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Jesse Barrientos

Valerie Fong

English 1S

November 7th, 2017

Uses and Abuses of Media

1. In discussions of news media, one controversial/important issue has been

selective reporting. Some argue that the news is biased and only feed us a certain amount

of news from certain sources rather than all. On the other hand, some contend that the

news is unbiased and give us all of the worlds news. Still others maintain that the news

audience is strictly bias because of where they get their news, because they may only

receive their news from certain mainstream sources such as CNN. There are many other

issues within news media rather just selective reporting but for my main issue I will

discuss why news media has had huge problem with selective reporting.

2. Now what is selective reporting? Selective reporting is when the news only tells

the stories going on in the country and not all of them across the globe. It was said by

Brooke Gladstone, News that has a visual hook is more likely to be noticed. Pg 65.

Now what she means is that news that looks more visually intriguing is more likely to be

talked about on the news, rather than stories that dont look as appealing. For example in

1994, Rwanda was going through what was first thought as a civil war, but really was a

genocide within the country. This horrific incident would easily seem to be hot news for
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reporters to talk about for the whole world to know about but sadly it wasnt. It was

never broadcasted at the moment because it was thought to be only a civil war within the

country. The inaccuracy of the media with this tragic event would cause everyone to

think that there was no genocide occurring in Rwanda, nothing but just a civil war. At the

time of this event, the same time across the planet Serbia was going through its own war

and this would have what is now called the CNN Effect. Meaning that because CNN is

so favorably viewed by viewers across the planet, this horrific event caused a lot of eyes

and ears to turn towards them because of CNN broadcasting and reporting what was

happening. If not most times, then sometimes us as an audience need to be given a

certains news rather than us wanting what we need to see.

3. This itself will help raise awareness about something when it is aired on the

news. Robert Lunsford once said, maybe CNN is the most trusted name in news!. Now

with him saying this, wouldn't you think that some viewers are biased to wear they get

their news from? If CNN is the most trusted name in news then what about the other

news sources that give us information. Are we not suppose to trust those names just

because of the fact that they arent popularly viewed? Since CNN is the most popular

station to get your news from, but what if CNN doesn't catch a story or event because it is

covering another story that may be not so relevant to them? Its as if our own news

stations are biased when showing or covering certains events and stories. Maybe they like
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feel more accomplished when they having more viewers than actually airing certain

events to their audience.

4. In every media, news, internet, social media etc, there comes and time and point

where a concept called fairness bias is displayed. Fairness bias is when someone or

something is giving the opposing viewpoint its time and fairshare to explain its side, but

when really there is no point in even giving them time when you know that you have

factual evidence to counter their argument. You are giving the illusion that you're being

fair and unbiased when actually you are not. Weve discussed the issues and problems

that news media goes through but what about the reporters and journalists that give those

stations the stories?

5. On December 5th 2016, a journalist named Ed. Ou was traveling to the United

States from Canada to cover the story of Standing Rock. His purpose of traveling was

to cover the anti-oil pipeline in Standing Rock for the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.

As he was entering the U.S. to cover this story, U.S. border patrol has stopped him and

pulled him aside when they realized who he was. As the pulled him aside, they had a list

of all of the countries he had been to in the last 5 years and they asked him to explain to

them what he was doing in each of those countries. He tried explaining to the officers that

he was a journalist and he had all the credentials to prove that he was but the officers said

that it was irrelevant. They then started asking him for all his personal items and

passwords for all of his online sources. The United States border patrol had made a false

or flawed analysis on journalist Ed. Ou because of all the countries that he had been to.
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They suspected him as a terrorist because the countries that he had visited in the last five

years included countries like Iraq, Russia, Germany.

6. You could say that knowing certain information about something or someone

in this case can cause a lot of attention, even if you falsely identify them. When people

are visually informed about something, they are more likely to get into it emotionally.

Not only does seeing things visually strike an emotion, but also knowing things strikes

emotion as well. As I mentioned before when Ed. Ou was stopped by border patrol he

said, The Customs and Border Protection officer had a list of every country I had

traveled to in the last five years and asked me to write down in detail what I was doing in

each place. The fact that the U.S. border patrol had found out who he was, it caused

them to worry why he had been to so many countries across the globe.

Works Cited

Ou, Edward. Im a Journalist and I was Stopped from Covering Standing Rock.

Time Magazine, 06 Dec. 2016, http://time.com/4588272/journalist-standing-rock-border/

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