Monday, September 28, 2009

American Government 9/28/09

In Class - Discuss the relationship between media outlets and politics.

Homework - Read Chapter 8, Sections 1-3. Answer the following questions to turn in by Friday, October 2.

Questions: 1) What is public opinion and what factors shape it?
2) Define an opinion leader and give three specific, modern day examples.
3) What are the mass media? What evidence can you give that the mass media influences public opinion?
4) How is it that a random sample gives a fairly accurate representation of public opinion?
5) Go online, and find the approval ratings of President Obama starting in January 2009-September 2009. Be sure to provide the website of where you found your information.
6) Why is the internet considered a medium?
7) How do the media influence the public agenda? Provide specific examples.
8) What limits are there on media influence?

QOW - With regards to media outlets (internet, television, newspaper, magazines, or radio), what do you think is their overall purpose? Inform, entertain, influence? Also, how has the role of media outlets changed over the past five or ten years? What do you think?

53 comments:

khoapaulvo said...

The role of the media outlets, in the past, was to inform people about the latest news. The idea was to tell people of what was occuring throughout the world. Nowadays, however, it seems as if the role of media outlets is not to inform. Rather, it is to either entertain people or tell people that their political ideology is always correct. Take William Randolph Hearst as an example. Without the sensationalism of Cuba's problems, few people would want to read the newspapers that he owned. Most people were unaware that "the torture happening to Cuban natives" was only being applied to a small number. Another example would be in the first Red Scare. Most people feared that anything that had to do with the government made that person a Communist. Most people were unaware that there were only 6,000 Communists in the United States at the time. Today, most people would lose their breath over those two "facts," and not consider them news, rather, entertainment. But another form of entertainment in news stories involves media bias. Fox News and MSNBC, both of which are known for their political agendas, often cater to a) certain audiences who do not want to admit that they lost an election, or b) that the President is doing something wrong. In this case, media seems to have become more biased in recent years, thanks to Fox's grand experiment. But whatever the case, it is up to the citizen to find out what is correct, and what is not. This cannot be achieved just through media, rather, strong research.

JazZy said...

I think that now the media outlets are to entertain people and somewhat inform them. If people want to know whats going on in the world they can watch the news. Back in the day, people who owned a radio listened to the news and people would know everything that was going on. But now people are mostly informed of what celebrities do and things like that. In a way it is also to influence people. it shows people what the styles are and how they should act and think. So pretty much the media is mostly to entertain people and influence them.

Esme said...

i think that the role that the media plays is very important and sometimes very misundrstood meaning that they interpret things different then the original meaning. sometimes they develop their own meaning of things and that gets people to start and go against things that they should actually approve off. but the role that it plays is important because they inform the people of whats going on in the world. they show nor just are country but they show the whole world and how they are suffering and saying hey you know they have less then you do, why not help them. media throughout the years has been their to imform the people even thought sometimes they do misunderstand the meaning of things. media throughtout the years has grown in ways that we can watch news from others countrys, states or cities, it not just centered around one place only. thats how many people learn about the corruption thats going in the world. they teach us about poverty, terrorsit acts. they show us the world beyond what we cant reach, how someone became a hero by safing a childs lilfe. it shows important info. it tells people of natural disasters so that if you have a good heart or if you can you can you can go help those in need. and also sometimes it misinterprets things so that parents wont let their children go to school because they are scared that the speech the government is going to give to the students might turn them communist. which doesnt happen, you choose to be what you want to be, not what they tell you.

Esme said...

the media teaaches us about the new technology that has been developd and inform us of vacines that have been developed to prevent more ill.nessess

Pedro A Maldonado said...

Media outlets have several different overall purpuses nowdays. Evidently there is a little bit of everything, media outlets inform, entertain, and influence. From experience i can say they entertain because i used to watch tv and it certainly entertained me for a while. Media outlest also inform but i personally think they do not provide us with completely true stuff. And that is a big problem because sometimes people believe every sigle thing they see in the news without knowing wether it is tue or not. Certainly people get greatly influenced by all kinds of media. On the other hand of course there are always those educated individuals that won't believe lies, from what they know they will just listen and use that information as brain food. Now if we talk about how much media outlets have changed over the past five or ten years i will argue that they have probably changed, and I say probably because i do not know much about it. But from what i remeber and from what i have heard i can say that the role of media outlets has grown. As i mentioned before, people who do not have much knowledge about what is going on around them, tend to believe everything they see in the news and since today we have numerous news channels it is really easy for this kind of people to get wrongfully influenced.


