The Media

The notion I'm going to deal with is Places and forms of power more precisely about the Media. The Media are called the fourth power. Nowadays, the free press has increased dramatically, and more and more people are getting their news from the web especially young people. In the USA many papers have closed down. The problem with it is that the journalists cannot say all that they want, because they are paid by the ads. There is not thus total freedom of the press. So, The Media today are a vice or a virtue? First at all, I will speak about the Vice. Secondly, I will speak about the Virtue.

I begin with the Vice. In Class, we have study a text, "Image Hunters", and its picture: attitude of the journalists distorting the truth. This text is about a football match between the Juventus and an English Team. The scene takes place in Italy. The narrator is Bill Buford, a journalist who spent four years among British Hooligans to observe them. On that occasion, the Italian supporters attacked the British first. The narrator criticizes the journalists for doing nothing to stop the violence. Instead of reporting the violence, they'd better report the football match. He thinks they shouldn't have participated in the even they were meant to be reporting by distorting the reality. The media is a vice too in the illustration "targets". We see a numbers of cameras and microphones packed on the right hand side of the picture. Journalists are waiting for an important person to be interviewed. They are anxious or eager to get new information, they look impatient and they all direct they microphones and booms towards the man coming in their direction. This man probably feels persecuted, He must feel they intrude in his private life or professional life and may want to be in the limelight. The message of this illustration is that media can be as dangerous as weapons; they are like a loaded weapon.

Now, I'm going speak about the virtue of the media. In the article "The Haiti relief effort", we see that media can be a positive power. The social media sending message for help the inhabitants. The most of the information are in virtual media because the earthquake destroys buildings and communication. Media can help countries in need, for example, with collect money. Without the Media, nobody will know what happen in the other country. In the YouTube video, a man explains how to live in world that's always online and where everyone has media production power. Even if we are not journalist, we can have a lot of power. For him, it's a new reality.

To some up the main idea, today, the media can be a vice, if journalist want make paper, or the media can also be a virtue when it's help people. Personally, I think that Media mostly want to make of the sensational with the important people.

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