Do The Media Distort Reality
Submission date: 11/04/11
Student number:
Module: SC4001 Discovering Sociology
Task: (E) 2,000 word essay,
500 word self-evaluation of learning
Assignment: To what extent do the media distort reality? In your answer explore this in relation to the concept of moral panic.
Contents page:
Page 1 Submission page
Page 2 Contents page
Page 3 The media
Media in relation to reality
Moral panic
Page 4 Media in relation to reality and moral panic Mods and rockers Power of media Youth of today
Page 5 Madeline McCann story Contents Media in the war
Page 6 Bibliography
The …show more content…
Although the power of the television was less predominate than it is in the current climate the media has had an effect on the general public even before the war. The different being that modern news travels a lot faster and has the ability to have many different versions of the same story due to the various different types of media that are now available as opposed to earlier on. “Rather than aiding our understanding of what war is really like, television arguably diminishes its reality. As American cultural critic, Michael Arlen, observed of US networks’ coverage of Vietnam, television made events less ‘real’ – diminished, in part, by the physical size of the television screen, which, for all the industry’s advances, still shows a picture of men three inches tall shooting at other men three inches tall” (cited by Hallin 1989, 103) (Susan L.Carruthers, 2000). The theory on small changes in the truth by the media is called deviance amplification . This is the theory that a small deviance in the truth spirals into something much more significant and was created by Leslie Wilkins. This is essentially the medias outlook on moral panic, in that they only change small details to interest the reader but the small change in the truth or tiny exaggeration works in the sense of ‘Chinese whispers’ and deviance amplification means that the truth tends to be lost or …show more content…
It is a rarity to ever hear good news via the media and most of the news displayed is negative. Where moral panics are concerned a lot of situations could be forgotten about or even not a big deal if the mass media weren’t involved in changing our views and opinions on the reality of things. Key examples with mods and rockers show how the mass media distorting reality and amplifying the actual happenings of the time and in my opinion their distortion of reality is purely for profit purposes only and not for the benefit of the general
Student number:
Module: SC4001 Discovering Sociology
Task: (E) 2,000 word essay,
500 word self-evaluation of learning
Assignment: To what extent do the media distort reality? In your answer explore this in relation to the concept of moral panic.
Contents page:
Page 1 Submission page
Page 2 Contents page
Page 3 The media
Media in relation to reality
Moral panic
Page 4 Media in relation to reality and moral panic Mods and rockers Power of media Youth of today
Page 5 Madeline McCann story Contents Media in the war
Page 6 Bibliography
The …show more content…
Although the power of the television was less predominate than it is in the current climate the media has had an effect on the general public even before the war. The different being that modern news travels a lot faster and has the ability to have many different versions of the same story due to the various different types of media that are now available as opposed to earlier on. “Rather than aiding our understanding of what war is really like, television arguably diminishes its reality. As American cultural critic, Michael Arlen, observed of US networks’ coverage of Vietnam, television made events less ‘real’ – diminished, in part, by the physical size of the television screen, which, for all the industry’s advances, still shows a picture of men three inches tall shooting at other men three inches tall” (cited by Hallin 1989, 103) (Susan L.Carruthers, 2000). The theory on small changes in the truth by the media is called deviance amplification . This is the theory that a small deviance in the truth spirals into something much more significant and was created by Leslie Wilkins. This is essentially the medias outlook on moral panic, in that they only change small details to interest the reader but the small change in the truth or tiny exaggeration works in the sense of ‘Chinese whispers’ and deviance amplification means that the truth tends to be lost or …show more content…
It is a rarity to ever hear good news via the media and most of the news displayed is negative. Where moral panics are concerned a lot of situations could be forgotten about or even not a big deal if the mass media weren’t involved in changing our views and opinions on the reality of things. Key examples with mods and rockers show how the mass media distorting reality and amplifying the actual happenings of the time and in my opinion their distortion of reality is purely for profit purposes only and not for the benefit of the general