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Media influence on the public
Media influence on the public
Media influence on the public
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To start off, modern technology has made it easier for the media to publicize global tragedies. I have often turned the T.V. to see breaking headlines and graphic images. While the point of this is to inform the public of disasters and perhaps warn others, it is hardly ever the message received by the viewer. Darrin Drda, in his “Fear and Hate 9/11” comic, humorizes the fact that big news companies often present information unfairly and unbalanced. The media constantly portrays natural disasters in a way that reduces the sympathetic feeling and focuses on them as a form of entertainment. This defeats the purpose of sharing the stories of the victims. In an online article titled, “Hurricane Katrina-Rejuvenating the Mainstream Media?” Anup …show more content…
The more people hear of these disasters, the easier it is to accept them. Shocking ‘breaking news’ headlines have now become common and ordinary. In fact, different news broadcasters seem to compete between each other trying to announce the most surprising stories every day. The viewer’s slowly become apathetic to stories of other people’s sufferings and calamities. Many may say that there are good sides to the media’s involvement. Author Ruxandra Floroiu, in her book, Altering America: Effective Risk Communication, discusses communications regarding risk associated with hazards and disasters, she boasts,” [it’s] making it possible to track potential disaster agents, alert authorities, and educate.” Although the media and technology help these issues, the media often exceeds these boundaries and interferes with the lives of innocent victims. Writer Anant Bhan, further explains my stance in a letter he wrote to the editor of a previous article. He reminds “media plays an important role in providing information at the time of crises,” however one should not forget the people who “might be vulnerable as they have gone through a traumatic experience, might be in acute pain and distress and also in grief because of loss” (Bhan, par.2). Here he portrays that there are other ways of alerting the public without having to utilize suffering victims. Those people often times are not given a choice and are presumptuously interrogated. In his letter he includes how the media handled the Asian tsunami in 2004. He highlights that the care and aid for the injured are the most important things in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Those victims and family members that are willing to communicate with the media and have full consent should be the only ones being interviewed. Presumptuous interviewers have in several occasions surpassed the
In the book, “Rereading America” by, Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle, it starts off on page 210 describing a well educated Black Man of the times in 1960s. “Born Malcolm Little; Malcolm X was one of the most articulate and powerful leaders of Black America during the 1960s. A street hustler convicted of robbery in 1946, he spent seven years in prison, where he educated himself and became a disciple of Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam” (p.210). Here I want to focus on the strength of a single black man in the 60’s and what it was like to be uneducated as an African American. The many struggles of a black person in general were enough, but a black man had it hard.
When the media began reporting the United Airlines incident to the world they used sensationalism to create public interest. This sort of tactic is commonly used by the media provide public interest and awareness through the use of exciting or shocking language in stories but can risk the accuracy of the information (London, "How the Media Frames Political Issues"). Sensationalism can be seen in the titles of the articles and videos that describe the events that take place, words like “horrified,” “horrific,” “forcibly,” and “infamous” are all used ("United Airlines changes policy after 'horrific' passenger ordeal"). By using those types of words in the titles the media is able to catch the public’s attention whether they are watching or reading about the event. Similarly, this tactic was also used when BBC interviewed Dao’s daughter, Crystal explained how she was “sickened: by the event and that “it should not have happened to any human” ("United Airlines passenger's family 'horrified’”). This sort of language and the images of Crystal crying as she tell the press about what happened to her father creates emotionally charged responses from viewers and prompts them to continue viewing or looking for more information. In addition to gaining consumers attention, the use of sensational language by the media also helps stories go viral. Through the creation of emotional response
Hurricane Katrina was considered as the worst hurricane in the history of United States. The winds and the rain were shattering people’s homes which collapsed and flooded. Thousands of people were suffering and dying. People were starving, and becoming dehydrated. Many people were left on the street and became homeless. After the hurricane, so many questions were left regarding the widespread damage and loss of loved ones. This devastating disaster destroyed the city of New Orleans and nearby cities and was estimated to cost $80 billion dollars in damage. State and local emergency in the affected area were struggling to perform urgent response missions such as emergency medical services, search and rescue, firefighting, giving food and water,
The article “When The Media Is The Disaster,” by Rebecca Solnit discusses the accounts that took place with the media and the victims during the Haitian earthquake. People were trapped alive struggling to survive. Many of these victims became so desperate for food and water they began to steal. The mass media interpreted their actions as stealing, characterizing them as “looters”. Solnit does not agree with the media labeling victims as “looters” because victims are being portrayed as something they are not.
In this case, the event was the murder of 13 and wounding of 23 persons at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The event took place on April 22, 1999 and, because of the subsequent suicide of the two teenage perpetrators, observers could only speculate on their motivation. While students were still hiding from the gunmen and while the police were still plotting their strategy, the media coverage began. Perhaps two impulses led to the coverage. First of all, the victims were not the children of the Hutus or East Timorese or even the Kosovos. These were "our" children and the parents our "friends." Their grief could have been ours. In fact, in a month plus a few days, five million dollars were donated to the survivors and the victim families even without there being a major fund-raising drive (Morning Edition, NPR, June 8, 1999).
Some people decided not to evacuate prior to being told of the disaster heading their way. Other Americans chose to leave as early as a month in advance. Thousands of people had to be evacuated. You could see on the news reports of people on top of their rooftops, being swept away in the flooding of waters, sitting and waiting on help from responders or those that could help evacuate. Thousands of evacuees where African Americans who chose to hold on to faith beliefs, or riding out the storm, because they survived other hurricanes before. With these particular issues, some of the responses to Hurricane Katrina started to become racially motivated.The media focused on African-Americans and people in poverty. One proof that news medias were biased against African-Americans—one image showed a black person carrying supplies labelled as ‘looting’, while a white person in an identical situation was labelled as ‘finding’ supplies (Wiley & Sons 2007).
