Mass media has been one of the most powerful advents of technology over the past decade. Through various types of publishing, mass media enables the world to become connected within a matter of seconds. However, it’s virtually impossible to report every story, each day. The media must pick and choose what stories will be reported and how they will be broadcasted. Aside which stories will be broadcasted, networks must decide how long each story will be given, who will broadcast them, and what time they will be broadcasted. Each of these factors plays a role in how the public perceives the story. Unfortunately, today’s major broadcasting networks are focused on profit. This leaves the public informed more on celebrities and thrilling stories rather than what’s actually happening in the world around them. Mass media uses broadcasting tactics to highlight big money stories, and skim over critical world issues.  Often times mass media completely blinds us from the adversity faced in the world such as world hunger and disease. If mass media focused more of covering global issues, society would be more aware of the world around them. Although reporting on such issues won’t completely end world hunger or disease, increased education and awareness would foster a more global minded society, furthering support and treatment.

One common topic when discussing tactics in mass media is censorship. Censorship is the suppression of words, images, or ideas that may be found offensive. While many news stories must be cut short due to time restraints, there are also cases where pieces of a story may be intentionally cut out. Everyday the media is faced with decisions as to what information is beneficial to the public, and what information is not. Censorship in mass media plays the role of safeguarding individuals from unwanted exploitation. For example, minors are subject to censorship when they commit a crime. Their identity is sealed which prevents them from being turned down when when they apply to a college or job. Rape victims’ identity is also sealed to prevent them from further distress and public embarrassment. Graphic details and images are also subject to censorship. Often times rather than describing the gory details, the media will spare the public and report something along the lines of “the victim was assaulted” (Simon). Censorship in the media is necessary to keep news appropriate for the public, and to protect individual’s privacy. Without censorship, innocent individuals may be subject to their unwanted private information surfacing for the world to see. 

Nonetheless, the media reserves the responsibility to accurately inform the public. In recent decades, censorship has morphed from being used to simply protect individuals, to now retaining crucial information from the public. Censorship is now abused by the conglomerate titleholders that control mass media. Corporate interest is honored at the expense of public knowledge. This can be seen in between MSNBC, General Electric and Fox News. The three groups decided it was not in their best interest for hosts to fire on-air attacks. This decision came shortly after host Bill O’Reilly exploited General Electric for doing business in Iran in an on-air jab (Miller). If it wasn’t for on-air hostility, Bill O’Reilly’s comment would have been cut, despite how true it was. The public has a right to know about major American company’s involvement overseas, however censorship shelters the public from such crucial information. Censorship also works to hide political bias from the public. The ABC nightline program once created a broadcast that would read off 700 U.S. men and women who were killed in Iraq. What seemed to be a tribute to those who lost their lives overseas was interpreted as an “politically motivated, anti-war stunt” (Media, Culture, and society). This raised concern that the broadcast would be used as propaganda against the presidential candidate John Kerry. All major networks refused to air the broadcast and the company was forced to revise the tribute, cutting out major parts of the film, before it was broadcasted. This demonstrates the mass media’s fear in political bias. Rather than providing the public with straightforward information, stories are chopped and diced before they can hit the air to avoid upsetting the public. In doing this, the media only exposes the public to cookie-cutter stories to help ensure their profits. Today mass media uses censorship to distort controversial subjects in the news. Networks attempt not to create issues in their news reports at the expense of leaving to public uninformed on controversial matters. In most cases, censorship infringes the peoples’ rights. According to law everyone has the right to freedom of speech and expressing their ideas at any given time. Censorship takes this right away from the people and shelters them from reality.

Another tactic mass media broadcasters use is sensationalism. Sensationalism in mass media is a type of editorial bias in which the issues and topics in news stories are overhyped in order to catch the public’s attention. Often times this manipulates the truth of the story and leaves viewers with a distorted understanding of the news. Sensationalism includes reporting about events that are generally irrelevant that don’t have an an influence on society as a whole.

This can be seen in the media’s tendency to dwell on exciting, entertainment stories like car crashes, sex scandals, and public figures. The medias use of sensationalism grabs the publics attention and keeps them interested throughout the broadcast. Yes, these stories provide a high entertainment factor, but do they educate the public on worldly issues? In a study conducted by the American Society of Newspaper editors 85 percent of the American public believed "newspapers frequently over-dramatize some news stories just to sell more papers." Another 80 percent of Americans believed newspapers reported on stories they believed would make money rather than stories that are actually important (Taylor). This not only demonstrates the medias neglect towards important news, but shows that the public is even aware of it. For example, the World Health Organization estimates that 28,000 people around the world die every day that could have been saved with basic health care. This means that in the last year 8.8 million lives were needlessly lost (Aiken). If the media reported less on sex scandals, and provided the public with more worldly education and awareness countless lives could be saved each year. The media deprives us of information on critical global in order to maximize their profits. Each of us as individuals make up society, therefore don’t we have a right not to be sheltered from the issues in the society surrounding us?

