In this new day and age we are granted with advanced technology that helps every one of us. A major capability that we now have is the capacity to spread information like no other. The television and internet are major sources to access material and influence the masses. The question becomes whether these sources really inform the people, or just put information out that benefits the few. Evening news is where the breaking stories take place and where we can see the difference in channel ideology. Citizens have a right to know what is going on in the country but due to biases we see this fail. This causes televison to poison the electoral system, glorify conflicts, and polarize views. Every news station has biases and it shows through the …show more content…
In her article Mass Media, she talks about how nightly news lead stories are ones of the most recent and extreme disasters or crimes. Things like this attract viewers which then means more money. Akin sees this as a negative to media because these are not the stories that should be the most important. More important stories are pushed aside in favor of the most recent, the most colorful, and the most shocking aspects of a conflict. Groups that understand this dynamic can cater to it in order to gain media attention. Most of the news I watch had more stories of soft news then it did hard. This is because people are more intrigued to stories that are more appealing and interesting at the moment. The more important stories can be seen as boring, when in reality they will have the biggest impact. The news can mislead and withhold important information for ratings and financial success and this in turn does not inform the public …show more content…
Channels put stories out there for ratings and revenue, because the more people that watch the more money they will get. This then causes them to put up stories that are attracting and exciting, not informative and important. I found it very interesting that commercials take up a least one third of a news segment which can show just how much advertising and money influence these stations. The mass media might be fast and efficient in getting out the breaking news, but is it really the important stories being told or just the most
Television cares much more about headline news with opinionated interviews and short segments, along with boosting their ratings, charisma, and image, rather than caring about giving actual information and giving the full spectrum of the story. Cassidy agreed that this current state of the news is not a good thing. In his article, he states that there is a new 24-hour coverage cycle on the news, which shortens the segments of larger news stories to include the smaller ones. Although they agree on this general idea, Cassidy pins the blame on the viewer, not the media. He claims that a divided and dysfunctional American body of politics leads to people looking to pin blame and to blindly relate back to their party relation.
News stories allow people to obtain information locally or worldwide. Things occur on the other side of the world have a cause-effect effect. To the other side of the world. For example, When the US army was in Iraq and the empire state building was blown up in New York City. There are many more examples of this effect. Currently there are very important stories in the news tha are very informative such as What it takes to rebuild iraq, Trump blasts “rigged” rules on picking republican delegates,The Paradox of Being a Black, Christian, Social-Justice Advocate, Texas Teacher Caught on Video Slapping Student and Calling Him ‘Idiot Ass’ Arrested: Report.
Approximately 57% of Americans get their daily news by watching some kind of nightly news on their televisions, while the internet is not far behind at at 38% (Mitchell 2016). Being a nation of conglomerate monopolies the United States has three major news stations that control a majority of the viewership, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox Television. “The big three”, as they’re know, compete every day for the highest ratings by desperately pulling and keeping in as many viewers as possible, while providing vastly different agenda backed content. Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, draws in a much smaller crowd and with it has a significantly lower budget for stories. While companies like CNN and FOX are able to spend tens of millions of dollars on 24/7
50). News outlets strategically choose stories that will catch the most attention for the front page of a newspaper or the first story in a television bulletin to garner the most interest (Sheridan Burns 2002, pp. 63-78). For example, The Advertiser (2016) had a front page spread on a nurse who went missing in the Australian desert. Such a story would not necessarily change how we live our everyday lives but it satisfies the curiosity of readers. In contrast, information that is important to daily life is generally classed as what the public ‘needs’, termed ‘public interest’. Sheridan Burns (2002) once said that ‘a journalist must be guided by public interest’, proposing that it is the media’s job to bring the people news they should know in order to make important decisions. ‘Issues in the news – such as changes to the cost of living – are commonly presented through their impact on an individual or one family’ (Alysen 2012, pp. 24-42). The news values of human interest, novelty and prominence fall under the ‘wants’ category. Consequence falls under the ‘needs’ category while proximity and conflict may be classified under either. Both what the public ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ to know are significant to the media, however, as Gladstone (2011) mentions, there has long been disagreement over which is more
It is important that news broadcasting networks do not let personal bias effect the story that’s being told to its audience. People who watch the news, opinions are heavily influenced by the information given to them. Viewers think their opinion is original but are unaware that the information they receive is biased and is meant to influence and form their opinions about a certain topic or argument. Many believe that the news is unbiased and factual because journalist or experts are providing them with evidence.When, in fact, these news outlets are filled with producers, reporters, and writers, who share the same viewpoints. This is groupthink and groupthink is very prominent in news broadcasting networks. Groupthink is when a group of people who share the same ideologies make decisions as a group. In an interview with Fox Business’s John Stossel, Bernie Goldberg explains that groupthink effects the viewer because like-minded people at news networks only show the audience one-side of an argument or story because of their personal opinions on a the topic. This means that news
TV news viewership has declined steadily over the past two decades. Several factors may have contributed to the decline: busy lifestyles, lack of interest, and the rise of the Internet. As viewership has declined, the remaining viewers have aged. Today, the average evening news viewer is 60 years old. TV networks' response to these changes has largely been negative. They have dropped hard news in favor of opinion pieces, "puff pieces," and stories that are of interest only to their older demographic. As a result, TV news has not just become unpopular, it has also become largely worthless.
