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The role of media in modern day society
The role of media in our society
The role of media in modern day society
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In Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman, ?the news of the day? is viewed as ?a figment of our technological imagination? (7-8). He states that without the media to broadcast the events that take place daily, there would not be the concept of ?the news of the day? (7). Postman says that the news only exists because of our advanced systems of communication, making it possible for us to report the news to the public as it happens. Without these methods and tools, news would not exist the way it does. This is what Postman is implying when he mentions that the news is a ?media event? (8). He goes on by saying that ?we attend to fragments of events from all over the world because we have multiple media,? to convey his arguments of how ?Huxley...was right? (vii).
Today, there are an immense number of ways for one to obtain information that makes up the news. Whether it is from television or the radio, news is transmitted daily for us to hear and see. The news consists of many different elements that come together to make up the programs we watch, listen to or read. Although not all of this can be classified as ?hard news,? the media enjoys broadcasting all sorts of events from celebrity and entertainment news to the wars being fought in a foreign country. Personally, I value ?hard news? to be information that makes up the daily news. For example, world political affairs or local events closer to home are items I would consider being news. Entert...
In his editorial "Words Triumph Over Images," Curtis Wilkie blames today’s media for being “reckless” and “a mutant reality show”. He believes that television and radio are “unfiltered”, which causes the quality of journalism for newspapers to be unmatched. Yet, it is unfair to label all media that is not print as lesser because the quality of any media relies on the viewers and the individual journalists, and in drastic situations like a hurricane, reporters may have many road blocks. Any of these aspects can affect the quality of journalism, which invalidates Curtis Wilkie’s claim.
In “Reporting the News” by George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry, the main idea is how the media determines what to air, where to get said stories that will air, how the media presents the news, and the medias effect on the general public. “Reporting The News” is a very strong and detailed article. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers of what goes on in the news media. This can be inferred by the authors’ tone. The authors’ overall tone is critical of the topics that are covered. The tone can be determined by the authors’ strong use of transitions, specific examples, and phrases or words that indicate analysis. To summarize, first, the authors’ indicate that the media chooses its stories that will air
A Bestselling author and co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” is a remarkably confident lady and TV-journalist Mika Brzezinski whose on-air protest between entertainment news & “hard news” received a large number of supports and fans’ responses on 26 June 2007 in which she had refused to read the news about a release of Paris Hilton from Jail rather she considered more important Senator Richard Lugar with President Bush on the war of Iraq breaking news. She stands on these issues rippled over the internet quickly and similar incidents continue on-air on July 7, 2010 on a report about Levi Johnston and Lindsay Lohan over hard news stories with the title “News you can’t use.”
As my conclusion of understanding this journey through the history journalism by Kuyperts is that one thing history of newspapers tells us while the structure of the news may change, or the market for the news continues and a formation of highly intelligent journalist will strive to insists that the community receives the type of news that they want to read about.
In the first chapter of Amusing Ourselves To Death , Neil Postman's major premise is how the rise of television media and the decline of print media is shaping the quality of information we receive.Postman describes how the medium controls the message, he uses examples which include the use of clocks, smoke signals, the alphabet, and glasses.Postman says a society that generally uses smoke signals is not likely to talk about philosophy because it would take to long and be too difficult. Postman also describes the way television changes peoples way of thinking; a fat person will not look good on TV and would less likely be elected President. On the other hand someones body is not important as their ideas when they are expressing them through the radio or print. On TV, visual imagery reigns. Therefore the form of TV works against the content of philosophy. Postman shows how the clock has changed. Postman describes how time was a product of nature measured by the sun and seasons. Now, time is measured by a machine using minutes and seconds. The clock changed us into time-watchers, then time-savers, and finally time-servers. Thus, changing the metaphor for time changed how we view time itself.
