Media: A constructor of Reality - Essay Example

When we talk of media, a term that comes to our mind is ‘media ethics’. It is the applied ethics that which deal with specific ethical principles and standards of media. But it is a shame to register that not everyone who is a part of media is following it to the cult. While in early school we had read that with rights comes certain duties. All of us remember our rights but how many of us remember our duties? This when applied to media they possibly believe that it is their duty to infringe others rights.

The idea is taken for granted that public figures have an obligation to answer the journalists’ questions as part of their public accountability to the public. There is something as a code of decorousness in public life. When this is violated it is done so while neglecting the media ethics and a general agitation begins. Everyone wants to protect their personal lives but when the media people want to barge through it to develop news; it is termed under contravention of rights. When we talk of news channels particularly, news that is piquant is the headlines.

With so many 24 * 7 news channels coming up they have to gain TRP ratings to come above the rest in the competition and show something for which people will want to cling to them only. It would not be an exaggeration to say that what we see as news is nothing more than a race between various news channels. To satisfy their means they pull at the heart strings rather than show what reality is. We watch and listen to news programs with a variety of motives because in our common humanity we are curious.

There have been instances when the reality has been shown so modified that what started off as perfectly normal was portrayed as something bizarre. The reasons for this can be many from political to personal. With the evaporation of scarcity argument, the existence of content regulators becomes more problematical. Practices of Looking as the name implies, provides its readers a clear introduction to visual culture by bringing an interdisciplinary approach for the evaluation of images which surround us in popular culture.

It is a means of which images are used and understood today. Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright have thoroughly examined in this book how the theories and practice of art, design, advertising, mass communication and psychology can decode the forms and content of images used in contemporary media. (Joel, 2004). The visual media presents forth a challenge to its viewers to understand the images and make meanings of them. Our visual experiences do not come from nowhere, they are supplemented by our past experiences and memories from different aspects of our lives.

The images are produced and experienced through a variety of media like printmaking, painting, sculpture, films, televisions, radio, computers and virtual reality. The role of language is also very important in media. Every language has a way of expressing it and a way of interpreting it. We define the world around us using language. The expression through language can also change the interpretation and symbolism of the images. There is a difference between the vision of what a human eye sees directly and what a human eye sees through a camera lens.

There is a certain degree of subjectiveness associated in an image through a lens which depends on personal choice and frame of the camera. Let us take the example of vulgarity in films and dance videos. When we would be present