Media Analysis Essay, Research Paper

In Debating Democracy & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; The Media: Huge Wasteland or New Frontier? & # 8221 ; Jarol Manheim and Douglas Rushkoff present opposing positions of the media. Both writers raise the inquiries of what the media represents and what messages the media attempts to direct to the populace. Is the media & # 8217 ; s coverage of events merely for amusement value or make the studies have political content and value? Are the viewing audiences capable of separating between the media & # 8217 ; s flashiness and the existent facts? Do different beginnings of the media system really portray different positions and narratives? A cardinal inquiry is how typical nonsubjective coverage is. If the cognition can easy be obtained elsewhere, it is possible to reason with pluralists that citizens have the tools to regulate themselves more or less democratically. If, on the other manus, there are serious defects, one might hold with the power elite cantonment that the people, because they have deficient meaningful information, wield less power than they could and should.

Manheim claims that the media is non every bit diverse as it claims to be. He states,

Though for competitory intents they might hold us believe otherwise, most American intelligence organisations have a great trade in common with one another. . . they define intelligence itself in basically the same footings. ( Manheim, 1991 )

He argues that the media entertains the viewing audiences instead than giving them information that is relevant and socially of import. Manheim & # 8217 ; s position about what the mass media system really does to the intelligence is similar to what W. Lance Bennett lists as the four chief media prejudices: atomization, standardization, personalization and dramatisation ( Bennett, 1996 ) . These prejudices are described by Manheim as the media system & # 8220 ; [ rendering ] the content of the intelligence less onerous by boxing it more beautifully & # 8221 ; ( Manheim, 1991 ) .

Contrary to Manheim & # 8217 ; s positions, Rushkoff looks at how the viewing audiences are able to utilize and understand the media & # 8217 ; s messages. Rather than sing the media as a mass system composed of the elite who view the populace as a trade good, Rushkoff believes that the people strive to determine and understand the universe through the messages the media portrays. Furthermore, he claims that the media is simply a contemplation of the society that the viewing audiences themselves have created. The viewing audiences have the ability to take which medium of media they will utilize ( Internet, web, newspaper, etc. ) . Rushkoff says that the intelligence has now become & # 8220 ; synergistic & # 8221 ; and the people ( peculiarly those under 40 ) have come to understand the media & # 8217 ; s symbols better ( Rushkoff, 1994 ) . Furthermore, the & # 8220 ; GenX-ers & # 8221 ; that Rushkoff refers to, has absorbed the media into their ain cultural development, repeating and reanalyzing all the points the media system has raised them on.

I found grounds that supports Manheim & # 8217 ; s, Rushkoff & # 8217 ; s and Bennett & # 8217 ; s positions in my observation of Internet intelligence. About all of my findings are straight related to Manheim & # 8217 ; s positions of the media, nevertheless I did happen support for Rushkoff & # 8217 ; s thought that the media & # 8217 ; s creative activity is really a reactionist creative activity by society. The Internet & # 8217 ; s portraiture of the intelligence did demo all four of Bennett & # 8217 ; s prejudices. Dramatization, standardization and atomization to a great extent dominated narratives with a few mentions to personalization.

In much of the political coverage sing non-controversial subjects the elite was given penchant nevertheless, the public position was frequently brought in when the capable affair became more contestable. Such was the instance with the coverage of the presidential campaigners & # 8217 ; run financess versus the coverage of Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura & # 8217 ; s controversial interview with Playboy magazine. Coverage of the run fundss seemed to incorporate more of an elect angle and did non take into history the populace & # 8217 ; s positions about the campaigners & # 8217 ; existent platforms. Conversely, the public & # 8217 ; s positions and reactions to a great extent dominated coverage of the Ventura interview. This grounds relates to Manheim and Bennett & # 8217 ; s positions of the media & # 8217 ; s portraiture of the intelligence. The run finance narratives contain a batch of dramatisation, in the fact that fundss are made out to be the most of import facets of the run, and in atomization, because the other facets of the runs merely are non mentioned.

Manheim states that & # 8220 ; [ T ] hough many Americans. . . might necessitate to experience informed. . . they preferred to be entertained more than they preferred to be informed & # 8221 ; ( Manheim, 1991 ) . When I shared my surface findings with friends, they were interested and felt as if they should cognize more, but when I did travel further in my findings ( explicating different political platforms ) they simply yawned and walked off. These personal findings refute Rushkoff & # 8217 ; s thought that GenXers understand the media & # 8217 ; s portraiture and are non easy swayed by the amusement value. In a closer scrutiny of the me

Defense Intelligence Agency, I found that while narratives will catch one’s attending, they lack much of the implicit in political and institutional factors that contributed to the being of the narrative. In an article sing the pact that would O.K. a planetary prohibition on atomic testing, grounds why the pact might neglect were merely lightly touched upon. More focal point was placed on how much the pact would ache President Clinton’s popularity polls right now.

