This week I learned that four major Western news agencies control
the bulk of the world’s news flows, this leads to question exactly why we see
the news that we do. It explains why we see American or British news over the
happenings in a country such as Iraq or Ethiopia.
What
is meant by this is that the media controls what we see, who we
see and how we see it. I was watching the Gymnastics with my friend (she made
me!) and they focused mainly on the UK, USA, Australia (of course), China and
then the powers in the sport which she explained to be (Romania, Russia
sometimes Japan). We saw very little of the other competitors. I found also
while watching other sports it focuses on the 3 power countries, plus Australia
and whoever is expected to win. The media is controlling what we see. The media are being what are known as ‘Gatekeepers’,
which is where, the media/parents/teachers “exercise certain control of
information through society.” (Weerakkody, 2006, p.8). Essentially
this means the media control what we see, when we see it and how we see it. In
this case the media is playing to what they think we want to see and what will
be the most entertaining.
You could also examine this in regards to media and
informational flows. Who are we getting our information off? Does that explain
why we are seeing who we are seeing? If the four major western news agencies control
the bulk of the news, does that mean we are seeing their news? Or explain why
we are seeing what we are?
Weerakkody, ND 2006,’Tracing the history of mass media
effects theorising and reasearch’ unpublished manuscript. P. 8
This was a pretty interesting read, I like the casual style of the writing and the topic is something I've thought about lately too. Gave me a bit to think about and made me realise I've actually noticed this about the Olympics. Not a lot of coverage was given to things like Jamaica taking home gold, silver and bronze in the same race. I was a little disappointed though, I was hoping to find what angry fire breathing pirate dinosaurs thought about the issue, and this blog was not at all angry, prehistoric or swashbuckling. So yeah, I reckon you could improve on that aspect.
ReplyDeleteYour post has indicated clearly on the power of media. There are a lot of reasons that media can control our thoughts. Media like newspaper, magazines and websites have a large amount of audience. We can not judge who is talking about the truth unless we experience what they are talking. It is a convenient way for us to know the world. What we can do is only to think more when we are getting information from media and ask ourselves what is the reason the author write it, who is in charge of the matter, who will be benefiting from it.
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