Perdo A. Maldonado
Period 2

March_Of_Sand said...

I think that the main purpose of the media is too inform us about todays current news and events. Though I think that news stations tend to influence people one way or another.For example, FoxNews is mainly republican, so it mostly shows republican views which could influence the people who watch more towards the right side. The same thing can be said about CNN. It is mostly democratic, so its views are mostly democratic which could influence the viewers more towardsthe left side.I don't really know much about the radio but I'd imagine that it would be the same. Some would either lean more towards the left or right sideand could influence its listeners. The way people receive news has changed tremendously from the past 10 years. Almost everyone these days has a computer with internet, some even on their cell phones. With the power to look up anything almost whenever you want you can get your news at anytime for just about any topic. An example would be your class. We watch a lot of videos about our current topics from the web.

VickiNESS said...

I think that media outlets overall purpose should be to inform people on what is going on in their world today. It seems to me their focus is to entertain. People these days look for the most entertaining program to watch on television, but five or ten years ago that wasn't the case. Back then they were less worried about being bored and un-entertained and more focused on the issues. Media these days most of the time mislead people. They might over exaggerate things to make it more appealing to receive better ratings or they might exclude certain details to, again, get better ratings or etc.

-period: 2

Guda1992 said...

In relation to the various media outlets such as radio, television, and newspapers was one of the vast ways to bring awareness to your audience. From news around the world to what's going on in your surrounding communities and the entertainment industry of your favorite artist. Now it seems more personal in the media outlets today. You use to get bits and pieces about famous people and now its all in depth from illnesses to wills. Most of the information should be private and now its public record. Today the media outlets are more informative than ever, if your people won’t tell you, you can get the information from all of the media outlets ( internet) can improve our lives or damage our lives, its has a cause and effect on people like a cell phone which should also be included as a media outlet. Who would have ever thought of a school fight or a school lock down and you family and friends find out before the media gets hold of it. Very informative, which I know you would agree as well as emails, news, music (entertainment). These outlets definitely entertain use and now you can make purchases and do school assignments no matter where you are. We have come a long ways from the past five to ten years. Especially when cell phones are now a need and not a want and we can’t live without it now.

-chenae

Guda1992 said...

In relation to the various media outlets such as radio, television, and newspapers was one of the vast ways to bring awareness to your audience. From news around the world to what's going on in your surrounding communities and the entertainment industry of your favorite artist. Now it seems more personal in the media outlets today. You use to get bits and pieces about famous people and now its all in depth from illnesses to wills. Most of the information should be private and now its public record. Today the media outlets are more informative than ever, if your people won’t tell you, you can get the information from all of the media outlets ( internet) can improve our lives or damage our lives, its has a cause and effect on people like a cell phone which should also be included as a media outlet. Who would have ever thought of a school fight or a school lock down and you family and friends find out before the media gets hold of it. Very informative, which I know you would agree as well as emails, news, music (entertainment). These outlets definitely entertain use and now you can make purchases and do school assignments no matter where you are. We have come a long ways from the past five to ten years. Especially when cell phones are now a need and not a want and we can’t live without it now.

mis@3l said...

The role of the media is for them to inform us the public in whats going on in our country and the latest news.but i think that the role of the media has changed know because know they care about the ratings that there show wil get .also they do not really inform us the public the things that are really important know they just seem to care about entertaining.it has also changed in the way that know we have better technology but that will not help us know whats going on if they are not giving us the public the right information that we should be getting.and people that do not really know things about whats going on in our country will believe in what the media is telling and showing us and will believe those things that the media said.

MPechatsko said...

The role of the media is to inform the people. Weather it be about world relations or local news. I think that today unlike in the past the news is also to entertain so that more people might pay attention to what is going on, and the only way some people will pay attention is if you add some humor to very serious topics.I think that five years ago their was less important or maybe less severe topics in the news so now they feel like they have to inform by entertaining just to get the information across. I personally know people who try not to listen or read about news because it is depressing which in turn causes the internet, radio , and news casts to find different ways to inform people.

