Image courtesy of isthisusdotnet.wordpress.com
It feeds us with information- whether true/false,
right/wrong. It has lead to many deaths as well as saved so many lives. It has
even been used to start wars. With a click of a button, you can experience
Europe from Africa. Religions, tribes, countries rise against each other
because of it. Agree to it or not, the media is and remains one of the tools
shaping our world today both positively and otherwise.
Negative or sometimes titivated information sells and spreads
like wildfire and the media has numerous applications of this because according
to some, it is where the bulk of the money lies. For instance, In one day, I
turned on the TV for a News bulletin and was greeted with a story and pictures
on a gruesome murder. I sought for solace on my Facebook wall only to be
slapped with another slightly skewed version of a story I read earlier. I felt
Twitter would be any better but as usual, some biased political activists were
having a field day, dishing out articles upon articles to mar a prospective
governor's chances of winning an election. This got me thinking: Is there still
an iota of truth in the world? In their song 'Where is the love', The Black Eye
Peas sang: " ...Wrong information always shown by the media, negative
images is the main criteria. Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria,
just wanna act like what they see..." Younger Nigerians who are
keen on subscribing to the herd mentality picks up this stories, adds
their own touch of "creativity" to it and we get more confused.
In this age of Technology, Blackberry, iPhones, iPads etc,
everything seem to have gone online, it is not uncommon for an individual to
get information of the happenings around them from the internet i.e Blogs,
Online magazines and even News websites and all these complements the numerous
newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations we have in our world
today.
The question remains: How accurate and honest are the
information we digest from the media? The nature and type of these information
could be based on certain factors. For example, most of the information and
news we get from the media has to do with the people and the affairs of
government. The government might want to convince people to support their
policies and this could lead to its liaison with journalists or even media
outlets thereby suppressing certain kinds of information while pushing forward
those that could sound or seem pleasing to the citizens and portray them(the
government) in good light.
In our world today, there are a thousand and one media
outlets but they are owned and controlled by a small but powerful number of
corporations which exerts a strong influence on the type of stories to be
covered, nature of stories covered and how stories are covered, all tailored to
suit the corporation's objectives. In such case, there is nothing like freedom
of the press and as A.J Liebling asserts "Freedom of the press is limited
to those who own one." Also, advertising seems to be the primary source of
revenue generation for most media outlet and even the sole source for others.
Understandably, these media outlets are tasked with promoting the business and
style of management of their advertisers while suppressing news stories that
cast a negative light on the sponsors.
I won't forget to add that due to competition, most media
outlets end up putting up images, videos or audio's that are selected just to
shock or titillate their audience or viewers sometimes shoving the relevant
information aside.
To answer that aforementioned question - Is the media really
trustworthy? The answer is YES & NO depending on you - the audience, the
listener, the viewer.
Yes because it is one major source of information and you
just can't help but pay heed to it unless you prefer to remain uninformed and
not current.
And No on the other hand because we in one way or the other
form part of what we put up there or what we refer to as the media. So as
rational beings, we should weigh this information, some of them could be false
but only a critical look at them would reveal this falsehood.
Even why I still maintain that not every information gotten
from even the so-called reputable news or information sources are true,
objectivity is still key.
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