One of the concepts that I liked in this section was the one about media agendas. I love this section because I think it is very important that we all know that the media often has agendas and they give us the news they want us to know.
"According to this view, media gatekeepers select the issues they feel are most worthy of coverage and give those issues wide attention" (304). I think that this kind of gatekeeping has been running rampant in our media lately. I think that every media outlet has to compete for their audience and so whoever has the most outrageous story often wins. The internet has become the source of news for many people. TV has to work a lot harder to compete. A good example of this is all the recent coverage of the swine flu.
The media has blown up the story way out of proportion. It's true that the flu is considered a pandemic, but it isn't even as bad of a sickness as the normal flu. So why are we all afraid of it? Because the media makes us feel like we should fear it. As viewers we need to make sure we filter what we take in to ensure that we get our facts straight. It's important that we understand that the media is typically manipulative and that if we want to get untouched information we need to go straight to the source of an issue.
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I could not agree with you more especially about the swine flu. The media looks for the biggest shock factor and actually feeds off of people's fears to make a story. It is funny because when my dad turns on the news, the first thing he says is "Let's see who died where today". But that is the way it is, the media more often than not, especially the news, focus on the negative aspects of society or what is happening. Out of the many negative stores that are reported in an hour, only maybe a few are about good things.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and how the media blows everything out of proportion. They need to get people's attention so they exaggerate to do so. The media also likes to highlight on the negative because it lures people in. They don't highlight on the positive as much because it is considered boring and not as interesting. I really do not like watching the news because it is very one sided and do not like how they report information. It is unfortunate that the media has to do that.
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