The media is a double-edged sword. It is has the potential to do good and the potential to cause damage. As Yasmin Jiwani and Mary Lynn Young describe, the “public sphere [is] constructed by the mass media.” (896). This means that the media has the ability to direct public attention to issues that are of importance, and it has the power of providing readers with information it finds relevant. If the media influences what the general public thinks then it is crucial for it to maintain an unbiased and fair approach to all subjects that are discussed.
The media can wrongfully generalize groups and it can desensitize the public, making time “nearly immobile, and one man’s death… no more than a blip on its screen.” (Laferrière 136).
The media speeds things up, and simultaneously simplifies issues to make them palatable to readers. The consequences of these actions lead to unfair representations that can reinforce social stigmas. This is shown in The World Is Moving Around Me with the way that Haiti is represented as a “cursed country” (76). It is also shown in Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse with the way that victims are represented as “culpable in their murders or disappearances.” (897). The media is capable of writing in this way because it is easier for readers to consume information that agrees with existing, and socially accepted, images of certain groups and countries.
The media is an important source of information because it makes people capable of seeing beyond their lives. It informs the public in a way that is necessary for any sense of equality to be attained because it can point out where mistakes in society have been made. Media coverage can expose corruption and injustice, and so it remains relevant in the modern era. Still, the dilemma of media being unbiased when bias is inextricably linked with being an individual in society persists. It raises the questions of whether it is the media’s responsibility to challenge existing stereotypes or if it is the responsibility of readers to challenge media outlets to be more forward thinking. Media needs the public to consume information, and the public needs the media to stay well informed. Since they both need each other it is crucial that they work together, thus the responsibility of being fair lays in the hands of the media and the public.
Works Cited
Jiwani, Yasmin, and Mary Lynn Young. “Missing and Murdered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse.” Canadian Journal of Communication 31.4 (2006): 895-917 ProQuest. Web. 7 Nov. 2016.
Laferrière, Dany. The World Is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake. Translated by David Homel, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2013.
