Creative Writing: The Media - Essay Example

? Assignment Assignment Part One The media is one of the greatest influences of the 21st century when it comes to helping people understand various kinds of ideas and helping to mould their thoughts and beliefs according to particular schools of thought. The media has changed a great deal over the last century simply because of improvement in technology as well as greater reach to more remote areas of the world. Ratings are often brought in by big pieces of news that may or may not seem to have an impact on the people, but will definitely guarantee a large audience. For example, in the problem given above, a choice has to be made between showing the news of a dad celebrity or of a park that has to close down three days a week in order to preserve money for the benefit of the citizens of a town or city. If this problem persisted in the last century, it would have been difficult in order to make the citizens aware about both the pieces of news because of the lack of interesting means like videos and clear photographs of the events in order to help the viewers remain focused. No doubt, the story about the celebrity will bring more ratings because more and more people would like to tune in, in order to understand the reasons and cause of the death of a big star. However, people need to be taught about the steps that the council of the city is taking in order to help save money and learning this will also help them in their daily lives. This can be done by showing small clippings of the celebrity news in between the news of the city parks. For example, the reporters can take their place in the parks and talk about the steps that the council is taking, while asking the viewers to remain tuned in, in order to learn about the death of the star. This will help to retain the viewers’ attention and will also not let them divert from the same. A small ticker can be shown at the bottom of the screen where the news regarding the celebrity can be given through interesting captions which will hold the viewers’ and keep them glued to their screens. In this manner, the news about the city parks will be shown first and the news about the celebrity will also be shown, getting all the ratings that are required for the news channel. Furthermore, news reporters should target school children and teach them the importance of keeping the park shut and how it will benefit them as well as well as the rest of the community. If children participate in the event, then their parents are sure to know about the same. Reporters should also go around the city interviewing people and asking them about their thoughts on the park shutting down and how the conservation of money will actually benefit the general public, as people will then tend to watch the news. Moreover, the media has a social responsibility to the public and thus, it should carry that out by preparing the public about the news of the park by making posters and hoardings all over the city. It can also gather the support of various private companies and thus they can sponsor these activities as they have a role in being accountable to the public as well. Consideration thus needs to be taken on part of the media in order to ensure that they have delivered the correct information to the people regarding the shutting down of the park. This is bound to affect the lives of many children as well as young and old people alike who visit the parks on a daily basis and thus in order to transmit the information to them, liners should be provided between the various shows on the channel asking the viewers to tune in to know more about the council and its decisions regarding the park. One of the main advantages that would come with this method of delivery of information includes people having access to the contact information of the news channel and thus they can even call and find out the outcome of the decision of the city parks. At the same time, the news of the deceased celebrity can keep playing on the channel, with a few lines here and there about the park in order to help the audience to focus on both pieces of news simultaneously. This will help them in retaining the information regarding both pieces of news as well as keep the ratings of the channel high. The lead story will thus remain the story that gets the higher ratings, in this case, the story of the celebrity; however there will be access to the story of the park in between as highlights, in order to keep the audience focused. Today a large number of pictures, interviews and videos can be used in order to keep the people focused on what is happening and watching the news has become an important task in the lives of people, thus it will be easy to help them understand both aspects. Part Two Culture refers to a set of ideas, beliefs, knowledge or thoughts that a group of people possess and thus live by. The media is a source of information for most people and thus one of the best mediums for the reflection of culture. This is primarily because it helps to transmit ideas, images, videos and songs in a faster manner to a much larger group of people. The real world is incorporated within television programs and movies in order to reflect culture to a much larger audience. Culture refers to thoughts or ideas that people have been a part of; it is the society within which they grow up and are taught about. Every human being has some or the other culture that he associates himself with; for example, the ideas and habits related with different religions, communities, social groups etc. Television programs and films help to depict the idea of culture as they help in showing their viewers about the various kinds of food, clothing and lifestyle habits that people all around the world have. There are many movies that are made on the lives of different kinds of people, television programs on food and entertainment etc help in understanding how people live around the world and spend their time. Furthermore, means of electronic media also help people in understanding how people face various problems due to backward thoughts persisting in their cultures all over the world. All of this helps in giving an excellent idea about culture as a reflection through movies and television and help in heralding social issues by coming up with solutions. This however, has various drawbacks as well; with the advent of better technology, electronic games have become part and parcel of people’s lives. These games often depict violent measures as well as hatred which get reflected in people’s minds as an aspect of culture. For example, playing games along the line of killing and shooting and committing violent acts would have stereotypical people clad in turbans and long robes, giving the idea that the violence is committed by an Islamic group of people. This gives off the wrong meaning or idea of another group of people’s culture and comes across to people quite incorrectly, making them believe that no one else can commit violence and that a certain group of people thus should be hated. Space Invaders is one of the most influential and important games released to the general public in the last few years and has been the topic of a controversy because of the mere fact that the intergalactic culture and ideas relating to that aspect of science have been portrayed in a manner of fantasy that does not relate to pure science or imagination and thus causes a rift in the minds of the audience. Nonetheless, culture plays a crucial role in tandem with television, movies, electronic games and other forms of electronic media because it helps in transmitting information to a much larger group of people, especially with respect to sociological thought and a dissemination of ideas. References Kohler, C. (2009, December 24). The 15 Most Influential Games of the Decade. Wired. Retrieved April 13, 2012, from http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/12/the-15-most-influential-games-of-the-decade/all/1@kobunheat, Follow. "The 15 Most Influential Games of the Decade." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 24 Dec. 2009. Web. 13 Apr. 2012. . Read More