Friday, May 11, 2007

Social justice-absent in the modern media?

I agree that social justice is absent in the present media.

Mark Crispin Miller once said, "Media manipulation in the U.S. today is more efficient than it was in Nazi Germany, because here we have the pretense that we are getting all the information we want. That misconception prevents people from even looking for the truth". Although we live in a so called"liberal" world today, many things around us, for example media, is controlled by the government. As what the statement above shows, media shows information which are biased towards the stand of the government itself. Due to the influence of the growing superpower--USA, societies around the world are turning more and more capitialistic. This causes the media around the world to work mostly for benefits rather than just doing their jobs; which is to report accurate information to the general public. One example is the use of USA government to sell the case of war to the citizens.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Amy_Goodman/Bill_Moyers_interview_4_07.html

Other than being controlled by governments, the media is also controlled by corporates. Some media companies are paid by corporates to report news which goes in their favours. Some media companies even go to the extent by fabricating news footages to give a veneer of accuracy on the news they report. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Video_news_releases. With such inaccurate news going around, it is difficult to believe that at this point in time, that media today still has a streak of sense of social justice.

However, we must also credit the media for providing accurate information of a certain extent to the public. Though the media today works mostly in the basis of benefits, we must not forget that media do generate information which are true and accurate. Now there are websites which gives differing views on issues reported by mainstream media. Thus, general masses can now cross reference information and decide on which is fact and which is fiction. But nonetheless, media report news not in an objective manner but rather, in slanted views. If we are to weigh whether, meida still has a sense of social justice, I will think that the answer is going to be a "no".

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