INTRO/PROBLEMS The window to the world can be covered by a newspaper,” this quote by Polish writer Stanislaw Lec sums up the problem with the news media. It is the job of the news media to provide the public with news events happening around the world. Without these news reports, people would be oblivious to what is going on around them. Our lives rest in the media's hands, and they are fully aware of this. The news is a very competitive business, and because of this what gets reported is not necessarily what the story is. Since there are different journalists reporting on the same events, each newspaper and newscast has its own way and style of reporting. They also have different gate keeping processes that make them unique. They may do anything to get the story, no matter whose lives they destroy. Criticizing the news has become increasingly popular recently due to the fact that the media has shifted from a positive to a negative view in the public's eyes. Since every newscast and newspaper is different, the stories that they broadcast to the public may be altered in one way or another. As the quote above illustrates, the news media do not always illustrate the world in the right perspective and can hinder the way people look at it. It seems as though it is the job of the news to report only on negative aspects of the world. Hardly ever does one see anything positive being reported. This throws everybody’s perception off about the world around them. The media influence society’s opinions rather than having people form opinions themselves. Newspapers and newscasts use a process called agenda setting to keep the public thinking about certain issues while avoiding other issues that might be more important. Agenda setting i... ... middle of paper ... ..., D. (2003). So was saving private jessica a sham? Daily Mail (London), 18, 19. 8) N.A. (2004). Pentagon papers. Encarta Encyclopedia. Retrieved on April 14, 2004, from http://encyclopedia.com/html/p/pentp1ap.asp. 9) N.A. (2004). Watergate scandal. Encarta Encyclopedia. Retrieved on April 14, 2004, from http://encyclopedia.com/html/section/Watergat_TheWatergateBreak-in.asp. 10) N.A. (2001). The Pentagon papers. National Press Club. Retrieved on April 14, 2004, from http://www.vva.org/pentagon/history/history.html. 11) Perse, E. (2001). Media effects and society. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 12) Priest, D. (2003). Is jessica a war hero? The Vancouver Province, C1. 13) Todorovich, L (1997). Deep throat suspects. The Washington Post. Retrieved on April 14, 2004, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/deept.htm.
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Watson, Robert P., Devine, Michael J. and Wolz, Robert J. eds., The National Security Legacy
In this climate of deteriorating government transparency, whistleblowers expose corruption to the public which may otherwise never come to light. In recent history, whistleblowers have been vital in revealing government corruption. In one of the first large scale leaks, “the whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg leaked US government files known as the Pentagon Papers, whi...
Many people have no interest in current events in the world or even their own country, and are more concerned about matters that are more trivial, and even if they were to pay a deal of attention, common news sources are often biased and don’t release information that would hurt a certain cause. It is in this way that the citizens are kept igno...
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 controls our knowledge of the outside world. If we don’t listen to the news we don’t find out what is happening in other countries. The media can be very selective about what stories they broadcast; they will broadcast the news that they think the public will want to hear. An example of this in our world was the September 11 attacks. We heard lots of news about how approximately 7000 people died but we didn’t hear about:
It is not uncommon to hear people complaining about what they hear on the news. Everyone knows it and the media themselves knows it as well. Some of the most renowned journalists have even covered the the media’s issues in detail. Biased news outlets have flooded everyday news. We find that journalism’s greatest problems lie in the media’s inability for unbiased reporting, the tendency to use the ignorance of their audience to create a story, and their struggles to maintain relevance.
Pinker and Mack state that the news hardly show the good things that are happening in the world today, as “we never see a reporter saying to the camera, ‘Here we are, live from a country where a war has no broken out’ ” (Pinker and Mack).Instead the news reveals to their audience all of the violent events going on in the world, since the positive stories are not eye-catching enough to air. Pinker and Mack state that “since the human mind estimates probability by the ease with which it can recall examples, newsreaders will always perceive that they live in dangerous times” (Pinker and Mack). Since the news fails to give us the whole perspective of the world, we are forced to only view it through their stories, therefore neglecting us of the whole scenario. Through this neglect, there are more tragic and violent events for people to recall, and thus we would assume that the state of the world is falling apart.
