Tuesday, September 23, 2014
"No Spin Zone"
Most news agencies today claim to be unbiased. We discussed in the class today the notion that the information provider, i.e. the press secretary, is able to spin the news in its favor. However I think the burden of spinning falls on whomever is claiming to report fact. The reason I say this is, though Josh Earnest can choose to include and omit certain details of a story, it is up to the reporter to work with the facts given. For the most part, everybody is getting the same information at a press briefing. However it is the news agencies that can manipulate the facts given. Agency One will publish, "Coal companies must reduce CO2 emissions to record lows after President's new restrictions." Agency Two will publish, "Thousands of jobs lost after President imposes crippling restrictions on coal companies." My point is, it is not as much the facts given, but how they are manipulated.
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I agree that it has a lot to do with how the facts are manipulated but I still believe that, although what the new says are facts, they are not the 100% story behind everything they say. They give us all they know but the government itself isn't giving the reporter the complete store, which is why I said in class today that the government only allows us to see what they want us to see. I like your example because it demonstrates how changing the phrasing of a sentence can manipulate facts in bias ways.
ReplyDeleteBusinesses, the government, political news, and any other "high-up" (for lack of a better term) organizations or people always relay facts in a very passive, concealed fashion --- hence the phrase "politically correct". This is why I think we need to realize that the government will never present things in an unbiased way, because they are always carefully stating things in ways that won't make them look bad.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about this topic when I realized the world revolves around money. We have to understand that besides wanting to reports news stories, news stations and newspapers are, essentially, businesses. Their prime motive is making money. I remember, towards the end of the most recent Presidential Election, news stations were reporting that Obama had been voted back into office before the polls officially closed. Every news station and anchor wanted to be the first with the 'big news' so more people will tune in to that channel. Because the stations want to rush into reporting stories, they don't always take the time to gather information and facts about the situation. This often leads to misinformation or news bias. Whenever the reason something in life is questionable, just realize the reason behind it is probably money.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Brian said, in that whomever is presenting the story never wants to look bad. Its almost as if the viewers are seeing the story through the presenters eyes, almost like through "rose colored glasses," because that is the way they believe it should be seen. Everyone has a certain way they view things, but I think that just like Ford stated its more about how something is presented that makes you believe it rather than how you would normally perceive it that makes it so believable.
ReplyDeleteAs Jesse accurately stated, contemporary news media is ruled by the desire for profit. I see Ancient Greek "media" (i.e. speeches) as being similarly dominated by an ulterior motive, namely the desire for the victory and glory of one's respective city-state. Regardless of a speaker's specific agenda, all the speeches in PW can be understood as suggestions for a city-state's best course of action. This was a deeply communitarian concern as well (as opposed to a capitalistic profit motive): should a city-state fall to a rival power, it's citizenry stood a high chance of enslavement and/or execution.
ReplyDeleteI agree that media is constantly looking for a way to make profit. We see this every day when we pick up a magazine on celebrities and we find out that someone is getting married or is pregnant. Most of the time the information is not true, and the companies are just feeding this to the people, and we are buying it. Manipulation of the facts does play a role, but also we are now living in a society where information is easily accessible. We go from one website to the next to learn about another person or event, where often times the writer gives more of their opinion, rather than the facts. I think it is part of human nature that we tend to always give our perspective on a topic, because being unbiased would mean not having an opinion on the matter.
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