Killcycle said...

The role of the media is, and always will be, to report information to the public. Originally, this task was performed very well, offering information without bias and leaving it for the viewer to decide his/her opinion. However, over the last decade, the media has changed. Information flowing through the media is no longer left untouched by those who provide it to the people; instead, biases and opinions are attached to it before it ever reaches the viewer, making it much more difficult for a person to make up their own opinion. This is because news stations and political 'talk' shows have aligned themselves with a certain party or idea, causing the information that they report to pass through a sort of filter before it reaches the people; as in a color filter for a camera, which changes the outcome of the picture, a filter on information reported by the media is tainted with the pre-installed opinions of the disperser.

As the media has advanced, and more entertaining television has been introduced, people aren't as willing to watch the news anymore. As a consequence of this, news stations have had to compete with ratings that just can't be achieved by a good old fashioned report on television. This is why news stations have introduced an entertaining side to their program, and why political 'talk' shoes have sprung up. They are an inevitability of media's strengthening competition with itself. What is the best way to make politics entertaining? Bag on the other guys. The Colbert Report, for example, does just that with much of what politicians do/say, and it is FUNNY. Entertainment brings the people to watch the show, while the underlying ideas and political stances are fed to the viewer, sometimes without realizing it.

This is where the 'influencing' part comes in. Bag on the other guy, make his ideas seem stupid and unreasonable, and uphold your own ideas and positions at the same time. Almost every political 'talk' show does this, and several news stations are guilty of a degree of the same thing. While it's somewhat understandable, as reporting with zero bias is virtually impossible, there are many programs that completely blow it out of proportion, making anyone opposing them look like the town drunk. And while when you venture into the other media outlets, such as newspapers, magazines, radios and etc., you will still find the underlying bias that is in every person on the face of this planet. Why? Because we are individuals, and we have opinions and ideas that will always oppose someone else's ideas and opinions.

The media used to be something that you could rely on for accurate, fairly presented information. Now, it is something entirely different... it is a mess. It has taken much of the opinion forming process out of our hands, and into the remote.

Anonymous said...

All in all, I think the media is here to influence, entertain, and inform. My evidence would be from television, talk radio, and political cartoons in the Internet and newspapers. For television it would be The Simpsons, and The Colbert Report. For radio it would be The Tom Likeis show, Adam Carolla, and I think Howard Stern. Now we can't forget about the newspapers and Internet for our political cartoon needs. The media is forming new ways to send us "subliminal messages" through entertainment. They have really progressed since 10 years ago when all the news channels were available were NBC and some others. The media is always going to stay and take new shapes of it's appearance, it's until then we learn to recognize it and live with it.

Jasmine said...

In regard to the media and its purpose, I think it applies to all of those areas: to inform, entertain, and influence. It's obviously meant to inform the public on what is going on in the world and the various factors that come with it. It entertains since many people watch, read, or listen to it with the purpose of entertaining themselves or as a pass time. Then, it influences the public by affecting them on what side they're on for certain issues and perhaps even changing their primary bias. Their role in society has changed, however, and has come to affect us greatly in the past decade. It seems to me as if now their role has become greater in how people view today's issues, at least for the majority of society. With so many issues arising or re-appearing in our country; such as health care reform, terrorism, the war, along with more people are more interested in finding out the events along the way and knowing what they're all about.
-Jasmine Grady P2

Laurenkatehis said...

i believe the purpose for media outlets is to inform and entertain the world of what is going on. The television, the newspaper, magazines, and the radio are trying to get the world to be more involved with our economy and issues that are going on. The news media gives their opinions on what the government should be like. we are told one thing while many have a different view on a subject of government. The media gives people a chance to give their opinions. The government represents themselves as political standouts and the press represents the public by getting all the information of how the government works. Over the years the media has changed by getting more of the information over the internet. Less and less people are going out to news stands and getting a newspaper or magazine because they have to pay or go out of their way to get it. The way people are getting information has been changed and is getting more controversial lately. It has also changed by being more informative.

TheDeuce said...

