Media has control of our everyday lives. Between getting out of bed and going to work we check social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, for recent news that may be affecting our lives.News forms the way we perceive things and how we act on a daily basis. When girls see the next trend of wearing hair in a certain way or the next go to dance it's all seen through media. But what most people don't realize, media only tells one side of the story. The way the media sends off the message is the way you, the reader, understand the message.
Hostile Media Phenomenon causes controversy
Hostile Media Effect is a theory that works to explain the perceptions extremely partisan people have about media coverage. It argues that people who have strong opinions about a subject believe media is biased against their own opinions, regardless of the reality.
Audiences perceive the media with a biased mindset and selectively develop their own understanding of coverage and potential agenda. Opposing sides of an issue face conflict when both sides believe the media is being biased against them. Controversial issues tend to have more of a backlash from both parties because of this.
Media bias affects our everyday lives
Bias within the media is a huge problem in today's society because our lives revolve around social media and technology. Types of bias include bias by omission, selection of source, story selection, placement, labeling, and spin. Bias within media outlets can span throughout the lifespan of the media. Depending on who or what they are biased towards can directly affect that source.
Some people blindly accept the arguments made by the media and believe everything it says. Others don't necessarily agree with it but they still hesitate to speak out against the media because their views are against popular belief. Many of these people keep their mouth shut until others speak out first. Media bias won't change unless there is enough retaliation against it from its own audience.Social media is a main factor in sharing news
Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites are creating another source of news outlets. Problems within these social media websites arise with people sharing news without really looking at it. People share these news articles with information regarding stuff they believe in with their followers.
Sharing news articles may create controversy with followers because they might believe in the same thing. Following a certain friend or certain Democratic or Republican candidate can lead you to more biased opinions of those people. Social networking sites create another world of connectivity of recent news and articles that may not be 100% accurate.
Palestine vs. Israel bias in the media
In the news today, Palestine is at war with Israel. Israel is taking over all of Palestine's land and the media is omitting most of the information so the general population has no consensus of what actually is going on.
Media is taking information that they don't want the people to see and not showing so it gives off a perception that the Palestinians are the ones attacking. The media is using their power of media to turn people against Palestine because it's an easy target. Instead of the media turning the public against one side they should portray all of the chain of events instead of declaring one side as the bad side and one side as the good side.
While watching these news stories pro-Palestine bias would play in effect if a pro-Israeli viewer was watching that newscast.They do this for two main reasons. One reason is to make a juicer story. They hook in their audience with a “glorified” story of war in the Middle East. Secondly, they take advantage of their public influence to present their biased views as a credible and trustworthy news story. This means they take their viewpoints and only portray what they want the public to believe on the news.
Media platforms use their credibility to promote their political agenda
I believe the hostile media effect is happening because everyone has their own personal opinion. Most people carry their believes on their back and want to make people believe they are right. I think the hostile media effect brings together a large group of people, each with a different opinion, and explains a touchy subject. I believe the media controls our everyday lives and when something is put out there on the news negative or positive there's no undoing it.
A perfect example of this happening is the Newtown school shooting. An elementary school shooting that killed children and school staff in Connecticut shocked the country. At the time, everyone was glued to their tv trying to find out what human would ever do such a thing. The news put out there that Ryan Lanza was the offender. Social media blew up, posting his picture all over Facebook. Turns out it was the wrong Lanza. It was Ryan’s brother who was the killer. I believe media chooses what they put out there. I think they take their views and share them with the world to promote those same views.
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI found your headlines and subheadlines to be very descriptive instead of being explanatory. Your last subheadline: "Media Platforms Use Their Credibility To Promote Their Political Agenda" was a step in the right direction, but fell short only because I felt as though it was more so what Professor Yaros said to avoid--it was a term paper headline introducing a topic that I was about to learn about. The only problem was I didn't really learn anything in the next paragraphs and unfortunately this was a trend that was common throughout your post. You did include a video--but the way it's embedded in the text isn't aesthetically pleasing (yes, you cannot wrap text around a video, but you can make sure your text begins in the line below the video, so everything isn't scrunched together). Furthermore, all of the other graphics are on the right side whereas it would have been better to have the second graphic on the left side of the post, but that's just my opinion.
Professor Yaros has nailed into our heads over the past few weeks of class the importance of the inverted pyramid, with the most important information being told at the beginning of each post and trickling down to the least important information so that we, as journalists, can cater to the typical skim readers. He also refers to the top of the pyramid (the first paragraph) as having a nugget of news. I felt as though your first paragraph was merely a stepping stone to more important information, and throughout your article I never felt as though I was really getting the important information. Yes, it is a blog post for your ePortfolio, but I felt that your opinion was too heavily involved in the post rather than truly informing me of your topic. While I enjoyed that you had short paragraphs, those short paragraphs lacked substance and transitions from topics to topics. It felt very cut and paste to me.
My lasting remarks would be to always proofread your posts out loud to yourself, this has always helped me. And always remember to test your links!! This is crucial being that your "Types of bias" embedded link did not open to the article (it appears you accidentally added a colon at the end of the link). And try to limit the amount of words your hyperlinking, again, for aesthetic value.