General Methods of Teaching-6400/1+2-AIOU solved

Media, Root of All Evil

Nowadays most the people thinks that media is the root cause of most of the problems. For example they think that all the tensions are caused by the breaking news, discussions and analysis made by experts. Many simple matters become complicated due to media. Pros and cons are always there.

Important News Hour by Hour

People think that media is exaggerating things but I don’t think so. If we analyze the matter it happen like this that once we hear an important news it is repeated on other channels they gets expert opinion from two or three people and then starts other topic. If a person keeps sitting and watching the news channel he will hear the same news and the same expert opinion again, and also if he is switching the channels he will get the same type of matter from other channels too. Then if he say that media is over exaggerating it, I think it is his own fault. No one has that much time to sit and listened news completely. It is the redundant who sits for hours and then blame media. Most of the people get news on their mobiles just because of their busy routine.

Discussion programs

Channels have multiple discussion programs with widely read, intellectual host of high caliber. Every one of them tries to cover the important news or event better than others or with different or new angle. It happens on every channel if a person trying to cover all the programs he thinks that the media is over exaggerating this topic. Also these programs are repeated again in the day time because of their commercial value.

Therefore it seems that the media is giving all the time to one issue. In normal days when there is no important thing to discuss you will see that these live programs present very important discussions and some of them has produced complete programs on the role of media and also on the blames of over exaggeration.

Patriotism

Government accused some hosts of private television programs as agents which is very ridiculous every one know them and their every minute is public. It seems that they were called agent and unpatriotic just because they were objecting or criticizing government policies.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: “Freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of government … Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially a democracy.”

Attacks on media

After sanctions imposed on media in Musharaf’s regime which faied badly and he faced severve consequencies.This government also tries to stop media from discussing issues against government.They have tried many things for example attacking journalists ,cameramen ,reporters and cable operator to stop providing access to some of the private channels. also they ask the cable operator to frequently change the frequency of some important channels and put them on latter numbers .

A big Mistake

The government made a big mistake by sttoping it’s own memebers participating in the talk show programs  of private channels,also cancelling their memberships on participation. The rage of their political worker’s was seen on the television screens live,which seems to be unnatrual as they have elected them by themselves. In my opinion if they do not paticipate in these programs how will they share their opinion or rejects a wrong one.

Flow Of Information

It is impossible for the governments to stop the flow of information because of the new visual media and new modes of social networking. Not only have these new mass and image-based media—camcorders, cellular camera-phones, satellite television, digital recorders, and the Internet, to name a few.

Any information gathered by any one at any moment, the moment of an event and its public display by making events accessible almost instantly to a global audience. The Internet, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook have reconstituted, especially among young people, how social relationships are constructed and how communication is produced, mediated and received .These new media technologies and Web sites have proved a powerful force in resisting dominant channels of censorship and militarism. Under such circumstances, state power becomes more porous and less controlled and its instability becomes evident.

Other Countries Govt. Media Clashes

The new technologies with their instant modes of communication have a purpose as we have seen not only in Iran, but also among various forms of opposition that have emerged in China, Moldova, and Egypt.

In recent months, the government has retaliated against independent media for reporting on widespread anti-government protests, for being critical of the government, and for covering other politically sensitive issues, report the Kyrgyzstan-based Public Association Journalists (PAJ), The Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF)……………… authorities intimidated broadcasters to end critical programming, blocked access to alternative news online and suspended independent newspapers………………….. On 10 march, several radio and television stations across the country dropped programming from the Kyrgyz service of the US government-funded radio free Europe/radio liberty (rfe/rl), also known as radio Azattyk…………. Independent news websites known for being critical of government policies have been blocked since 10 march……….. Three independent newspapers were suspended last month. Two of these papers were shut down on 18 March for carrying an article written by an exile opposition activist that accused the government and president of corruption, nepotism and failure to engage in urgent social and economic concerns, says CPJ. The court found the two newspapers guilty of libelling the president………… newspapers publishing statements by the opposition calling for president Bakiev’s removal were also targeted.( ifex information 7 April 2010 )

Biased Name In News

Some times government has to face bias media and we have some popular channels with good examples