Well, the REAL overall purpose of media outlets is to get out plain facts. But, these outlets add some kind of opinion on different subjects to try to persuade the reader. The media outlets have the ability to inform, entertain, AND influence with everything they say or print. Though the media tells you what is going on, you might not be getting the whole story or the truth at all. With political events, the media displays whatever the government tells them, whether it is true or not. The media can influence you one way or another with bias in what they say. I think that a big purpose of the media is to show both sides of a specific event. They should let the viewers, or readers, weigh the pros and cons of an event and choose a side. Media outlets need to start by getting out the truth about everything they say. The American people deserve to know the truth about what is going on so that a solid public opinion can be formed.

Munoz[: said...

In past times, like years ago the news on the radio was only to infrom, like what was going on during wars, or outside other than that. Then TV came and also gave news and also to entertain. Now everything is more inproved with newr technology coming out giving information and entertainment a your fingertips. On your cell phone, if it has internet you can check up on the news and the news that happened a couple days and weeks ago. Also with the computer or laptop, newer laptops and smaller ones are coming out which you can take anywhere and get anything you need. Some of the music that comes out on the radios also talks about news or what is going on in the world but in their prespective. Newspapers are still good, but you need to wait a day or so to get the information you need. If you own a computer at home you can go check it right away and be happy.

RicardoV per 4 said...

The role of the media to me seems to exagerrate somethings that the government says. To me most of the articles seem to be biast in some ways. It's hard to write about something and not add your opinion. I think the media is used more as entertainment more than it's used as a source of information. The media tries to make things more exciting for the public so it won't seem so boring. To me the media gets us the information but without adding there own little opinion. I think media should tell the story the way it is and not add there own opinon. Media has changed over the past couple of years. It has changed in a way on how they get the information to the public. I would like to also add that just because the media says something i don't believe that we should beleive everything they say. We should be open to all the possiblities. Don't just read a book once and expect to know it well.

xX[Nick Ibarra]Xx P.4 said...

i think the media and the government influnce alot about wat peoples opinions are. The media is always where the government is so they get the top stories and infrom everyone about wat is going on. Also, i dont think the media or government have changed much within the last 5 to 10 years because the government still lies to us in todays society. One example of this would be the pentagon some people think its just a conspiracy but we will never know for sure because the government have taken all the information and made it classified. I dont think this is right cuz the people have a right to know wat happened. Many of the peoples families who had relatives would probably want to know the most. I think the media should have control over this kind iof information so they could let people know the truth instead of having someone like the government who lies to us. The media also does more than than just tell us wat going on they are also there for interntainment they are every where the news, television, and internet. This why they should have more power over letting people know important thing rather than the government.

Brett G.p4 said...

The media today has change alot throughout the years. back then in the years the media was there mostly just to inform the citizens of america and know what is actually going on with our country and others too. but now todays media it is more diffenr, it is still ther to inform us with information but in a way to entertain too. people now dont want simple boring news they want something moe entertaining. in a way now making the media to add more stuff to watever they are discussing. i believe that the media over exaggerates on news so more people can get into it. now the media i think has been more involved with the government and letting the people know what exactly has been going on. i think some things may be true and some may be false info. just to get the people attention. but i think the media does play a huge role now in our society.

Enzo said...

the media in my outlook has a big impact.but some would differ wit my reasons why.but this is some right here.first people believe wat is in newspapers.but who wrotes the papers the media does.two they have to get there scoop from somewere. so then were does it come from.the government thats were it comes from.but they do that to cover up wat there really gonna do. welll thats my opionion but it differs from everyones point of view.....

Anonymous said...

I think that the media is a big thing these day because alot more stuff is going on. The media is good and bad. Its good because we are informed about important stuff like how the troops are doing. The bad is something that doesn't relate to the world and how the world is doing. The media really needs to stick to stuff that we do need to know and not about famous stars and what they are doing with their live. All that type of stuff is really not important. The things that we do need to know is stuff like what the president wants to do to help our economy.

joseleonel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
joseleonel said...

What I think the purpose of the media is to inform, entertain, and influence us. Over the past year the role of the media outlets had change. It used to be that the media just informed us in what’s going on around the world. Now is much different, such as shows in comedy central or news about people getting caught doing illegal activities. This new things entertained us, back then it wasn’t that amusing to watch the new. For example “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” is a comedy show considering it still talks about the news. Also the media changed by exaggerating the news. They usually do it to catch the viewer’s attention. It looks like the companies are more interesting in the profit they make instead of the story in the news.

