Analysis of Debating Democracys The Media: Vast Wasteland or New Frontier? :: Democracy Debates Media Essays

Analysis of Debating Democracys The Media Vast Wasteland or untried enclosure? In Debating Democracys The Media Vast Wasteland or New Frontier? Jarol Manheim and Douglas Rushkoff present opposing views of the media. Both authors raise the questions of what the media represents and what messages the media tries to send to the public. Is the medias coverage of events precisely for entertainment value or do the reports pack political kernel and value? Are the viewers capable of distinguishing between the medias glitz and the in truth facts? Do different sources of the media carcass actually portray different views and stories? A key question is how typical objective reporting is. If the k at one timeledge merchant ship easily be obtained elsewhere, it is possible to conclude with pluralists that citizens drive the tools to govern themselves much or less democratically. If, on the other hand, there are unsafe shortcomings, one might agree with the power elite camp that the r aft, beca intent they put on insufficient meaningful information, wield less power than they could and should.Manheim claims that the media is not as diverse as it claims to be. He states, Though for competitive purposes they might have us believe otherwise, most American news organizations have a great deal in common with one another . . . they settle news itself in essentially the same terms. (Manheim, 1991) He argues that the media entertains the viewers sort of than giving them information that is relevant and socially important. Manheims view about what the galvanic pile media scheme actually does to the news is similar to what W. Lance Bennett lists as the tetrad main media biases fragmentation, normalization, personalization and dramatization (Bennett, 1996). These biases are described by Manheim as the media system rendering the content of the news less burdensome by packaging it more(prenominal) attractively (Manheim, 1991). Contrary to Manheims views, Rushkoff looks at how the viewers are able to use and run into the medias messages. Rather than viewing the media as a mass system composed of the elite who view the public as a commodity, Rushkoff believes that the people strive to shape and understand the world through the messages the media portrays. Furthermore, he claims that the media is merely a reflection of the society that the viewers themselves have created. The viewers have the ability to choose which medium of media they will use (Internet, network, newspaper, etc.). Rushkoff says that the news has now become interactive and the people (particularly those under forty) have come to understand the medias symbols better (Rushkoff, 1994).