While a TV show may have a season-long recurring theme that grips the audience, the news pulls that same shit. NBC Nightly News isn’t keeping you informed on the most important goings on of the day, they’re letting you know “oh shit look at that huge explosion that looks important, keep watching us for further coverage.” They milked that Malaysian plane mystery like it was the latest season of True Detective, keeping you on the edge of your seat every night to hear a different version of “Yep, still can’t find it”, or even diagramed out for you. You pretty much tuned in every night to hear
Media plays a huge role in today's society. Media, in its many forms, can be very persuasive and can change how people view a certain topic. The past few years, media has greatly affected how people feel about topics such as: gay rights, abortion, racism, and anything political. Depending on what site, or source you are on, media can depict the topic you research however it wants. It has been argued that there are political bias in media, which is not wrong. You can find just about anything in whichever political view you want. When talking politics, there are multiple media outlets that are party-based. Even in print, you can find just about anything in favor of what you believe if you look for it. Media does a fantastic job of manipulating people to believe certain things without the audience realizing it. The media provides constant information about politics, and in more times than not, political rather than professional. In this lesson, we learned about liberals and conservatives and how political parties can be affected through media bias and public opinion.
To understand what state the modern media system is in, one must firmly understand what bias is. Media bias is present “when a political belief or commercial interest distorts the level of reporting” (“Media Bias” 1). If a political station provides positive or accurate information to only one side, then the station can be considered biased. Another form of bias is known as sensationalism. Sensationalism is the creation of panic or fear by over-reporting or over-inflating individual news stories, often blurring facts or reporting speculation as facts. A modern and familiar example of media
The media provides the public political issues, which sets the agenda for political discussion. In theory the media tries to attune themselves to the interest of the public, but “in most instances the media severs as conduits for agenda-setting efforts by competing groups and forces” (Ginsberg, Lowi & Weir, 1999, p. 298). To gain public support, groups and forces need media coverage to promote their ideas. However, the media has great control over which issues they televise. The issues must have media appeal or be considered newsworthy.
In addition CNN ran a story on Vietnam that was proven inaccurate. The radio waves and television sets are flooded with sensationalized shows featuring beautiful young women and handsome men. The news watched today is sensationalized with one catastrophe after another. Is excitement what the market wants, or is the excitement expected because of a precedent set by the corporate owned media? Even in the reporting of sports, sensationalism rules. Channels like ESPN, owned by Disney , report homeruns, slam-dunks, and touchdowns with a dramatic twist. What effect does sensationalism have on the media¡¦s market? A survey done by the American Society of Newspaper Editors reports that ¡§spelling errors, bias, and sensationalism are corroding the credibility of newspapers.¡¨ The survey shows:
Around 50 million people watch CBS, ABC, or NBC every single night in order to obtain information from the day. Since the amount of people watching a news channel every night is so great, the media has had a great effect on the lives of everyone living in the United States. In our state and local government regions, each and every news channel or newspaper is going to take a certain view and stand-point on what the people say, think, and believe. Media effects are classified as direct or indirect, and the Media itself as well as the people behind the headlines can create positive as well as negative publicity. The media also has ways of going about their business and they even have their own terms for what they do, and how it should be
Media has been playing a significant role in our daily lives by developing our personalities, enriching our knowledge and providing us with different sorts of information. It has a tremendous power in framing cultural guidelines and shaping political dissertation. If the information provided to the U.S. citizens is distorted, then they cannot make informed decisions on the matters of public policy. Thus, it becomes vital to the American democracy that the news media and its institutions remain unbiased, fair and accurate. Media bias happens when a media systematically and persistently emphasize one particular point of view that is usually below the standards of professional journalism. There can be various reasons for media bias, some of
Whether it is news channels on the television or whether it is Twitter and Facebook news, the public will always have a way to find out current reports. Since society has become so dependent on technology, a greater amount of individuals get their actual news online and especially through social media. As many of the public know, you cannot trust what people online are saying. Since individuals are so accustomed to getting the news online, many of them tend to believe what they just happen to scroll across on Twitter and Facebook or any other sort of social media. Finding actual facts and truths on the news have become so difficult now, due to all of the millions of different sites and places where we can get our news from. The news online tend to be biased and untrue due to how openly and freely individuals can create their own site and “reports” on current events such as a real news channels would. Social media has just made it more complicated to find the actual accuracy of current events but with enough research, dedication, and using the SMELL test, finding the right information would not be as
Thousands of our nation's men and women were fighting for their country, yet the media limited the amount of information that they chose to pass on to the public. Each day the media is faced with the choice of making decisions of what news to pass on, when that news could make a significant difference in someone's life, or in the fate of our nation.