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Influence of the media on society
The influence of the media on society
What influence does the media have on our society
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This essay attempt to provide a critical analysis of the role of media in empowering the voices of challenger groups such as protesters, terrorists, activists etc. and the implications of unchecked interactions with these marginalised groups by media. A one piece write up is adopted to address the argument put forward in order to attain the objective of this paper in a systematic manner.
News media is a significant part of the daily activities and experience of the society. The news media disseminate of information to large and heterogeneous audiences. What the media represent as an important topic of discussion often appears relevant to the society, affecting the public’s opinions. Public opinion is vital especially in democratic states. Reporting
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Stories can be reported based on cultural and ideological bias. Journalist’s preference for certain kinds of stories and their views on them influence the public’s opinion about political actors and events. Citizens accept media messages without interpreting them because making sense of media content requires skills and clues (Street, 2010: 54). Hence, their opinions are influenced by news depending on the message or their exposure and beliefs. Media controls what goes outside and its effect on the people is unconscious. The media’s effect on the citizens is often unintentional and unnoticed. Reporting of events is not made to be equal or even objective. “News is always partial and biased as a result of the circumstances in which it is produced.” (Hodkinson, 2010: 147). Objective journalism is difficult to evaluate because of the journalists preference of certain stories. While the media may appear to react in a political conflict as objective, Wolfsfeld argues that news frames are
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.
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.
The two key terms “agenda setting” and “gotcha” journalism are going to be used within this paper to show you how politicians and news organizations try to persuade the public. The “agenda setting” is a term that “involves using the news to influence what the public regards as important for them to think about in society and politics.” (Bennett, Lance pg. 23) This is a major tool for news organizations or politicians to seek a public relation toward a certain aspect that they’re addressing their agenda and framing it to formulate their partisan viewpoints. Now for “gotcha” jour...
First, the role of the media is to represent the public and intervene between the public and the government. The media is a mirror, which re...
The news media rejects the fact that they are biased. They claim that they are the “middle of the road,” and are neutral on the stories that they cover. Publishers also claim that they are the watchdog for the political system, and they make sure that the system is free of any corruption, or wrongdoing. Th...
There for we say yes, media can have a sizeable political impact, especially when a politician controls a substantial share of the media. Media is therefore bad for democracy. Stated throughout this paper is the level of bias that is displayed in the media. This level of bias sways the public far right or far left. Their decisions are based on a political point of view.
Stereotypes is a big issue within the media industry. Representation within the media is to show someone or something, using a process of depicting, descripting and symbolization. Stereotypes, as described by Stuart Hall, is the “production of the meaning of the concepts in our minds through language which enables us to refer to either the ‘real’ world of objects, people or events, or indeed to imaginary worlds of fictional objects, people and events”. In his research Hall has suggested that there is two systems of representation, the first system regarding direct associations of events, people and objects that have certain mental representations and concepts that people have in their minds. Meaning is therefore
To conclude, when public journalism is being practiced, a larger percentage of reports face an innumerable amount of issues that lie in their content, the journalists themselves, and their audience. What is being reported by professionals, traditional journalist, constitutes as “good journalism” because of their ability to maintain and provide accurate, unbiased reports, fulfill being a good neighbor and watchdog, while adjusting to our growing technological advancements with an newer and improved rapid reporting. Thus, traditional journalism holds the persisting dominance over their competitors, public journalism.
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,
But how can we be sure that the news is not biased? Are we receiving information accurately, with details being simple to understand? After further research on media framing, I’ve come to realize that it is not rare to be someone who is skeptical of the news. In decades before now, media did a better job serving the public interests inside their news stories (Callaghan, 2001, p.186). But now, journalists may mix up facts intentionally and build a different story (Callaghan, 2001, p.184). How can one feel safe after knowing the media changes stories to keep us interested? Boring stories may not keep someone excited or fully interested, but at least people would not be misinformed and can, in a way, better prepare for what they will face outside their
As Americans we take pride in our liberating government. But, it is essential to ask how much we, the general public, know about our democracy. Because of the representative structure of our government, it is in our best interest to remain as knowledgeable as possible about political affairs so that we can play an active role in our democracy by voting for candidates and issues. The media, which includes print, television, and the internet, is our primary link to political events and issues. (For the purposes of this essay only print and television will be considered.) Therefore, in order to assess the success of our democracy it is necessary to assess the soundness of our media. We are lucky enough to have a media, in theory, free from government influences because of our rights to freedom of press and freedom of speech, but we are still subject to the media’s interpretation and presentation of politics, as is the danger when depending on any source for information. So, we must address how the media informs us; how successful it is at doing so; and how we should respond to it.
In trying to attract new audiences, news media have begun to transition from reporting to becoming a form of entertainment. With the meteoric rise of social media’s role as a news source, the fight for an increase of diversity in the media, and the ever-growing desire of immediate content, the future of responsible journalism is more important than ever. Ask yourself, why do I think the way I do? Where do my political views originate? How do I prove them? Most likely, it is due to the biased portrayal of issues in the media and the politicization that accompanies what we consume. Now, compare your views to your preferred news reporting entity. More than likely, they are the same.
The purpose of journalism is to report a story accurately; simply to tell it like it is. Over the past two decades, with increased tension over political and religious ideologies, the media’s original purpose is being lost. Yes, being well-informed remains an asset in the world today. Our now, globally-focused world will always value knowledge and awareness. With the television, internet, newspaper- all mediums of entertainment- available at the snap of a finger, we have non-stop access to news. One problem with this is the blatant bias of news networks. Every news source has a bias. Viewers typically recognize the platform of the major sources, therefore deterring them from certain networks. When reporters feed viewers the same opinion through different stories, the viewer isn’t getting a balanced intake in terms of overall understanding. In today’s society, viewers are truly at the mercy of what those in authority provide. Think of George Orwell’s 1984 where the all-powerful “Big Brother,” through “The Party” oversees every little piece of information that passes through the telescreen (along with everything that passes by the telescreen on the other end.) The citizens of Oceania are essentially clueless to the truth because they have no access to it. The television: typically a source of entertainment, transformed itself into an instrument for controlling. Yes, the modern technology is
There are numbered of news channels that have maximum coverage throughout the country. Media contribute a lot to develop public knowledge but even after years of success, media could not alter public’s attitude towards issues. Media should discourage smoothly such attitude of public. Demonstrations and protests are good to increase pressure towards the solution of any problem, but there should be a proper way to express which should result oriented.