The Current State of the News Media - Research Paper Example

? The Current of the News Media of The Current of the News Media Several problems plague the media of today, especially the news media. This section of the media routinely faces allegations of being biased in favor of certain parties or political leaders. They are often accused even of not reporting the correct news or focusing too much on items of news that are not relevant to anybody. This industry is an important one in any nation. They help the general public in understanding the way in which their nation is functioning and acts as an effective check on the political leaders of the nation. The news media is also able to convey the health of the economy to the viewers of its different sections. They thus, perform a very valuable function in the society. This paper shall look at how the news industry has on occasions failed to live up to the expectations that are made of it. The article shall also look at news that focuses on gossip and its effects. Later on, the essay shall look at alternate forms of news. The essay shall also focus on the reporting of wars in the news media. The essay shall also look at the neglect that foreign affairs are made to face by the American public in times of peace. The essay shall then go on to analyze the selective reporting of news and the biases that may be behind such a phenomenon. The essay shall thus, look at various aspects of American news media, focusing on its problems and some of the solutions that have emerged from within the industry itself. The article by the news agency AP, “AP: We Ignored Paris”, points to a malaise that affects news media in these times. Almost as a matter of routine, one finds that newspapers and news channels on the television report items that do not concern the daily lives of the common citizens of the world. This is a phenomenon that one finds all over the world. The ironic part of this phenomenon is the fact that this is carried out in the name of the common citizen, who according to the news media, wants them to report such news. The article in question repudiates such a myth, placing the blame for such standards of reportage on the reporters and editors themselves. Such reportage takes attention away from real articles of news at a time when the nation is at war and several internal security issues have been a thorn in the flesh of the government. The responsibility of the media is clearly to convey such issues to all sections of the society. This is not what the media has done and this reflects, according to Jan Wieten, a class-based bias that the media has harbored for years. The sections of the media that caters to the elite sections of the society has always reported on problematic areas of governance and the economy. On the other hand, those sections of the media that have been accessible to the lower classes of the society have always resorted to irrelevant pieces of news, under the assumption that such sections ‘want’ such news. Wieten argues that such a view has always taken the shape of gossip and tabloids. Such forms of the news media attempt to classify false articles of news as real in an attempt to sell them. The profusion of reality shows is only the latest form of such news, according to Wieten (1998). Such forms of the media obfuscate the real news, deflecting the attention of the masses, the people who are responsible for the election of the government that has to ultimately, take decisions. There are however, forms of the news media that do believe in entertainment and news value. Rachel Smolkin speaks of one such program, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in her essay, “What the Mainstream Media Can Learn From Jon Stewart”. She speaks of the fact that the binary between entertaining programs and non-entertaining or informative ones has led to the creation of certain shows that are merely entertaining without being informative and some with no entertainment at all. Her argument is aimed at such shows and reveals the need for argumentative and view-based shows that cater to audiences of all hues (2007). In short, the argument that Smolkin makes is aimed at increasing the hybridity amongst the shows that are aired on television as far as their genre is concerned. A show does not need to be classified strictly into one genre and not the other. This process of classification essentializes a target audience. Trischa Goodnow argues in the introduction to the book The Daily Show and Rhetoric: Arguments, Issues, and Strategies that the show is a good place to examine views that are prevalent in popular culture. It is also a platform from where Stewart, and others if they choose to make similar shows, can air his views without fear (2011). The age-old license that the jester has had can be employed by people like Stewart to criticize certain views and policies that do not benefit the people of the nation. Also, Stewart is able to take on issues that may be beyond the pale of conventional news shows and their anchors, not being bound by the same rules. Stewart can thus, air his views, champion his freedom of speech without being reined in by the shackles of political correctness. Such shows are made without any claim to authenticity unlike shows that may claim authenticity without being really so. Stewart’s show is thus an honest one, unlike claims to the contrary. His shows in fact are able to parody those very shows that make such claims without adhering to them. Goodnow also argues that the show is able to analyze closely the statements made by political leaders and hence understand the loopholes in them better. This helps in building a better-informed community of voters, something that is essential to a democratic nation. The neglect of foreign affairs by the American news media is another issue that needs to be looked into. This exercise is not to be done merely in order to increase the average American’s knowledge of the affairs of the world. It is also important to keep the nation’s boundaries safe. Thomas Ginsberg in his essay “Rediscovering the World”, speaks of the necessity of keeping in touch with the affairs of the world in order to prevent attacks of the kind that happened in September 2001. According to Ginsberg, the