How Media Shapes History (Essay Sample)

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Throughout American history, there have been various events that shaped the role of media in reporting issues, events, and crimes. Now the press has developed over the years with the introduction of the new media. Traditionally, government, corporations, news media and other organizations had to give news and people would consume it by reading or looking at it. However, in today’s world, making information available to the public is not enough. People need to choose what they read and most believe that they should contribute content and opinions. The media industry has shifted from traditional sources of information such newspapers, magazines to digital sources. The Internet and social media networking affect the way news media organizations operate.
The media and entertainment industries played a significant role in the United States (Riff, P130). The American’ news media announces events and results of what goes in the country every year. The introduction of new media in the United States has helped media houses to air information very fast as they occur. However, the issue whether the media provides the credible information to the public remains controversial. Research suggests that the new media has the power to publicize fake news and this has been evidenced in how various movements were covered in the United States.
In the United States, news media was the only source of information concerning all the ongoing activities and current affairs story. Today the media seems to be focused on profitability and this compromises the quality of information presented to audiences. They are usually paid to advertise for contents in order to publicize events and issues as they occur. Commercialization connotes excessive advertising to boost profits. This interferes with their best efforts to maximize public understanding of the issues, crimes, and events that shape the society and community they claim they serve (Guerrero, p12). Consumers are aware that the new media advertisers have commercial interests in advertising. Media advertisers focus on mainly capturing the attention of many audiences in order to make more money. However, they would not wish their audience to know about their motives in advertisements. The media is persuasive and has a commercial interest in selling products and services.
The NBC has been portrayed as biased having commercial interests. It is untrustworthy because it does not provide credible information to the public. The media is related to its own stakeholders and works for its shareholder, thus it is biased. The NBC news is a source of information for the ongoing affairs in the country. It plays a significant role in investigating ongoing activities and publicizing them (Guerrero, p12). The NBC news primarily serves two aspects. First, it informs audiences all over the world about issues, events, and crimes as they occur. Secondly, the media makes a profit by publicizing information. It has been recognized that the media is a business rather than a political tool.
The NBC news had taken part in investigating Mr. Farrow’s case concerning allegations of sexual abuse. The media knows about terrible misdeeds and misconducts concerning what had happened to Mr. Farrow but did nothing after all. The NBC news withholds the truth on matters pertaining sexual assaults that had been reported to the media (Yesil, 154). This is a clear indication that the media is a credible source of biased information and serves commercial interests. The media airs passively issues about the party and influences their leadership. A good example for this was when the NBC took part investigating a particular issue and failed to publicize the matter. Investigations on what had happened to the NBC news were done. The NBC executives argued that they lacked some of the elements for the publication. However, they argued that they had filled the gaps. NBC news reports never included on-camera interviews to reveal their identity. The NBC partly aimed at hitting partly on the story simply because the case was about to expire. However, Mr. Farrow wanted to continue with the case. The NBC was free to continue but without help from the news division.
Additionally, NBC officials wanted the issue to be postponed. The media is much more concerned with maximizing profits rather than making the public to understand issues as they happen. The news media is subject to manipulations by politicians and other stakeholders. The increasing growth of advertising provides a major source of revenue for the NBC news (Yesil, 154). Advertising has the power to reach consumers across the globe; however, in matters pertaining crimes, the media advertisers may receive bribes in order to hide the issue. The NBC serves commercial interests.
Media advertisers try as much as possible to control the meaning of the information they display for the public to view. They are always focused on positive issues, demographics they weight towards audiences with disposable incomes (Murphy P127). Media advertisers focus on creating a positive environment in that they would like to make sure that the media content around the advertisement complements the message the display. By passively displaying media messages advertisers prevent the general public from seeing certain issues as crimes against human rights. Therefore, news media and advertising hamper the achievement of social justice in the society by failing to show how the coverage of violence against women.
The priorities of media advertisements clearly indicate that the media is commercialized. The media focuses on making profits by merging news into entertainment and into the business. Media advertisers would like to have control over what the audience should view and what they should not. They want to make sure that some advertisements are made available to the audience and audience’s notices them. Some of the advertisement contents with higher ratings are more attractive to advertisers. An example for this is the focus of the New York Times Magazine. Women were not allowed to write the stories they felt were most important for them such as political stories (Poell, P181). The main focus of the New York Times Magazines was on various issues such as fashion, design, recipes, cosmetics, and how to lure a man as well as keep him interested. Advertisers strongly influence the content that is displayed on media. They have the right to participate in making decisions pertaining media content. They are responsible for creating ad-driven specific sections targeting a particular geographic coverage. Editors internalized what could be advertised and what could not. As a result of commercial pressures, the media employ material to draw advertising. Therefore, news becomes more entertainment based rather than informing and educating the public.
Media advertisers assume that what they focus on will capture the attention of the reader. They are much more interested in sectors in which specific corporations and organizations endeavor to in an attempt to have higher ratings for their advertisements in order to maximize their profits. However, to some extent, the consumers the media corporations respond to are the advertisers and not the audience who listen, read, or watch the media (Yesil, 154). Audiences with higher incomes are more appealing than those with low income. This is because they are more likely to afford advertisement products such as magazines, newspapers and so on. They focus on advertising their products to demographics with higher ratings in order to maximize profits. Additionally, advertisers are more interested in advertising their products to the young people. In most cases, they have no preferences in the audiences with 50 years and above. Advertisers follow the main streams of the media market in order to gain an insight of their media content coverage. By following their mainstreams, they would change their advertising strategies in order to look focus on strategies that maximize interests by securing more favorable publicity
Increased profit pressures have transformed the media industry; however, they have do not affect all media press companies equally. Terrorists seek to manipulate and exploit the media for their own interests. One of the media marketing pressures is the reader. In many instances, the new media competes for viewers and followers, hence may play into the hands of the terrorist group since they provide abundant drama and are more likely to spread their propaganda either unknowingly or unwillingly (Sapiezynska, P22). Terrorists know how to time as well as create those images that will guarantee maximum impact through the use of media. Therefore, media coverage in some cases may be instrumentalized by terrorist to get maximum attention from the general public.
However, the more media coverage given to terrorist groups the more the terror attacks. Research suggests that new media has become much more skilled when it comes to matters pertaining covering terrorist events (Svensson, P479). Terrorists are among the issues the media will not broadcast. Terrorist organizations send homemade videos to media channels only to find that they are not shown. Terrorists understand the value of broadcasting violent and graphic images, and they rely on their own tactics to publicize attacks. The dramatic aspect of terrorists fascinates the general public, thus the media find themselves attracted by extreme terrorists. Terrorists exploit the freedom of media in a way to maximum attention around the world.
The presence of terrorist group which often intended to cause destruction in the society presents a great problem for the media and democratic governments (Murphy ...