The Way of Intrusion into the Private Lives of the People by Media People - Research Paper Example

Intrusion and Hidden Cameras/telephoto lenses Intrusion & Hidden Cameras “In the electronic age, raw data has become a valuable commodity—and the protection of personal information has become increasingly important to our sense of privacy”(Media Issues, 2010). Media is an industry in which huge competition is going on at present. Globalization has opened many opportunities for the media industry to function in overseas countries and therefore competition has increased a lot. Moreover the popularity of visual media is growing day by day and it is difficult for print media to stay in the market without doing something unique. In order to keep the viewers or readers interested always, media people engaged in sting operations in which they intrude into the private matters of the celebrities or politicians. Mobile phone technologies are improved a lot so that the conversations can be recorded from one end without giving any signals to the other end. The competition in media industry to raise the rating, quite often force them to sensationalize or fabricate news. These efforts quite often end up in unexpected results. For example, Britain’s celebrity princess Diana, King Charles’s former wife, forced to sacrifice her life because of the media people or paparazzi news makers’ effort to intrude in to the private life of Diana. This paper analyses questions such as; how media and the tools of the trade have been and can be guilty of intrusion; Are the media and those who use the tools of the trade such as private investigators protected in the eyes of law and Is it ethical or not for the media or those who use the tools of the trade to participate in what could be labeled as intrusion? How media and the tools of the trade have been and can be guilty of intrusion? As mentioned in the earlier example of Princess Diana, Media efforts quite often bring unwanted results. It should be noted that like all the other people in the world Princess Diana forced to sacrifice her life because of the guilty of media people. Peter Allen reported for Daily mail on 08 April 2008 that; The paparazzi found partly responsible for Dianas death will never face justice - and insisted last night they were blameless. Despite the inquest verdict, French prosecutors ruled out "any possibility" of bringing the photographers back before a judge and a jury. And the men themselves vowed never to give evidence and said it was "wrong" to blame them for the accident. None of them was prepared to step into the witness box for the inquest (Allen, 2008). It is crystal clear to everyone that Diana’s car met with accident while the driver was trying to drive it fast in order to save Diana and her boyfriend from the paparazzi. Even though the driver consumed alcohol prior to the accident, even a layman can understand that he lost control in an effort to hide Diana from the eyes of chasing paparazzi news reporters. Another way of intrusion into the private lives of the people by media people is with the help of sting operations. “A Sting Operation is an operation designed to catch a person committing a crime by means of deception” (Sting Operation –To be or not to be?, 2007). “Sting operations may helpful to reveal corrupt officials and politicians and wrong doings of public life. However it can be used for blackmailing also”(Nageshwar, 2010). Mobile phone cameras are sound recorder facilities are used extensively to conduct sting operations. The media people establish strong relations with the person to whom they want to be victimized, prior to the sting operations. Then they will visit the person with all the required facilities and ask him questions about the victim’s private life which he may not reveal publicly under normal circumstances. The victim may reveal some secrets to the interviewer after taking him in confidence. The victim will know about the trap or the sting operation only after the offender publishes it on Medias. Sting operation is used extensively in all parts of the word to trap corrupted politicians and also the reveal the private lives of the celebrities. Are the media and those who use the tools of the trade such as private investigators protected in the eyes of law? "The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act is a pretexting law that prohibits "pretexting," the use of false pretenses, including fraudulent statements and impersonation, to obtain consumers personal financial information, such as bank balances. This law also prohibits the knowing solicitation of others to engage in pretexting. Washington requires the consent of all parties to intercept or record a private conversation or communication by any device (electronic or otherwise) designed to record or transmit. The act applies to face-to-face conversations and to communications transmitted by telephone (including out-of-state and cordless telephone calls), telegraph, radio or other devices"(Snelling Private Investigators & Information Specialists, 2011). Private investigation laws are different in different countries. There are many laws in America which protect the privacy of the people. In other words, media people are not authorized to intrude into the private lives of the people without permission. Intrusion into the personal life or private life is a violation of human right. Everybody has the freedom to lead a private life. It is the right of the person to decide whether he wanted to make his private life public or not. Nobody has the right to record the voice or videos of others without taking permission from them. In short, sting operations are illegal in America and other parts of the world. However, in some cases, courts may declare some sting operations as valid or legal if such operations contribute something to the society. For example, video recording of antisocial elements engaged in antisocial activities can be legal in any country. It should be noted that in such cases, the media person is helping the society to prevent antisocial activities. However, the court should be convinced about the news value of the sting operation. Is it ethical or not for the media or those who use the tools of the trade to participate in what could be labeled as intrusion? In a democratic country like America, privacy is valued or rated with high respect and therefore it is unethical and illegal to intrude into the private matters of the public. Most of the people; irrespective of celebrities or ordinary people may have some private lives. They may not like to disclose it to the public eyes in order to stay away from controversy. Media on the other hand try to increase its viewership and ratings at any cost. Ordinary news may not help it to increase its rating. Under such circumstances, instead of going after the news which normally occurs, media are trying to make or fabricate news. Intrusion into the private life is one of fabricating or constructing news. Even simple statements made by the celebrities or politicians will be twisted by the media to create news value. Sting operations are usually conducted for making news rather than reporting news. Rupert Murdoch’s media empire was besieged by accusations that 2 more of his British newspapers engaged in hacking, deception and privacy violations that included accessing former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s bank account information and stealing the medical records of his seriously ill baby son (New details in Murdoch’s case, 2011). Media giant Rupert Murdoch is currently facing trail in Britain for harassment and intrusion cases. Many of his newspapers, tabloids television channels and magazines were alleged to intrude into the private matters of the people in order to increase the ratings and viewership or readership. Conclusions There are many cases in which the media people were accused or sued for intrusion into the private matters of the people. Intrusion by media in any form is unethical and illegal in most of the countries in the world. Intrusion may bring good to the media people, but it may damage the image of the victims. Intrusion can be justified only in cases in which the society gets some benefits out of it. References Allen P. (2008). Paparazzi found partly responsible for Dianas death will never face justice. Daily Mail. 08 April 2008 Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-557966/Paparazzi-partly-responsible-Dianas-death-face-justice.html Media Issues, (2010). Retrieved from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/privacy/index.cfm Nageshwar K (2010). Are sting operations acceptable? Retrieved from http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/are-sting-operations-acceptable-%E2%80%93-prof-k-nageshwar/ New details in Murdoch’s case, (2011). Retrieved from http://security.cytalk.com/2011/07/new-details-in-murdochs-case/ Sting Operation –To be or not to be?(2007). Retrieved from http://www.legalserviceindia.com/article/l166-Sting-Operation.html Snelling Private Investigators & Information Specialists, (2011) Retrieved from http://www.snellinginvestigations.com/private-investigator-laws.html Read More