THEME 4 - SENSATIONALISM IN THE MEDIA

In school during English lessons we talked about the reliability of different media. We also discussed whether it is acceptable that the media publish photos of people who died in accidents, terrorist attacks and so on or is this an invasion into people's privacy and family's grief. We discussed more into details various events that made news in Slovenia and  how they were covered by various newspapers and TV channels.

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