“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. Thus, this paper will demonstrate the effects of sensational news, and how the media plays on the cultivation theory using sensationalism to increase viewers.
Sensational journalism and its effect
First of all, what is sensational journalism or media sensationalism and what are its potential effects?
According to Mehrotra (2011), media sensationalism is defined as “style of reporting news to public which involves use of fear, anger, excitement and crude thrill undertaken by the media to increase the viewership, ratings and lastly profits”. Moreover, this technique is used for two reasons: first to increase the rate of the viewers, and the second is to persuade the viewer that the solution for the suggested fear will be demonstrated in the news story. (Serani, 2011) .Additionally, the key to the success of sensational based news is in presenting the news in a sensational - fearful anecdote format instead of scientific facts. Thus, the media is promoting inaccurate news as the reports are aired without fact checking and based on sensationalism rather than on accurate facts. Hence, this style of reporting inaccurate news has hazardous effects on ...
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The mass media has an essential role in today’s society as a channel of valuable information. Lots of people rely on media as the epicenter of information and as the yardstick on which they form their decisions and opinions (Agner, 1999). Any selection of messages in the mass media would have a profound impact on the entire society, this is according to Cultural selection theory. In the short story “Gray Noise”, Rojo uses this story to express his annoyance toward technology, but more specifically his most effective critic is on how society has overpowered valuable news with “dramaturgically crafted news” (Vettehen) and competition while desensitizing their viewers. Since competition has also stiffened up in are of mass media as the attention of readers, TV-viewers and listeners are fought for by every journalist. For this reason, every news media has turned to other strategies such as scandal-mongering and entertainment as tools of making a profit since a large audience is assured of such news even if they are not correct. Rojo’s views on critics of technology are widely shared among many people including the authors of the following studies, “Research Note: Sensationalism in Dutch Current Affairs Programmes by Paul Hendriks Vettehen
The media plays a huge role in forming people's perceptions of crime. Without the media we would remain ignorant to occurrences outside our direct social groups. The media and especially news coverage therefore provides us with an important point of contact with the rest of society. In evaluating its effect on popular perceptions of crime it becomes important to consider where most of the information comes from and how representative it is on actual criminality. If it takes "facts" (the truth, the actual event, a real thing) or if it is heightened to a crime myth. With a myth being based upon "exaggeration" or heightening of "ordinary" events in life. Crime myths become a convenient mortar to fill gaps in knowledge and to provide answers to question social science either cannot answer or has failed to address. Myths tend to provide the necessary information for the construction of a "social reality of crime (Quinney, 1970)." As crime related issues are debated and re debated, shaped and reshaped in public forms, they become distorted into myth, as largely seen in the mass media.
398).It is also stated that news divisions reduced their costs, and raised the entertainment factor of the broadcasts put on air. (p. 400). Secondly, the media determines its sources for stories by putting the best journalists on the case and assign them to areas where news worthy stories just emanates. (p.400). Third, the media decides how to present the news by taking the most controversial or relevant events and compressing them into 30 second sound-bites. (p.402). finally, the authors also explain how the media affects the general public. The authors’ state “The effect of one news story on public opinion may be trivial but the cumulative effect of dozens of news stories may be important. This shows a direct correlation between public opinions and what the media may find “relevant”. (Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry, 2015, p.
Through manipulation and lies, media manages to modify objective news into biased news in order to convince the public of what the media wants them to believe. The article, “How the Media Twist the News”, by Sheila Gribben Liaugminas discusses the major influence that news has on readers based on their choice of stories and words. “How the Media Twists the News” has borrowed from multiple other texts such as the books like Public Opinion and Liberty and News, news magazine writers such as Ruderman, and news networks like CBS through Bias, A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News and CNN to make her arguments valid and prove that the news is biased and that it does influence readers significantly because of it.
The media takes a biased approach on the news that they cover, giving their audience an incomplete view of what had actually happened in a story. Most people believe that they are not “being propagandized or being in some way manipulated” into thinking a certain way or hearing certain “truths” told by their favorite media outlets (Greenwald 827). In reality, everyone is susceptible to suggestion as emphasized in the article “Limiting Democracy: The American Media’s World View, and Ours.” The
To conclude, the perception of crime is greatly impacted by how media portrays victims of crime, criminals and law enforcement officials are viewed. Often media organisations over-dramatize crime problems to gain consumer attention. The misperception of crime to society impacts how the community live, and how the media presents an inaccurate view of the real level of crime within society. It is believed that the nature of crime in our society is not accurately presented by the
...it is the advent of television media that have sparked debate over the integrity of reliable news making. Print media was factual, although sometimes sensational, while electronic media made use of the technologies, such as videotapes and live footage to enhance and exaggerate the drama of the event even further. Many research studies have been conducted to show the effects of the media coverage on crime and how it influences the publics of fear of crime. Mass media has perpetuated a notion that crime is on the increase by portraying events and tragedies in the headlines that are sensational. The public buys into that idea, despite statistical accounts that reflect stable or low crime rates. The more stories people read and watch about crime, the more likely they are to think that crime is out of control. Politicians may then enact legal reforms to sooth the public’s outcry for crime control and prevention. As easy as it may be to hold the media accountable for barraging us with images and ideas that affect our views and beliefs, it important that the public take responsibility for the information that we consume. After all, there is always the “off” button on the remote control.
