Media
"The problem with good journalism is, it invariably gets you in hot water with people in power" Robert McChesney
Media is omnipresent, society is constantly bombarded with images, sounds and information from the morning headlines to late night news. In spite of media permeating every aspect of our lives, society at large spends little time thinking critically about the nature of news and those that provide it. The news media is considered as an unbiased objective authority on foreign and domestic issues; this has recently been challenged by many researchers in the field of media.
We are going to examine how media is a puppet in the hands of a few "powerful groups", and instead of disseminating public opinion is in fact shaping it, and how the media is a profit making machine and largely relies on sensationalism for the purpose of entertainment.
Media and Democracy
The media in democracy exists both to report the news and events of the world and to ensure transparency, accountability and responsibility in government. It is clear that the ideal media is an objective one, free from interference and influence from outside sources. Unfortunately the ideal media does not exist. The reality of today's media is far from being objective, unbiased and independent.
Philosopher Noam Chomsky states that there is a necessity to control and marginalize public in order to carry out the business of government, and this is done through the mass media. He believes that the media shapes public opinion, as opposed to reflecting it, and as such the media is characterized not as a source to facilitate the free access and exchange of ideas, but as a tool for propaganda.
"What is violence is to dictatorship, propaganda is to democracy" Noam Chomsky
It is the media's function to amuse, entertain and inform, and to induce individuals with values, beliefs and guidelines of behaviour that...
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