The Media: Misinterpretation of reality

The media has a signifi foundationt learn oer the everyday since it was offshoot established as an institution. Particularly the watchword media, media has had its influence in setting a nations agenda, waying the laming of quite a little to specified bring stunneds as well as shaping the publics opinion ar among the well documented influences giveed by the password media1. Aside from feeding the public information about public affairs, the media do best in its ability to dictate people which issues are say(p) to be important. The media does this by placing emphasis on specific issues.In a more than concrete setting, intelligence operationpapers teach exhibiters which issues are to be signifi shadowtly regarded by placing stories in designated places. Top stories or cover stories are placed to be the close significant issues while other stories placed after it are entirely when rendered as less important or significant than the front page stories. Newspapers pro vide a multitude of cues about the sa take a breathernce of the topics in the perfunctory word of honor rendered in the daily red-hots. For the television scene, the emphases on which stories are supposed to be important are manifested in the length of time utilise to the news fiction.With the amount of power an institution as the media has, there is to point whether this power is taken advantage of. In the competitive world of news media, gaining readership is a tedious task. With issues on investment returns and the case for readership, there are arising doubts as to whether the news media re on the wholey feeds people with the essential information or they manipulate the stories to able for readership and even capital gains. In this paper, we shall put point on evidences that suggest that the news does non reflect truth save unsungs it.A look at media sensationalizingOne of the evident manifestations of medias tendency to obscure reality and true stories lies in its na ture of sensationalizing2. This could be drawn from the 2004 elections. According to Mackin, the media see sort of frenzy in attempting to stay updated for the election3. Assessing the performance of the media, it did non quite fairly cover the elections well. The media has a tendency to focus on the scandalization and personalities involved that it forgets to look and delve into the real issues. This is unitary of the manifestations that news could obscure true stories. The media has a tendency to dear highlight parts of the story without being able to render other sides of the story which may set apart clearance and understanding to the issue.Essentially there are always more issues involve to be reported on, however, the media has its own biases when it comes to the coverage of a news moment or issue. The media fundamentally has two types of biases3. The firs type of bias is when the media does not focus on the more important issues. The second is that the bias which is geared towards objectivity.Media is bias when it comes to veering away from the real issue in way that it does not clarify issues as intensively as they should be. If accusations are directed, the media does not render to investigate more in the issue. The focus of the media is to present to the public the accusations do and the personalities involved. 2Joyce Milton, The Yellow Kids Foreign correspondents in the heyday of yellow journalism, Harper & adenine Row, New York, 1989. 3 Mackin, Meaghan, Media sensationalizing 2004 election, 2008. in that location are occasions where the root cause is not as heavily mentioned as they should. Media tends to sensationalize focusing more on the troths created earlier than the causes. During the 2004 elections, the media were more focused in bringing the latest on polls, office and appearance of the candidates. They did not bring too lots focus on the covering the issues which are supposed to be addressed during elections. The nature of t he media to sensationalize issues adheres to the product line that news has a tendency to obscure reality than presenting it as it is. The media in this case is operate to present issues highlighting on scandals and personalities.Although the institution is driven by the demand reflected upon the people, the essence of what a plug media should in the first place is lost. The media more than presenting the latest public affairs to the people should in addition be responsible in looking more and analyzing factors underlying the issues. As people demand for the latest headlines come the need to be rightfully informed as well. An individual not rightfully informed would be able to participate rightfully in with the issues at hand.Since the media is the venue where people gather information, the expectation ranges too high with the credibility and truthfulness of the news or information. However, certain cases prove that news portrayed by media were impertinent to the specific setti ng it must be relayed. Being a decently venue to generate feedback and to build opinion through information diffusion and education to the larger scope of the population, news portrayed by media, in some cases unfortunately bears unfruitful information. Furthermore, news to some extent does not guarantee its veracity and reliability at all time. For instance, such occurrence in untruthful reporting is present to the limning of Western locoweed media to Africa.Being the cradle of human beings kind, it appeared to achieve its negative height due to news about savagery the people were engaged into. These consequently gave the continent a face which every people worldwide mocked off and defamed. Depicted as Dark Continent, Western people are encouraged to hold that nothing good allow ever emerged in its soil. Many in the West bought this negative impression due to the misdealing of reportage to the continent and to the African people.According to Iyinbo4, the Western reportage is always directed to the portrayal of Africa as having a single entity discouraging the heterogeneity of tribes and floricultures enriching the continent. For instance, the depiction of acquired immune deficiency syndrome epidemic (Southern and east Africa) wars, drought and starvation (Central and Eastern Africa) oil disasters (Niger-Delta, Nigeria) Muslim extremist (the matrimony and Horn of Africa) bombings in Kenya and Tanzania (East Africa) The Great Migration (Kenya) all boil down to a continental issue do by the specificity of them to different parts of Africa.Although mass media impacts greatly in resolving crises happening in the continent, more issues were put into ill-treat perspective which apparently discouraged more problem-solving strategies. Under the current dispensation, the resolutions of their mass media legerdemain of Africa and Africans are dire belittling the people, undermining their accomplishments, destroying their self-esteem and heritage. It does also, albeit inadvertently, provide arms to bigots (on all sides). It does not augur well to incense the situation with mis- and disinformation all in the name of profits or ratings5.4 Iyinbo, O., Misrepresentation of