MEDIA MONOPOLY
by: Lyn Entica Oliveros
AB PolSci 3
"The camera never lies"
-old adage
In today´s hi-tech world where virtual reality and computer simulations are possible, seeing is not anymore believing. All media are carefully assembled, edited, and selected. Therefore, I believe that the media is a construction of reality.
As I was browsing the internet, I found out that crime is ten times greater on television than in real life. The old adage, ¨The camera never lies¨, is indicative of the way we have been conditioned to accept the relationship between reality and the representations of reality that the media construct. It involves the realization that there is a relationship between the way the world is presented by media and the way we perceive that world.
Reality as presented by the mass media is therefore not a reflection of reality, but rather, a constructed interpretation of reality. The media gathers information which they send to all audience. The gathering and sending of information requires choices - what to select, what to use, and how to tell a story. The outcome of these choices is passed on to the audience. Therefore, the audience is given a version of reality which is constructed.
The media fundamentally shapes the interpretation of social reality. It influences the attitudes and opinions of the general public. The media structures the viewer´s way of perceiving reality. The media shows us a world, but it is a selected and often unrepresentative view even though it seems to be true. When we have no direct or immediate experience of the individual, institution, issue, person or place represented, the media tend to mediate. For example, most of us today, who were born in the post-Japanese occupation, get our knowledge of that occupation is likely to have been constructed by ¨Markova: The Comfort Gay¨ or ¨Yamashita´s Treasure¨ and other media constructions which depicts the occupation of the Japanese before.
Construction of reality in media is the idea that emphasizes that there is no single reality, rather a range of definitions of reality. Not all media products are expected to be true in the sense that they really happened, but clearly some are expected to b accurate depictions of actual events. The mass media concerned with the production of news will want their product to be viewed as a reflection of reality. However this presentation of reality will inevitably involve preferred readings. These reading surface through the use of anchors that guide a reader to a particular way of seeing an event and forms of presentation at the scene that gives the impression of reality.
The media do not present simple reflections of reality, rather, they present carefully crafted constructions that reflects many decisions and results from many determining factors. The media are responsible for the majority of the observations and experiences from which we build up our personal understandings of the world and how it works. Much of our view of reality is based on media that have been constructed and have attitudes, interpretations and conclusions already built in. The media to a great extent, gives us our sense of reality.
However, I come to a conclusion that media cannot stop constructing reality. Why? Because the media is an industry where money matters. The primary purpose of media is to gain profit. Informing the public is only secondary.
As I was browsing the internet, I found out that crime is ten times greater on television than in real life. The old adage, ¨The camera never lies¨, is indicative of the way we have been conditioned to accept the relationship between reality and the representations of reality that the media construct. It involves the realization that there is a relationship between the way the world is presented by media and the way we perceive that world.
Reality as presented by the mass media is therefore not a reflection of reality, but rather, a constructed interpretation of reality. The media gathers information which they send to all audience. The gathering and sending of information requires choices - what to select, what to use, and how to tell a story. The outcome of these choices is passed on to the audience. Therefore, the audience is given a version of reality which is constructed.
The media fundamentally shapes the interpretation of social reality. It influences the attitudes and opinions of the general public. The media structures the viewer´s way of perceiving reality. The media shows us a world, but it is a selected and often unrepresentative view even though it seems to be true. When we have no direct or immediate experience of the individual, institution, issue, person or place represented, the media tend to mediate. For example, most of us today, who were born in the post-Japanese occupation, get our knowledge of that occupation is likely to have been constructed by ¨Markova: The Comfort Gay¨ or ¨Yamashita´s Treasure¨ and other media constructions which depicts the occupation of the Japanese before.
Construction of reality in media is the idea that emphasizes that there is no single reality, rather a range of definitions of reality. Not all media products are expected to be true in the sense that they really happened, but clearly some are expected to b accurate depictions of actual events. The mass media concerned with the production of news will want their product to be viewed as a reflection of reality. However this presentation of reality will inevitably involve preferred readings. These reading surface through the use of anchors that guide a reader to a particular way of seeing an event and forms of presentation at the scene that gives the impression of reality.
The media do not present simple reflections of reality, rather, they present carefully crafted constructions that reflects many decisions and results from many determining factors. The media are responsible for the majority of the observations and experiences from which we build up our personal understandings of the world and how it works. Much of our view of reality is based on media that have been constructed and have attitudes, interpretations and conclusions already built in. The media to a great extent, gives us our sense of reality.
However, I come to a conclusion that media cannot stop constructing reality. Why? Because the media is an industry where money matters. The primary purpose of media is to gain profit. Informing the public is only secondary.
"A media text is never reality. It is always someone´s interpretation of reality"
-from the wires
