Different Ideas of What Is True In the News
As a child I repeatedly stood in line with my mother at the supermarket waiting to pay for our groceries. I often grew bored and found cheap entertainment in reading the thick, dark print of the supermarket tabloids. I would gaze my eyes and drop my jaw in shock at their stories; but, the one thing I never did doubt was the drama of their plots. As I grew older, I would watch television news magazine programs and think how different the facts, and pictures, as presented on television were from those of the supermarket tabloids. Now I have learned that in order to be constantly informed I must become a media critic, and I must judge for myself the facts which stories are correct. For some time I have found myself straining away from the supermarket tabloids and towards magazines I think I can trust. Upon examination of two periodicals, Time and Globe, it is easy to see the distinction between reputable and irreputable media, with regard to the JonBenet Ramsey case. Through the use of facts, photographs, and aim towards a certain audience a discrimination between drama and information is clear. It is disturbing that the Globe magazine uses melodrama and tension to sell a story in which the drama lies not in the pages of a
Photographs spread across the pages of Time magazine do nothing to add drama to the JonBenet Ramsey case, whereas Globe photographs add emotional illustrations to a excessive story. The photos shown by Time magazine show Patsy Ramsey gazing at a painting of her daughter. This photo layout choice evokes sympathy for a women saddened by the loss of a child. In representing the Ramseys in this light, a reader is encouraged the readers to view the Ramseys as murderers. In viewing the Ramseys in such a light, one is not reminded of the facts of the case but rather the invention of the magazine. It is easy to see despair, easy to feel disgust, and easy to stop habits which further the spreading of gossip by supermarket tabloids. With such cases as the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, in which little had happened since the death of the child, tabloids are known for twisting facts in order to pump new energy into a dying story. In the aftermath of Princess Diana¹s death there was a call upon the citizens of the world not to buy the supermarket ³rags², as a form of respect for to themselves. Reading from these ³headline grabbing² articles, insults not only those whose lives are spilled out among the pages, but those whose l
Some common words found in the essay are:
Patsy Ramsey, , JonBenet Ramsey, Princess Diana¹s, globe magazine, supermarket tabloids, jonbenet ramsey, globe magazine mention, patsy ramsey, murder daughter, magazine aimed, readership magazine, ramseys light, ramseys murder, magazine mention,
Approximate Word count = 834
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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