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To What Extent Does Modern Media Coverage and Censorship of Conflicts Affect How People Interpret Them?

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‘To what extent does modern media coverage and censorship of conflicts affect how people interpret them?

Modern media coverage - the main means of mass communication - gives us news from around the globe, allowing us to develop an informed understanding of the world and its issues. Armed Conflict and tension between the world’s countries has only become more vehement, which has lead to an onslaught of media coverage, orchestrated by countries on either side of the conflicts, as well as countries that are regarded as outsiders. Information about these conflicts can be propagated by a myriad of different sources, which often besmirch its reliability by having a subjective stance. The biased viewpoints of this type of coverage can influence …show more content…

Conjointly, ongoing conflicts such as the war on terror and the Syrian civil war as well as the crisis in Crimea have attracted an ample amount of media attention, which has all the more effect on people’s perceptions of these conflicts because of the severe vigor of the media in this day and age.

Global perspective: Finland

Finland is first on 2014’s index of Press freedom, and has topped this list for four years straight. In terms of Internet penetration, Finland is 10th in the world, with 88.6% of their population currently using the Internet. Finland, unlike the United States, does not have a substantial part to play in international conflict. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland states that it ‘Participates in international military cooperation in the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace and provides troops for NATO-led crisis management operations in, for example, Western Balkans and Afghanistan.” Finland currently has only deployed 176 troops to engage in armed conflict in Afghanistan and assist the International Security Assistance Force - ISAF. Since Finland is not as active in international relations and conflicts as countries like The Big Five (USA, UK, France, Russia, China), it has less things to consider regarding the distribution of information that could potentially infringe upon the security of the country and population. Unlike China, Finland does not have an extremely large population, meaning that

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