The media of the masses

As an aspiring journalist, I obviously hold some respect for the media. It is essential to democracy and civilizations in general for the public to be aware of what is occurring in their surroundings. As the article "Extended Language" described, voters need to be educated in current topics and candidates, and society members must know what is happening around them in order to develop their own opinions or relate occurrences to their own lives. The innate idea of the media, especially of news, is a necessity to society and can often become a very helpful source of information or an entertaining or enlightening experience for its audience.  The medium in which this information is given to the audience, and the way in which media outlets choose what information and images to present, is where the negatives aspects of the media come into play.  I will speak specifically about television broadcast news. For the most part, the events and topics described in a typical evening news segment all actually occurred or are of timely significance. On the surface, it appears as though the news are a reflection of society; the newsworthy stories came before the news show itself. But how did the show choose which stories to run? It always seems as if only the news shown these days are negative, death-related stories. By deciding to run an overwhelming amount of stories such as kidnappings, robberies, and scandals, the evening news show is telling the people at home that they are surrounded by violence and corrupt actions. At the same time, they are deciding to show segments that they believe will attract the most viewers, not necessarily showing the most important or valuable stories. For example, Kare 11 might decide to run a story about a man who collects millions of Pez dispensers instead of running a story on how tax levies are impacting school budgets, just because it is more entertaining or interesting to their idea of a typical consumer of news. This selective nature of the media gives society a blurred perception of what is happening around them. Therefore, the media does create values and tastes. In addition, the flawless smiling face of the anchor giving the news conveys the idea that all young women look like the anchor. The entire appearance of the news show is fake, from the smiles and perfect hair of the anchors to the obnoxious casual conversation they make with each other.

Here is an example about how the U.S. is particularly guilty of altering news coverage to what they think society wants. This is the same issue of Newsweek, in which Latin America, Europe, and Asia all had the same front page about the war in Afganistan. Instead of making the front page about the important issues with the war, U.S. Newsweek made it about a new book by a famous photographer...

Is it even possible to fix these problems with broadcast journalism, or journalism in general? Maybe not. But we can be responsible consumer of news by attempting to decipher the true from the false. And in my opinion, radio news are way cooler. There's just nothing like the raw voice of British reporter on MPR.