Media Coverage - Image vs Reality (standard:Editorials, 1245 words)
Author: J P St. Jullian	Added: Aug 11 2002	Views/Reads: 3699/2336	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Another commentary on the media and how it distorts reality.

Media Coverage - Image vs Reality 

Our Idiot Culture Revisited 

by J P St. Jullian 

What do we expect of those stalwart people who report the news?  A past
generation of journalists prided itself on the image of the fearless 
objective reporter (objective being the operative word here), whose 
credo was, “Just the facts, Ma'am.”  All editorializing and 
pontificating was left to the editorials pages.  Then the so-called 
“investigative journalist,” was born.  They blurred the distinction 
between reporting and editorializing.   Investigative journalism seems 
to see it's job as a mission to expose wrongdoing and corruption in 
high places.  Of course, on occasion these journalists do a good deed.  
And with the birth of the investigative journalist came the inevitable 
afterbirth, the News Shows!  They've blurred the distinction between 
news and entertainment, often seeming to cater to the public's taste 
for mayhem, scandal, and gossip than for real news. Put them all 
together and they make up the Media. 

The media holds vast potential for education as well as the broadening
of individual viewpoints.  Con- versely, it also has an oftentimes 
frightening power to manipulate the minds of the masses.  This last 
fact is demonstrated by millions who have become mediaholics, dependent 
for their daily well being on the media. Yes it's true.  Just as there 
are people who are alcohol-dependent, there are millions who are 
media-dependent.  Perhaps we are all just a bit media-dependent. 

Just look at the effect the media has on most people's political views.
Elections are sometimes indirectly decided by what the media presents 
to the public.  We often choose political leaders in campaigns 
conducted in large part in the news, whether it's in the form of 
newspapers or television.  It's all the same.  And the nastier the 
campaign the more coverage it gets. 

One main area that many people have allowed the media to shape their
views on is race relations.  Because of the TV images of places that 
few of the viewers have ever visited, and incidents that they didn't 
actually witness and are not truly well informed about, personal 
decisions are made.  Our fears and doubts about child molesters, 
rapists and their victims, incest, world hunger or what have you, are 
aroused and fueled by a sensation hungry media.  It is also the media 
that either keeps us pumped up and excited about these issues or that 
lets our excitement dwindle and subside.  But where does it all start?  
Where does the finished product come from?  Who is behind deciding what 
we all get to actually see in the end? 

Whatever it is that we are seeing and reading about the issues mentioned
above, and indeed countless others, all depends on the judgment of 
editors and network executives who are more or less self-appointed 
judges of what is newsworthy and what is not.  Do you know what it is 
that most often determines what goes on the front page of a newspaper 
and what is lost in it's back pages?  Marketing.  Marketing  judgment 
is foremost in making these decisions.  Secondly there's editorial 
judgment.  “What is good for the public to hear on this issue?”   That 
is the question that they ask themselves, and when they formulate an 
answer they believe to be pleasing enough, then they put it all 
together and present it. 

I have noticed that whenever the media focuses sharply on candidates for
the presidency or especially for the Supreme Court, more often than not 
we learn more about their decadent pasts than their current standing on 
health insurance, abortion, the death penalty or what have you.  The 
media tries to sensationalize their youthful experiments with marijuana 
or how they  talk when behind closed doors, like these are truly 
important faults anymore.  In today's permissive and often pervasive 
society, it would be an odd thing indeed if a candidate appeared who 
didn't have any faults, wouldn't it?  Anyway, for many viewers, and 
especially our younger generations, the faces that come up on the media 
screens are more real and more interesting than those of their 
coworkers, neighbors and school mates. 

To take a quick detour here and revisit the article, “our idiot culture”
we can see that it is not all in the media, no, no.  Our judicial 


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