Jose Samayoa
Perid:2

Msalas said...

I think that the roll of the media today is to both inform and entertain. We have many choices to get news from and sometimes we get our world news from Comedy Central. I also think that in the past the media was to inform, but now it's more one the entertain side of things. For example, in class we watched the show where the guy went to interview the people from different districts. To me that is both informative and entertaining.

L.Mejia said...

In my opinion,i think the media's purpose is to inform and entertain the people.Because i bet everyone wants to know whats going on in the world.But the media doesnt always give the people what they wanna know.So that probably leads people to beliving whatever is on the news.And for the rest like television and the radio is to obviously to entertain life would be sorta boring without it.But also what the media can do is cause conflict.The reason is why beacuse what they usually find out,they cast on and who knows if its even true or not.Probably each and every news channel,newspaper,and etc. have different points to there news so it tends to throw off peoples thoughts or opinion.The media has changed in the past few years or so because they get more and more noisy either in society or in any sorts of things.

$D@NNYBOY$ said...

Well to begin with the concept of the media in our society, the role of the media is usually to keep us, the people, informed of whats going on in the world these days. Also the media helps us by getting entertained by the fellow talented people that know how to entertain. Now as i've noticed by the time technology has been growing up in the past years, when it comes to entertainment people are more focused to that than into the news. People seem to be getting bored by watchin the news thats why now that theres more entertainment on tv they rather watch that instead. Now this is because the news really seems to be showing or telling the same stuff over and over again. The new people don't seem to be getting updated thats why many people don't pay attention to them anymore. To finish this off, media is what keeps us moving all around the world theres no stopping this in our society.

:] said...

i think its for all the reasons.In my point of veiw the medias purpose should be to inform. It has been like that for a while they just want to infrom everyone whats going on in the world .Even if it can be the lamest news or the most important. They are just doing there job. Though in modern times all tv shows care are about are the ratings. So they end up adding more stuff to entertain than to inform.Yet media does try to influence you on what they think they make you want to think twice on what you believe.So yeah i believe that the media is for all those reasons .In my opinion the purpose is to do all of them evenly.


torres, irene
4th

socalnick said...

VVery good responses.

The main role of the news now is to cater to the "soccer moms". People dont seem to care about what happens on world wide. People only seem to care about what can directly effect them. For example, the segment about Iran and Nuclear missiles, is a shorter segment then what is happening with a local club or coffee house. I beleive this is extremely sad. One day, we will notice that what is news is actually a varied form of a sitcom or comedy show.

In the last 5 years media has changed. Newspapers will be extinct in the next 5 and the internet and cell phone updates will keep people"in the loop" unfortunately, no one wil realize what is actually happening. See small text, means nothing, seeing a paper with a soldiers face or crosses on a cemetary will strike to the people.

Media in this country is STUPID. THey are biased and unjust. I do not watch the news for this reason.

Drew.Zeller.31 said...

that the media portrays some things way different then should, and i also think that somethings told over news castings try more then not to bring up a one angle point of view when talking about certain topics. i personally think that all media is out to just make themselves some profit. there real job is to relay information onto the public. then the job of the public is to decide what is right in then certain persons point of view.

sleven said...

I my opinion the media has changed in past decades. The media has thought to look for a story and inform the people about it. Now a days, a story is changed to be viewed in a certain way. This is because the media wants ratings. Like certain news broadcasting, there are people arguing louder than the other, and news channel allows this to gain ratings. Also, the media is used to influence people into viewing what the broadcaster wants them to know about a topic. These bias opinions have fueled the media to change dramaticly. Eventhough people can get infomation from anywhere at anytime, they only know what the media presents. With the media beening different than in the past, their are certain baises to every beening show on the news.

Sam said...

The overall purpose of the media is to cover and report to us the things that are happening in our world. That's their purpose but slowly and unknowingly its turned into entertainment. So what happened? Yes I definitely think media outlets have changed over the past years. I think they used to be more serious about getting the facts out to us but It seems like its pretty much opinion now. Its true we have the right of freedom of speech and press:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/

But I feel when it comes to the point where its just making fun of or joking around about or saying what people "want" to hear about an important topic then its not news anymore.

