Category: Media

Suicide: Public VS The Media

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. It is a national crisis that should be addressed publicly to inform those at sake. Not only is this event a national crisis, but it is also a public health concern, the cost it has brought on our world is a burden. Who it affects is the least important. However, it is important how we want to educate those. According to Madelyn’s research, ‘The media affords the opportunity for indirect transmission of suicide contagion, the process by which one suicide becomes a compelling model for successive suicides.’ Media coverage contains a context that shapes their version of the story to fit their narrative, this persuades other people to participate in the same behavior of deciding that suicide would be the right decision. Suicide on a large scale holds a tremendous impact on our society, causing suicide to remain at the top of the ten leading causes of death. This shows that approaching the concern with that compelling matter apprehends behavioral contagion, which allows the same behavior to immediately and impulsively spread throughout a group.

Proceeding with this process will require dismantling the knowledge you have on suicide to access the fundamentals. Those fundamentals will help you understand how suicide affects everyone at least one time in their life. It will also inform you of suicide prevention to focus on why suicide is a public concern and why the public ought to be informed, not influenced by the media.

In 1951, a theory on suicide was conducted by Mr. David Emile Durkheim’s. Durkheim focused on understanding why people commit suicide and what factors may influence a person to make that decision. Many believed that people who commit suicide are in a pathological state, however he believed that the force that caused a suicide is social rather than psychological. Durkheim figured suicide is caused by some power that is over and beyond the individual. This power would be created by positive or negative acts of the person who knows the result of what that act may produce. He concluded his theory with four types of sucide: egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic. Theses types of suicide represents the social relation between the victim and his society.

A person who is self-centered that lacks unselfish feelings will become isolated socially, which anticipates a person to believe they have no place in the society. They’ll see themselves alone in the world because of this isolation. Low social interactions with others refers to egoistic suicide. Having weak social bonds with society generates the struggle of finding a reason to live.

Altruistic suicide is the complete opposite of egoistic. This involves when individuals are very close within a social group seeking to high expectations of the individuals. Becoming this involved would mean making sacrifices for the group. Egoistic and altruistic suicide together revolves around social relations.

Next is anomic and fatalistic suicide which is the degree of regulation in the individuals’ life. Anomic is a low degree of regulation. Having phases of significant amount of stress and frustration due to certain circumstances creates this type of suicide. Fatalistic on the other hand is due to over regulation. An example would be if a slave committed suicide.

Indian Media, Democracy and the Role of Media as a Watchdog under the Influence of New Digital Media

The essay intends to analyse the relationship between democracy (freedom and security) and media while simultaneously commenting on the increasing capitalistic attitude, the advent of digital media and its influence. Social Media often acts as a catalyst to bring out reformations through intuitive communication and spread of information which at a plain hindsight seems to challenge traditional journalism that in countries like India fall at hands of Neo – liberal, capitalist bodies. India has a list of mainstream News Channels such as Sun Tv, Times, NDTV, Republic TV, ……that are either co-owned by legislative members of a certain political party or have proclivity to them in terms of sales of propaganda or the theatrics of agenda setting.

Academician like Manoj Kumar from Delhi University, Senior Journalist and Editor such as Rahul Dev from CNEB and UrmileshSingh Senior Journalist from Rajya Sabha Tv and Author of “Kashmir Virasat se Siyasat “had addressed in 2016 on a panel discussion on the news channel Rajya Sabha about the necessity of democratization of news media for unbiased coverage and dispersion of information. The restrictive coverage of issues and the overt sensationalism and trending consumerism have often lead a mass to substitute social media as their first-hand resources whereby they could not only acquire information but also what allows them to hold discourses was further challenged and contested.

Inidi has law and China has order but a successful nation needs both” writes Das Gurcharan (2012 India Grows at Night, New York.Penguin Books). Das in his book inspects whether the neoliberal economic and media Model can truly help India to remain one of the powerful democracies of the world. He tends to compare the countries and its steady growth and further asserts that the only thing that could either succor or demolish either of their growth is the government.

The emergence of Media Corporation, through growing cross media ownership is having their impact on media’s public service commitment. ″Paid news is run to pass off an advertisement, apiece of propaganda and advertisement…pass that as news, pretend that it is news that is “paid news” – P. Sainath. Editorial columns are bid among corporates or members of legislative and other political identities. A trust Barometer Survey was run by Edelman, an independent public relations firm in the year 2010 that credibility in media seems quiet tentative resulting into loss of faith among people. “Over the past two years, trust on television news dropped sharply from 61 percent to just 36 percent that of business magazines have gone down from 72 percent to 47 percent, and that of newspaper gone down from 61 percent to 40 percent. Trust in the media in India declined by 7 percent (from 65 percent in 2009 to 58 percent in 2010) “- “media paid news India”

In Democracy, Inc.: the press and law in the corporate rationalization of the public sphere by David S Allen the chapter Corporate Ownership and the Press: Collapsing Distinctions, he unearthed the whole conflict and history of stance from the U.S. Supreme Court about how free press in a democratic society identified with for-profit organization. Ignorance of this among the commonalities and corporates is what is called as corporate rationalization. This effect the process of inclusion whereby the citizens are now paranoid and thus affecting their relationship with media. The increasing segregation between the public sphere and its institution per say leaves the fight for democracy among the elite making the sphere passive.

