Because of the current internet situation on campus, I am going to write my reaction to “The Press Becomes a Press Sphere” in two parts. Part one will be my initial thoughts prior to reading the piece, and part two will be my actual reaction (after trekking to the library).
In my mind, the press’ job has always been to report local events as well as the events of the world to citizens in an accurate and fair way. However, media moguls have, in the last 25 to 30 years, vastly overstepped their bounds. The desire to constantly be on top of the media heap has caused travesties such as false or premature reporting, creation of hysteria, and even getting reporters or cameras involved in sensitive issues first hand. The “Press Sphere” sounds to me like the world created by news agencies. It is a world in which people only get the media’s perspective of news and where the only stories shared with the world are ones that have the possibility of making money for the company. In essence, this sphere is a limited view of the truth.
While reading the article and attempting to digest the many flow charts and graphs it contained, I stumbled on two key phrases.
The first is press-centric which indicated that the press is at the center of the world, or at least of the news story. Instead of the media ‘adopting’ a story and letting it play out on its own, they search for stories that they can refer to as breaking.
The second (and final) phrase is “creation of a news story.” This proves my earlier point that news is not always true. At times, news agencies have been known to fabricate or sensationalize stories that shouldn’t even be in the limelight.
This article makes a stride in proving that great care must be taken in educating yourself on current events. To be truly informed, one must avoid the sphere. The news is getting harder and harder to get the truth from. It seems as though today everyone has an agenda and a point they want to make no matter what the cost, even if truth is the cost.
This was an interesting experiment, Ben, in charting your thoughts before reading the text and then your reflections upon it. I liked that you focused on some key terms. That kind of move reminds me of Harris's suggestion in coming to terms.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that Jarvis is presenting the same view of the "press sphere" that you are. I read him as being more concerned with the process of how news is made and how people relate to the media. We'll talk more about this in class.