The Media and the Uneducated Masses Essay -- Media Argumentative Persu

The Media and the Uneducated Masses In the United States or any country with favorable or democratic government, freedom of the media is essential. However, many analysts believe that freedom granted to the media gives it power that may be used abusively, power to influence the public. These critics are against a sort of, "Lesse-fairre" attitude of the government towards the media. At the other end of the table however, some feel that freedom given to the media may go unchecked, for it is the people that influence the media and control that power. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between... James Hallow attempts to approach this issue in his work "Why Americans Hate the Media". In this text Hallows examines the evolution of the media and its relationship to the public it caters to. In the thirties, media mimicked sleepytime Sunday morning political debates that one would watch on the public access channel. They, in many ways were considered "boring." Networks were growing more interested in attracting their audiences. As the years advanced and technology followed, media began taking different approaches to arouse the public. Conflicts on television where seen as a more interesting and productive approach to increasing ratings. After a while, interviewers would attempt to provoke debate, mud throwing and even emotion out of it's political guests. Politicians who be allowed air-time to address questions presented by viewers and interviewers. One major complaint however, was that the media was more interested in evoking a resp... ...nterpretations of data. You may receive the news, but how you receive it may decide how you interpret it. But perhaps it may actually be a symbiotic relationship between the two entities. It may be that the media manipulates the masses and the masses manipulate the media. It is true that the media could enhance how the public may feel towards a public figure or towards a recorded event. Television could make a person a hero or villian at the whim of the presentor through the use of rhetoric or just the data that was selectively presented to the intended audience. But people's slightest reactions in turn can affect the media's presentation on the issue. After all it is a harsh group of critics that one is trying to appeal to, therefore it is really a delicate ever-changing balance between the desires of people and their hosts.