The main concern of this essay is to look at the relationship between news media and reality. Whilst debating whether the mediation by the news is in the form of a 'faithful reflection' [McQuail, 1994, p.65] of reality or a 'filtered, screen', [McQuail, 1994.] that constructs a reality all of its own; I intend to discuss: -

· The concept of reality. (Without getting too philosophical!)

· The economic and political influences on news processes of production.

· Questions around the content and form of ideology.

Generally, reality is what most people 'assume exists independently of any concept or representation'. [Grossberg, 1998, p.184] It's 'reality' and that's it, no questions asked. Reality according to Fiske ' is a product of cultural codes'; [1987, p.4] that is, our social environment presents us with 'a collection of material facts, that we can accurately perceive'. [Grossberg, 1998, p.185] The notion that the material facts have to be collected is interesting. It implies that a mediation between the public and reality has taken place, someone, somewhere, had to decide what was to be collected, and what was to be left.

Who gets to define the collection thus re

Let it be said from the outset, 'news cannot exclusively shape peoples perception of reality'. [Glasgow University Media Group, 1982, p.7] It has been argued that people simply make up their own minds and are not influenced by what they read or see. Our 'culture, politics and other interests do much to structure and determine the way we look at the world, and our news reports reflect and reinforce' [Grossberg, et al, 1999, p.229] this social construction of reality. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the news does have the power to tell people the order in which to think. By setting the agenda it controls the information with which we make up our minds.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Cited Chandler, Political Economists, University Media, , Stuart Allan, Liberal Pluralists, Cited Achbar, Noted Grossberg, AJ Ayer, Justin Lewis, fiske 1987, et al, chandler 1998, mass media, 1998 document, cited chandler 1998, cited chandler, chandler 1998 document, grossberg et al, allan 1999, grossberg et, fiske 1987 p289, mcquail 1994, 1973 p66, market-based mass media,
Approximate Word count = 1646
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)