Paper 1: Media Is...

Bradley Chukwuma

Professor Li

Media Studies

9/13/2010

Paper #1

Media Is…

Throughout the ages, the opinion of the general public has been able to be swayed, manipulated, dictated, altered, subjected, and refuted by strategic use of media.  Dictionary.com defines media as "(usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely (Dictionary.com).  I define media as the forms of communication that can be used to connect people regardless of geographical location.  Although media can be defined by the physical means and methods used to convey a message, it can also be defined by its message and by those responsible for conveying it due to the fact that it is often altered based on the beliefs and motives of those using it.  For example, when President Obama was giving a speech at a rally while he was running for office, he and his wife bumped fists.  Many news shows interpreted this as a “celebratory fist bump”, or a “pound” but Fox News interpreted this as a “terrorist fist jab”.  Fox News is known to be a Republican run news channel and it is more than just coincidence that they would report this from an angle that makes a democratic Presidential nominee look bad. 

            Mark Twain once said that “There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe... the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here.” (Twain, 2010, p. 1).” This quotation means that it is only the sun and media that truly enlighten the world.  The sun do so in the literal sense of the word by shining light to cast away physical darkness and the media does so by educating and connecting people around the world.  In this quote, Twain has an idealistic belief of media because he speaks of media as if it just conveys news and doesn’t give its own bias interpretation of it, which is not the case.  Although media hold the responsibility of enlightening the masses, those who are in charge of media will always have their own beliefs and agendas that they will want their audience to agree and side with them on.  George Orwell held the same view on media when he said “Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported…”.  As ridiculous as this allegation sounds I am convinced that it must be true due to the fact that an individual can hear about the same event in three places and get three different versions of the same story.  This is true when we look back at the situation where Obama and his wife bump fists and Fox News interprets it as a “terrorist fist jab”, MSNBC calls it “fist-bumping”, and the NY Times refers to it as a “closed fist high five”

            Many times in popular culture we hear expressions like “once the media found out”, or “the media is going to have a field day with this” or even “the media has managed to completely misinterpret the situation” which show how commonly it is personified.  Media is not only the message and means of expressing it, but in modern culture the media is a tool used to convey the beliefs of individuals and groups in order to further their own agendas.

Media connects the masses.  Media is a source of information for people to use to develop their own opinions.  Media comes in many different forms and vehicles that all have the purpose of making the world even more interdependent and united. 

 

Works Cited

Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. 1 January 2010. 9 September 2010 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/media>.

Twain, Mark. www.proverbia.com. 1 January 2009. 9 September 2010 <http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=747>.