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Hussein Macarambon
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Media Bias
August 26, 2003 - 03:36 AM
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Is the media in your home country right or left leaning? Or is it neutral?
I was watching this debate on CNN whether US media is too conservative, too liberal or plain honest?
FOX Network came out as far too right, while CNN, the host channel, retained a neutral(?) position.
I also read some international magazines such as The Economist, Time, Newsweek, etc and in my opinion, theyre very conservative in a sense that they criticize only the obvious which trivializes the issue and consequently, do the object of criticism some good. I also think that media sways its political direction over time. During the Clinton era, US media was thought to be dangerously liberal(or not!) just as the present one is thought to be the opposite.
Do media networks get anything from apple polishing? Does your country have a biased media? Can the media never become impartial? Should TIG members teach them how?
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asdf
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Anyone from Italy?
August 26, 2003 - 09:43 AM
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Unfortunately, private corporations own the airwaves (in most cases, in most countries). And private corporatations are accountable to, yet don't concern themselves with much more than their shareholders. To turn a profit, and grow that profit is what drives businesses, and the media is one large business.
Rather, in America and much of the world, Big Media is really 6 large corporations - AOL TIME-WARNER, WALT DISNEY CORPORATION, VIACOM, VIVENDI UNIVERSAL, NEWS CORPORATION, BERTELSMANN AG.
And it's not just news. It's too long to list everything so I've included some links at the bottom.
In Canada, the closest news source to neutral is The Globe and Mail, definitely Canada's best paper, and the CBC, Canada's publicly owned news station.
But to say that CNN is neutral is a joke. But I can't be surprised, since it was aired on CNN.
And there are definite perks for 'apple polishing'. It's all about revenue. If you favourably report on your advertisers, they continue to advertise with you; if you favourably report on the government in power, they are more responsive to requests for interviews, granting access to their personnel, or embedding journalists and giving 'specials' to you for an advantage over your competition.
Just be glad you don't live in Italy - Billionare President Silvio Berlusconi ownes all Italian media!
To anyone from Italy, please tell me what the media is like in your country.
In 1997, a charter outlining the world's peoples' was drafted by the Third World Network in Penang Malaysia. One can only wonder if the points will ever be reached in our time.
http://www.mediachannel.org/manifesto/
www.mediachannel.org
www.fair.org
http://www.projectcensored.org/
There was a better quotation I had in mind, but this is the only one I could find -
"[T]he New York Times [is] a corporation and sells a product. The product is audiences. They don't make money when you buy the newspaper. They are happy to put it on the worldwide web for free. They actually lose money when you buy the newspaper. But the audience is the product. ... You have to sell a product to a market, and the market is, of course, advertisers (that is, other businesses). Whether it is television or newspapers, or whatever, they are selling audiences. Corporations sell audiences to other corporations." - Noam Chomsky.
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Jamaican Crusader
Joined: May 15, 2003
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Re: Media Bias
August 29, 2003 - 12:17 PM
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Well this a very valid question. As it relates to Jamaica, i believe that the media here has very little leverage as the freedom of speech here is very limited. We do not have the same degree of freedom as the USA would especially as it relates to advertising and general view expression.
I have never seen much product comparison in advertising and media houses are very cautious about what is published about people. Infact, very trivial issues may be dicussed or aired and withdrawn the following day for either having exaggerated content or inaccurate information.
There are not many radical media houses in my counrty and as a result, we Jamaicans do not derive much excitement from our media. Media bias mostly comes into play where our identity is concerned as how we subsequently view ourselves as a result of this bias. I have noticed that our media embraces a stereotypical concept of beauty in females, and only stereotype is viewed as valid. The few deviations from this stereotype is viewed as a phenomena. Hence i believe that bias comes to the fore at this point.
(By the way, the attached picture shows me accepting a cheque from the Jamaican Minister of Science Commerce and Technology for a contest i won a year and a half ago.)
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Roentgen
Joined: Feb 25, 2003
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Re: Media Bias
October 5, 2003 - 11:10 AM
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Since you are also a Filipino, you know how our media here fare. The top 2 (in terms of market share), for example, are privately owned and thus, their natural aim is to bat for even bigger dominance of viewership translating to more profits. What worries me now is while they are widely considered here as trustworthy, recent events here showed tbat they have inclinations, due or not to public pulse, to pursue trivial matters, in the process relegating more important issues to the backseat. So instead of helping form public opinion through news reports or sensible talk shows, they are actually failing in their responsibilities.
Some newspapers are also hard-hitting and the most widely read, in particular, have constantly run exposes of bureaucratic malaise and scandals. In these cases, they act as fiscalizers.
Critiques or not, placing them in the political spectrum is hard to do, since their advocacy is not necessarily ideology-based.
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Hussein Macarambon
Joined: Aug 11, 2003
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Re: Media Bias
October 8, 2003 - 06:12 AM
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Hi. I think Jacob has a point that most media companies, if not all, are profit-driven. Whether informing the public, or trivialzing issues, they run programs that they think are best for them. Of course, as an entity capable of transmitting premeditated stories and what not, they are going to appear biased to some yet laudable to others.
I think a critique, a mere spectator or even leaders of the political sphere need not have an ideological stand to deserve praise. To answer your point, I dont think typecasting the political inclination of a certain media company would make any difference. A deaf ear is all you get for being a foiling hatchet. In a capitalist democracy such as the Philippines, you can't tell what one should sell unless he/she earns from that. In this case, the media wont have to listen to some liberal critic that demands uncorrupted reporting, etc. The future of fair media communication has never been so bleak. But hey, who needs ABS-CBN or GMA anyway? Not me.
What do you mean by fiscalizer? Is this some jargon Im not aware of?
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Roentgen
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Re: Media Bias
October 12, 2003 - 06:28 AM
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Fiscalizing as is frequently used refers to the act of monitoring the actions of authorities, being vigilant about their porgrams and thrusts. You may even be a part of the system as in the case of oppostion legislators. Btw, is fiscalizing another Filipino jargon? Is it just used here?
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Hussein Macarambon
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Re: Media Bias
October 13, 2003 - 05:37 AM
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I dont know if its only a flip jargon, you tell me. I know that fiscal has something to do with government revenues, debt, finances and stuff like that but Im not sure if its a root for some verb. Anyways its not important. Thanks for telling me though. I dont mind being a 'fiscalizer' myself.
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