The Different Interests of The Media and Its Effects in Their Reports

As avid consumers of media, which provides a way to communicate and circulate information through a mass audience, we need to be aware of the modifications and opinions that are added before it reaches the consumer.

Media that reports news uses bias in their retellings of the events that occurred by their choice of words and points of interest. In their retelling, the news embellishes headlines to attract and keep the attention of their readers or viewers depending on the type of media they are associating with, “Nightmare On Carnival Cruise,” causing someone to click on it because of its captivating headline, although the assumed “Nightmare” is really the cruise ship having technical difficulties, where the power and water weren't running and the passengers had to fly home once they docked. The headline builds interest by using “Nightmare” as its point of interest to the readers to make the reader view this event as a disastrous occasion , though another decent way to refer to this situation would be an inconvenience to the passengers. Consumers should be aware of the careful wording in media to manipulate their thoughts into what they want viewers to believe.

Media uses propaganda to make the audience favor one side over another. In George Orwell's Animal Farm, which contains an allegorical connection to the Russian Revolution, the animals overthrow the tyrannical Farmer Jones and run the farm on their own. One of the pigs, Squealer, who parallels the Russian newspaper Pravda, uses techniques of propaganda to make the animals believe that everything being done is for the welfare of all the animals. For example, Squealer tells the animals, “It is for your sake that we (the pigs) drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we failed in our duty? Jones would come back... surely there is no on among you who wants to see Jones come back?” (52) Squealer uses the animals' fear of Farmer Jones's return to persuade them to believe that the pigs need the milk and apples significantly more than the other animals. With the mention of Farmer Jones's name, the animals supported giving the milk to the pigs entirely with no question. The animals favored the side of the pigs over the side of Farmer Jones. However, the animals did not think of how they would not get any milk or apples, they were too focused on Farmer Jones because of Squealer's use of appeal to fear, a propaganda technique.

Media constantly changes and holds different standards. What the media considers true now was not true several years ago, resulting in the changing opinions shown on different media at different times based on different interests. A front page story on a local newspaper is more uneventful than a front page story on a national newspaper because of the audience it has to cater to. A front page news story on the Folsom Telegraph is “Folsom Stylist Shaves Her Hair to Fight Cancer,” but a front page news story on the Wall Street Journal would be “Kurd Locked in Solitary Cell, Holds Key to Turkish Peace.” Local newspapers use more local events because the audience they provide for is going to be more focused on community and they all can relate to the newspaper. National newspapers have a broader audience so they have to insert more general things that almost everyone can relate to at some degree. Another example is when MSNBC reported in 2004 that “Natural Disasters Create Jobs” and again in 2011 “Natural Disasters Wipe Out Jobs.” These two differences are because the world is ever-changing and opinions change as well. Consumers need to know the variations of media to understand the different opinions and focal points in media.

Consumers of media need to know that media is made up of different components that affect it as a whole.