Many psychologists have studied the effect of the media on an individual’s behavior and beliefs about the world. There have been over 1000 studies which confirm the link that violence portrayed through the media can influence the level of aggression in the behavioral patterns of children and adults (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001). The observed effects include, increased aggressiveness and anti-social behavior towards others, an increased fear of becoming a victim or target of aggressive behavior, becoming less sensitive to violence and victims of violent acts, and concurrently desiring to watch more violence on television and in real-life (A.A.P. 2001). According to John Murray of Kansas State University, there are three main avenues of effects: direct effects, desensitization, and the Mean World Syndrome (Murray, 1995, p. 10). The direct effects of observing violence on television include an increase in an individual’s level of aggressive behavior, and a tendency to develop favorable attitudes and values about using violence to solve conflicts and to get one’s way. As a result of exposure to violence in the media, the audience may become desensitized to violence, pain, and suffering both on television and in the world. The individual may also come to tolerate higher levels of aggression in society, in personal behavior, or in interpersonal interactions. The third effect is known as the Mean World Syndrome, which theorizes that as a result of the amount of violence seen on television and also the context and social perspective portrayed through the media, certain individuals develop a belief that the world is a bad and dangerous place, and begin to fear violence and victimization in real life (A.A.P. 2001).
This research could be deemed important, as the influence of propaganda on the change in public opinion is relevant as the War on Terror continues to this very day. The two agents of propaganda relating to the War on Terror The proposed research will look at two agents of propaganda relating to the War on Terror, the American government and the main focus, the media. The four areas of propaganda that will be discussed are, condemnation of terrorists, remembering the dead, fear monger...
Therefore, according to, (Fear, 2014) explains that “Fear of crime can be differentiated into the public feeling, thoughts, and behaviors. The personal risks of criminal victimization, distinctions can also be made between the tendency to see the situation as fear, the actual experience while those situation, and broader expressions about the cultural and social significance of crime and symbol of crime in peoples neighborhood and in their daily, symbolic lives.” The fear of crime however, do make individuals react a certain way. Individual are more aware of their surroundings. Individuals look for the media to report on crime so they can try to protect themselves and their personal
Van den Bulck, J. (2004) “Research note” the Relationship between Television Fiction and Fear of Crime” An Empirical Comparison of Three Casual Explanations” European Journal of Communication Vol. 19, Issue 2, p.239-248.
"Journalism Ethics Online Journalism Ethics Gatekeeping." Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. .
...stence depends upon continued success in furnishing readers and listeners with a wide range of facts,” said reporter Julian Adams. By the public depending on media for information, they are making the media money. Buying newspapers and magazines are compensating those companies. Listening to your local radio station and watching your local news channel is compensating those companies. “Staging (fabrication) or deliberate distortion of news is against public interest,” said writer William B. Ray. Society believes in media and the media believes in the society. So let the society know the real data and what’s important. Knowing what’s important captures the public’s interest rather than knowing what’s fake. Falsifying News is legal meaning the media is allowed to lie to the public. Everyone has their own views on this topic but either way lying to the society is wrong.
Throughout the previous years, the effect of mass media has produced exponentially with the innovation of technology. Initially there were books, tabloids, journals, photography, movies, broadcast, TV, New Media of the Internet, and now mass media. Nowadays, each individual are most depended on the news media and gossips to preserve their lives moving within everyday accomplishments. We trust the mass media for the existing newscast and evidences concerning anything that is significant and what we must be conscious of. We rely on the media as a consultant for gossip, info, and amusement. The amount of authority varies on the obtainability of media. All of the customary mass media partake excessive impact throughout our existence. For example the 20th century port...
“Power is the ability to define reality and to have other people respond to your definition as if it were their own (Nobles).” People fail to see responsible journalism as a crisis because it is so convenient to have news media make up your mind for you. The foundation of our personal philosophies stems from irresponsible journalism through the major news sources we consume, the exposure to less responsible entertainment, and the biased reporting enforcing negative stereotypes.