The Corruption Of Social Media In The United States

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 has recently come to my attention that not enough people understand how great bias in media has been to our lives. Each day we wake up and see near one or more biases in the media, lying at the foot of our beds. It is wonderful to be able to wake up and smile each morning because of this. Decisions are made based on what people hold to be true. History has shown instances where severly biased media. The most recognizable evidence being WWII and Stalin. "Because of the status quo bias, the media ignore any position that advocates radical change"

Does Nicolas Carr, author of “How Social Media Is Ruining Politics” provide enough evidence that social media is ruining politics? The answer is a very obvious yes. Overtime, social media has slowly polarized the political perception of the American people. Social Networking is a new, popular medium that has changed the nature of political conversation. Therefore, it has become both a good thing and a bad thing. It has encouraged those who once did not partake in the political process to participate. Social networking is very useful to find out news and information ahead of the news media.. “It has become an easy way for political candidates to connect and communicate with the American people.” (Carr 1) While social media might provide the candidates with a form of convenience because it simplifies and speeds up the communication process, it also provides many ways for their campaigns to be easily and deliberately attacked. Unfortunately, what receives the most attention on social media is outrageous statements. Some candidates like Donald Trump know how to use this to their advantage. The danger in this is that candidates tend to use abrasive soundbites to grab the attention of the social media user. Unfortunately, the abrasive soundbites are often taken out the intended context. Other candidates like Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush did not come to this realization as quickly because they did not want to take the chance of hindering their image. They understood that a

America holds the illusion of ‘land of the free and home of the brave.’ This by any means, is not true if we continue to classify big media corporations as free press. Big corporations like Fox news, CNN, Union Tribune, etc. are also referred to as mainstream media and are completely under the control of the elite 1%. Time and again mainstream media has proved as unrepresentative, only serving the ones who pay them. In a nation where democracy is valued, people rely heavily on news sources to gather information, therefore, they need sources who can provide uncensored information that enables them to make knowledgeable decisions about their government.

Malcolm X said “The media is the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” The media is powerful. The world is full of lies. People have to be able to tell what is the lie and what is the truth. People get their news from websites and newspapers, often from only one source. People should read multiple news sources, because again, the world is full of lies. If a person always gets their news from one source, they will be brainwashed by it and believe it.

I believe todays media is controlled by the wealthy liberal minority, Examples of some include television, major internet sites such as Yahoo and AOL. These wealthy liberal minority’s use the media to impose their beliefs by airing programs that can influence perception. Think about it-show enough interracial couples, air enough Police brutality directed at one particular group, give only one side to a point of view and the outcome becomes brainwashing to a certain degree. The perception becomes acceptable behavior, thus the norm. Whoever said, “repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it” hit the nail on the head because it’s essentially true. Controlling what media viewers see and hear is basically re-programming us how to think

It informs citizens about events and details that they might not have even heard of or would know about. The media can be biased but to only a certain point. These biased media can tailor to a certain audience and that is acceptable. People don’t have to listen or read this specific media source. These biased sources can spark a debate between two people that don’t share the same opinion and that’s ok. Spreading lies is when media has gone too far. According to the Washington Examiner, a survey in 2015 showed that 70% of adults say that believe that the media is biased. If people know that the media is biased then not many people will know not to trust the media completely.

Media outlets report in a bias fashion because it causes people to either strongly agree or disagree with what they have to say. If they can get a group of people to rally for or against what they say, they are more likely to share it with others who think the same, who in turn will share it with more people, thus giving them more readers and more money. It does not matter to said media outlets if people agree with what they say as long as enough people read it for them to make a profit.

It’s no secret that almost every major news station is at least a little biased, whether is to the left or the right. For example during the election of 2016, eight of ten people said the news media is bias. According to Alex Swoyer a writer for Breitbart "the 2016 presidential election was biased, with 59 percent saying the press favored Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump” (Swoyer). This could have hurt Trump’s election votes because people could have only watched specific news channels. Often times certain facts can be withheld or exaggerated or even made up. Causing false opinions and leading people to believe deceitful facts. If media bias continues to be allowed, then more and more people won’t know full stories, vote without know all the outcomes, and they might spread fake or “tweaked” facts.

After watching the documentary film about Fox News on Youtube, I was surprised and upset with the fact that American is being brainwash by bias opinions and lies on media everyday. We expect “fair and balanced” news, and we expect the media to give us fact so can have the opportunity to participate in governing our nation. However, media, like Fox New, is reporting propaganda for the political parties instead of spending time to analysis the facts and to inform and criticize on what is wrong.

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.

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." This quote by A.J. Liebling illustrates the reality of where the media stands in today's society. Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in power throughout the media with regard to politics. The media's original purpose was to inform the public of the relevant events that occurred around the world. The job of the media is to search out the truth and relay that news to the people. The media has the power to inform the people but often times the stories given to the public are distorted for one reason or another. Using slant and sensationalism, the media has begun to shape our views in society and the process by which

As Americans, we are taught from childhood to internalize the importance of freedom and to sing the praises of the “land of the free.” Political rallies, presidential speeches, and Internet forums light up day after day with fierce debates over freedom of speech or religion or the right to bear arms, but one freedom most of us fail to prioritize as we should is one unique to developed countries yet absolutely crucial of a true democracy: freedom of the press.

In the free society of the United States of America, journalism is freely expressed in all measures to inform the public and criticize policies. Besides the fact that media journalism keeps the public up to date with current events, more importantly, it provides checks and balances on the government. Keeping a close eye on the government limits the possibility of corruption and other scandals such as the Watergate Scandal. Throughout the history of journalism, there have been a variety of ways to get messages out to the public. The main components of journalism that are still used today include newspaper, radio, television, and the internet.

Thousands of our nation's men and women were fighting for their country, yet the media limited the amount of information that they chose to pass on to the public. Each day the media is faced with the choice of making decisions of what news to pass on, when that news could make a significant difference in someone's life, or in the fate of our nation.