On my way to swing dance class (scary, huh?), I got into a little argument about 'the media' and 'objectivity.' I just couldn't help it--not after the last two lectures.
In general, I get irked when my friends go on tirades about 'the media.' In most cases, when people I know talk about 'the media,' they mean the news media. If it's not the news media, it's the movie industry. But 'the media' covers everything from newspapers to the recording industry.
In my opinion, news organizations get the most criticism because they're expected to be accurate, fair, balanced and objective. In fact, my latest victim argued that no news source except BBC is objective. But no one can be completely objective, as we discussed earlier. The public has very idealized notions of what news organizations are supposed to do. And the high standards the public has sets the news media apart from everything else huddled under the umbrella. Filmmakers and hip-hop artists aren't obligated to cite sources or provide balanced coverage of an event.
But when you boil it all down, when people gripe about the media, 'the media' attached to it, they’re griping about culture. Thank you, Professor Follis, for putting it so simply in lecture. Newspapers, the Internet, television, radio and everything else people like to lump together under that word mirror current society and culture. It just so happens that people don't like that reflection, and it's easy to blame the ominous 'media.' What do you think?
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