The articles presented by the Internet showed grounds of Manheim & # 8217 ; s thought that the & # 8220 ; natural linguistic communication of the intelligence is a linguistic communication of cynicism & # 8221 ; ( 1991 ) . If one were to establish sentiments entirely sing the intelligence that the Internet showed, it would merely be logical to believe that the universe was about to come to a grinding arrest due to the & # 8220 ; bad & # 8221 ; opinion calls made by politicians sing both our society and their personal lives. Furthermore, it is non far fetched to believe that if viewing audiences believe everything they read that the elite will take attention of everything. This thought of standardization as proposed by Bennett is apparent in articles refering natural catastrophes and & # 8220 ; crisis & # 8221 ; state of affairss ( note, many of these crises have besides been created by the media ) . In this regard, Rushkoff & # 8217 ; s thought that the media is a creative activity by society is really valid. One can reason that society wants struggle resolved and the media therefore presents the populace with the chance for declaration satisfaction. ( Rushkoff, 1994 )

Additionally, many long-run tendencies and historical forms are frequently losing in the intelligence coverage. In order to acquire the full narrative, pull knowing decisions, and infer logical possibilities for solutions, one must bring out the truth behind the narratives presented ( Manheim, 1991 ) . Even in looking at extra links to information on the Internet, the media sets up a system that keeps the reader in a rhythm of regurgitated information presented in a different format. In an article sing the Social Security trust fund, viewing audiences are merely told that Congress and the White House are reasoning over who is be aftering on taking money from the fund. The existent figure that is in the trust fund, every bit good as the figures of money borrowed by both the House and Congress, are non mentioned in item, nor are grounds why the trust fund has been repeatedly plundered. Furthermore, the viewing audiences are non told what the effects of such adoption are.

In decision, the media has caused the populace to believe that the political system, every bit good as other establishments systems, work when in actuality, it is the mass media system that is working. The media system works good in giving a deformed position of events to the populace without giving background or implicit in institutional causes therefore doing the populace ailment equipped in doing accurate political opinions. The media partakes in false objectiveness. News coverage, whether by telecasting, wireless, the Internet, or newspapers, must necessarily be selective, selective non merely in which narratives it reports but in how it presents them every bit good. The media is incapable of supplying a summation of everything that has transpired in a twenty-four hours. Therefore, editors, newsmans, etc. make up one’s mind what will travel into the studies. Equally of import, newsmans are still human existences who, in malice of their good purposes, on occasion succumb to anger, green-eyed monster, anxiousness, restlessness, aspiration, and other emotions that cloud their objectiveness. They belong to big, complex organisations that have their ain diverse, frequently conflicting, ends and demands. Showing the intelligence to the populace is non simply a affair of & # 8220 ; stating it like it is. & # 8221 ; It is really much a human activity. Reporters do non wilfully falsify their narratives, but the manner they describe issues and events however affects the public & # 8217 ; s apprehension of them. This is harmful to the thought of popular democracy in the fact that the populace does non have a complete image of events, therefore forestalling them from doing informed determinations and go forthing the elite in a place of power. To cite Cass R. Sunstein,

A democracy is severely served when newspapers and telecasting focal point so intensely on the personal joys and calamities of celebrated people. This sort of & # 8220 ; intelligence & # 8221 ; crowds out more serious issues, and there is an of import difference-as the Constitution & # 8217 ; s framer good knew, and as many people today appear to hold forgotten-between the public involvement and what involvements the populace. ( 1997 )

Plants Cited

Bennett, Lance W. News: The Politicss of Illusion. University of Washington. Longman Publishers, 1996.

Manheim, Jarol B. All of the People, All the Time: Strategic Communication and American Politics. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. , 1991.

Rushkoff, Douglas. & # 8220 ; Media: It & # 8217 ; s the Real Thing. & # 8221 ; New Perspectives Quarterly. Summer, 1994: pp. 4-15.

Sunstein, Cass R. & # 8220 ; Reinforce the Walls of Privacy. & # 8221 ; New York Times. 6 Sept. 1997.