Certainly the media has a big influence on people. Its an attention grabber for sure sometimes! Other times its despicable. I don't know where it got to the point where political analysts,politicians, or anyone arguing on a topic was informing to the public. If you think about it, it is entertaining and is also influential in some way or another. It shapes our opinion and gives us a good laugh when you see the people talking over each other as they try to prove their opinion.

I can see the media isn't really headed in the right direction but lets just hope they don't result to total dishonesty.

LeLe said...

I think the role of the media outlets is to inform, entertain, & influence people on whats going on in the world. T.v, magazines, radio, newspaper , & etc. is trying to get people more involved & to inform them about more of our economy and issues that are going on in the world right now. Though the media tells you what's going on, they still put their opinions & switch it up a little to get grab your attention. Either way the media influences you one way or another.

tyler said...

i feel media is needed but tends to extend the truth. now days news can be at the touch of our finger tips. From phones to t.vs to computers .Now days no one really even reads the newspaper. I feel the media does a good job at keeping america informed but tends to stretch the truth a bit. if a cop shoots a "criminal" the meia will make it seemlike that was his only option and he was forced to do it. so thats my opinion of the media.

Adrian2010 said...

The overall purpose of the media should be to inform our citizens of what is going around us. But, it seems though as if the media is trying to entertain us and inform us at the same time. Doing this has definitely changed the role of media outlets over the past five or ten years. Much of the news presented to us seems to already be opinionated making something look either bad or good. Back then, the news wasn’t so opinionated and just tried to inform people of what was going on. Now everyone wants to watch a show that gives them entertainment and the television v stations are just out for viewings to get the most people they can to make more money. One thing that does effect the nation is how some news is given and leaves people with a bad thought about a certain subject, or better yet, a misleading thought. The news can do a better job at just giving news, but with all the resources we have today it doesn’t seem as if there’s enough news to fill up all the websites and television shows.

Trever Strand said...

Media outlets such as radio, television, newspaper, and the internet have played a pivotal role in the American lifestyle ever since they came into existence. Since then they have adapted and changed depending on the role society wanted them to play. Today most people are uninformed and do not have any interest in the news. Unfortunately, this has resulted in some major news outlets "dumbing down" their programs in an attempt to get good ratings. I do not agree with this seeing as a news corporation should simply report the news. They should not cater to the lower than average people in this country. In a perfect world news would be unbiased, reliable, and straightforward. However, in reality we have completely biased news that is often far from the whole truth. You can watch two different news broadcasts report on the same story and have completely different "facts". This is the direction our modern news has been headed for unfortunately and unless it changes we are in for one hell of a wild ride.

J.Kraft said...

The media started out just to inform you about important news in the country or even the world. Once internet, radio, and television have been easy access to everybody, the media has needed more news. Because of this they came out with not so important news, yet it got peoples attention. The news when it first started was strictly for important information that Americans needed to know. There is still news today like that but there is a lot more news that is for interest and also more profit for the company. People began to make their own news by hidden cameras or set ups. So i would definitely say that it has changed and now the purpose of the media is to keep Americans informed and interested at the same time. I like the media because they try to give us information that we should legally know. Stuff the government tries to hide from us.

J.Kraft said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Esther said...

I would have to agree with Trevor, the media has lowered its standards to try and cater to the majority of the public. They don't deliver the news they way they should. I sometimes feel like the news stations are gossiping not delivering news. They do whatever it takes to get high ratings, but I can't blame them for it. The american people simply don't care about what's going on around them, its the ugly truth. Our "news" is evolving into pop culture. An actor checking in to rehab is considered news, because it would get more ratings than the next vaccination shot for the season.
The media outlet is not doing its job, its not delivering "real news"

Bryan V. said...

I think the overall purpose of media outlets is simply influencing their viewers. Yes the news is met to inform the public with infromation. But news stations now give their own opinion when they give this infromation about something. Doing that the news reporters are in someway influencing and maybe even changing the publics way of viewing this information.I do not in anyway think that media outlets are met to entertain the public, the simple objectives for media outlets are to influence and infrorm. I also dont think that media outlets have really changed that much through these past years. The only way i think media has changed is by growing in numbers.Now a days there are so many media outlets you can view wether its from all the TV channels or a magazine.Media is eveywhere and its influencing your opinion without even knowing it.

