Media affects - Research Paper Example

Notable cases are; the media-coverage of Iraq war, various terrorist attacks all over the world and the media influence on the belief that all Muslims are terrorists. The media has also been accused on many occasions to be bias since it tends to support some groups while others are struggling. Although the media claims it handles tragedies well, offers a positive picture in regards to Muslims and terrorism and that it is not bias, is not convincing enough because evidence to the contrary lies all over an example being the Iraq war.

BACKGROUND Back in the World War II the media seemed not to be aware of a great deal of horrifying events that occurred. It was quite serious that “we did not know” was coined to mean the media all over Europe. This was mostly in respect to concentration camps that littered Germany where people were tortured and even killed (Petren, Clinton and Nyama 2). Such information could not have gone off the media’s radar. Despite this, the media insisted that it was as surprised to find out the truth about the existence of concentration camps just like the rest of the people.

The modern era of heightened technology a great deal of information can be gathered and disseminated as news but using the same technology the media can gravely manipulate the truth to serve certain purposes and interests. The current revolutions happening in the Middle East and North Africa are a good indicator of how modern technology can be used to transmit information. Egypt and Tunisia are countries whose presidents, Hosni Sayyid Mubarak and Ben Ali respectively, were ousted by the general public (Howard).

Mubarak blocked the internet as his regime considered it as one of the most reliable links among the protesters. The sites useful in sharing information and escalating the protesters’ messages of anti-Mubarak and Ali’s regimes were Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain and Libya among others are undergoing same revolts and the same digital media is proving helpful in relaying the actual scenario on the ground. It is even noted that aides to the Libyan leader Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi have advised him to tender his resignation on Twitter (Howard).

The media has done a good job in publicizing the Iraq war and terrorism activities in Afghanistan but the truth value of these publications is largely questionable. The media was quite keen to offer live coverage on events as they unfolded in the Iraq war but when it was over and the country was on its path to reconstruction, media attention became scarce (Sydney 482). The media has oversimplified the reality in the post-war Iraq and as it now unfolds a great deal of corruption and poor governance is going on.

It is clear that the media covering the war in Iraq followed the Bush administration’s advice of failing to reveal the extent of the damage and loss of lives that the war was causing (Kuypers 68). Many restrictions in the name of urging the media for restraint were initiated by the administration. The press was not allowed to cover funerals of fallen soldiers nor the arrival of their caskets at the Dover Air Force base (483). Although the government claimed it was not censoring the media in coverage of Iraq, the media should not necessarily have complied as their mission is to get the story right by bringing forth the actual footage and photographs without letting their impact or shock lure their judgment