Federal Funding for Public Broadcasting is a Bust Essay

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

Is the Media Bias? Many people including myself believe that it is. On the other hand, there are people who believe that media is not biased and just states facts. These people (i.e. my dad), who believe that media is not biased also believe that everything on TV is true, in my experience. We see bias in media (print or broadcast) many times. It might be the subtlest of things that is unnoticeable to more blatant attempts. The fact is bias is everywhere and it is very difficult to separate the two. The reasons why it is difficult are not clearly understood by my self but I can point toward the fact that everyone is the world has opinions and in some way or form it will be presented in the way they talk or write. The

Have you ever wondered what some of your tax money goes towards? It actually goes towards many government-funded projects or jobs. Some of those jobs are; teacher’s salaries, the

To begin with , budgeting in the public setting clearly have political implications ,as Rubin discussed in her writings “ The politics of public budgeting”. In the government’s effort to build an audacious spy satellite , the government surpassed it’s budget limit for a failed attempt on the creation of “F.I.A.” During this time the C.I.A and the government was in a rush to build this brand new spy program in order to spy on the soviet union. Although , after a while congress realized there were no progress in building the spy program and wanted to shut it down others in the political setting continuously paid for the project to keep it going. According to Phillip Taubman “ It took two more years, several more review panels , and billions more dollars before the government finally killed this project.”

In their article “Moving beyond the 'Vast Wasteland'”, Laurie Ouellette and Justin Lewis critique how public broadcasting functions in the US. Liberal reformers hold to the view that television needs protection from commercialism. The liberal reformer view contains cultural and class hierarchies. They believe that public television is for the white, college-educated middle-class viewer who has “cultural capital”(Ouellette & Lewis, 96). As a result, funding for public broadcasting has gone primarily towards high culture and intellectual programs and not sitcoms or other popular forms of television. Ouellette and Lewis disagree with this, saying that these types of high-brow programming are not the only ones worthy of public investment. Instead, they argue that popular programs that are being commercially maintained also merit public support and investment (96). Rather than reserving public broadcasting for more educational programming, the authors argue that there is a more progressive solution that can incorporate popular media forms while still veering away from commercialization.

Those not onboard with reduced funding argue that we can put more money into the programs if we raise taxes on the rich sector. This is another one of those ideas that looks great on paper but also has many drawbacks. There a couple of things wrong with this idea one being the fairness of it. Why should we punish those who earn more? That is segregating one group from the population because they earn more. People battled for years to end segregation and now we want to segregate one group and tell them they owe the government more money because they can afford it. That is not at all morally right or considerate. So taxing the rich more is not an answer. When we were little we were told, “Help people who can not help themselves “ but the real question is if they can

The FCCC generally do not require stations to keep the material they broadcast except on the policy for personal attacks and political editorials.

     What role does television play in society? For decades we have seen many parts of our world rapidly going through changes in technology. Today’s society has been transformed by means of communication and the available information through mass media. Most Americans rely on television for news, sports, and entertainment. Television is just one of the many examples of how technology has changed our lives. Since the invention of the television in the early 1900’s, it has played a very important role in our lives. Having a television set in the home has become very essential in today’s society. We depend on it to entertain us with its sitcoms and to inform us about current world issues. The

Today it seems almost impossible to get a straightforward answer on any major topic from the media. All sources of media have a specific audience that they are intending to hear or view the information that they have prepared, therefore they will cut bits and pieces out so that only the message they are trying to get across will be received. So indeed there is a media bias, and yes it more often than not slants towards the liberal view point, as many reporters and journalists have liberal views themselves.

The invention of the television has had an impact on all aspects of American's lives. It has affected how we work, interact with others, and our foreign relations. One part of American society that it has especially affected is presidential elections. Television has impacted who is elected and why they were elected. Since the 1960's television has served as a link between the American public and presidential elections that allows the candidate to appear more human and accountable for their actions; consequently this has made television a positive influence on presidential elections. But it has also had a negative affect on elections, making presidential candidates seem like celebrities at times and making it easier to publicize mistakes

The question then becomes do we need a public broadcaster to enhance democracy? The answer is yes. Public broadcasting is needed to enhance democracy in Canada because our society depends heavily on media influence and this influence has increased over the years, it is a platform for Canadian culture to be represented in the media and it ensures that Canadians receive rich unbiased information.

It is no secret that the news has always been known to be bias toward a certain opinion, but experts can trace acts like this all the way back to the nineteenth century in early America (Thornton, 2016). During this time period most of the well-known newspapers were explicitly linked to political parties and economic interest. Respected historian Chilton Williamson writes this about the early 1900’s, “The presentation of facts simply as facts, editors and writers reasoned, cannot accomplish the exalted goal of saving civilization” (Thornton, 2016). But what if a leader comes along and believes that the best thing for their country is to use extreme media bias? In 1933 Adolf Hitler changed the meaning of media bias by completely controlling what people saw and read. Hitler eliminated papers against his control, and promoted the ones in favor. By doing this, he forced people to only see what news was being presented in one way, instead of an accurate and fair representation of the entire news (The Press in the Third Reich). This statement is not insinuating that bias with Nazi Germany is the same as modern America, but it is suggesting that bias amongst media allows for a misrepresentation of the truth to the people.

Media has become a powerful source of knowledge, and a great breakthrough in human history. Who can regret that media is a daily need in our lives. Media has the ability and control to adjust to all levels of knowledge in people. Media helps us to escape from our daily lives and our problems in times of stress. Thou Media as proved to be beneficial by educating, entertaining and informing us, it has also have its downfall, to cause many bad influences to the younger audience. Media has influenced us to conduct bad behavior, breed violence among teens and fear to the public, thus causing a lot of negative conflicts among ourselves. Television, Music, Internet, and more, are just some of the media exposure that needs to be censored and

So what are the ramifications of this definition on the media? Well the answer to that question is in the phrases ?the people are the main political force? and ?engage in frequent and meaningful debates about relevant issues.? The relationship between these two statements is where the media enters the equation because it is the media that provides the public with the relevant issues. Under the Federal Communications Act of 1934 and subsequent legislation and court decisions? broadcasting was to serve the "public interest, convenience, and necessity, ascribing certain democratic functions to the media? (Gseis.ucla.edu). The press and then the broadcast media were thus to provide information, ideas, and debate concerning issues of public significance in order to promote a democratic public sphere. Broadcasting was conceived as a public utility, with the airwaves established as part of the public domain, subject to regulation by the government to assure that broadcasting would meet its democratic responsibilities. Today the relationship between the media, politics and society has changed significantly. Even though they are all interconnected they have specific interactions which each other that should be

     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.