Is today's news what it should be?
Is today's news a truthful account of the day's events? Is it a blatant attempt to guide the reader's reaction to keep interests high? Or do entertainment corporations trying to make a profit overrun today's news? Should there be certain standards of journalism in news today? To answer these questions, the reader must understand the definition of news. Jack Fuller best defines news as "a report of what a news organization has recently learned about matters of some significance or interest to the specific community that news organization serves." Journalism in today's news is not the same as it was over half a century ago. The reader can see this in Jim Squires' statement that journalism "even at its worst and most unfair... once had as its goal a quest for accuracy and perspective that would eventually provide truth." Whereas news, itself, is best defined best defined by the Hutchinson Commission on freedom of the pres in 1947 as a "truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day's events in a context which gives them meaning." So what has happened to journalism today? Journalism no longer seeks accuracy and fairness. There are many fallacies in the basis of today's journalism. J
One final example of the shortcomings in today's news is the intervention of "Big Business". Major corporations in the entertainment business own many publications. One such publication is the New York Times, which is owned by Time Warner. Time Warner is an elite figure in the entertainment industry. Time Warner also owns the cable network TNN. TNN airs a show called Monday Night Raw, which hosts the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and it's wrestling matches. Suppose Time Warner wants to turn a larger profit from Monday Night Raw, Time Warner might have the New York Times print an article about the WWF. In this article there might be a lot of bias in which the journalist reports that Monday Night Raw is the greatest television show of all time. The reader's of Time Magazine read this article and watch Monday Night Raw to see what all the hype is about. This in turn would increase profits because of the growing audience tuned to TNN to watch Monday Night Raw. This is a key ex! One example of the fallacies in today's news is the lack of background information given on the subject. Very little background information is recorded, which in turn does not inform the reader enough to make an educated opinion. For example, if a journalist writes an article on how the pollution of Houston, Texas is worse today than it was twenty years ago, and fails to give details of how pollution was twenty years ago, how can the reader actually know that the pollution is worse today? Another case in point would be a journalist informing an audience that the U.S. declared war on Iraq today. The only detail the journalist gives is
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Approximate Word count = 1092
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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