- Published: December 11, 2021
- Updated: December 11, 2021
- University / College: University of Washington
- Language: English
- Downloads: 17
As a nature of individuals, personal interests are often present in different aspects of life that is needed to be done. In the case of a larger set of community, the media is one perfect example of how and where interest is very present. In the course of the continuous media presentation of different news, events and issues in the different areas of life, the media is said to seemingly affect the thinking of people. Unlike in the past, the media was not a staple institution that the society seen as a factor that affects their lives.
But now, in the current times the media has all the power and opportunities in which they could send a message for the people. However, the question that is posted that is mostly raised is: “ Is the presentation and the perspective of the media of the news, events and issues unbiased? ” In the book written by Bernie Goldberg entitled Bias, he stated that the issue of conflict of interest often becomes a grave concern that is often questioned by many. It is known that people have their own view points with regards different topics for example, the issue of September 9, 2001.
In the event of the World Trade Center bombing, the perspective of the media had became the most important factor of which had influenced the people in looking at the event. In the very day that the buildings in New York was crushed and powdered into the ground many of the news anchors were seen to have a great bias of who had done the bombing. Every one in the media perceived that the actions of bombing were caused by the terrorists who are angry with the government.
Many of the media personalities most especially in the news were angry of the event however, in the end the conspiracy of the September 9 bombings had come out and suddenly, different media personalities and their statements had presented a different perspective. In the case of the media elites, Goldberg was very vocal in stating that three media personalities Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings are deeply respected by their viewers. However, the perspectives of all these elite media personalities are mostly conservative.
Goldberg is obviously a liberalist and he openly stated that all the media personalities he had stated were all conservatives thus; all their statements were statements coming from the conservative view point. If any form of liberalist view point is stated within the circle of other media communities, there will be a so called hindrance in utilizing such perspective. In the book, the conflict of interest which is mostly noticeable in the narration of the author was that liberal bias is truly misunderstood by different media personalities.
Variety of these personalities are seeing the perspective that they must be able to create distinction of weather they could affect the perspective of the republicans or the democrats. However, it is stated by the author that “ liberalism is the result of how they see the world” (Goldberg, 2002, p. 5). But then again as stated in the earlier paragraphs, different individuals have different perspectives when it comes to variety of topics. Some of the biases which they had imbibed came from experiences and learning which had stayed within the individuals’ values system.
In the end, the book is presenting that the media has a system in which they wanted to please the people. The media wanted to provide something for their viewers in order to have a higher rating. Therefore, they grant the desires of the viewers but disregard the issue of bias. This then results to the fact that the media is pursuing a certain type of ideology in order to have higher income return and viewer followings. In the view of this, the media is presented as a true institution that has its own rules which must be followed by anyone.
The main perspective of the media community is to satisfy the people who are watching however, the quality of the stories and events they provide has less substance for the ideology utilized is only locked to the view of the conservatives which limits the thinking of the individuals to see the other side of the story. Moreover, the media is seen as biases for there is no room for other view points which is creates inequalityand prejudice.