Media Exploitation Of The Media

The media is an important part of our daily lives. It shapes and molds the lens through which we see the world. It controls everything you see, read, and hear. Media also determines what is said, who said it, how it can be said, and who can hear it. The news for a lot of Americans calls them into action. Depending on what is being discussed it can really sway your emotions. The News can make you happy as well as make you sad or angry. Contrary to popular belief manipulation does not require a device or hypnotism; we are being brainwashed right before our eyes. Television is that most sophisticated media of worldwide communication and viewers are completely susceptible to the media molding their opinions and attitude; as well as influencing what is acceptable and what is not. There is an unconscious “groupthink” mentality that taints news coverage and allows only one side of a debate to receive a fair hearing.  When that happens, the truth suffers. In this essay, I will discuss the types of bias and manipulation, how it affects us, and the ways to prevent it.

“Fake news,” like Pravda during Soviet Russia times, was used in the election to deliberately sway the political views of the voters and increase the support of one party’s side. During the election, “phony articles concerning candidates…emerged…this fake news boosted the image of…Donald Trump…” (“Fake News”). "Phony articles” or “fake news” on social media affected the candidates’ images, thus making voters more likely to vote for one candidate over the other. “Fake news” can be dangerous in spreading unreliable information and planting false accusations about a candidate in the minds of the voters. In 2016, a fake news story was leaked about Hillary Clinton that led to a shooting in a pizzeria,“Incidents such as this demonstrate how potentially dangerous fake news can be and how difficult it is to distinguish…”(“Fake News”). “Fake news” can cause people to abandon their initial beliefs about a person, like a political candidate, and align with the opposing side, destroying a person’s career over counterfeit media. "Fake news” is propaganda used to change people’s way of thinking, like both Pravda and Squealer’s role on The Farm. All of these methods of propaganda were substantial resources in changing people’s minds and feeding thoughts into their minds. They can be dangerous if they are not identified as being false or exaggerated, and can

There are a variety of media outlets and they are continually multiplying. The increase in media has allowed several media outlets to play big roles in society. This has caused more people to rely mainly on media for “news” Although Media conveys a substantial amount of information to many societies, not everything is entirely true. Margaret Atwood discussed this subject in her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. This is an important issue that is relevant to many civilizations today. Media outlets know how to influence their viewers, whether the information they broadcast is true or a sham.

Within these two popular news channels, stories and changes within the government are altered to fit the watcher’s views. While Fox News focuses on the more conservative points of view of the public, CNN places their informative stories in a more Liberal light. Fox news tends to report stories in a one-sided viewpoint, which creates a lack of space for viewers to establish an opinion of their own. CNN reports their stories in more of a broad spectrum and positive light, which allows its viewers to gain more of a perspective in problems that are persisting in today’s society. I believe that, out of Fox News and CNN, Fox News displays the most of muckraking today because it only provides one side of the story, with only personal opinions as their proof. In the past, muckraking was meant to be more a informative style of journalism but as the years went by, many people use yellow journalism as a form of entertainment and way to make money; this journalism has seemed to emerge in other ways and slowly disappear in

History has changed. Ideas and standards have also changed. Back in the day, when the media or movies showed a hint or a dash of blood, the reaction of the average person was shock and disgust at the blood and gore shown. These scenes and clips shown have become more and more extreme over the years to the level of being hazardous to society. Even in the videogame industry, certain scenes that may have caused outrage and commotion fifteen years ago are now seen as childish and may even be considered as humorous. To put it candidly, most of the mass media has been used widely to its ability to influence and persuade, to glorify, and diabolize thoughts and actions of individuals. Yet people of this generation still spend a great percentage of

For example, Facebook, who claims to provide “data-driven and ideologically neutral” trending news, was recently under fire for having a liberal bias (Friedman). Conservative media leaders met up with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, to talk about this bias and it revealed that “trending topics were chosen by curators with a liberal bias” (Friedman). The conservative leaders invoked the idea that social media that provide news do so with a systematic unconscious bias. For example, a media site might invoke that idea that one is “kind of a sexist” if he loathes “the idea of Hillary Clinton becoming president” even if it is “for reasons both related to her politics and her public persona” and they systematically use this to “parse the reasons why voters do and do not respond to a particular candidate” (Friedman). These unconscious biases, used by many news outlets, are then manipulated to turn a voter’s views against himself, which in turn can greatly affect the outcome of his

“CNN is nothing but a bunch of liberals!” “Every point you make is invalid because you get your information from Fox News!” Well, what news sources are the public supposed to be trusting, anyway? Do objective media outlets even exist anymore? Media bias has done incomprehensible damage to the thoughts, opinions, and beliefs of the citizens of this nation. Newspapers, magazines, news channels, and reporters themselves have an ethical responsibility to inform the public of the entire truth, not to spread their own agenda across the nation. Because the public relies so heavily on the media for information, it is immoral for news outlets to be even the slightest bit subjective to one side.

