The Media - Research Paper Example

In as much as the media stands a vital role in the development of the social order, its fairness in terms of reporting remains questionable. Unfairness issue in the media has been connected to two main reasons. Firstly, it entails the instances of extortion of journalists who reveal the unpleasant facts regarding such vices like; human rights catastrophes, poverty, and environmental abuse. Secondly, the aspect of unfairness along such issues as the racial divide in the mainstream media has led to critics to inquire whether fairness does exist when it comes to reporting by the media.

One agency that has always been much concerned about fair reporting is the Fair and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) that was founded in the year 1986 in the US(Forte, 2011). According to the agency, most reporters are involved in partisan statements that reveal half-truths whenever they are reporting in either broadcast or print. The trend is very common more especially in social matters such as environmental abuse, human rights abuse and elections. Sociologists refer to mass media as mediated culture whereby, media reflects and at the same time creates the culture(Journalism, media and the challenge of human rights reporting, 2002).

Individuals and communities are always bombarded with information from a multitude of media sources. The messages not only promote goods and services, but human being attitudes, moods, and a sense of whatever is important or not important. The modern level of mass media saturation has not always been in existence. In the 1960s and 1970, for example, television primarily consisted of three networks that included public broadcasting and very few local independent broadcasting stations. What is the role of mass media?

Media executives, Legislatures, sociologists and local school officials have all discussed this type of controversial question. In as much as ideas vary as to the type and extent of influence the media stands, all parties consent that media