Prisila Santana said...

I think that the overall purpose of media outlets is to inform the public of what is going on in the world. Throughout the years I think that media outlets have chosen to make other things, no longer informing the public, their priority. The many forms of media outlets are: internet, television, newspapers, magazines, and radio. Since there are many different news broadcasters, they have to win their audience over, by competing for higher ratings; otherwise they'll be shut down or just plain unsuccessful. Just like a Barbie doll's clothes, they have to be modernized, or else, people wouldn't buy them anymore. By adding accessories that people would want for themselves, they attract customers. In that way, news broadcast on television appeals to the audience by being more entertaining than informative, because entertainment is what a lot of us are looking for. News broadcasting on television is raising arguments as to whether it is only looking to entertain the audience because it seems like it is. In my opinion, they do seem like they are useless, especially the news in Spanish on Univision. At least for news about what's going on in the United States. When they start talking about the latest news about Padre Alberto and his wife, I know it's for those Latin women at home who want the update on the latest "chisme" of the ex-priest and his wife, and I just change the channel, sort of understanding why anyone would possibly report on such a meaningless topic, to me. As the internet rises up, you no longer have to watch the news for the 30-90 second segment of a topic you want to learn about. You can simply sign in the World Wide Web and look up the topic. Why wouldn’t news channels want to be more appealing in the eyes of their audience now?

marielly said...

The only purpose for the radio, internet, magazines and television was in a way to inform people. Now they influence, entretain, and inform us. And not only that but now a days people dont really care about whats going on in the world. They seem to care about celeberties and non sence like that. News sometimes inform you but in a way they also influence you to believe something else. Wheather its something good or bad. But most of the time they dont give you facts...and in the end thats basically the only thing that matters to people.

Jessika Caudel said...

I think the purpose of the media outlets is to let our society know what the government is no telling us. I think they also serve a purpose to entertain us. I think that this is why sometimes they blow things way out of proportion. For example the whole Michael Jackson situation is blown way out of proportion and even months later they are still talking about it. The role of the media has changed significantly in the last five to ten years. It has changed because of the fact technology has changed. With more technology and different ways to contact people there is more ways for the media to be shown whether it be television, internet, or your cell phone there are many different way to get the media these days. I think that sometimes we should have limited media because of the way things get blown out of proportion. Back in the day people survived just fine without all of the technology that we have today.

scott toreres eg6 said...

in my opinion the media can be all of those. for example they inform us on stuff that is going on in the world like politics weather etc.. Also they sometimes can be entertaining to watch. then there is the big one the influence part. For example it matters what channel u watch the news on because each has there own political opinion on things. if they influence on believing stuff its more likely that your going to influence others on the same thing. So the media does play a huge role in influence. in the lats years the media has been able to obtain more classified info. Also they have been more up ton date. Well thats what i think!!!

DinoakaTrakkstar said...

media outlets have really changed from 5 to 10 years ago back then they only had radio and tv now we have internet which is fast but also the definition of news nowadays has changed becuase people are now worried about celebrities and other things and news rarely shows what is going on in our world. The purpose now for news and media is to inform us kinda and to entertain us. mostly people watch entertain news shows like steven colbert etc but not the real news. also newspapers are goin gout of business because they are not really needed anymore becuase of the internet. so our media outlets have changed drasticly in the last few years.

stephany said...

The medias purpose is to inform us. However, in order to catch our attention some editors post thier headlines on an entertaining bases. Today their are too many news reporters. The reporters way of obtaining the information is not very good. Some news reporters get thier info off of unreliable sources. These reporters usually make the news much more interesting and puts the media on an entertaining side instead of an infromatant side.

jackiearias said...

the purpose of the media outlets is to in form the general public of the current issues. it is also to do it in a matter to grasp the reader/ viewers attention. for he most part it dose what it is supposed to.

the media has changed in a varied of ways one way is that it has now been into the internet. the internet is basically in your hands. with most phones havering internet in the program. another way that it has changed is that it now people will do anything for a good story. some reporters will even risk jail time for a good story.

i think that it was better when it was a lot calmer. with only limited amount of resources. yet, at the same time it is good that you have the competitions between radio/t.v. stations and for newspaper. now you are able to get a different view on the issue that you are looking into.

berenice nava p-4 said...

