Television Coverage And Alternative Media Coverage

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

It is important that news broadcasting networks do not let personal bias effect the story that’s being told to its audience. People who watch the news, opinions are heavily influenced by the information given to them. Viewers think their opinion is original but are unaware that the information they receive is biased and is meant to influence and form their opinions about a certain topic or argument. Many believe that the news is unbiased and factual because journalist or experts are providing them with evidence.When, in fact, these news outlets are filled with producers, reporters, and writers, who share the same viewpoints. This is groupthink and groupthink is very prominent in news broadcasting networks. Groupthink is when a group of people who share the same ideologies make decisions as a group. In an interview with Fox Business’s John Stossel, Bernie Goldberg explains that groupthink effects the viewer because like-minded people at news networks only show the audience one-side of an argument or story because of their personal opinions on a the topic. This means that news

Bias is something that has littered the media whenever politics come into play; some media outlets may favor one political party over another. While there is nothing wrong with centering yourself around a political party due to your own beliefs, it does become a problem when you’re “forcing” your beliefs onto the public. It obviously separates people, including the readers, since a group is most likely being talked about in a negative light. The culprit of this “crime” is The Blaze, an obviously conservative news network that associates itself with the Republican party, and this is shown through many of their articles and videos. Despite their obvious bias, the writer of the article seems to think it is appropriate to call out a group of people

In America today, most people have their own political views. Some are legitimate, and some are the cause of one main problem: media bias. Certain media outlets are promoting biased political views on television, the internet, and social media. People that watch and read these biased media sources are constantly believing more and more of the false information that they are presenting. Media bias and fake news in the United States is a major contributing factor to many citizens’ political views, especially as a result of news outlets that promote a liberal agenda.

Modern America is a land where freedom of speech is valued and glorified, that is, if the speaker has the correct opinion. Thousands of veterans have laid down their lives for this constitutional right, yet the left-winged media has taken advantage of their sacrifice, twisting this liberty to suit their own agenda. Because the media has such an immense impact on culture, this bias has spread to other elements of American life. Liberal partiality is prevalent in schools and the entertainment industry, as well as traditional news outlets.

The methodology Chomsky's used in studying Manufacture of Consent is called the ‘Propaganda Model’ and it is an institutional analysis of the major media. The major media he studied consisted of The New York Times, The Washington Post and major television channels. Chomsky evaluated them because he believes that ‘ by selection of topics, by distribution of concerns, by emphasis and framing of issues, by filtering of information, by bounding of debate within certain limits, they determine, they select, they shape, they control, they restrict -- in order to serve the interests of dominant, elite groups in the society.’(Chomsky, 1992) He also believes that by analysing the institutions it is very obvious they have a goal to make money and the way to make money with a newspaper is to sell

When considering a problem or dilemma in any circumstance it is ideal that one must look at two or more sides depending on how many there are, in order to come out with an accurate and educated view of the problem itself. If this happens all the time, in every situation where a problem arises, where everyone looks to find a solution to the problem by researching and viewing the problem itself from multiple points of view, all of the society itself will be more educated and aware of important matters, and will more easily distinguish between right and wrong positions on certain matters. In the real world, many people will believe the side with the most coverage or the most information, and they do not care enough to do their own research or

“Public opinion is formed and expressed by machinery. The newspapers do an immense amount of thinking for the average man and woman. In fact, they supply them with such a continuous stream of standardized opinion, bourne along upon an equally inexhaustible flood of news and sensation, collected from every part of the world every hour of the day, that there is neither the need nor the leisure for personal reflection. All this is but part of a tremendous educating process. It is an education at once universal and superficial. It produces enormous numbers of standardized citizens, all equipped with regulation opinions, prejudices and sentiments according to their class or party.” – Winston S. Churchill

An important yet under-discussed issue for our time is the media bias. Everyday free speech is broadcasted across the world but with underlying agendas of communication companies. Many broadcasts engage in the assaulting of political candidates or display of tragedies to prompt viewers to believe the media states the exact truth. However, a majority of people do not decipher the tone and mood of the channels and papers which secretly distribute the opinions of the news company rather than solely the news.

In my artistic work, I decided to pursue and address an issue that stands out to me because of its lack of media representation in America during an era where media is more obtainable than ever. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rarely reported in mainstream media in the United States. Instead, topics such as celebrity gossip dominate headlines and it’s tragic to me; the Kardashians are mentioned more in the news than West Bank or Gaza combined. The people in Palestine have no voice in America and yet America is the perpetrator of their injustice. How can we, as Americans, face our own mistakes if we aren’t even aware that we’re making them? We boast that “all men are created equal” when we tell Palestinians everyday that Israelis deserve

In today’s society, remaining connected and knowledgeable of current events and the newest trends is vital to staying ahead in business, education, and social standing. This information is supplied to everyone through the internet, newspapers, television, and radio. One can tune into stations such as CNN, NBC, Fox News, Al-Jazeera, and many others (“SQs of Media Outlets”). In order to meet the needs of viewers, readers, and listeners, the ideal media system would contain accurate, quick information, with a purely impartial view on the facts as they are known. However, this modern media system has not maintained an objective view, pushing opinionated and slanted reporting onto the population in order to create profit and gain customers. The exploitation of information media for personal gain has created a toxic and inaccurate present, constant in today’s society.

Noam Chomsky's concept of Manufacturing Consent is imbeded in a film called “manufactured consent” which explores the ideas of Chomsky. The film managed was highly rated and for a while was referred to as the best documentary from Canada. Hoever, many are still of the opinion that this film did not convey Chomky’s message as written in his book. The popular beilef about this film is that it is based on Chomsky’s ideas where he encourage mass actions and intentions to head a social movement. However, this film mainly deals with mass media criticism. According to Briggs (2005) manufactured consent deals with propaganda designed by the media, spreaded by the same media and propagated into the public’s livesas the truth. This propaganda is set by market forces, where few parties come together to control and run the economics and politics of the country. The media have been often caught in between the ideas and beliefs of this conglomerates such as the right choice of candidates in an election. As a result, the media in turn influence the minds of the citizens.

Noam Chomsky talks about an abundance of points in the 1992 documentary, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky And The Media. However, one main point that stuck out was Chomsky’s view on Public Relations in the media. One might wonder what public relations involves, well it involves advertisements for a company or a group. Chomsky views public relations in a naysay style and aims to grasp the true meanings behind each.

The subject of power, inequality, capitalistic persuites, profitability all influences the quality of news people receive and the objectivity shown within the news dissemination. In a critical media scrutiny Chomsky and Edward S. Herman in a book called The political Economy of the mass media( Pantheon, 1988) provide a methodical ‘propaganda Model’ and it’s ‘filters’ that clearly depicts the deeds of the corporate news agencies in the United states. Thus being Media ownership, Advertising, Media sourcing and ‘flack’." Although propaganda is not the sole function of the media, it is "a very important aspect of their overall service" (p. xi), especially "in a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest" (p.1).

The propaganda model was developed by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in 1988. The propaganda model was published in the book of Manufacturing Consent, sought to provide an analytical framework that attempts to explain the behavioral and performance of the mass media in the United States (Herman, 2000). Herman and Chomsky (2002) argued that the propaganda model contains five filters which determine what is ‘news’. The first filter is the size, ownership, and profit orientation of the media, which refers to the cooperation between the mainstream media and the large conglomerate. The second filter is advertising, which refers to the mass media using advertising as the central source of income. The third filter is sourcing, which refers to the mass media dependency of information from the government, business and experts. The fourth filter is “flak”, which refers to the negative response that discipline the media. The fifth filter is anti-communism, which refers to the control mechanism of the