Anti News Media Censorship example essay topic

"Anti News Media Censorship" The best method of informing the public is using television. As a result, the news is televised. Many believe that it is the job of the news media to report to the public what is happening in society. Some, on the other hand, claim that the news media are only interested in increasing their ratings and that they achieve this by reporting events that are of a violent and outrageous nature. Some people who believe this also believe that violence in the news has a direct effect on our society. To them this effect would be influencing people's behavior.

The news media's main goal is to inform the society about world events. Their task is to notify their viewers of new developments around the world. News broadcasts generally strive for accuracy in reports. These reports are presented in an unbiased manner otherwise they would mislead their viewers. It is because the masses do not wish to be mislead that the viewers expect these qualities.

Censorship should not be imposed upon the news media because the news is merely circulating to society what is happening right now. As a result, the news has done nothing but simply display our society on the big screen. The news is not suggesting to viewers that they conduct themselves in the manner depicted on the news. '... when the majority of Americans get their information solely from TV News, there is good reason to be concerned about the purity and thoroughness of that information... ' (Saltzman, USA Today). Lower crime rates may also indicate that violence in the news does not dictate the people's behavior and it reinforces the fact that the news is solely informational. "Murder happens.

It happened a lot in Shakespeare", (Drevitch, 1994, p. 12) Contrary to common belief the crime rates for this nation have decreased. Over the past decades it may appear that the nation's crime rates have steadily increased, but perhaps this assumption is based on what is broadcast ed on television. Due to improvements in technology the news media has been able to collect information from a much wider geographical area. Technological advancement has also allowed the news media to relay information at a real time pace and obtain better coverage of all crimes that occur throughout the nation. Although the news may be reporting crimes it does not necessarily mean that crime is on the rise. According to the latest figures from the FBI, crime rates have continued to drop for the eighth straight year in the United States.

The news should not be censored simply because it contains violent images. Some people propose that since these images are graphic in nature, they may have an adverse effect on a small part the population. This is not a valid justification for such a drastic move. If this is the case, then should all things that have bad effects on the public be done away with?

People should think carefully about matters concerning censorship as they personify a much larger issue, the First Amendment. Freedom of speech is a right guaranteed to the citizens of the United States and with it's elimination the decline of democracy is sure to follow. (528)

Bibliography

Page 1. Callahan, Sidney. 'What we see, we do: Violence & the media. ' Commonweal. Jan 1996.
2. Drevitch, Gary. 'Murder, she saw. ' Scholastic Update (Teachers' Edition). Feb 1994.
3. Security World. Com "Crime Rates Dropping Again" Online web 4. Saltzman, Joe. 'New media owners, same old problems. ' USA Today. Nov. 1995: 31.