The Media and the Uneducated Masses

The Media and the Uneducated Masses

In the United States or any country with favorable or democratic

government, freedom of the media is essential. However, many analysts

believe that freedom granted to the media gives it power that may be used

abusively, power to influence the public. These critics are against a sort

of, "Lesse-fairre" attitude of the government towards the media. At the

other end of the table however, some feel that freedom given to the media

may go unchecked, for it is the people that influence the media and control

that power. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between...

James Hallow attempts to approach this issue in his work "Why

Americans Hate the Media". In this text Hallows examines the evolution of

the media and its relationship to the public it caters to. In the thirties,

media mimicked sleepytime Sunday morning political debates that one would

watch on the public access channel. They, in many ways were considered

"boring." Networks were growing more interested in attracting their

audiences. As the years advanced and technology followed, media began

taking different approaches to arouse the public. Conflicts on television

where seen as a more interesting and productive approach to increasing

ratings. After a while, interviewers would attempt to provoke debate, mud

throwing and even emotion out of it's political guests. Politicians who be

allowed air-time to address questions presented by viewers and interviewers.

One major complaint however, was that the media was more interested in

evoking a resp...

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...nterpretations of data. You may

receive the news, but how you receive it may decide how you interpret it.

But perhaps it may actually be a symbiotic relationship between the two

entities. It may be that the media manipulates the masses and the masses

manipulate the media. It is true that the media could enhance how the

public may feel towards a public figure or towards a recorded event.

Television could make a person a hero or villian at the whim of the

presentor through the use of rhetoric or just the data that was selectively

presented to the intended audience. But people's slightest reactions in

turn can affect the media's presentation on the issue. After all it is a

harsh group of critics that one is trying to appeal to, therefore it is

really a delicate ever-changing balance between the desires of people and

their hosts.