Read up on the Rupert Murdoch phone scandal. You can find some links (from TIME online) I posted up in Week 6, as well as read up on the Newsweek coverage of the news.
In relation to the news coverage on the scandal, answer the question:
"The news media should be blamed for the unhealthy paparazzi culture and going to the extremes for sensational news. How far do you agree?"
The media has always been associated with paparazzi and reports desperately searching for news and people to interview about certain incidents. The media are known to exaggerate the truth, sometimes a little too far. The Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal has revealed a darker side to the world of journalism. I would like to agree to a rather small extent with the statement that the news media should be blamed for the unhealthy paparazzi culture and going to the extremes for sensational news.
The very first factor would boil down to the news media itself. The news media, in order to keep their customers reading their paper. The news media companies would always want to get the latest and juiciest news for their customers to enjoy. News not reported by other news companies would also be an added advantage to news media companies as readers would talk about this news to others, who would soon know through rival news media companies and come to trust the news media company who got the piece of news first, increasing the reputation of the company, attracting more readers and result in more income. As the saying goes: "the early bird catches the worm", the only way for the news company to be an early bird is to have paparazzi to spy on the influential and even go to the extreme, like the phone-hacking scandal, to get the news.
However, we need to be aware of the fact that the news media use extreme measures to get news, because of the very fact that the general public wishes to get such information. For example, in today's society, people love sensation. Most people like to see scandals in the news paper as it is more easier to read than hard facts like updates on economy and new laws implemented by the government. People would also want a piece of news to talk about and gossip. Many others would naturally be curious about what their celebrity idols are doing in their private lives, thus when this kind of scandal comes out, people would be interested. Tabloids are papers which report on matters which do not actually concern us, like an argument between 2 people on a bus, or accidents that resulted in injuries. Why is it that these kind of Tabloids are able to thrive? It is because of the very fact that people prefer to look at the latest sensation than to look at heavy-going articles on the large-print. As a result, the news media would be forced to look for new information to feed to the readers, resulting in the usage of extreme measures and the paparazzi.
Since tabloids are created due to public interests, the main root of the problem would be the general public. If people enjoy reading heavy-going news than the latest gossip, then tabloids would not exist in the first place. Therefore I would say that it would be the general public causing the news media to go to extreme measures and making use of the paparazzi to get hold of information. Therefore I agree with the statement only to a small extent.
No comments:
Post a Comment