However, more important than the media’s distortion of the publics worldly view, is the media’s inability to consistently provide accurate news. High levels of inaccuracies has plummeted the publics confidence in the media. This may be mass media’s biggest fault, after all isn’t the primary responsibility to provide the public with convenient, accurate information. Despite the general public’s distrust in the media, it’s a difficult task to determine the accuracy of a story. After all, mass media is what provides us with information to begin with.  A study conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs investigated inaccuracies in the media. It was decided that the best way to determine the medias accuracy was to examine stories the public had first-hand knowledge on. For a specific news report the almost 50 percent of the public reports having first-hand knowledge on the event. Of that group, only 51 percent believed the facts reported in the news story were accurate. The remainder of the group found inaccuracies ranging from the reporters’ misinterpretation of the event to actual errors in the facts themselves. Although more than half of the public believed the story was reported correctly, 49 percent believed it was not (Daily Journal). We have to take into consideration that some individuals were more informed than others, which may have allowed them to pick out the media’s faults. Other individuals may not have viewed the broadcast as thoroughly and may not have picked up on the media’s inaccuracies. In 2013 The Columbia Journalism Review surveyed 125 senior journalists around the county on various questions regarding the accuracy of new reports. The most interesting response came from the question “Have you ever seriously suspected a colleague of manufacturing their own quote or incident in a report?” The response? An alarming 38 percent answered yes (Mathui). This studying not only confirmed regular inaccuracies in media broadcast, but raised concern for an entirely new issue. The public could be regularly fed stories fabricated by reporters. I’m sure your wondering, “Why would the media knowingly broadcast counterfeit news to the public?” The answer is simple: profit. Broadcasters are well aware of what interest the public, and in order to increase ratings, viewers are fed and fattened with fornicated stories 

There are several changes that broadcasting networks could make to better inform and educate the public. First, censorship should not be used to shelter the public from controversial issues. The public has a right to know what is happening in the world around them, and it’s the media’s responsibility to inform people on such issues. Censorship should only be used in cases that it’s protecting an individual’s privacy or sparing the public from gory details. Sensationalism should also be reduced in the media. It isn’t ideal for sensationalism to be completely removed from broadcasts. Networks still need attention grabbing stories to make a profit off of, and the public seems to enjoy the thrilling stories. However, the media should cut down on stories of this nature in order to make room for real world issues. Viewers would recognize the importance of certain stories and appreciate the media providing both entertaining and relevant stories. Reducing sensationalism would work to highlight important among entertaining ones. The public would be entertained, but also properly informed on relevant issues. Lastly, the media needs to address the number of inaccuracies in stories. While censorship and sensationalism may be necessary in broadcasting, inaccuracies are unacceptable. If the details in a story are uncertain then they should simply be left out. Reporters should work harder to ensure that the information they gather is accurate before it is presented to the public. There is no reason or excuse for broadcast to have inaccurate information. Even more so, reporters should never fabricate information. Fabricated news stories only leave the public with doubting the media. Viewers are often able to recognize when stories are over exaggerated which decreases the media’s dependability. If the media worked harder to make sure each broadcast was accurate, not only would viewers be more informed and educated, but the media would increase their dependability.

Nonetheless mass media is our primary source for everyday news (Important India). Broadcast still educate the public on health matters, environment and so much more. Through Mass media distance is no longer a barrier. People are able to receive the latest news in a short period of time. Television and internet sources have allowed for information to be duplicated electronically. This reduces production cost, empowering education to to continue to grow. Most importantly, mass media leads to diffusion of people and cultures around the world. This creates a society better able to understand and embrace our cultural differences. The degree in which mass media can better educate our society is endless. If broadcasters reported less based on profit, and focused more on information, education and awareness the public would be better equip to impose critical issues. Rather then censoring controversial topics the media should report them first, allowing the public to play a role in finding a resolution. Simply stated, if the media reserved just half of their broadcast for critical, accurate issues, the world as we know it could be drastically improved.