Africans and the role of Western media. The sensible Constituent, 2007.5 Iyinbo, O., 2007.News and Reality 5Moreover, the present connotation to mass media especially in news reporting becomes increasingly negative since many media stations offer totally entertainment and gives biased and untruthful news6 (Loud, 2006). This trend defeat the intention of new reporting as it veers away to the responsible information gathering, interpreting and disseminating. The conflict arises when the most popular news stations claim that they are innocent and are often times not. As a defence, they tend to reason-out that ingenuous reporting is near impossible.Another problem with the news reporting practiced instantly falls grimly to the misinterpretation of facts by news report er and personnel. There are some intentional misinterpretations committed by news reporters for the purpose mainly of reporting safe and evading conflict regarding a specified issue. This can be best explained on the case of reporting about the imperativeness and present condition about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).Considering the belaboured scientific look into of researchers and scientist to credence support more detailed including its various symptoms and realities, media conveyance tend to discourage such intents. As it is presented and described in a baffling manner, the portrayal of its real grim is avoided to be k straightn by the mass populace.In 2007, a Kaiser survey returned results that showed a mere 15 percent of those polled were in person concerned with becoming human immunodeficiency virus positive (a 9 percent drop cloth since 1997). Where once men and women intended help a reputable and serious risk, they now consi der the threat to be outside of their realm. This major skid in the intuition of the AIDS threat, as many academicians worried, will only modify the problem.6Loud, C., Whats Wrong with the Media?, 2006.News and Reality 6It can be argued that this qualifying in intuition is directly related to scientific advances in the field. AIDS previously was considered to be a death warrant for anyone who managed to contract human immunodeficiency virus in one way or another.However, it is also arguable to say that this change of perceptions is the consequence of the recent depictions of HIV/AIDS in mass media. Media tend to reenforce the idea that the malady can be beaten and would not put to death those who contract it. This misinterpreted depiction given the risk and seriousness of incurable HIV/AIDS was manifested in the hit play Angels in America.Although it was turned into an HBO mini-series which was highly-acclaimed, the suit matter greatly failed to educate and inform many on H IV or AIDS. Its timeliness magnificently hit American popular culture in telling accurately the history of AIDS it did not impregnate any common sense of education to the viewer since it only dealt with the idea that Instead, it human will battle anythingeven the physical.Another example of romanticized strategy to attack AIDS is when portrayal o the disease came with a major Broadway blockbuster authorize RENT. It only portrayed Bohemian New Yorker in 1980s that having the set down of AZT (a popular drug which fights HIVs attack on the body) can make the victim manageable to sing without a sense of real urgency or impending doom. Although it portrayed during the time that AIDS is incurable, the viewers were left with the same massage of hope that the disease vie no urgent risk to the populace. The reality of the disease is downplayed despite it nearly being a character unto itself in the film.The more recently examples can be seen in a few commercials and ad works made such resurgence of interest in the AIDS almsgiving. In contextual American popular culture,throwing a celebrity fighting against AIDS through charity in the news is presumed to be the very best solution to snack bar AIDS.Even grander campaign bearing the slogan If one of us has AIDS, all of us take it. or popularly known as the We all have AIDS campaign. gave only an appealing look to the impending death disease. The memorable yet ineffective way of the campaign is viewing the action in a bold statement composed largely of celebrities, politicians and religious leaders.Essential to consider is the fact that AIDSs portrayal to mass media only resulted to the evolution of celebrity and commodification of the disease. The misleading market tool manages to earn through the portrayal without the benefit of necessarily spreading awareness or education. Instead of placing a knowledgeable person who is living with the disease in front of the camera, marketers commodify the disease to earn fa me and eventually to establish a profitable market. This consequently appeals only to the public to give donation to a random charity disregarding the idea of better information about their own risks or how to cherish themselves.Even more blatant commodification is the creation of special garments and gadgets by organized charities/companies just to take the opportunity of selling them while some profit will go to an AIDS charity. Based in the United States, this massive campaign makes the money exclusively reserved for African AIDS causes which shifted the public perception by implying subconsciously that HIV/AIDS is no longer an issue in the US.Since people cited that television is their most immediate and important semen for information concerning AIDS (Research Unit for Health and Behavioural Change), a deeper summary of media messages is important in understanding the sociological impact of AIDS and ad as a means of educating. However, AIDS portrayals in advertisements are al ways misconstrued which leaves the people pretty sitting. It is also pointed out that the bulk of HIV/AIDS advertisements are vague, confusing, prejudiced and manage to perpetuate many misconceptions about AIDS that have the potential to spread the disease even further. It is due to this miss of true representation that the true cultural meaning of AIDS is pushed out of sight, causing vital health education messages to get lost or become misconstrued in the process.According to Jenny Kitzingers work titled audition understandings of AIDS media messages a discussion of methods, that the meanings of media messages do not merely lie in just the content of the messages but more likely in the readings different audiences bring to the metaphorical discussion. It is therefore argued that such messages are read based on social context and personal experience.To compensate this shift of public perception regarding the cultural importance of HIV/AIDS, we must change the way it is represente d in the media by pointing out that AIDS is much serious than twitchy comedians and house hold celebrity names.ReferencesJoyce Milton, The Yellow Kids Foreign correspondents in the heyday of yellow journalism, Harper Row, New York, 1989.Loud, C., Whats Wrong with the Media?, 2006, Retrieved 20 April, 2008, <https//www.yahoo.com/? luxate=404&err_url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.yahoo.com%2farticle%2f41418%2fwhats_wrong_with_the_media.html>.