The writer criticised the media for revolving around the 3 'P's, popularity, prejudice and profit instead of acting in public interest by conveying the truth. However, I think I have to remind everyone that the fact the media is doing this is the corollary of placing them in a highly competitive market. I am not saying that it is of moral rectitude to not convey the truth. What I am trying to say is that they should not be the only ones on the receiving end of all the recriminations.
However, before I go on to write on why we cannot rely on the media to convey the truth and why it is not entirely their fault that they cannot do that, let's take a look at the definition of media. According to the Longman dictionary of contemporary english, media is defined as "all organisations, such as television, radio and the newspapers, that provide information for the public". Notice that the definition only refers to "information" and not "reliable information"? The main purpose of media is to give us information, but it is up to us to figure out whether this information disseminated to us is reliable. Therefore, the media does not need to possess the veracity when doing up their reports and we cannot blame them if they do not. Now we know why we always face a paucity of reliable information.
Back to the article and its issues about the 3 'P's. As stated in my first paragraph, media is a highly competitve business and media agencies have to come up with all kinds of methods to appeal to the people and to boost its popularity and reputation, such that they have a competitive edge against other agencies. Hence the first 'P', popularity. It does not pay to report on a true but insipid story, because people are looking out for the interesting articles which appeal to them. Yes, you might be reporting the truth, but very few people are going to tune into your programmes or subscribe to your services because what you have to offer is simply not attractive enough. On the other hand, you could just engage any charlatan for an interview and fabricate any canard but still have people from all kinds of business knocking at your door because your stories are interesting and appealing. For example, no one is going to pay much attention to an ongoing presidential election. However, once a scandal on one of the candidates breaks out, no matter how ludicrous it is, it will attract many people's attention.Such is the reality of business that compel many agencies to embellish their articles and therefore, we cannot blame the media for not conveying the truth and we should not rely on them for reliable information.
Next, the second 'P', prejudice. Articles and reports are churned out, not by machines, but by human beings. Humans, no matter how venerated, will have at least the slightest tinge of prejudice. To be precise, prejudice is ubiquitous. Hence, we cannot expect the media to follow the rules of egalitarianism. A slight inclination towards either party may result in the distortion of truth and hence not every piece of information is reliable. One perfect example is the caricatures in the Danish newspapers on Prophet Mohammad. The editor knew exactly that the cartoons were sensitive and invidious but allowed them to be printed because of his prejudice against Islamic extremism. Another kind of prejudice involves the selection of articles and stories. Some agencies typically favour some genres of articles simply because they bring about better consumer value. This may result in certain information that are more importatnt to be not dessiminated. Once again, we cannot blame the media for not conveying the truth, but we must have the judgement to decide whether to believe everything that is reported.
The last 'P' is no other than profit and in my opinion, this is the most important 'P'. Whenever we talk about free market in Economics, profit is the first thing that comes into mind. With interesting and appealing articles come more business and with more business comes more profit. That is the basis of how these agencies work. In order to have more profit, they must have more consumers and to achieve that, the articles or stories produced must be interesting. As described in the first 'P', the job of these media agencies is to come up with captivating articles to attract consumers and not to convey true information. Hence with all media agencies driven by profit, the truth in the articles they produce might be undermined and thus we cannot rely on them for the truth.
As substantiated above, the media can never be relied upon to convey the truth because they are bound to the 3 'P's. To them, it is not whether the consumers get the correct information that matters. What matters to them most is whether they can earn enough money to stay in the business. At the end of the day, we still have to rely on ourselves for the true and reliable information because the media will never be good enough for those who seek the truth.
However, before I go on to write on why we cannot rely on the media to convey the truth and why it is not entirely their fault that they cannot do that, let's take a look at the definition of media. According to the Longman dictionary of contemporary english, media is defined as "all organisations, such as television, radio and the newspapers, that provide information for the public". Notice that the definition only refers to "information" and not "reliable information"? The main purpose of media is to give us information, but it is up to us to figure out whether this information disseminated to us is reliable. Therefore, the media does not need to possess the veracity when doing up their reports and we cannot blame them if they do not. Now we know why we always face a paucity of reliable information.
Back to the article and its issues about the 3 'P's. As stated in my first paragraph, media is a highly competitve business and media agencies have to come up with all kinds of methods to appeal to the people and to boost its popularity and reputation, such that they have a competitive edge against other agencies. Hence the first 'P', popularity. It does not pay to report on a true but insipid story, because people are looking out for the interesting articles which appeal to them. Yes, you might be reporting the truth, but very few people are going to tune into your programmes or subscribe to your services because what you have to offer is simply not attractive enough. On the other hand, you could just engage any charlatan for an interview and fabricate any canard but still have people from all kinds of business knocking at your door because your stories are interesting and appealing. For example, no one is going to pay much attention to an ongoing presidential election. However, once a scandal on one of the candidates breaks out, no matter how ludicrous it is, it will attract many people's attention.Such is the reality of business that compel many agencies to embellish their articles and therefore, we cannot blame the media for not conveying the truth and we should not rely on them for reliable information.
Next, the second 'P', prejudice. Articles and reports are churned out, not by machines, but by human beings. Humans, no matter how venerated, will have at least the slightest tinge of prejudice. To be precise, prejudice is ubiquitous. Hence, we cannot expect the media to follow the rules of egalitarianism. A slight inclination towards either party may result in the distortion of truth and hence not every piece of information is reliable. One perfect example is the caricatures in the Danish newspapers on Prophet Mohammad. The editor knew exactly that the cartoons were sensitive and invidious but allowed them to be printed because of his prejudice against Islamic extremism. Another kind of prejudice involves the selection of articles and stories. Some agencies typically favour some genres of articles simply because they bring about better consumer value. This may result in certain information that are more importatnt to be not dessiminated. Once again, we cannot blame the media for not conveying the truth, but we must have the judgement to decide whether to believe everything that is reported.
The last 'P' is no other than profit and in my opinion, this is the most important 'P'. Whenever we talk about free market in Economics, profit is the first thing that comes into mind. With interesting and appealing articles come more business and with more business comes more profit. That is the basis of how these agencies work. In order to have more profit, they must have more consumers and to achieve that, the articles or stories produced must be interesting. As described in the first 'P', the job of these media agencies is to come up with captivating articles to attract consumers and not to convey true information. Hence with all media agencies driven by profit, the truth in the articles they produce might be undermined and thus we cannot rely on them for the truth.
As substantiated above, the media can never be relied upon to convey the truth because they are bound to the 3 'P's. To them, it is not whether the consumers get the correct information that matters. What matters to them most is whether they can earn enough money to stay in the business. At the end of the day, we still have to rely on ourselves for the true and reliable information because the media will never be good enough for those who seek the truth.
2 comments:
My gosh, is there nothing we can trust in the media at all?
Theoratically yes! But if what I write has to be politically correct and must be a balanced argument such that it fits into general paper, I guess I will have to cough up some other points to support the other side of the story.
Post a Comment