Now people are living with floods of news everyday. With the development of media and communication technology, it became possible for us to watch and read newspapers and other news media everywhere in the world. It is no doubt that the ubiquitiousness of news information made our lives easier and more convenient than before, but there are many skeptical readers as to whether news media is the reliable sources for unbiased information becasue almost all media are just one slightly different kinds of commercial corporations, and there are many factors that influence the fairness of the media.
The first issue that is closely related to media's unbalanced perspective lies in the fact that news media should make a profit in order to survive in the market. As a result, there are many cases that media deliberately manipulate some events to their readers' taste. Moreover, they often rely on hype or focus on scandalous events or emphasize simply one aspect of the events or news. For example, in order to grab much attention from their readers, many media employ a variety of skills to draw attention from readers. A few months ago, there was a horrible murderer who killed his all family members in Korea. At first, medis was busy reporting the negative sides of the murderder, and they all voiced that the man was wierd, anomolous, and had a psychological problems. However, recently, it was reported that he was a regular man and even turned out the motive of the killing was from impulse that failed to alleviate his anger. As such, thesedays, media is a culprit of distorting news and they are at most one of the companies around us since they have to close down unless reporters do not discover some shocking news.
In addition to the financial reason, another important issue that is relevant to the bias of the media is that one powerful authority in media such as editor or owner can exert considerable influence on reporting news. Moreover, when the news are closely related to the powerful person's personal interest, the problem is likely to be serious. For example, as is well-known, an editor is placed on top of the position in the media. Apart from that he or she can control the whole reports or information that should be printed or broadcasted, he can influence reporters' promotion or relegation. Therefore, many reporters' postion is virtually at the mercy of the editors in the media. If it is so, who would voice their honest opinions or perspectives againt the editor. It is evident that there are many likelihoods a many parts of information from media are distorted or at least are refined to the editors' taste.
There can be many other factors that influence on the fairness of news information. Statistics, politicians' interference, reporters' emotional factors, and so on. However, the illustrated two-financial aspect of the media and political hierarchy of media- are undoubtedly the most influential elements that devastate the clear image of the media. Now that the media is not free from bias or prejudice, the next responsibility is on readers as to how they interpret the news information. |