In the context of nineteenth century America, Alexis De Tocqueville suggested that freedom of the press is necessary for the objective functioning of a democratic society. Without that freedom there is a danger of unaccountability, as government might not always act in the interests of the public. De Tocqueville also contended that tyranny, of the majority members of a society, could only be constrained if the press were free from private commercial interests.
In the post-truth age of the twenty-first century, relativism – which suggests there are many truths, rather than a single objective reality – informs the interests of the modern media. As such, the traditional mass media presents the news in a simplistic binary of good/bad, which overlooks the complexity of social and political interactions in society.
The news value of the good/bad dichotomy appeals to the public’s respectable fears. This is the idea that society is generally good but there are some bad actors out there. However, the truth does not support the media’s good guy/bad guy news value inventory. Fear is good for the production of news.
Media news values are not necessarily democratic nor are they objective. They are mediated and driven by corporate, commercial, political and private interests. Consequently, truth, integrity and the principles of democratic freedoms are idealistic casualties, in how the news is portrayed to the public. The truth only becomes apparent if it can be tied into wider public and commercial interests.
Identify two contemporary examples that suggest news values is – or is not – in the best interests of the public.
SOCIAL ACTION SOCIETY C.I.C. 
yeonsu kim : During election season, news is sometimes used as a tool for populism. This is an example of a case in which the media is not politically neutral.
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The lesson that runs through this semester’s classes is that the media is not objective. In the neoliberal era, the media has become commercialized and has lost objectivity. It has been reduced to a communication tool that represents the interests of the strong, denigrates the weak, and expresses the opinions of those with money. Now that we live in an era where media and media are inseparable, the public must look at the media with a more critical eye and not immediately believe what they say.
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mainstream media needs to be organised and pushed to sell a certain demographic to create capital and turn over profits; this is because it’s the few controlling the many and the narrative that’s read from these news outlets then inter lock and worm their way into wider society. This is why social media should not be regulated; people have fought long and hard to create a world in which everyone has free will and every deserves freedom of speech however when the mainstream media outlets are controlling it they is not the case. Where as social media being free and accessible to all means that the true story gets published. An example could be the Palestinian peaceful protests. Millions have been murder in Palestine it is a genocide yet mainstream media make the protesters look like they are supporting Hama; thus branding them terrorists in their own right however the people protesting are not supporting them they are supporting Palestine and freedom for all. And social media shows the real on the ground news from these protests and if more people saw this, there wouldn’t be a mass hysteria that all Palestinians are terrorists. That’s just one example how the main stream media pushed a narrative because it’s controlled by the few, social media is the the many presenting their views.
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I agree that modern media can simplify or distort complex realities. It makes me realize how much our perception can be influenced by how the media presents information.
Yein Kim
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”They are mediated and driven by corporate, commercial, political and private interests.“
I deeply sympathize with this sentence. There are more media for individuals and profits than for the public. It is not correct to polarize while dividing and separating the good and the bad. An event or person has characteristics that they see in many aspects. But it is not good because the media ignores this and polarizes it. It is easy to make a bad person or a country. Even if you later explain that you are actually a good person, you are already remembered as a bad person. That’s how important the role of the media is.
written by Woori Chae
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The media does not share the truth as journalists reproduce and recirculate widely accepted ways of understanding society, Thus, there is a consensus that the news shared is the truth; although this is not entirely true.
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The news values are determined by two major factors mostly in my opinion. The first being what sells best, what is going to get the most interaction from the public and gain the most capital. The second is the sociopolitical values of those who own the media, and what messages they want to send out to their readers that will benefit them(the elite rich news barons)
News is a process rather than direct events being reported, the process of selecting what becomes “news” is only allowing the public to see certain parts of reality. The hyper reality of media becomes more real than people’s lives, we become fixated on these ideologies that are presented to us. The process of selecting what becomes “news” is mostly based on the two factors above in my opinion. There’s little that the public can do in terms of getting a say in what they see apart from taking themselves out of the situation and finding a less biased news source, if that even exists. It’s difficult to find a news source that you can agree with, and even harder to find a news source that challenges your opinions without being entirely polarised. The perfect news source would have a healthy balance of both sides of every story, something that the public just aren’t often interested in, being more interested in this sort of bloodlust of dramatised events and killings and stabbing and mugging. There’s too much news that’s just confirmation bias, and people become addicted to being “right” – this just polarises the population more causing massive divides in opinion. This distracts us from reality, and it distracts us from social issues that affect us, and in some ways I believe it stops us from fighting back and advocating for our own rights when we’re just bombarded with this hyper reality and fake news and war of terror. People aren’t sure of what reality is anymore.
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Denis-Alexandru
Media and especially modern media it s at the peak or it s power. Everyone nowadays can get their hands on a phone and look on social media at everything that happened that day. This may be a good thing because information now it s at a click away, but if we start to look at the facts we see some dark twist to it. Media can tell the truth but most of the times they think about making capital, truth it s not important as long as it does not bring in profit so because of that people can get misinformed quite easily. One example of that is the fact that immigrnats are portrayed as evil and are the root of all problems of the world, but no one looks at how they have to cross from Morocco to Europe and how many people die just because they dared at a better life.
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Jenecha Prisca i think that democracy is where the majority decide however news values i don’t believe is the majority or for the interest of the population I think its for the interests of certain groups or like minded people for example its unlikely that someone from the BAME community will read the the daily telegraph news values depend on capital
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Suwon Han 2417474
I think the media is heavily influenced by politics. Recently, Korea’s economy is still unstable after the election of members of the National Assembly has ended. While taking a class on the value of the media today, the title of an article I saw yesterday came to mind. It was an article that said that ordinary people began to pay attention to Class B products due to rapid inflation in Korea. However, the title of this article was disappointing. This is because it expressed, “Even Class B products open the wallets of ordinary people.” I didn’t like the positive expression of the common people choosing affordable products because they couldn’t afford the prices. The degree of “ordinary people suffering from the failure to defend prices” seems appropriate. Therefore, these examples can be realized right away in real life. I could realize how important the objectivity of the media is. We always have to respond critically to the media because society and politics do not.
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Hyoin Jeong
It’s disheartening to accept the fact that in modern society, I can no longer expect media to be objective and idealistic in its reporting. Can news that strays from the truth still be called news? The public now believes it’s necessary to scrutinize the media from more diverse perspectives.
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Hyoin Jeong
It’s disheartening to accept the fact that in modern society, I can no longer expect media to be objective and idealistic in its reporting. The public now believes it’s necessary to scrutinize the media from more diverse perspectives.
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