Opravy

I would like to talk about the following topic, since I will soon have to express my viewpoint in class about that: does the media have a major influence on how the news is perceived by the public?

Nowadays, the media can be considered as the link between from the one hand the political institutions, the foreign affairs, the economic situation and from the other hand, the public.

However, the responsibility of the media to influence the people can be discussed.

Does the media only reports the facts it is aware of or are these facts used to diffuse a viewpoint?

To begin with, it is technically very difficult to report a fact without providing a viewpoint.

The person who relates a fact, usually a journalist, cannot prevent his/her personal feelings from interfering into his/her story.

I personally had the opportunity to travel in Asia, where I discovered a culture which is different from the European way of life.

Nevertheless, it was also different, by far, from what the local media usually explains about Asian food, people or geography.

Nevertheless, the influence of the media has to be put into perspective.

It depends on the kind of facts.

When it comes to a environnemental accident, it remains very easy to relate facts properly since only facts need to be related.

Conversely, if it is about a political election or the economic growth, many viewpoints can emerge.

For instance, all journalists usually agree about the reasons of a road accident, but most of them disagree when it comes to the merits of a political measure.

The European measures taken to financially help Greece are a significant example of this.

To conclude, I think that in general the media deeply influence the public, even though the journalists might not be aware of their own responsibility.

They usually think that they are impartial when it is obviously not the case.