Tracking The Hackers: How The Media Should Prioritize Its News (Essay Sample)

Name
Tutor
Institution
Date
Tracking the Trackers
Summary
Tracking the tracker is an article by Ben Terris about photographers, mainly, the journalists. In his article, Terris explains the work of journalists and how they are found everywhere. According to Terris, journalists will find where a politician is, observe what they say and make news about him. He uses the name trackers to refer to photographers and/or journalists to explain how they can track someone even at places which would be considered “out of bound.” The article considers the work of photographers as an “awkward job of spending every waking hour filming politicians” with an aim of getting them off-guards. An example is the 2006 incident that involved Sen. George Allen during his reelection campaign. Apparently, Allen was caught by cameras referring Jim Webb a “Macaca” an event that raised controversy and publicity in 2006.
Though the article recognizes the growth of the media industry across the American states, it considers some of the films as “nothing burgers.” The article also ridicules some of the photographers and especially their well being. For instance, it describes one of the trackers to be “loping up the stairs in his green shirt, red shoes, and multiple day stubble.”
Response
Basically, the article explains the work and struggles of photographers as they try to gather news; some of which are disturbing and probably useless. While photographers are fond of tracking people, they are the one tracked in this case. Even though the writer recognizes photographers’ struggle, most of the content is negative. For instance, the writer talks of green shirt and red shoes to humiliate the field of photography. The writer is also bitter about photographers because all they try to do is find negative information about politicians so they can make news. This angers the writer and wonders whether there is no good, informative or educative news that photographers can make.
Generally, the media has been known for all negative and positive reasons. To the eyes of politicians, media is viewed negative as it tries to expose all they do. To some extent, the media is justified for keeping an eye of those who run the government, and more importantly, on how public resources are utilized. However, it is not all the time the media is used for...