level of awareness that Americans display regarding the affairs of the world is very low at a time of peace as they feel safe and secure within the borders of America. He argues for the inclusion of foreign affairs within the main news even during the times when there is no ostensible conflict between America and any other part of the world (2002). The blame for this, according to Ginsberg, can be put on the people who run the establishments at news firms. These people are more often than not, unwilling to incorporate foreign news in a space that they can also give for the internal news of America. Such establishments also drastically reduce the number of correspondents who are sent to other countries during peace (2002). The argument that is made here is also for giving Americans the whole news rather than deciding what they would like to watch. Much like gossip columns being there in newspapers, the fact that foreign affairs columns are not there is also because of a prophetic role that the news media takes on for itself, one where it seeks to predict what an average American would like to read or watch at a particular point of time. David Bauder’s article “War takes up less time on Fox News” argues that information on media is often selectively portrayed (2007). The larger observation to be made here is thus the fact that the apparent objectivity of the news media must always be regarded with a certain degree of skepticism. Bauder’s article shows how the American media is often guilty of eliding vital information which might present the government in a negative light to the masses. The article quotes CNN US President John Klein who mentions the manner of reporting employed by Fox News as detrimental to a healthy coexistence of diverse political opinions within the society as a single ideological perspective attempts to maneuver public opinion. This is seen especially in the fact that when the American armed forces suffered unexpected setbacks in the Iraq War, the channel refrained from covering the war extensively for the fear of antagonizing the masses against the government. Moreover, Fox is widely known to cater to Republican interests, and thereby to conservative, pro-war perspectives. The relationship between the news media and public opinion is also seen to be symbiotic in this case as the channel’s decision to strategically omit certain aspects of the war is shaped by the widespread refusal to engage in any critique of governmental decisions. Klein elucidates the responsibility of the media in this regard by arguing “Certain folks don't want to see any bad news," he said. "It's our job to report all of the news.” (2007) Significantly, the limited coverage of the war by Fox focused on buildings and other structures getting “blown up.” If analyzed, this is seen to push a political agenda in a two-fold way. On the one hand, it creates an illusion of American military and ethical triumph through an aggressive show of power; on the other hand it distances the sites of violence from its human victims thereby co-opting the domestic audience in the moral justification of war. It is perhaps significant that Fox News filled the void created by reducing the coverage of the war by reporting the death of Anna Nicole Smith, a story that they covered in far greater detail than their rival media houses. It arguably steers the nation’s attention away from international news and focuses it on domestic developments, particularly those which are not overtly political. This conscious depoliticizing of the audience further reduces the possibility of a mass upheaval against American war policies. Harold Evans in his work War Stories: Reporting in the Time of Conflict from the Crimea to Iraq observes that “the relationship of journalism to governance is complex, one of dependence and antagonism” (Evans 2003). This statement is corroborated by the history of the Vietnam War wherein the popular protest against the war was triggered off primarily through television coverage of the same. However, in this article, one finds a critique of Fox News and by extension of all conservative media reporting which obfuscates human rights excesses committed by the American armed forces in wars. This anti-conservatism standpoint stems necessarily from a pro-liberal one and consequently the question of authenticity continues to be a fraught one. Thus, particularly in matters of war and other domestic and international affairs professionalism must take precedence over propaganda. The effect of the news media on American life is thus, not always a positive one. However, one also needs to look at the emergence of programs that challenge and break down such notions. They have been there in great numbers and testify, at the end of the day to the resilience of American media enterprises. These articles do however, also point to the need for restructuring many of these institutions. Works Cited Bauder, David (2007). “War Takes Up Less Time on Fox News”. Fox News online. 11 June 2007. Accessed 13 December 2013 from http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2007Jun11/0,4675,APonTVFoxapossWar,00.html Evans, Harold (2003). War Stories: Reporting in the Time of Conflict from the Crimea to Iraq. Charlestown, MA: Bunker Hill Publishing Inc. Print. Ginsberg, Thomas. “Rediscovering the World”. AJR online. Feb 2002. Accessed 13 December 2013 from http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=2443 Goodnow, Trischa (2011). The Daily Show and Rhetoric: Arguments, Issues, and Strategies. Plymouth: Lexington Books. Print. Smolkin, Rachel (2007). “What the Mainstream Media Can Learn From Jon Stewart”. AJR online. July 2007. Accessed 13 December 2013 from http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=4329. “The Associated Press Ignores Paris Hilton News in Weeklong Experiment”. Fox News online. 1 March, 2007. Accessed 13 December 2013 from http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/03/01/associated-press-ignores-paris-hilton-news-in-weeklong-experiment/ Wieten, Jan (1998). “Reality Television and Social Responsibility Theory”. The Media in Question: Popular Cultures and Public Interests. Eds. Kees Brants, Joke Hermes and Liesbet van Zoonen. London: Sage Publications. Print. Read More