For me the overall purpose of the media is to inform and at the same time give some kind of entertainment. That in some ways and some times influence our way of thinking. Well the role of media has change a lot not only because before the media only give us information about our streets and sometimes about the government. I know that now they give the same kind of information, but in my opinion they go further about the topics. Now they ask for more information. For me the media now has a big influence on how people look the world. Not only because we get the information that we know from the media is because people are more influential and the belive almost all that they heard. For me the media is a big point of what the people think and at the same time is because we get the information from them. The media is very useful for all humans. But they are more when they give true information.

RaygozaP said...

The overall purpose of the media is to inform, entertain, and influence the public. It "informs" people the news; but it definitally gives people a biased perspective. Which ends up indoctoring each individuals point of view. When it comes to journalism, there will always be a sort of exaggeration. That is because, its part of the entertainment that will be shown. Pictures, Videos, repetitive information, and the newscasters diction all play part in this. People seem to get frieghten more when they see these things. It narrows their minds, to a point where they are forced to accept the media's perspective, and deny their doubts. Same thing with televison shows, where as suddenly a "reality" TV show consist of revolting accidents in other countries; people in our society start to fear. Since the media is so broad, it is complicated to ignore it.
Overall, the media has changed since the past decade. In example, now we there are more shows regarding politcal views. People either follow right or left wing, and support these opinion leaders. Comedy is also more present. Perhaps,because it's a way to snatch people's attention. And it probley does work. In the end, the media impacts people's everyday life, due to the fact that they are the interpretaion of our government.

leslie said...

i think the overall purpose of the media is to entertain, but also they are to influence most of the news are influencing public opinion there's even news that are catagolized as communist or democrats, news are also to inform newspapers inform us of what is going on around the world and they also inform us about whats is going on on our government because sometimes the government doesn't give any information to us. i think the media has changed a lot over the past ten years a good example would be the internet, the internet has replaced lots of medias like newspapers now we can see the newspaper in the internet rather than buying the newspaper.
Leslie Bedoy
Period 4

ALI said...

In a Capitalist Society such as the one we live in "Media,News" and so are a business and there for the purpose of it is to make profit. The idea "Rags to Riches" is also all about making money. Most business is all about making money, you, yourself,your personal gain. The media is no different It is a mass form entertainment and news depending on what will generate the most "revenue". They will report what people want to hear so that way their sponsors and those that buy add time will be happy with their investment because they know people are watching their advertisements which once again the purpose is to make money.

With passing years media becomes more and more of daily life. It influences people with its views and what it chooses to report and how it presents the information biased or not. The media will likely grow more powerful over the years generating more profit and making more ways for it to present to you the information the way it wants you to see it. Such as it likely did in the past.

Anthony_Zomb said...

The media’s role and main purpose is to inform the people with many type of different information.
Now the media is still having their main role but adding media used for influencing and entertainment.
For example late night talk shows have news you would see on any day time news channel but add comedy into it with skits, jokes and so on.
This shows the news is still here but adding that funny side to things which in a way seems to be more popular today.
Another great example would be The John Stewart Show and The Colbert Report.
These political shows have political news into a half hour comedy show, nothing is wrong with it but are there limits on how we should take things more seriously?
Another issue is how the media world changed from ten years ago.
Before the day time news channels were a very important source for information, now there is twenty different channels covering all different parts from sports to weather.
Ten years ago, news papers were a important source of information that it was a beautiful and strong business.
Now all people have to do is log on to their internet browser and all your source of news is on the home page.
There is nothing wrong with this picture for society is moving faster and faster with technology and soon TV news stations will no longer exist.
With the media growing new ways for information only time will tell if it’s a blessing or not.

-Anthony ybarra

DCashS said...

Most media today, especially telivision is run as a bussiness. Any shows primary concern is to boost there ratings, mainly by making themselves more appealing to a certain audience. While most shows do tend to lean more on the entertainment side, producers know that there is always the people that wish to be informed. There are different things geared more toward that audience as well, such as CNN. So overall i think as long as there is a consumer for it there will be an outlet that offers it.