“I challenge anybody to show me an example of bias in Fox News Channel.” — Rupert Murdoch (Salon, 3/1/01)

— Quoted by Seth Ackerman, The Most Biased Name in News; Fox News Channel’s extraordinary right-wing tilt, Extra! A Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting Special Report, August 2001

In recent times, the American media has been plagued with all sorts of problems including, sliding profits, scandals about manipulation, plagiarism, and propaganda, falling readership in the press, “dumbing down”, and so on. (http://www.globalissues.org/article/163/media-in-the-united-states)

Writing for the Nation, Mark Weisbrot, who is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, characterized Venezuela as having “the most anti-government media in the hemisphere” (12/06/06). Eva Golinger, a Venezuelan-American lawyer and prominent critic of U.S. foreign policy, wrote that, “You turn on any of the channels here and you’ll see that there’s more freedom of expression enjoyed in Venezuela than probably anywhere else in the world. It’s the only place where they can go on television and talk about killing the president, or saying the most derogatory and offensive things on a news hour” (interview on Z-Net, 2005).

Propaganda and Free Press

Dr. Nancy Snow, an assistant professor of political science describes one of her previous jobs as being a “propagandist” for the U.S. Information Agency. In an interview, she also describes how Americans and the rest of the world often view the American media:

Public diplomacy is a euphemism for propaganda. In the United States, we don’t think of ourselves as a country that propagandizes, even though to the rest of the world we are seen as really the most propagandistic nation in terms of our advertising, in terms of our global reach, our public relations industry—we have more public relations professionals and consultants in the United States than we do news reporters. So there’s an entire history of advertising, promoting, and getting across the message of America both within and also outside of the United States.

— Dr. Nancy Snow, Propaganda Inc.: Behind the curtain at the U.S.I.A., an Interview with Guerilla News Network

Australian journalist John Pilger also captures this very well:

Long before the Soviet Union broke up, a group of Russian writers touring the United States were astonished to find, after reading the newspapers and watching television, that almost all the opinions on all the vital issues were the same. “In our country,” said one of them, “to get that result we have a dictatorship. We imprison people. We tear out their fingernails. Here you have none of that. How do you do it? What’s the secret?”

— John Pilger, In the freest press on earth, humanity is reported in terms of its usefulness to US power, New Statesman, 20 February, 2001

In March 2005, the New York Times revealed that there has been a large amount of fake and prepackaged news created by US government departments, such as the Pentagon, the State Department and others, and disseminated through the mainstream media.

The media is in the midst of a transformation which the Bush administration is keen to foster. They have discovered that a partisan and atomised media can be controlled, manipulated and used to an unprecedented degree.

— Paul Harris, The mole, the US media and a White House coup, The Observer, February 20, 2005

Media and civil society activists have expressed concerns over the National Broadcasting of Thailand’s rerunning of scenes of the bloody clashes on Saturday between government forces and the Red Shirts, saying it could stir up more hatred and distrust in the country.

Darunee Hiranrak, a former dean of Chulalongkorn University’s faculty of mass communications, said the state-run TV channel’s repeated airing of the violence was like “rubbing salt into the wounds”.

“If they don’t want to see the political crisis getting worse, they should stop broadcasting such programmes and pictures right away,” Mrs Darunee said. (Thailand - Media Safety

Thai media activists ask state-run TV channels to stop airing scenes of clashes)

Media Needs Govt Help
The debate over the plight of the news media often turns to the notion of government support – and just as often prompts journalists, academics and politicians to reject the idea as a step toward lapdog reporting (. RICHARD PéREZ-PEñA)

The biggest part of financial resources for the media is advertisements given by government. many of the Pakistan’s biggest news media are running their business without govt. help but they think it is unjust.

If the govt does not help them properly they have to fall prey for the advertisers who in turns want them to produce programs of commercial value. They try to involve people and government in non issues rather than issues only to get their own benefits .they try to make govt astray so they can sway away from taxes or other productive legislations.

A Historical Fact

Thomas Jefferson famously listed the establishment of the University of Virginia as one of the three great accomplishments of his life (he omitted his presidency from the list).

From a political angle, for a nation to remain strong, it has historically needed the support of its people, including those who are not in power and those who are exploited. (Media in the United States by Anup Shah)