Thousands of
years ago, Plato wrote about the Allegory of the Cave to show how human beings
are blinded by an ignorance that they do not recognize. It was an attempt to
show how Socrates, as well as other philosophers, was punished for seeing
reality for what it truly is, just as Plato’s character in the allegory. The average person sees only what the
puppeteer wants him or her to see, and believes this to be the truth because it
is all that he has ever known. The important question to ask is this; are we
finally free of our ancient shackles, seeing the world as Socrates supposedly
once did so long ago?
The answer is a resounding no. In
the modern age, media influences every aspect of life. The news is now
instantly spoon-fed to everyone, not free of bias. Often times stories are
portrayed in a way so that viewers are persuaded to interpret a subject in a
certain manner. Certain facts are left out, quotes are taken out of context,
and some heroes are made to look like villains all in the name of media. Politics
specifically are notorious for this phenomenon, as seen on political news
websites like cnn.com. Presidential attack ads are becoming more and more
popular with each election. One candidate or political action group will often
gather together long lists of mistakes that the other candidate has made in
recent history and leave out anything positive. Also, political issues like
Guantamino Bay are often treated in a very delicate manner. This is exactly how
we are being brainwashed today. We are shown only the fragments of an issue
that are beneficial for the media to show. The whole truth is not represented, but
rather small slivers found in the vast grey area of opinions and lies.
In ancient times, the puppeteer in
the Allegory of the Cave represented a variety of subjects, from ruling
monarchies to other leaders. Today, it most closely represents the media. As we
stay shackled in our restraints, the media continues to feed us half-truths and
complete lies. These shadows on the wall
that is now our television are what many of us have grown up believing to be
the truth. Although shackles and other constraints do not physically restrain
us, the grip on us is just as strong. It is impossible for us to see the
absolute truth unless we are to realize the prison that we are in and break
free. This means no longer believing everything we see on the news or read on
the Internet to be completely accurate. We must take the information provided
for us with a grain of salt in order to weed out the falsities.
I whole heartedly agree with you when you say, "We are shown only the fragments of an issue that are beneficial for the media to show." I think that the media has always projected a biased perspective on current events. This is not a new realization. Especially in war time, the American media outlets would show a great deal of propaganda with the veil of a news story. Some of this is necessary to keep the country in tact but I totally agree that we do not get the whole story. And isn't it within our rights to know what's going on in the world? Shouldn't we be entitled to an unbiased report of worldly events? One would think that yes, we are entitled.. but the big corporations of media outlets don't quite see it that way.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the thought, as Kathryn did, “"We are shown only the fragments of an issue that are beneficial for the media to show." It’s definitely true that news organizations such as Fox News and MSNBC are biased and only report the parts of stories that help their own cause. However, I’d like to defend the Press of the United States. First and foremost, our Freedom of Press is nearly unrivaled in the world. We (and by “we” I mean the Press) are pretty much allowed to report on anything and everything – that’s not to say that the Press necessarily does, but it can. Which is a pretty big deal. Furthermore, I will argue that since the dawn of the internet we do in fact have access to a basically infinite amount of news. You don’t like Fox News? Go to one of the other 12938743927 sites that provide us with information. There are an incredible amount of sources and opinions on each news story – so many that we could never possibly see each side of each argument. But, the arguments are there. Sometimes you just have to do more than sit down and watch your favorite news channel. You’ll find anything you may be looking for on other networks or other websites.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your general argument that the media doesn’t tell us the whole truth and only shows a fragment of the whole story, but isn’t that what the media is suppose to do? Every news media wants to attract and retain a large audience base and in order to do so, they must tell the audience what they want to hear. This can be seen through the audiences that Fox and MSNBC attract, as Fox attracts a more conservative audience while MSNBC attracts a more liberal audience. To build off Brandon’s point, there are so many news outlets that if one doesn’t like what he or she hears, that person can always switch to a different outlet that is better suited towards the viewer’s taste. (Who would watch something that tells them that their views and opinions are wrong anyways?). This post reminded me of our discussion and debate on censorship. The media censors certain stories by deciding whether to broadcast select issues and when they decide only to report stories that fulfill a certain agenda. However, is this necessarily bad for society? There is no realistic way for us to see the absolute truth and it seems like there isn’t really a reason for us to, since we tend to only want to hear issues that are aligned with our views.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you are saying here. This, too, really bothers me. I think that news stations (from both sides of the political spectrum) control a lot about what and how Americans think. There are several ways that news stations can do this, such as only reporting on certain issues, only showing one side of the story, not bringing up issues that paint their ideas in a bad light, broadcasting things not in context, and so on. The media can subtly influence the way that people think and feel without us even knowing it is happening. This is why I try to "take information with a grain of salt," as you say, because I know that a lot of the time we are only getting half of the story. People in control of the media reflect their point of view in a lot of their work and we need to make sure that we recognize this so that we get the full story and then generate our own opinion based on our values. It is unfortunate that the media has such an influence because it is almost as if they have the ability to brainwash constituents and citizens. I think that they are especially active during political campaigns or controversial issues, and have the power to swing the vote in a certain direction. This is something that we need to be wary of. It would be nice if we could have media that purely reported events so that we could make our own decisions and judgments about the situation. However, I know that this is unlikely to happen and we must look out for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI think you're making a bigger issue out of media bias than is the reality of the situation, for a few reasons. Firstly, media is much more varied today than in say the 90s when cable news was the primary source for people who wanted to know what was going on. Today the internet provides lots of sources for unbiased news and ways to fact check, and I doubt anyone who regularly reads huffington post of the drudge report is unaware that they have a particular bias. This leads into my second point, people actively choose to watch biased media, they're not being led astray by some channel that they think is completely "fair and balanced." Conservatives watch Fox News because it delivers what they want to hear. They want to hear why Obama's bad and reinforce their beliefs, not have them questioned. And the same on the left, Rachel Maddow's viewers aren't liberal because they watch her show, they watch her show because they are liberal. It's much easier to just take a viewpoint from people you agree with than try to form your own by doing independent research, and that's what most people do. So I wouldn't say it's a lack of unbiased sources or the media misleading people, people just listen to what they like to listen to.
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