How Problematic Is It That TV News Reflects Reality?

Today’s media (news) plays an enormous role in the lives of people in directing a specific perception of the world around them. Most often media conduct's a subconscious effect upon its spectators in which the upshots are deliberately or illdeliberatly towards a particular topic.

The influence of media is ubiquitous as we are all exposed to it, and influenced by the messages they attempt to sell. For example, the trope of science gone wrong is a classic plotline of science fiction that is present enough in media to give anyone a sense of paranoia. Media is indeed a force to reckon with. In a world in which the success of media is based off of its audience, the question arises to: to what extent may media alter truth to gain attention, and how may media influence society’s values?

The theory of our reality is explained to be ‘Reflective’. The reflective hypothesis would see the media as essentially passive. The way we live our life is mirrored by media. “People are sheep. TV is the shepherd.” Jess C. Scott, Literary Heroin (Gluttony) Every passing day we realize that our lives look very similar to those who are on television or on social media apps. Tv was used as an entertainment media, which is reflected towards society. For example, the TV shows “I Love Lucy” and “The honeymooners” were reflective on the role of women during 1950’s. They had an effective foundation on gender roles

Within Joyce Nelson’s essay, “TV News: A Structure of Reassurance”, Nelson criticizes the TV news structure that perpetually disconnects current events from their historical background through comforting anchorpeople partnered with advanced technology to create a TV program that minimizes the important implications of current events. Though lacking the amount of information that a print news publication can maintain, the TV news can convey immediate information through technological advances of modern TV equipment to allow the medium to remain competitive. The façade of in-the-moment international information broadcasted directly to viewers enables anchorpeople to maintain the feeling of immediateness, keeping the viewers believing the program

2. In the 21st century exposure to media is an everyday event for most of us. Even at the grocery store, we see magazines and newspapers with eye-catching headings that may not be true. Also, the news is everywhere, and with technology on the rise, we even get news alerts on our phones. The media has taken over society. Most of the stories we read about seem to be true but in reality, are they giving a true insight of what is actually happening? Some of the stories cause people to become blindfolded from reality. This is because the stories that people read or see have a profound impact on shaping our reality rather they are true or not. We see the news about events that are going on in the world; rather they are catastrophic events or devastating events that were done by humans.

The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that 's power. The article “Reality TV Goes Where Football Meets the Hijab”, published in the New York Times in November 2011, introduces how the media controls the minds of the masses. Media has become a major issue in our daily lives. We live in a world that we cannot have access to what is going around us, unless we refer to the media. For instance, in our daily routine we usually listen to the news in the morning or at night before we sleep. The news has already been reported and its being delivered to us that fast, but how do we know if what is being said is what is actually happening or if it has been manipulated for political/social reasons? In the beginning of the article, Porochista Khakpour the author of the article, Iranian born American reared, mentions: “If anything made me, an American, it was televisions.” TV, especially the reality TV, resembles the characters and movie stars the way they want to not the way they are. Khakpour said, "Darkness-dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin-always equaled trouble, as if it actually implied a dark side". When we watch TV, most of the movie characters are labeled, either by their gender, religion, or color. Khakpour reaches out to the "outcasts", to prove her point on reality TV shows shaping our beliefs towards each other, especially the "freaks”.

In the realm of politics, the media is responsible for producing versions of ‘truth’ which service

The power and consequently the responsibility of media, especially mainstream, is something that shouldn’t be underestimated. It often sets the agenda amongst the general public and is the reference point for the majority of the discussion surrounding it. For many, what they see and read in the media forms the basis of their opinions on most important topics. Despite warnings not to, many believe that everything they read in the media must be true.

Two narratives that Waisanen portrays within his article are two video clips from Onion News Network in which he uses to elaborate and discuss further his main idea. The first narrative that Waisanen portrays is about “… the presidential race heats up, a new survey finds that again, this year, the number one issue among voters, bullshit” (512). He further describes how the news is being illustrated with a news anchor that speaks in a schematized tone similar to the news anchor on public news that is usually broadcasted. The reason why Waisanen uses this narrative is to support his point of the Onion News Network who mocks and deprives the practices of what the “real” news normally portrays and broadcasts. Moreover, another narrative that Waisanen portrays is another video clip from Onion News Network about a morning show similar to Good Morning America where two news anchors discuss about a dog mascot known as “Liberty” who is on a mission to “ …psyched up troops suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)” (513). Primarily the news is to “lament the death of the American army mascot” (513). However, Waisanen uses this video clip as an example to show how the Onion News Network videos illustrate and broadcast videos to viewers that may somewhat have some truth; for instance, the unfortunate battle that soldiers go through with PTSD, but at the same time they never portray or say the real or “whole picture” (523) of what is being broadcasted. In addition, Waisanen

In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, the media is given immense power, which it uses to deceive the public into thinking their world and their government is perfect. The government uses their power to completely control every word that the media prints. The media is set on such a high pedestal that the citizens’ hang on to every word they print. Today’s dependency on the media is not far off from Orwell’s prediction. The media is also heavily influenced by sources other than facts and truth. The modern news industry, similar to that of the Orwell’s novel, is heavily influenced by political and private sects, which results in biased news and counterfactual information.

Hello, you’re watching the [TIME] news here on Channel 5. I’m Nicole Yol. Today’s top story: troubling truth. Media networks are being questioned about the ways the truth is constructed and presented to the public, after recent episode of satirical ABC TV show Frontline by Rob Sitch et al was aired yesterday at 8pm. Viewers watching episode ‘The Siege’ were left believing that current affair programs are unscrupulous and are more interested in drama for ratings. But just how did the recent episode affect the perspectives of the general public on the media?

The media has become so powerful in today’s society that it has come to the point of controlling our daily lives. “We accept the reality of the world with which we’re represented. It’s as simple as that”. This was said by a character in the movie, The Truman Show that was released in 1998, distributed by Paramount Pictures, directed by Peter Weir, and includes stars such as Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Natasha McElhone and many more. There is a crucial need to criticize the media in order to explore the way something is presented and to be sure that we are thinking for ourselves because the media is not always accurate in its portrayal of facts.

The conclusion that the writer in the given memorandum has mentioned ; in order to attract more viewers to the late night news program and to avoid losing any other further advertising revenues , they should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level is flawed. In this argument,they have evaluated only a few of the circumstances and has reached to the broad conclusion.

When it comes to finding about the news of what’s going on in our world, we want details and facts. We want the juice of what’s actually going on. The debate between the efficiency of newspapers and TV news, TV news is a lot more effective.

"News is not reality, but a supply of sources' potrayals of reality, mediated by news organisations."