American media freedom and the corruption of power

¶ … Free Are American Media

Events occur and become news, news circulate all around the globe. In early times it was almost impossible to convey these happening with in short period of time but with the advent of time technology grew exponentially and gave a fast source of communication called "media."

Media has played a very important role throughout. Any event occurring in one side of the globe gets to the other side within a span of minutes. They cover events such as politics, sports, entertainment etc. And telecast it to the other regions. Every event that had occurred in the past has been covered by the regions local and international media. The point lies in the contradicting news telecasted by the media i.e. one event coverage contradicting to the same event covered by another channel.

The process of broadcasting consist of many events such as coverage, filtration, etc. A channel covers a footage that is happening all around and then add/subtract material to/from it and present it to the higher authorities for broadcasting. This manipulation of news creates a deep impact on people's mind and result in the reaction to it accordingly. The motive behind this manipulation process could be financial aspect, political grounds etc.

Introduction

Back in 1800, where we don't see medium of communication that strong, was relatively peaceful as half of the world dint get to know what was happening in the other half and never bothered but today it has become a source of panic to every person as all they think to what is coming up next in the name of 'breaking news'. There are positive as well as negative effects of it on one's mind. In terms of positive impact, then the world news are spreading within minutes, allowing viewers across the globe to remain up-to-date with the latest around the world, On the negative side, the broadcasted news plays a vital role in creating perceptions in human minds with respect to the information that is being broadcasted. These perceptions then decide what opinion certain individual holds towards a particular piece of information and how s/he responds to the said information. With advancements in the telecommunications and Information Technology sector and with the increased accessibility to the satellite media and the internet that the masses enjoy today, the broadcast media has become a huge power in itself. With their power to manipulate information, and their capability to make and break perceptions, media houses today are not only lucrative business houses but also a center of power and information.

The American Media

While the media across the globe is getting freer and more powerful, the American media is undoubtedly the most powerful media today, with most of its broadcasting houses working as huge corporate houses and having shares in other smaller transnational media houses. This ability not only gives them a competitive edge in business terms but also a complete control over the information and decisive power over how much information has to be passed over to the viewers. Consequently this means that the said media houses decide about what kind of opinions they want to create in human minds.

Over a period of time, many pressure groups and journalist associations have sprung up around the world, that have openly accused the American media of biased reporting and spreading misleading information through targeted and 'agenda-based' reporting. More often than not, these pressure groups and civil society activists have accused the American media of broadcasting information in order to achieve and support coveted goals and that too with support of sensitive and coveted agencies (Entman, Robert & Kimberly, 20). In general, such notions about the American media are perceived on grounds of the past trends in their reporting practices. Channels such as Fox, CNN and NBC have been frequently accused of working in liaison with the American Intelligence agencies and reporting in biased ways.

The 9/11 tragedy and the American media

In the contemporary history, the infamous 9/11 tragedy and the way it was reported around the world, emerged as an important case study of how information is relayed and controlled to create opinions over the broadcasted media and the implications it can have on the socio political environment of a certain region (Davis, Richard & Diana, 52).