Saturday, April 14, 2007

Credibility of the media

In recent years, the credibility of the media has been in the spotlight. At the same time, the confidence people have in the media has been decreasing too. Credibility is very important, especially in the media industry. The media informs and persuades us. But more importantly, it has the power to "brainwash" us and affect our thinking and judgement.

Journalists today are more likely to be less professional, less moral, more biased and less honest about their mistakes than before.

In the article "TVBS scandal points to credibility problems in Taiwan's media industry", a journalist was fired for hiding the true source of the video he acquired. It sparked protests and debates on the increasingly lax editorial standards in Taiwan's media. In December, the station incorrectly reported that duck slaughterhouses had used asphalt to defeather ducks, which led to a sharp drop in duck sales.

"As progress of the war resembled a slow climb for the invaders. Tony Blair rushed to Washington for crisis talks with George Bush, officially for reasons that were anything but crisis-related. An obliging media said the purpose was to plan the funding for post-war reconstruction, even though Condoleezza Rice and Kofi Annan had just concluded discussions on the subject and countries like Japan had already agreed to help foot the bill." - Spilling blood with oil in Iraq

Why would the media fabricate stories and risk affecting their credibility?

The media may be motivated by profit and report about controversy and scandals, and what the public would like to see and hear, but not the truth. They sensationalize and exaggerate the news to sell more newspapers, increase its ratings and thus, advance in their career.

There may also be racial or religious bias against certain groups of people with different backgrounds, race and religions, especially towards the minorities in a country. In recent years, especially after the September 11 attacks, many Middle-Eastern countries have been on the media, all for the wrong reasons. When there is mention of Middle-Eastern countries in the media, the first thing that comes to our minds will be terrorists attacks, bombings and wars. When we think of Iraq and Iran, war and nuclear issues come to our minds. The media usually focuses on the negative rather than the positive aspects of Middle-Eastern culture. Yes, its may be true that the region is one of the more trouble-ridden areas of the world. However, we should not generalize based on just what we see in the media. There may be many acts of kindness by the people which the media does not show.

In the United States and many other parts of the world, even though there is freedom of press, news are often slanted in favour of the administration and the way the administration defines what news is. Many journalists are afraid of being too critical of the government. For example, in the prestigious New York Times, Judith Miller dutifully parroted the propaganda issued by the Bush administration about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction during the lead-up to the invasion. Quoting one anonymous source after another, she became a highly effective vehicle of the Bush administration in disseminating misinformation and lies about Saddam Hussein’s possession of and attempt to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

The media should have integrity and publish only un-biased, factual information. On the other hand, the governments should abandon censorship. Readers should not trust everything they read. They should try to read from various sources to get the different perspectives from the different writers. This way, they would be able to get the full story of an event.