Media Bias & Half Truths

The media has tremendous power in shaping political discourse and setting the public agenda. This is why it is essential that the media be challenged time and time again to be fair and accurate. The role of the media is to deliver unbiased and straightforward information to the American public and let the people form their own opinions towards issues. However, we all know that the media has never been and never will be that way. Instead, the media uses their own ideologies to manipulate the viewers' political reactions. In today's media especially, the important issues are spinning out of control due to the lack of real, concrete, unbiased information. Stories are usually reported on by favoring one ideology over another. For instance, the media may use expert testimony to support stories that favor their viewpoint or use language to "spin" the facts so that they favor one side over another. It is impossible now to watch a news station, listen to the radio, or read an article without some sort of sensationalism and bias to the story.
The media is also notorious for delivering "half truths" throughout their coverage of events and issues. Various external and internal pressures have driven the media to sensationalize stories in order to attract viewers and increase ratings. This results in facts either being distorted or omitted completely, thereby delivering incomplete or false information to the public. How can we be expected to make a decision regarding where we stand on certain issues if the information we are receiving is lacking? New policies and regulations, especially in this difficult time today have, and are going to continue to have, a profound impact on the lives of the American public and we deserve to not only get unbiased, but accurate information regarding these issues. Essentially, we expect to get the truth.

Is the Media 100% at Fault???

A hot topic of debate in class so far has been whether or not the media effectively serves the needs of the American people. While I do believe that the media is more concerned with celebrity stories and gossip, we have to consider whether the media is really 100% at fault. In my opinion, both the media AND the public are to blame for the lack of information regarding today's government and policies. As mentioned in class before, all media networks are competing against one another for viewers. Therefore, they must report the stories that attract the most viewers, thereby increasing their ratings. This is where I feel that the public may be at fault as well. Most people today seem to be more concerned with the latest news and gossip in Hollywood rather than news regarding the latest government policies and regulations. I'm not sure whether or not this is because the media highlights the entertainment news, making the public very informed about these topics, and usually puts important information that actually affects our country in the background. This also leads me to wonder whether people may just be more concerned with entertainment news because that is what we see most of the time on news stations today. Or maybe people just really do care more about entertainment news and gossip. It can be really scary sometimes to hear how many people are not informed at all about what is going on with their country. But ask someone about Michael Jackson's funeral and they could probably tell you every detail about it. All in all, I feel that the media is definitely to blame for the lack of information today, but I also feel that the public is to blame as well.