Last Updated (Wednesday, 19 November 2008 13:23) Written by PT Admin Wednesday, 01 October 2008 15:48

Media and Its Influences

Which News is Priority?

In the world of journalism and the media, it is more skill and manipulation than display of the truth. It is also a world of competition and power. Especially in journalism, it is no longer of importance to report about dangers, heroes, and information. With the growth of tabloids, competing stations, ad sponsors, stocks, and ratings, it is now about reporting stories that the public will find amusing. The bottom line comes down to what will raise the ratings.

A man holding his daughter hostage in his apartment for decades is far more interesting than a wildfire that damaged hundreds of houses or an earthquake across the world that killed thousands.

Ethics in the Ambitious World of Journalism

I spoke with a college student who worked on the school newspaper. He came to me with accusations based on some tip he received that we were holding an event there. It was obvious that he was asking questions not to get them answered, but to get the answers that would help make his story.

He asked what the event was about. I said that it was an event of performances, singing, praying, and listening to a lecture. He asked if the cult leader would be there. This was not only accusatory but it was also very disrespectful. I asked him what he aspired to be. He said that he wanted to be a journalist and he hoped to get into newspapers. He also said that he knew this story would get him there. And I thought, ‘of course.’ A college student writing about a pastor who was accused of raping women. Who wouldn’t want to read about that? So I told him that my belief of a true journalist is someone who reports the truth, not what people want to hear or what will help someone to reach their dream career.

The next thing I know, he had produced an article omitting part of our answers (actually a lot of our answers), attaching a bad picture of one of our members caught by surprise, elevating the status of one of his resources as a “professor” when he was only an English teacher in Korea, and adding references from the website the “professor” had personally made. I was disappointed with him at first, but afterwards, I realized that the morals of journalism had come to this.

The Drastic Consenquences of Unresponsible Reporting

There was one media source in Korea that claimed that a Dumpling company used food remains to make their dumplings. The company immediately went bankrupt and the owner committed suicide. After investigation, they found that the claim made by the one media source was false. That is the power and influence of the media. But with power comes responsibility which many journalists fail to see, because they are blinded by competition, money, and ambitions. Their morals are compromised.

Media has the power to blow things out of proportion, to make the bad guy good, and to make the good guy bad. It also has the power to destroy people’s reputation and companies, it can determine the viewer’s response to the President, to a product, or even a cause, and most of all, it has the power to manipulate the truth.

So the next time you watch the TV or the news, read the tabloids or the newspapers, or even the internet, think twice before coming to a conclusion about the “facts.”