▶ Your Answer :
There might
be some people who believe that the news media is very reliable and unbiased
source of information. However, I personally disagree with the above idea for
two subsequent reasons. This is due to a lot of media companies pursuing its
own interest and trying to make stories more dramatic and colorful to gain more
readers or viewers.
To begin
with, the news media strives for its own advantage. Major corporations own
media companies and they use the companies for their interest. they manipulate
the companies to portray social events as more favorable to their interest. For
example, the coverage of Iraq War clearly demonstrated this biased trend. When
the war broke out, a majority of the media in the United States portrayed the
war as a way to attain world peace. On the other hand, countries which were
against the United States mainly emphasized the United states' more brutal
sides in reports. This clearly shows that how biased and partial news can be.
On top of
that, news programs and newspapers attempt to make stories more colorful and
dramatic. The news companies need a lot of readers or viewers to maximize their
profit. Because the public is more likely to be interested in dramatic reports
than plain reports that convey only facts, the news companies made events more
dramatic and colorful. For instance, one broadcasting station in South Korea
had reported about companies that produced kimchi. They portrayed kimchi
companies produced kimchi in very unhealthy and dirty environments. The truth
was that only a small number of kimchi companies made the fault, however, the
news media exaggerated the report like that all companies' environment did to
make more viewers to watch the report. As a result, many kimchi companies even
that produced kimchi in very clear environments were damaged by reduction of
kimchi sale volume.
In
conclusion, the news media seeks its own benefit and tends to overdramatize
stories to get people's attention. In this regard, I firmly believe that the
news media is an unreliable source of information.
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