Media is the communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated. In general, Media refers to various means of communication. For example, television, radio, and the newspaper are different types of media. The term can also be used as a collective noun for the press or news reporting agencies. Hence, Media and broadcasting technology have shown remarkable changes in recent decades. Media is considered as the most effective form of art as it has an unpredictable power to engage and influence the entire population. Media leaves a convincing and long-term influence on both the conscious and subconscious minds of humankind. Many people claim that media has positively uplifted the people’s awareness and provided them with an unpredictable freedom of expression. On the other hand, no one questions the fact that media propagates biased information, mishandles individual human rights and that it works for the interest of the media masters. Hence, the media should be controlled.
Some people argue that media is the only forum that provides freedom of expression to almost every member of the society. Broadcasting media such as televisions, radios, newspapers and news websites offer people an equal opportunity to express their ideas freely regardless of their gender, religion and financial status. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) guarantees that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and self-expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
However, information on the media is unfair and biased where the ideas of the interested individuals are selectively chosen. Most of the information released is not biased since it is over exaggerated beyond the reality on the ground. Every bit of true information is accompanied by ten other falsehoods to make things more complicated on their way to the vast audience. The majority of the information provided by the media is more towards hasty generalization of all matters, which is among the worst sort of invalid fallacies. For instance,
Some people may argue that media acts as a forum where people around the world would passionately speak on their voices. Media also provides a forum where people around the globe can equally get access to information and knowledge that are broadcasted through the media. Freedom of expression is implicit in individuals having their own free will to express their thoughts, desires, and aspirations through the mass media. Moreover, communicating freely with others affirms the dignity and worth of every other member of society while freedom of expression is essential to attainment and advancement of knowledge.
However, it is beyond doubt that media violates individual human rights rather than promoting socially networked society. All types of media speak with a single voice where they reinforce each other’s message. Because of this, (John f. Burns, Ravi, 2012) Rupert Murdoch who is the founder and CEO of News Corporation and his company became engulfed in an explosive scandal involving the hacking and publishing of public figures’ telephone messages. Many innocent individuals have also been labelled with terrorists and pirates by the use of both online and print media technology. Furthermore, media propagates the worst kind of racism ever encountered in human history. For instance, Media always relates hunger and starvation to African societies while researches proved that there are more malnutrited people in other parts of the world such as Asia and Latin America.
Finally, some individuals who serve for the interest of the government claim that media is the only forum through which leaders convey their messages to their nations. In fact, media acts as the best communication channel through which current presidents and civil society leaders tailor their messages to their ever-increasing population. Indeed, current people are better informed and more enlightened due to thriving of media where they can participate in government’s decision-making by channeling their views through the media.
On the other hand, media and broadcasting technology works for the interests of the media masters. Everything released by the media is passed through a filtering mechanism and goes through a selection process before it is broadcasted to the target audience. Only the views, opinions and ideologies that satisfy the media masters are allowed to be channelled to the vast growing population. Hence, if the media keeps on going ahead uncontrolled the negative characters of hatred, prejudice, racism, enmity and many others will potentially increase. As an example, consider the media treatment of Middle East news. Some editors or commentators are slavishly pro-Israel in their every utterance, while others seem nearly neutral. No one, however, dares suggest that the U.S. government is backing the wrong side in the Arab-Jewish conflict.
To sum up, even though the media is considered as the hub that creates globally networked civil societies where freedom of expression is its key attribute, the negative impact it has on the community outweighs its positive effects. Most of the information provided by the media is biased generalization which is a fallacy of the worst sort. Media does not respect individual human rights and racism is highly propagated. On top of all these, media works its best just to satisfy the needs of media masters and the main goals of the media which was to inform, educate and entertain is now a thing of the past. Hence, in my point of view I would suggest that media should be controlled by those who controls it either governments or the other companies.
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