial issues as news stories due to capitalistic motives. Moreover, today’s media took the motto “If it bleeds it leads” as a criteria to report any story. The aim of following this motto was to achieve high viewership rates and as a result gain more advertisers which will ultimately increase the profits. However, this motto changed the media from reporting facts into reporting sensational-fearful news.