Why News Ownership Affects Free Press And Press Censorship Essay

It being the leading source of news since the printing press. We put our faith in the media to report accurate facts unbiasedly. Between 1983 and now the media industry has consolidated from 50 individual companies to 6. That means that though the impression given is that there are a multitude of sources to attain information, the messages being communicated are all one in the same. The limitation of media sources cause a ripple effect of limited information, allowing these companies to control the public’s perception on

Once Jim Morrison said that whoever controls the media controls the mind. This shows that he had recognized the immense power and influence that the media has in our day to day lives. The media plays a very important role in the society as the source of information for every person. Hence, it is very hard for the modern society to live without the media. As a result of the media being the major source of information in our society, it is an undeniable fact the media shapes people’s opinions, attitudes and actions on particular issues (Czopp & Monteith, 2006).

“Words of Fire,” by Anthony Collings, details the lives of different journalists in regards to free press and covering potentially dangerous stories. Anthony Collings is a former CNN reporter who shifted his focus from reporting to telling the story of journalists who have come under fire in a power struggle between government and free press. Collings puts free press into a spectrum, on one side there is the United States, where the press is largely free, and on the other side there are places like North Korea or China where press is largely restricted by the government. Collings does not focus on these extremes, but rather the places in the middle where there is an ongoing struggle between state power.

Newspapers and other forms of news are very vital communication methods in the world today. The goal of news is to sell us their ideas by being biased and talking about how their idea is best. News can give us biased information although, the viewer could do further research on the

Ever since the 17th century, the newspaper has been produced and blown out of proportion, known as mass media. George A. Krimsky shines his own opinion in his essay, “The Role of the Media in a Democracy.” Krimsky provides many examples, reasoning, and rhetoric devices to expand his argument even more, his argument being that; the press should send out straight facts, let people interpret them, and allow the free press to hold the government accountable.

The media in the United States of America has grown on a massive scale in the form of the Liberal Model. This of course entails market-dominated practices and professionalization in journalism in all adequate media aspects. The First Amendment has provided the American citizens with the freedom of speech ever since it was established. This privilege is very evident in today’s society as news media on all sides of the political spectrum gets mass amounts of coverage throughout the country. The U.S. observes never-ending debates going on in the political atmosphere everyday because of the countless issues occurring in the country including the management of the economy, handling of taxes, and many more. Although it is nearly impossible for the media to please everyone in society as a

The surrounding environment easily and biologically affects human beings. Media is one of the aspects that people can easily approach. Today the media is so powerful that the development of communities depends on the influence of media to society. Now, the social issue, “can government control the media?” is brought up in our society. Since the society will casually follow the government, which will lead to the greater unity and stability, some people agree with the idea. However, the government should not control over the media. By referring to predications made by George Orwell in ‘1984’ and Aldous Huxley in ‘Brave New World’, changing advertisement to propaganda and media supporting the government are the most rapid methods to become a communist

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.

Over the centuries, the media has played a significant role in the shaping of societies across the globe. This is especially true of developed nations where media access is readily available to the average citizen. The media has contributed to the creation of ideologies and ideals within a society. The media has such an effect on social life, that a simple as a news story has the power to shake a nation. Because of this, governments around the world have made it their duty to be active in the regulation and control of media access in their countries. The media however, has quickly become dominated by major mega companies who own numerous television, radio and movie companies both nationally and

The media influences how people experience social life. Media such as newspaper, television and film, are important sources of information, education and entertainment. It can be used to learn more about the world and the people in it. In this regard it can be said that the media represent, interpret and endorse aspects of social experience (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2005). The media are also implicated in social regulation, or in other terms, the government of society. The media are implicated in government and politics in an obvious way because modern systems of democracy are conducted through the media. But the media have a bigger role to play in government by structuring how society is controlled and maintained.

Until the 1980s, the control of the media was in the hands of the national government. From then, the control shifted to private outlets and by the 1990’s, there were more than fifty multinational companies who controlled it (“Mass Media”). Today, only about six major companies control the larger fraction of media in America (Williams, Par. 1). Norman Solomon wrote in the New Political Science Journal that most reporters and editors work for just a few huge companies. These journalists and editors are on the payroll for “mega-media institutions”, of which, only about six exist (Solomon 297). How much will the public learn if these companies generally control the output of information?

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 part of the five main freedoms represented in the first amendment of the constitution of the United States. The constitution was ratified in 1791 putting freedom of the press in full development. Since then many cases have evolved with this freedom, and the freedom had some role of developing future amendments and technology in modern day. Freedom of the press had a history even before its ratification, it helped to solve many court cases, and is used throughout modern times.

It is without a doubt that the Globalisation of the media has increased our access to information about people and events around the world. However, during the process it has also shifted issues on what should or should not be in the public domain due to media ownership led by Western media corporations. The media shape is reconstructing itself, forming a singular global body playing an essential part in our democracy socially, politically, economically and culturally. Due to this, the effects of globalisation towards Journalism have become very debatable to whether it is benefiting the practice of journalism or hindering it. During the course of this essay, it will explore the affect globalisation has on the media (especially journalism), the affect of media ownership and how new technologies have influenced journalism.

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.