Media Storify Paper: Social Media

Media Storify Paper

Introduction

In today’s society, we are consistently connected to social media creating our so called “digital footprint,” it surrounds us in our own personal world that we control. However, Media around the world has become a very powerful motivator to the people. There are many different mediums that media can use to express the messages being shown and because of this medium, messages can get changed from the actual truth to something that is false, which presents a completely different meaning (Fairhurst, G. & Star, R. (1996). This leads me to the question being discussed “Does media reflect life, or does life reflect media?” Two theories that are going to be focused in this paper is media framing and media bias,

Framing is used to give a specific meaning or message to the audience (Fairhurst and Sarr.1996) for example in class the picture of the solider and a man on the ground were shown, to the right of the frame, we as an audience see the solider giving water to the man while to the left of the frame there’s a gun being held towards him, this shows us how media framing has a big influence in today’s society as one frame to the left or right could both send out a different meaning or message to the audience. This then leads me to media bias where a specific frame was picked just to allow for a certain reaction rather than having the whole frame in the picture. There are many types of frames such as metaphor, stories, tradition, slogan, artefact, contrast and spin. Most successful leaders use this skill and use this type of communication to persuade audiences to understand and respond in certain way. Framing draws attention to certain topics with ideas and pictures with social meanings to have the interpreters respond in a more central

The problem that come with this, is that people will not be receiving straight facts but an opinion or judgment of the presenters view on things. It doesn’t allow for people to think for themselves but just absorb what they hear or see without any self-thought of what is really happening. We seem to allow media bias to affect us and take place without any action. The problem with this is it can effect society by misguiding people. When a story is told or an idea expressed in a bias way, people in today’s society are unable to make proper decisions and conclusions on those messages. This corrupts the viewpoints of the people in society. People are not consuming media that is true but things that are untrue. Five types of bias which consist of are; Bias by omission which is leaving one side out of an article (Student news daily. 2015) Bias by selection of sources includes more sources that support one view over another. This can also be seen when a reporter uses a phrase like “experts believe” (Student news daily. 2015) Bias by story selection is a pattern of highlighting news stories that coincide with the agenda of either the Left or the Right, while ignoring stories that coincide with the opposing view; (Student news daily. 2015) Bias by placement is a measure of how important the presenter considers the story. (Student news daily.