Media in Society: A Brief Introduction’s chapters one, two, three, and four delve into detail about how we are able to understand and analyze the media, how we view the media as metaphors, all different ways images capture meanings, and all the various narratives that are presented by the media. Beginning with chapter one, this particular chapter discusses how we understand media in our society in various ways. It introduces the critical process to comprehend media content. This chapter also describes the diverse forms of media criticism named reflectionist, contructivist, and narrativist and how they tell stories about the media.

The media has been around since the days of the printing press, to modern times where the vast network of the internet is a crucial part of everyday life. The news became popular because people want to be informed of what happens in their everyday life. Over the years, it has greatly changed and evolved. As time moved forward and technology improved, it became easier and faster to spread news and events around the world; data of information could be looked up in an instant because of innovations like computers and smartphones. Unfortunately, at the same time, it became simple to create “fake news” and manipulate the general public. Nowadays, fraudulent or flashy headlines along with false information in articles can be seen more frequently.

The movie “Outfoxed” was a true eye opener. Although I’ve always known Fox news to have a more Conservative slant, the movie shows just how outrageously far they will go to sway opinions. I was hesitant to believe that the hype was as bad as it was until it came to the interviews with former Fox News employees. Their jobs as reporters were reduced to churning positive Conservative spin, and very negative Liberal spin. To think that they thought it “fair and balanced”, which is how they describe themselves, to send a memo out each morning dictating the slant for each story. It was very enlightening, and to hear that all the stations have developed similar strategies, was disheartening. For the majority of Americans, these stations are their only research into political subjects. Several are watching political

Fox News began its operation on October 7, 1996. Fox News is a right leaning 24 hours cable news station that would compete with Ted Turner’s CNN. Similar to radio talks shows, Fox news popularity had grown in the post Fairness Doctrine world in which was led by Roger Allies. At its inception, Fox viewership was 17 million people. By 2003 Fox News would become the higher view cable news station in American as accounting to 80 million people. As a result, Fox News is what the first-generation right-wing media activist have been dreaming, especially having a conservative voice in the media landscape against the liberal elites that took down President Nixon in the Watergate scandal. Furthermore, Fox News have developed techniques that revolutionize the media that we see in today. These techniques have included misleading Kyron, placement of an American flag on the screen, the development of the marketing of the news station as Fair and Balance, the Fox News Alert, which give a sense of urgency in a breaking story, character assassination and most importantly de-legitimating liberals by bringing unknown figures. Throughout the twenty-one year of its existence, Fox News was able not only allowed to advance the right-wing causes, but also lead to the rise of Donald Trump by distorting factual news into ideological

Most popular news outlets use propaganda to persuade the public into supporting their political cause. Over the years more and more biased news outlets have been created to compete with people of the opposite political spectrum. In today's age it’s hard to find an unbiased news source, the result is constant political tension and power struggles between the left and right. Liberal and Conservative media use propaganda to sway and manipulate the general public to fit their political agenda.

The media and advertising hinder do indeed hinder our being fully human. Mass media including radio, television and newspapers endeavors to shape public opinion on a variety of things. The media attempts to manipulate those values instilled by parents and society in general, thus taking away from our being human. Messages designed to influence peoples’ attitudes, desires and decisions fall upon society urging those people to buy a certain product, vote for a certain political figure, or support a “worthy” cause. The daily attack of media and advertising persuade the public to be one and the same, rather than allowing them to function as humans who follow their own beliefs.

Media plays a big role in society these days. Whether it be letting society know what is going on the in the world today or something as simple as updates on current life on social media. The media's role in society not only delivers information of the world but also brings people together through common interests or general talks. In Brian Knappenberger's documentary: Nobody Speak: Trials of Free Press it is seen how media effect lives and how there is a much stronger meaning to what media stands for in society and why media needs to take its stand when it comes to people who want to devour them.

Mass media is a media intended for a large audience. It may take the form of broadcast media, as in the case of television and radio, or print media, like newspapers and magazines. Internet media can also attain mass media status, and many media outlets maintain a web presence to take advantage of the ready availability of Internet in many regions of the world. Some people also refer to it as the “mainstream media,” referencing the fact that it tends to stick to prominent stories which will be of interest to a general audience, sometimes ignoring controversial breaking news. Many people around the world rely on this form of media for news and entertainment, and globally, it is a huge industry.