The transformation of America is often discussed in both popular media and academic dialogue. Each generation has a name, new technologies define new eras, and events seem only notable when they are “historic”. While major events catch the interest of a broad spectrum of the public consciousness, subtle interactions between actors and slight shifts in beliefs are constantly changing the realities of the world. When the twin towers fell in 2001, the United States seemed to be thrust into a new world of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Jihadists, and a global fight against terrorism; bombs were dropped, ground forces were deployed in foreign states, and anyone who publicly questioned the urgency of war was at risk to be labeled a traitor. This one event was indelibly branded on the consciousness of the world and if often seen as a moment of sudden transformation. Most Americans believe that the troop presence in Iraq and Afghanistan are due to the terrorist attacks on the United States and while it is hard to deny that the 9-11 attacks was the impetus for putting boots on the ground, it is imperative that the chain of events following the horror of September 11 are seen to reflect the willingness and wants of actors in control before the towers fell.
The initial response or lack thereof, to the widespread disaster in the Gulf Coast, caused by Hurricane Katrina, demonstrated high levels of incompetence and disorganization by government officials. Images of desperate individuals awaiting rescue on their rooftops, and masses of people packed together in deplorable conditions in the Super Dome, circulated the globe. There was no hiding from the painful reality and the obvious inaction or inability of those responsible to care for these individual in the wake of this catastrophe. (12, 791)
America has completely changed over the years in many different ways. To start off, women’s rights have drastically changed over the years because women have stood up and spoke their opinion of the matter. After World War 1, America went through some bad times, but eventually got through it in the end. They went through the struggles of who was at President and the debts of the people and the country.
During the eighteenth century, many milestones of American history were accomplished and can be considered major turning points for the colonies. A turning point can be defined as “the point at which a very significant change occurs” (“Turning Point”). Before America was known as the United States of America, it was just composed of colonies under British rule. After a long period of salutary neglect, colonists began to recognize the abuses of Britain and the importance of independence. Due to this recognition, the colonies were then motivated to unite in order to fight for what they felt America required. This spark of motivation resulted in the American Revolution and eventually, the signing of the Declaration of Independence; together, they were major events in United States history that are recognized as important turning points that led to important political, economic, and social changes.
We constantly hear news about politics or tragedy and the responses to these events often undermine the truth of a situation. After the terrorist attacks in Nice, much of the public responded on twitter with the hashtag “PrayForNice”. It can be assumed that these people were genuinely paying respects towards those who were lost in the tragedy, but it seemed pointless. The same hashtag has been used in the past for similar tragedies in London, Baghdad, Orlando, and others. These tweets have become a routine which lacks true empathy towards the horrific events. Perhaps, they were really thinking “at least this did not happen to me” or “ hopefully this will not happen to me”. Moreover, political figures, namely Trump, define the news in today’s society. These articles overshadow the “good news” that is happening in the world. For instance, does anybody care that “Italy sent two ships to help bring 629 migrants to Spain” (Toronto Star 2018)? It seems that all people are talking about is Trump’s visit with Kim Jong
In today’s fast-paced society, the metropolitan man is expected to have a keen knowledge of the world around him. Intellectual conversation is not only common, but also expected in the upper rungs of society. The media provides an outlet in which an individual can receive up to date news around the globe. Although helpful in increasing an individual’s global conscience, the media has assisted in deadening the senses of the metropolitan individual. On a daily basis the news is littered with images of war, hate and violence, the newscasters report these horrific instances with such a calm air and apathetic tone that they portray no emotions at all. Mass society is teaching the common man that emotions are not needed in reacting to devastating events that do not directly affect the person. Emotion becomes deadened by th...
In many cases, organizations have motives for spreading fear. In Lepore’s It’s Spreading, the response of the media to the “crisis” is a fantastic example of journalists working to create publicity rather than to inform the public. The Washington Post published Parrot Disease Baffles Experts on January 8th, 1930 despite the fact that many experts already had an idea of what they were looking for. A few days later, more news outlets published responses to the death of Percy Q Williams, one of the few victims of the parrot fever. The Chicago Daily Tribune published a story titled Baltimore Woman Dies and the Associated Press “announced that the country’s scientists had declared war [on the disease]” (Lepore). As a result of the media’s exaggerated stories, people felt a greater need to keep up with the “dire” situation. This began a trend that allowed media outlets to sell more papers. This tactic is still around today. A great example of this is the aspect of “urgency” most 24/7 news networks convey to their audience. Making viewers feel like the future depends on a story makes them more apt to follow
So are stories that reaffirm our humanity and the resilience of the human spirit – the drowned high school student, the 13-year-old boy and the 10-year-old girl struggling to come back to life from the brink of death – and, certainly, the story of an innocent 7-year-old girl shot down during a senseless act of violence. Stories of missing boaters and heroic efforts to find them are news as well. Even stories of aberrant behavior and politicians falling from grace are news. However, as I stated earlier, it is important to supplement TV news with other sources of information, e.g., a reputable newspaper, a weekly news magazine, or a radio news broadcast, for more in-depth coverage, insights gained from different perspectives, and any stories not covered in the television newscasts.
To a large extent, the job of public relations is to optimise good news and to forestall bad news. But when disaster strikes, the public relations practitioner's task, in consultation with legal counsel, is to assess the situation and the damage, to assemble the facts, together with necessary background information, and to offer these to the news media, along with answers to their questions of fact. When a client is under attack, it is a public relations responsibility to organise the client's response, usually involving several complicated issues to be both lucid and persuasive.