News Essay, Research Paper
News, what is news? Is it something you read; or is it something you saw? Most important of all is it something that a person presented to you. News happens everyday, and everywhere. There are so many newsworthy events happening today, that you need someone to filter it for you. You seek the truth everytime you read the paper and turn on the TV for news. But when you turn on the TV every night, is it really the “news” you are watching – or is it just another entertainment show. “The news is subordinated to entertainment” says, Jim Squire.
Jim Squire is the writer of the article The Impossibility of Fairness . He claims that news is becoming more and more like entertainment shows, for the sole purpose of attracting higher ratings. News sponsors start to hire celebrities, comedians, politicians, even some criminals to attract these ratings. Instead of reporting the news as it happens in an unbiased view and making the news real news, you are subjected to news that has nothing to do with the economy, social issues, or something that you are concerned about.
The news reporter has the special privileges, under American law, to report and have access to certain places where the general public cannot access. Only journalists and reporters have access to these areas. Most of the reporters abuse this privilege and search for something that they think will allow them to get the big name and capture audiences. Jack Fuller agrees with this because most journalists have bias and the bias of the community that they are reporting in. Sometimes a journalist purposely leaves out information or creates their own conclusions to the story because they believe that the story is true. Jack Fuller believes a journalist should report both sides of the story when it comes to news. A journalist also should not put his own biased opinions because it allows the side of the journalists mind to affect the audience and not show justification or the complete story.
Jack Fuller and Jim Squire both talk about the bias of the community.
Jim Squire argues that, people like to see others’ misfortunes – such as
crime, missing people or natural disasters affecting large communities. These events capture and retain the audience. Jack Fuller claims that the bias of the community causes different news companies to have different interest in what to report. The target audience is what the news companies have sought after and the companies will report on what it thinks will capture the target audience. Knowing what the most people want to see or what the target audience is, news companies have the ability to reach more people.
A frequent number of time on TV news, you hear about a missing person, or an
automobile accident. However, you rarely hear about who survived the accident or if the missing person was every found. Jack Fuller also believes a story should be represented fully, with a fairness to the viewer. He also argues that a reporter shouldn’t be biased in any way when reporting because the idea of fairness is also biased. If the truth were painful to the people, a journalist would then try to hide the painful side of the story. But Jack Fuller suggests that news should be reported with complete truth and facts. That is why your news today seems more like an entertainment show than a news report. Even movies and TV follow the situations presented in the news today.
I think news should only contain the bare facts. The journalists opinions, suggestions, backgrounds, and biases should all be left out of the report. Today’s news, out to attract and audience and attempt for a higher rating, is warped by the opinions and ideas of the journalist. News stories are almost never followed up on. The news reports always have the instinct to report the misfortunes of others but never the recovery or solution. I think the news reports shown today on television are bad examples for the growing youth and teenagers of America. For example, a student bringing a gun into schools is a very big media event. The student is given a spotlight and a celebrity role. But you never hear about how the student has spent four years in jail and what has happened to him since then. This sets up a bad example for students across the country. Due to the possibility of celebrity status, the shootings in schools have gone up drastically. T e last thing I want to say is that I think that there should other sources of news. If other sources of news were around, the possibility of gaining knowledge in an unbiased report increases, allowing the moral journalist integrity.
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