Does Media Reflect Or Shape Reality? Media plays a huge roll in our society, it is a way to get information to the people, and to keep people up to date with current events. The issue is that a large amount of the information shared with the public is not always accurate and does not reflect reality. In the essay “How Television Distorts Reality” (233)the author Benjamin Radford discusses how television and media distorts the information people are receiving and does not always accurately depict the truth. The author discusses about how media can create false ideas and unnecessary fears in our society. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast three major issues that media has shaped. First is how disproportional media is and how
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In the essay he states “30 percent of airtime is spent covering a crime, courts and cops(pg233). Why does media disproportionally cover topics that are far less important then real world issues instead of talking about minuscule topics? The reason to this is that they would lose viewers big time, because at the end of the day news companies are just like any other business and want to make as much profit as possible. A personal experience I 've seen and probably everyone has seen is that I will turn on the news thinking to watch on how our economy is doing, how is our education system, how is the weather. No, I see a car chase for 45 minutes when theres bigger issues going on in this country.There are millions of people in the United States and instead of people turning on the news to educate themselves and gain information they watch a exciting yet meaningless event. The author states “ less sexy topics lose out”(Pg233) which is sadly very …show more content…
John Ruscio(pg235) who is a social psychologist discusses how many people rely on media, thus creating delusions and making people misplace there fears Ruscio calls this the “Media Paradox”(235). I agree with his statement due to personal experiences, such as my fear of flying on a airplane. When in reality flying is extremely safe, the odd of dying in a plane crash is 1 in 11 million. Yet news companies portray it almost as a common event, and they always show the worst of the worst crashes. This plays back to the Media Paradox where psychologists John Ruscio states “the more vivid the account is the more likely we remember and hold that information.(pg235) So when news companies show certain events such as plane crashes, school shootings, out breaks of viruses and etc people grow fearful for things that are so unlikely and rarely happen, when they should be worrying about eating healthy, exercising, not smoking and etc because those are the things that most likely actually will kill
In the essay he states “30 percent of airtime is spent covering a crime, courts and cops(pg233). Why does media disproportionally cover topics that are far less important then real world issues instead of talking about minuscule topics? The reason to this is that they would lose viewers big time, because at the end of the day news companies are just like any other business and want to make as much profit as possible. A personal experience I 've seen and probably everyone has seen is that I will turn on the news thinking to watch on how our economy is doing, how is our education system, how is the weather. No, I see a car chase for 45 minutes when theres bigger issues going on in this country.There are millions of people in the United States and instead of people turning on the news to educate themselves and gain information they watch a exciting yet meaningless event. The author states “ less sexy topics lose out”(Pg233) which is sadly very …show more content…
John Ruscio(pg235) who is a social psychologist discusses how many people rely on media, thus creating delusions and making people misplace there fears Ruscio calls this the “Media Paradox”(235). I agree with his statement due to personal experiences, such as my fear of flying on a airplane. When in reality flying is extremely safe, the odd of dying in a plane crash is 1 in 11 million. Yet news companies portray it almost as a common event, and they always show the worst of the worst crashes. This plays back to the Media Paradox where psychologists John Ruscio states “the more vivid the account is the more likely we remember and hold that information.(pg235) So when news companies show certain events such as plane crashes, school shootings, out breaks of viruses and etc people grow fearful for things that are so unlikely and rarely happen, when they should be worrying about eating healthy, exercising, not smoking and etc because those are the things that most likely actually will kill