WHAT DO WE WANT? Truth! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? Now!
A big, important something absent in the bulk of today's media...
By Jameya Porter - staff writer
(Photo courtesy of: the University of Virginia website, the Missouri Auctioneers - Mayo Auction Marketing website, G.J. Burggraaf, and Jameya Porter (collaborative efforts))
In such the twisted society we live in that often rides on and promotes dishonesty, it might be asking just a
little too much in requesting honesty in the media. Then again, media is the primary tool of information today, is it not? So, why would this be asking too much?
It seems as if as the years go by and become apart of the past, so does "objectivity." Which media network to watch? Which newspaper to read? Which radio station to listen to? You know which ones to follow if you are looking for voices out there who agree with a lot of your beliefs and opinions, but can we truthfully say we know which ones to follow if we are in search for both sides of the spectrum, as far as
any issue is concerned?
It is hard. Even in the most neutral-seeming companies and publications leaks a drop of biasness.
That is what I would like to see in America's media - in
any media, really. I would not just like to see
more fairness, honesty, objectivity, truth, and unbiasness, but
complete fairness, honesty, objectivity, truth, and unbiasness, for neither of these components should be compromised, not even a little bit, especially when we're referring to something so important to the functioning of society as the publishing and broadcasting of vital information.
Now, by no means am I implying that every single company falls under this tent of misrepresentation or half-representation of truths. It just appears that
most are like that.
Particularly during this year's presidential election hoopla did we see cases and cases of this. The same thing was reflected in 2000 during
that election charade. In both instances, any clear and open mind would have picked up on the observation that no two-television networks provided the same information. There would be one station that would lean heavily towards the liberal side and the other that would lean heavily towards the conservative side.
The problem arises tremendously when those individuals who are ignorant of the issues and facts of today and who do not take the time out to categorize each news outlet turn on the television to one of these networks that subtly favor a particular set of beliefs, and they themselves believe everything this network says is correct and completely factual. That no truths have been omitted.
And can you blame them for thinking this way? Whether you are up on the issues or not, if you turn on your television set or open up your newspaper looking for the goings-on today, why should you have to consider that you may not be informed of the
whole truth...or that you might only be getting one side of a story?
I believe that the media is one of the most powerful elements of our world. It has proven countless times to be the most efficient, the most effective, and let's face it - the most influential when it comes to making up our minds about any and
everything that goes on in life around us.
But it should be influential in the sense of...presenting all of the facts out on the table -
all of the facts - and giving us, the public, the opportunity to decide for ourselves which way of thinking we prefer and how we feel about certain things. The media should not be influential in the sense of trying to
persuade - that is not its duty. And if it is going to blatantly attempt to
persuade, the
least it can do is show itself to us for what it really is - a tool of opinion, not a tool of fact.
(
http://www.thecollegepress.com/articles.php?act=show&art_id=1767 )