Media And Its Responsibilities Essay

Running Head: RESPONSIBILITIES OF MEDIA

Media and Its Responsibilities
Beverly J. Roach
Sociology 120
Professor: Beverly Rudnick
February 08, 2012

Media and Its Responsibilities

Introduction
      The term Media derives its name from the word Medium, which means to transfer the information from one end to the other. In my opinion, media today sometimes goes beyond its boundaries. Media carries some social responsibility; it should enable communication informing people responsibly with factual knowledge without any kind of bias. In this paper we will discuss many instances where the media has exceeded its boundaries providing information based on rumor on too much irrelevant information. For example, to get a bigger picture on how the media oversteps its boundaries, you only need to look at the fatal car crash caused by paparazzi photographers when Princess Diana died, or more recently the tasteless photos of Michael Jackson’s corpse. Every single detail about someone’s personal life is parlayed into a two-page spread of photos of who they’re sleeping with, who they’re cheating with, a nudity slip, even articles judging celebrities’. In today’s landscape the media has used its position to sway the minds of many individuals in society. As I have observed the media often present information as if it were a fact when it is simply an opinion. This has been used quite often to spread liberal propaganda.
      Furthermore, the media can shape opinions of the public relating to other issues as well, such as politics’.   History has witness to the fact that media has successfully molded the opinion of the public on many controversial subjects in politics’. For example, CNN and MSBNC provide different views on the election polls and candidates’ running for office. As a result, the information viewed on these stations may cause a person to not vote for a candidate based on the information they may have learned.
      Since the media tends to enjoy great power,...