Since the advent of television networks, Americans have relied on local and national newscasts to inform them of the world’s happenings. In the 1950’s there were no other mass informational outlets besides the network news and newspapers. Today we have the internet, which allows independent research, but the majority of Americans still depend on network and cable newscasts for their local, political, and foreign news. With the responsibility and power of informing an entire country, are television newscasts as reliable as most Americans assume them to be? Most Americans don’t consider where their news is coming from or who is producing it. Network and cable news are owned and operated by people and thus are not as objective and unbiased as we would like to think. In light of the war in Iraq and the most recent presidential election, critics of television network administration are voicing their concern for today’s presentation of the news. Increasingly more Americans are demanding a rehabilitation of newscasts, starting with ownership.
When studying Postman’s work I found that not only could I see what he was referring to but I could see how it will get worse. 24 hour news networks are running segments on celebrity affairs, “pc culture”, and cute little critters. As a viewer it is hard to watch what passes for news anymore, much less see the value in their methods. Watching the PBS Newshour and seeing Postman’s theories of “if it bleeds it leads, the “now this” mentality, actors as anchors, and utter disconnect between stories was astonishing. Postman saw what the news was and what the news will become in 1985 and I fear it will only get
News is all around us and is readily available to everyone. There are many flaws in the system that hurts the authenticity of the news when you see it. The media is indirectly part of the political system. Most news is either considered liberal or conservative by many.
This could be hard news or soft news. News programmes such as E! Entertainment features a lot more soft news as opposed to BBC News which features primarily hard news stories. They all contain factual content because they are there to inform the audience. Pace also varies between different news programmes. Newsround for example is very fast paced and is only around 5 minutes long. This is to keep the younger audience entertained and interested throughout the entire programme. The subjects and issues that are discussed in Newsround are aimed at younger people. However. The pace of BBC News is slightly slower and the news programmes are usually around 30 minutes. BBC News also contains headlines or pre-titles at the beginning of the programmes so that if you can't sit and watch a 30 minute news programme, you can just watch the first 5 or so minutes to catch the headlines and get a general insight into the news. The content of BBC News and the subjects they report on are a lot more formal and sophisticated as the target audience is a lot
In “12 O’Clock News,” Elizabeth Bishop accentuates the difficulty involved in perceiving the “truth.” She utilizes a technique of constructing an exotic world out of objects that can be found in a newsroom. By defamiliarizing a newsroom, she questions our trust in what we perceive. Is it truly a journey to another world or just another perspective on something we are already familiar with? The intent of this transformation is to create a substitute for reality, analogous to the substitute reality which the media presents to us each day as its product, the “news.” The news media are capable of creating a world beyond what we see everyday, presenting us with what appears to be the truth about cultures we will never encounter firsthand. Bishop’s manipulation of a newsroom parallels the way the media distorts our perception of the world, and by doing so questions our ability to find our way out of this fog which is “reality.”
News is often described as the ‘window of the world’, but sometimes what we see on the news isn’t necessarily the true facts of what is happening around the world. News is often very subjective, especially in television, and sometimes the best pictures are picked over the best story. As journalists, we are responsible for society and frequently news leads viewers to a narrow-minded view of the world, often showing them what we want them to see rather than what they need to see. As Harcup explains (2009, P3) ‘Journalism informs society about itself and makes public that which would otherwise be private.’
Newspaper, radio, film, television. These are only a few of the various forms media can take. From the moment we open our eyes to the instant we shut them, we are surrounded by media and absorb the information it hurls at us in an osmosis-like manner. The news ranges from the latest terror attack and political scandals to supposed UFO sightings and scandals involving sandals. We as an audience tend to focus more on the message the media relays rather than on the medium in which it is presented to us. “What?” is asked more than “How?” The key claim Marshall McLuhan makes in his book, The Medium is the Massage, is that the form of media influences how the message is perceived. Let’s illustrate this with a scenario: it’s eight o’clock in the morning.
In seeking out the news, the press therefore acts as an agent of the public at large. It is the means by which people receive that free flow of... ... middle of paper ... ...responses to the receiver."
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.
electronic digital news enables the reader to see the full information and react in the