The 21st Century Magazine, at South Florida's www.miami-dade-online.com.
Observations of the News Media
BY Wil Harris, May 17,
The United States has a free press. This means the news media,
within very wide limits, has the lawful right to state their
observations and opinions however they choose. The media is
not required to report or not report on any specific event or
opinion. In addition, the reader/listener should realize the media
may report either facts or opinion, and although the media should
feel some obligation to separate fact from opinion, most reports
don't. They are obligated to report facts accurately, but for many
reasons, some valid, most don't. They are, however, not obligated to report all the facts and
none do, which in many cases might not be possible anyway for various reasons such as
time, space, and relevancy. Obviously, the omission of a fact or facts can strongly influence
the understanding of an event. The selected omission of facts to purposely alter the
perception of an event is false reporting.
Because of time, space, and cost restraints, someone must decide which facts and opinions will be given more importance than others. This is the editing process. The editor also decides where to intersperse fact and opinion and to what degree. This is a function performed by people who, no matter what their training, have their own backgrounds, personalities, and deeply held beliefs, which all go to affecting objectivity. In addition, the editor has the problem of satisfying goals of the ownership of the enterprise and the principle goal is survival.
A fundamental requirement of a Free Press is that it be free of outside influence, particularly from any government agency. This means private ownership of the media and all the financial risks that are part of business. Media costs are defrayed by advertising revenue and/or subscribers fees. To maintain these at a level that will insure survival and the continued participation of investors the product must interest enough people to achieve a profitable level of subscriptions. Which means that to various degrees subscribers, advertisers, and investors can put financial pressure on the management in an effort to influence.
From the arguments presented above, one can see that all media reports are to some extent incomplete and biased. Sometimes this is due to the desire of the media to manipulate the perception of an event; but most of the time it is a result of limitations in the system and the fact that all we read, hear, and see is processed by people who, no matter how noble their intentions, have some human failings. I do not believe the system can or should be changed. The elements that must be added are a better understanding of the system by the reader/listener; healthy skepticism of information they receive; and a wariness of any report that plays to the emotions of the receiver, because in the hands of a skilled person, the written or spoken word, the carefully selected picture or, even stronger, the combination of hands and pictures (which I call News Theater) can lead us to conclusions defined by the media. The receivers should also realize they must use several sources of information and compare them to get a balanced view of an event.
Of course, all errors and difficulties in understanding cannot be blamed on the media. We have a tendency to demand from the media an objectivity that we have not achieved. Each reader/listener has their own personal life experience and deeply held beliefs which influence the interpretation they put on the report before them. Our lack of objectivity can lead to being misinformed as easily as poor reporting. Achieving a clear understanding puts as much burden on the receiver of the information as the giver.
To return to 21C-Online
www.miami-dade-online.com is published and Copyrighted 2000 by OnLine
Publications.com, Inc., Miami, Florida. All submitted articles retain the copyright of the
author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the staff or editors of
www.miami-dade-online.com or OnLine Publications.com. You can E-Mail us at
Wilderyard@aol.com
Count for WIL HARRIS only 3/00