Harmful Media

There are many examples of harmful media. I will name four of the predominant ways
media can cause more harm than good.

The first of the misdoings is any occasion where information has been falsely relayed. For obvious
reasons, accuracy is necessary when dealing with
mass communication. While the image to the left
ended up being nothing more than a comical treat
for Truman, such an error could have been far more disastrous.

Image if an incorrect headline read something like "Tests Prove Local Water Safe to Drink". But, on the contrary, the water was very toxic. Our safety is contingent on the reliability of very important announcements like these.


The second major way media can bring harm is by inducing rage across a population.

This, as evidenced by the *crusaders* of Mr. Rodney King's honor, can have metropolis-wide consequences. The rage spurred by seeing a person with similar skin pigment tone being mercilessly beaten by police turned into the infamous L.A. riots. The public has a right to the information, but at what cost? If the identical situation were to occur again, would our hindsight convince us to refrain from publicizing the footage? Who can we trust to make the important decision from an unbiased point of view? Certainly not the police. They are very interested in upholding a positive public image, in addition to keeping fellow cops out of prison for turning a black man into hamburger. Who then? Certainly not the media. Sensationalism sells big, especially when it's true. While it's noble to envision the media as a cavalier entity fighting for the sanctity of our awareness, the undeniable truth is: it's a business. They wouldn't lift a finger for you if it didn't put a dollar in their pocket. What's the worst thing that happens from the repeated playing of a clip like this, in regards to the point of view of the news station? They get great ratings for showing such an amazing video, which, in turn, causing rioting. Even better for them! They'll have weeks of prime material now!

The third way media can harm society is by inducing panic. Watching the results the media's coverage of H1N1 on our culture is a humorous, scary, saddening, and confusing mix of emotions all at the same time.

I find the situation especially amusing since a lot of people believe this frightening, killer virus, seemingly only inches from wiping humans from the face of the planet, is stopped dead in its tracks when it comes to the ingenious combination of a Kleenex and a rubber band.

The fourth and final way media can harm society is through the undermining of critical information.

The drastic overexposure of the intricacies by which we inflict torture to our prisoners for information and fleeting feelings of empowerment has compromised the effectiveness of such methods. Now that every enemy combatant knows very well what they'll be up against, they will have trained for it. We already do this ourselves to prevent secret agents from revealing sensitive information if apprehended. By advertising every method we use, we negate many of the advantages gained by the methods.

These are but a few of the ways media can be harmful. I just felt these four were by and large most critical.

Blog #3

1) What about this class do you enjoy and/or find interesting?  What would you like
us to do more of?

    I've found Jeremy to be an excellent lecturer. In other classes, I've noticed
unpleasant trends of poorly-planned class agendas.  Time is usually wasted as the
speaking grinds to a halt at every transition to a new subject. Jeremy either has given
his lectures much more preparation or the nature of his profession has improved his
speaking ability above most other people.

  While the material we cover wouldn't normally be my choice of topics, the manner
in which it is presented increases my interest considerably.  The association of
specific concepts to a variety of examples, both current and historical, most
been excellent.

  I would like to see us reviewing more of the students' blog entries.  In particular
I'd love to hear a few remarks about my own blogs in class; however, I'm not certain
if my reasons are for additional feedback or just to stroke my ego.  Regardless, I
doubt the entries I've submitted thus far have warranted such attention.

2) What about this class do you not enjoy so much and/or would like to see
improvement on?

  So far, the class has been rather enjoyable.  The only exception was the recent
speaker about the portrayal of beauty is media.  I was less than pleased to have the
facts of the matter intermingled with the speaker's personal opinion. The fact was
that media's representation of beauty has changed over time.  Previously, beautiful
people were a much larger range of people that more closely resembled the average
body-type. Currently, the media's concept of beautiful is far more slender and
voluptuous than most people can ever hope to attain. Those are the facts. The opinion
of the speaker was that it is, for some absent reason, inherently wrong to make the
idea of the perfect body out of reach for the average person.  I was pleased to hear
the conclusion of the lecture being about the individual needing to recognize the
change in the definition of beauty, not the call for media as a whole to redefine
beauty once again.

3) Do you have any other suggestions, comments, or questions? 

  I would be very interested to get a better idea of what types of questions to
expect on the exams.  I've always had a knack for over-thinking many true/false
and multiple choice questions. Every time the question uses an absolute statement
such as 'always' or 'never', I can identity an exception to the rule.  Typically,
such exceptions are deemed as irrelevant and therefore incorrect.  I would like to
see a 'practice exam' to put these issues to rest. 

In short, I'm really not sure what level of understanding is the goal of this course.
From that, I'm not certain what depth of studying will be required.