Essay 2

Media scholars have written about the effects that entertainment programming can have on people – from encouraging imitative behavior (social learning theory) to creating the perception that the world can be a pretty scary place (cultivation theory). What about the news media? Looking at news coverage and the definitions of news, what effects does journalism have on individuals and on society? What does news coverage say about the United States? And what does it say about the rest of the world

From the naissance of the earliest newspaper till now, the history of media development has already passed almost a hundred years. During the past century, the format of media has changed and evolved continually, from the earliest newspaper to radio, to television and then to the current internet. However, whatever the format by which the media displayed for the public, the function of it never faded in our society. Nowadays, the function of it gets even more important with the booming of internet techniques. Web television, blogs, twitter and countless websites have penetrated into almost every corner of our life, and become an inseparable part of our life. From the news like the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the military actions operated by NOTA on Libya to the weather report and the daily price of gasoline. To get them, what you do is just opening the television or clicking the mouse. Then you will be overwhelmed by the information ocean. Television and other medias have became part of the process by which people learn society’s values and come to understand what society expects from them. They enable us to communicate with each other by helping us to overcome the barriers of time and space. It is widely acknowledged that the basic functions of media are: Inform, Surveillance, Service the economic system, Hold society together, Entertain, Act as a Community forum, Set up the agenda, Service the political system. For this article, I want to focus on two of them: Entertain and Hold our society together.

Television and radio broadcasting provides us with a big variety of programs and news every day. All these news and programs release us from the heavy burden after work. That is the benefit we get from them. To get a higher circulation or audience rating, except for the general programs and news they do, the negative news, even the scandals of stars or political officers usually become the favor for media. In this regard, it is understandable that the information like the divorce or extramarital affairs of Hollywood stars, the drugs abuse of some sports stars is always full of the screen or newspapers. However, have you asked what did we really get from these news？ Next, I will use one example to analyze what we really get from them.

On May 9, 2011, Arnold Schwarzenegger and His wife Maria Shriver shocked the world by announcing their separation in a joint statement. This happened after Arnold acknowledged his extramarital affair with his housekeeper mistress and cultivated an illegitimate son. This new became the top line on the media sonly. Arnold was also put in the teeth of the storm. A fierce debate on this issue emerged on the internet. The public was disappointed by Arnold’s disloyalty, and sympathized Maria’s situation. In my opinion, for the public, they should stay in calm and analyze this event comprehensively.

For Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, it could not be denied that he was the false maker. But remember every one had the right to make mistakes, and every one also had the right to correct his or her mistakes. The public’s reaction on this issue could do nothing but place high pressures on him and his family. To some extent, this event should be considered as Arnold’s domestic issue or even privacy. Of course, some people considered that the audience or the media bestowed the stars like Arnold reputation and social status, and they should have the right to know or comment on their behaviors, even privacy. However, stars or other celebrities had already done something to compensate for their reputation and social status. They provided us a variety of excellent television shows, films, music, other kinds of arts works or exciting athletic contests. Some of them even set good examples in promoting the public welfare careers. They were also commoners like us, they had their privacy, and they had their own time and space which needs the public’s respect. In addition, had you took Maria, the mistress and her son’s feeling into consideration?  Did we want the 10 years old boy to live in the shadow of his father’s scandal for the remaining of his life? Thus, for such news, it means a tremendous pressure on the star’s career, which might generate very big influences on their family life. According to one investigation, in South Korea, about one to five suicide cases of stars happened every year. The reason for the suicide was they cannot bear the pressures of scandals from the public.

For the public, on one hand, have you asked what do we really get from Arnold’s scandals? Do they generate significance on our daily life? The answer is definite: Nothing more than a burst of laughter. For most of the public, our daily life is not influenced by them. Those news are just the resource of our gossip after dinner, and such amusement we get is based on the stars’ sorrows. On the other hand, media usually serve as the promoter for the public’s mainstream ideas, what they published have a big influence on shaping the public’s opinion. For most of the young people, they are influenced a lot by the media, their immaturity and curiosity drives them to imitate the behaviors of their idols. We can image what they will be under the influence of such news like divorce, extramarital affairs even drug abuse and violence. Their values may be distorted under such ambience. Some of them even imitate the behaviors of the stars they admire, they indulge themselves in the amusement, they take drugs, they do not treat their marriage seriously. Thus, more social problems come to appear. Compared the economic profit and the social influence on our next generation, which one is more important?

Based on the above considerations, if the higher circulation or audience rate is at the expanse of the stars’ sorrows and the distortion of social values, then this investment is totally a failure. For the media, they should take the responsibility to shape a health public opinion. In order to achieve this goal, the shows and reporting work which can help the public to develop an optimistic, aggressive attitude should replace those pessimistic scandals.

Medias should take the neutral perspectives or angle in order to achieve the goal of a fair, democratic society, and hold the whole society even the whole world together. This is definitely right. For most medias, they always try to find a balancing point which can consider the profits concerning all social classes. Unfortunately, this is a challenging task, sometimes this is even an unrealistic anticipation. What should the media select if they cannot find such balancing point in the conflict between political or economic profit and the general civilians?

I want to take the news of the military actions the NOTA operated on Libya as an example. Even today, we still cannot get a clear pretext for this military action. No matter what kind of reasons, the peaceful and stable situation for Libya is our final goal. But, what we are doing now is not pointing to this direction. Every day, what we look on the reporting work was the fierce fighting scenes, the blast of explosives, the victory or failure of one party, the casualty of the conflict, the negotiation between different parties and so on. However, have you got more images of the civilians who are still live in the flames of the war? Do they have family members are killed or injured on the war? Do they have enough food or water? What should they do after losing family members or houses? I can guarantee that the images which show the scenes of fierce war and those political leaders are definitely more than the civilians who are still live in the war area. Why the war has no end? The answer is quite simple: even the civilian’s basic right to get a stable life cannot be achieved by the government, they even do not get enough attention by the public from the whole world. Why do not they select rebellion? Before their basic life has the guarantee, their profit can be protected effectively, their terrible life gets enough attention from the world. Then the war will be quite close to the end. Under such situation, what should the media do becomes clear for the public. If the media pay enough attention to reflect their life, their horrible life under the war to the whole world, then the tempo of the process to achieve peace may get accelerated. More humanitarian aid will be provided by different associations, more endeavors will be done by the political leaders to avoid more casualties.   

After analyzing the above situation, we can give answer to the question at the end of the seventh paragraph. If there is conflict between the political profit and civilian’s life, to get the crisis settled timely, the media should not serve as the promoter or publisher for the war but to work as the warrior to reflect the basic profit of the civilian. Only in this way can we achieve the goal of peace and democracy. To achieve this goal, we still have a long way to go.

From the moment that the media emerged, our society bestowed a special mission to this honorable career. It is every journalist’s accountability to realize this  goal: to hold our society together, to achieve democracy in every corner of the world.