We worked in goups, discussed the sex scandal in Maribor, which was a hot issue in December 2014, and then wrote our opinion about the whole thing. Each group presented their thoughts to the rest of the class.
Results: Most of the groups agreed that very often the journalists and the media do not act professionally, and that they shouldn't have reported about the sex scandal from Maribor. What they did was unethical and unprofessional. They should inform us about things that really matter and should not report about normal people's private life. We also became aware that everybody makes mistakes and that the media can ruin your life.
Photos of our work:
Essays about the media written by our classmates:
The media presented the news unfairly
In May 2015 there has been wrongly presented
news on Fox News in Washington. Shannon Bream who is the fox News correspondent
relied on hate-group unverified talking about churches losing theirs tax-free
right. She did some checking but not even close to enough to make sure if what
they were saying was true or not.
Man thing about news has been the strong
possibility that the religion institutions such as high-schools and colleges and
church will lose their privilege for not paying taxes. In her words that would
happen if Supreme Court finds that state bans on same-sex marriage are
unconstitutional. There has been also talk about potential imprisonment if they
do not recognize same-sex marriage.
But all that was not true. It was discovered
that there has been on article about this posted on Fox News website quoting
totally unrelated quote to the topic. Plus they kind of mixed together churches
and religion institutions.
The legal experts rejected that statement as
»a scare tactic« used by hate groups. They explained it with this quote: »Given
that churches have long been able to discriminate against women without losing
their tax-exempt status, it seems highly unlikely that they risk losing their
tax-exempt status because they discriminate on the basis of sexual
orientation.«
And because churches have freedom to decide
how they practice their faith is very unlikely if not impossible for them to loose
tax-exempt status.
I have chosen that topic because it treats
the current world's issue.
Klara Kocjančič, 2.a EG
SENSATIONALISM IN THE MEDIA - DO NOT
BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ OR SEE IN THE NEWSPAPERS OR TV
It is a fact that we live in a
totally different world. Almost everything is done in a thoughtful way in
order to catch people's attention. The same goes for the world of the media. Is
it still possible to imagine our lives without the presence of sensationalism
in the mass media? Shall we believe everything we read in the newspapers or
hear on television? I believe that this has become almost impossible due to the
fact it is all about having to deal mass media in which most events and topics
in news are promoted to excess just to catch people's attention.
One of the most important
arguments is they have to increase the numbers of their viewers or readers.
Most of them do not care much about quality of the news that are to be
presented to the public. As a consequence, in most cases they report about
matters that are not important. What is worse, these issues are often all about
biased presentations of certain topics in a tabloid manner which is no doubt
quite the opposite of what professional journalism is all about. Another argument is that the mass media adopt often try
hard to appeal to our emotions even though they are controversial. In addition,
when trying to present these articles, stories or other news to the public they
often omit significant details information and while doing it they are quite
loud and even self-centered. It is quite sad to think that most facts are
misrepresented and most of them are exaggerated. They are far from being that
important or that significant. In addition, the content of the news that is
about to be offered to the public in most cases does not affect the lives of
the masses. The fact is the closer they get the easier is to manipulate
with them. If they have them on their side, they will most probably make
more profit which is their priority goals as well. As a consequence, they need
sensational stories to make profit and that is why there is literally no place
for objectivity.
To sum up, I
personally believe that we should not believe to what we hear or see in mass
media. There are a lot of ways based on which most stories can be checked. Who
says that a good story without the focus on facts, accuracy and truth sells
better than real ones? Yes, i agree scandals do attract people's attention but
in a long run they leave a void behind them. But this is not what journalism
should be all about. The most important thing would be to use just some level
of sensationalism to get the reader or viewer look at your story or listen to
your story, but to always stick with the truth no matter how unpleasant it
might turn out to be.
Urška