Rather than being a neutral conduit for the communication of information, the U.S. media plays an intricate role in shaping and controlling political opinions. Media is extremely powerful in the sense that without an adequate functioning media, it is virtually impossible for a sophisticated social structure like the U.S. Government to exist. Henceforth, all known sophisticated social structure, have always dependent upon the media’s ability to socialize. The U.S. government generally will exploit the media, often times manipulating the enormous power of the printed word. Ultimately empowering the U.S. government, strengthening it with the ability to determine and control the popular perception of reality. One way in which government achieves this objective, is by its ability to misuse the media’s ability to set the agenda. Contrary to popular belief, media is in fact an enormous hegemony. In fact, separate independent news organizations relatively do not exist. Rather than creating an independent structured agenda of there own, generally lesser smaller news organizations adapt to a prepared agenda, previously constructed by a higher medium. Based upon this information alone, it is quite apparent that media functions in adherence to the characteristics of a hierarchy. This simply means that media is structured in a way that it operates functioning from top to bottom. This is also identical to the hierarchical nature of the human body, in that from the commands of the brain transferred through the central nervous system, the body responds accordingly. In order for the U.S. government to control and determine the public’s popular perception of reality, the government must shape and oversee the information that the media reports to the existing populous. This particular process of democracy is known and referred to by political scientists as cognitive socialization. However, many of us, who do not adhere to the cushioning of political correctness, refer to it as the propaganda machine. Numerous political scientists consider cognitive socialization to be the most effective form of political socialization. According to theory, cognitive socialization is doctored up information, which is strategically fragmented in such a manipulative manner, that the probability of its rationalization is highly predictable. The manipulative properties of cognitive socialization are so diabolical and Machiavellian in nature, that I consider it to be the ultimate perversion of the democratic process. In all seriousness, numerous intellectuals, and gentleman held in good stature agree, that cognitive socialization is the product of an evil genius.
The media is sometimes called the “Fourth Estate” because of its influence in shaping the course of politics and public opinion. Some people are influenced by what they read or hear and others are not. There is a well-known psychological process called selective attention. Wilson, Dilulio, and Bose define it as “paying attention only to those news stories with which one already agrees.” (290)
In our democratic society, mass media is the driving force of public opinion. Media sources such as Internet, newspaper, news-broadcasts, etc, play significant roles in shaping a person’s understanding and perception about the events occurred in our daily lives. As long as the newspapers, internet, network television, etc, continued to be easily accessible to the public, the media will continue to have an influence in shaping its opinions. Factors such as agenda-setting, framing and priming help shape the public opinions. Agenda-setting is when the media focuses their attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinion on, whereas framing allows the media to select certain aspects about the problem and then make them appear more salient. Similarly, priming works by repeatedly exposing certain issues to public. As the issues get more exposure, the individual will be more likely to recall or retain the information in their minds. This paper will discuss these three factors played out systemically by media and how our opinions are constantly being influence and shape by them.
Althusser (1971) explains that, as an ideological state apparatus, media doesn’t use pressure as a way to bind society together under one dominant ideology, but instead uses the will of the people to make them accept the dominant ideology. However, media is also used as a way for people to challenge the dominant ideology. Newspapers, for example, will have articles that openly criticise and oppose the dominant ideology for what it is, whilst at the same time providing perspectives and opinions on different ideologies (such as feminism) that society can believe in. Although these alternate ideological perspectives exist, they are usually overlooked and only ever reach small audiences. Ideology can also help us understand the media because of the way in which it distributes ideology.
Critics of impartiality often start by saying that everyone has an opinion and objectivity does not exist in practice. Indeed, according to postmodern philosophical critique, facts and realities are socially constructed and politically negotiated, and therefore subjective rather than objective. The concept of objectivity itself is taken to be a tool of hegemonic discourse, and science is just politics by other means (J. Tim O’Meara, 2001). What is more, impartial journalism can be ruinous. For example, sometimes journalists try hard to balance their stories from different sides but while doing so they come to the lowest form of journalism, to so-called “he said she said journalism”. It is important to realize that this lazy approach of reporting may present lies equally with the truth, which is hardly different from lying. This was the case of reporting the ongoing conflict at the East of Ukraine. European journalists explained the armed conflict by both, the Russian propaganda point of view and Ukrainian actual viewpoint. The outcome of such superficially impartiality was that some people and even political leaders had not perceived Russia as an aggressor that must be banned with sanctions. To point out, the problem of balance is explained by Nick Davies, the author of the book on propaganda in journalism called "Flat Earth News”. Davies gives the eloquent allegory to what real reporting is about. Journalist can interview a man who says it will be sunny and a man who says it's going to rain. Davies describes that the real journalist does not simply write up two opposite opinions, but looks out of the window. (Davies,