They did… Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said… Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. (Bradbury 55) Since the age of technology has dawned several years back, books have been preferred to be read electronically instead of paper books. Due to the criticism books get now people do not read books as often and instead get involved in social media, news stations, etc. Exploiters and propaganda can frequently be found in these media sources.
The involvement of the media compromised the access of witnesses, as fewer people were willing to be involved in the public scandal by testifying. Additionally, the media got into the investigation by asking questions about the events before the murder. The National Enquirer, for instance, took a different angle to investigate the case; however, by doing this, the media almost made it impossible for proper investigations to be held by the criminal justice system. Ogletree Jr. maintains that the press failed terribly by trying to assume what the lawyers or witnesses thought at different times of the trial, which was a fail (Ogletree). Consequently, there should be a level of protection from the media.
As a result, people have created a vicious cycle in which they search, read, believe, and share what they have read, without considering the reliability of the information and news. Technology has influenced communication and journalism; as a result, the media has adopted a business model based on clicks and advertising. The combination of people 's need for information and the greed of news corporations have allowed for the proliferation of “fake news,” a term that has gained importance in the last two years. Fake news is “completely made up, manipulated to resemble credible journalism and attract maximum attention and, with it, advertising revenue” (Hunt, 2016). News has the power to alter people’s perceptions which can impact their decisions related to economy, democratic process, and their lives and jobs.
The murder of James Bulger prompted a media frenzy, not only on a national scale but also internationally, the pre-trial coverage was extremely extensive there was arguments that the juries opinions would be biased due to the opinions outputted via the media and public. Although the judge had agreed the coverage of the trial was beyond ordinary, it was agreed that it was acceptable for the hearing to undergo with the jury (Guardian, 2001). The UK media coverage of the crime had deeply affected the trial due to public opinion. The media vilified Venables and Thompson excessively, only the day after the judgement, the tabloid, the Daily Star headlined quoting ‘How do you feel now you little bastards?’ (Franklin, B. and Petley, J., 1996), this
We have the social media to blame for many stories that aren’t told truthfully. The sad part is that some people believe if you read it on Facebook or twitter it must be true. Every day the media is tweaking stories to make their ratings go up so more people will watch them and bring in more money. There are many stories written in print that are true from someone’s point of view but more than likely another person who witnessed or lived through the same event would tell the story with a whole different twist. A major story that was reported with misleading information was a news story over "Fukusima 50".
When internet censorship takes place, it really limits a user’s web experience. Governments really has begun to censor the internet and even manipulating it to shape the minds of their citizens in a way to propaganda. Just like in the novel the government wanted to brainwash their citizens to think how the government wanted them to by making books illegal and making people think that books are evil when in reality the books had the power within them to break them free from such a corrupt
Today more than ever, a plethora of information can be accessed with the click of a button. No longer must libraries and newspapers dictate the media one receives; the internet and broadened literary horizons have created a more well-informed and open-minded generation than in previous years. Without help from authors and political movements, however, the rampant censorship that once controlled the viewpoints and lives of average Americans in the past may still be in tact. Directly contributing to this, Judy Blume challenged censorship throughout her career by consistently describing taboo topics such as puberty, hormones, bodily insecurities, and much more in her novels aimed towards adolescents. Before her contributions to the young adult genre, literature written for teenagers did not discuss the issues teens face as bluntly or as realistically.
Unlike today, the 18th and 19th century consisted of public shaming which served as an effective punishment due to the lack of long distance communication. However, today in the 21st century, with the implication on long term communication, public shaming is easily broadcasted to many more people than just the local community. Public Shaming began “to fall out of favor in part because America was becoming more populous and Impersonal”(Beato). Public shaming includes many inconsistencies with the severity of the punishment. For instance, when two of the same pictures appeared on the internet, only one picture became famous while the other picture went almost unnoticed.
In America, Media bias is everywhere, in the United States all the information that an average American received through everyday sources, the news was most likely processed through the media and told through a biased point of view, when the media gets their hands on news if it is important then it probably won’t be talked about or downplayed no matter the source like in the newspaper, radio, television, movies, as well as other outlets that the media uses, the media only seems to share the news that they find interesting, even then the media would most likely have changed the story, in what they say is just tweaked news, what actually happened and what really happened would be two different stories, also the story would be told from one person
(Maranzani, 2017). The Watergate Scandal had a long-term effect of how the federal government including the executive branch utilize surveillance techniques or tools without infringing one’s rights. Since the aftermath of the scandal, many journalists have jaded view towards the Republican party believing that all Republicans could be or the next Richard Nixon. Furthermore, journalists with strong ties to mainstream media gives negative publicity toward the Republican party while they give positive publicity towards the Democrat Party regarding to any event that happens between both parties. This reason alone not only divides communities throughout the country, it creates a group of people relied on the mainstream media too much where everything they say either on newspaper, TV, internet, or radio is 100% true.