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The Effects Of Journalism On Today 's Media

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There is no doubt that journalism has changed from what it was in the past. The new form of journalism has its benefits, but many journalists would argue that there are major problems with today’s media, especially in its news coverage, that would negate the benefits of this new era of journalism. The biggest problems with today’s media coverage are the emotion driven bias of news articles and the struggle to report the truth to the general public. Emotion is, and always has been, an easy tool to exploit throughout journalism’s existence and today’s media coverage takes full advantage of that fact. In the article “Taking Sides in Ferguson”, journalist Noah C. Rothman describes the shameful events of the Ferguson riots that took place in August of 2014. After the shooting of an African American teen by a local police officer, the town of Ferguson formed peaceful protests and eventually, riots. The riots swelled into chaos resulting in destruction of both the town’s infrastructure and local businesses including “[a] local QuickTrip convenience store [that] was burnt to the ground…”(Rothman 19). Reporters and journalists, instead of reporting solid facts and keeping distance from the riots, “became part of the unrest itself.”(Rothman 20). Not only the reporters became emotionally invested in the riots, but also the threat of the hostile actions of police consumed the readers of the printed news articles. The whole situation was an act of passion instead of what it should have

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