Critically assess and evaluate a media piece
The media is our portal to the world. Before the internet become popular, the media was, in fact, the only portal to the world. All news reports and opinion pieces could only be distributed by the media. Back then, using Gillmor’s metaphor of information as an ocean (Gillmor 2004), big media companies were truly the only ports where one could access the oceans. With prevalence of the internet, the recipients of information have also become the contributors. The oceans have flooded the ports, and now almost everyone can reach out to the ocean if they cared. However, the entrenched notion that traditional media companies are correct and authoritative in their reporting has remained with us to this day. This is extremely dangerous because, as our readings have shown, the advertisements and big corporations have power like never before to influence, or filter, what gets published and what doesn’t. Most of us have failed to critically think about what the news tell us, sometimes unconsciously, and how our opinions are altered. We usually do not have enough time to research into every piece of news and make an informed decision. One particularly interesting scientific study has shown that even the subtle facial expressions of a news reporter on television can influence people’s votes on presidential candidates in the United States, regardless of how neutral the news report was (Mullen 1986). The written word, such as using “loot” instead of “find”, probably has an even larger effect than facial expressions.