Newspapers in India have have investigated political figures and businessman and often have succumbed to pressure to change headlines and withhold stories. A report by Press Council of India stated that paid news coverage during 2009 general elections had instances of paid coverage due to elections. The most recent 2014 election saw an unprecedented $100 million spent on advertorials. The results are not only tampered reportage available to the highest bidder but also owners who are willing to self-sensor for a better under the table payee

Coming to the normative role which is the role of media as what they are supposed to do in society rather than what they are doing. Based on the present scenario, the normative media theory fails to be heuristic in the new digital media landscape with it initiating medialization of the everyday life, society and the world. The reason being that the theory focuses on fundamentals of media ethics which are related to journalism while in the new media sphere, it includes; just more than journalism a cognitive model for current retrospection about media.

There is a synergized relationship between media and democracy and neither can survive without the other and if media must play a vital role here then it must adapt to the needs of late modern society and the new digitized media landscape. The new digital media came along with information communication technology, convergence and digitization shifting from public to network communication, so it can be taken as hypothesis that a shift is necessary from media ethics to ethical communication. Th emphasis should now lay on respect, caring, responsibility for the speaking, listening, reading, viewing and media producing subject. Based on the reading from (Fourie Peter J Normative Media Theory in Digital Media Landscape) ‘ethical communication is more human oriented whereas media ethics is more career and profession oriented; ethical communication asks questions about ethical sustainability of a media practice and performance. ‘The new digital media as argued earlier comes with contention in regards to the blurring lines between information and entertainment, rise of market driven journalism, the distinction between public and private media and between mainstream community and personal media., rise of niche markets choice and abundance, increased ability of the media content the increased ability of media makers and media users to access and store media content in different forms and formats and to use it where and when they prefer; new regulatory frameworks moving in the direction of a synthesis between telecommunications, broadcasting, narrowcasting and print regulatory models.’(Normative Media Theory in Digital Media Landscape A-114)

The society lays its prominence in adapting a role of civic political and cultural minorities and minority rights; blurring the segmentation of public and private; within which exists communities with shared value system; again, where a single glorified structure of Habermas in public sphere no longer exists. Several public sphere claim to be legitimate in ideas centric to democracy dialogue and debate. To all this media must respond by creating diverse platforms and channel.

Drawing back to the concept of Journalism and it personified as a watchdog of society in context to India the discussion made above plays a cardinal role. The ethical communication is an essential element which is to contest the overt sensationalism of news in India. Where does the conventional boundaries end when it comes to extracting information is a crucial thought to ponder upon? Who makes these distinction and boundaries, what are the consequences.

To look at boundaries in an organized fashion, we begin with Thomas Gieryn’s pioneering work in sociology of science. To him the boundaries of science are born from issues that he calls credibility contest in which the establishment of borders relates a core, to the question of legitimacy. Boundary work is quiet challenging. In his book Cultural Boundaries of Science. He breaks it down in three categories, that is expansion, expulsion, protection of autonomy, to build power, to control the world -be intruders.

While we discuss media and its ethics it’s also important to understand and question regarding the safety of these journalists and further analyze as to does the ethical communication have any relevance to the government. Gauri Lankesh an activist and journalist was assassinated on 5th September 2017, right outside her house in Bangalore.

India currently holds the 136th position in the world freedom index (Reporters without borders,2017). Around 11 journalists had been killed, 46 were attacked and 27 had cases lodged against them, further India never responded to UNESCO’S request for the judicial status of journalist killings in the country. “Fatal attacks by no means are the sole measure of safety- which is also severely compromised in the form of non-fatal attacks, imprisonment, threats online bullying and lawsuits. The reports also noted that “Journalists are increasingly targeting of online smear campaigns by the most radical nationalists, who vilify them and even threaten physical reprisals” no journalist so far has been slapped with section 124(A) better known as sedition clause, the threat has been palpable enough for a while to influence conduct.” – (Indian Express) Lankesh was a vociferous critic of the Bharatiya Janta Party and right-wing Hindutva group. Her assasination raises potent questions regarding India free press.

“In 2016 Global Impunity Index.the committee to protect journalists observed that India hadn’t solved a single murder over the past decade. Most of these journalists were independent reporters in a small town and have been shot dead near their home. The murder of Jagendra Singh 2015 had been especiallly brutal he had been set on fire, by the local police next to his home.

“I had been keeping track of these murders, perhaps because I am an independent reporter myself. Earlier this year, I spent several months investigating the collapse of a bridge that killed 26 people in Kolkata. The state administration shut down channels of communication. It took weeks of waiting and some sheer luck to access some materials via the Right to Information Act. When the story was published, I felt relieved for the delay. I was leaving for Germany within a few days for a fellowship. I was wary of every phone call from an unknown number. Earlier this year, a journalist called Sandhya Ravishankar, also independent, had received threats for her superb investigation on illegal sand mining.”- (C Sohini Inconvenient Truths: Murder of journalism in India.)

In a democratic political system, it is more likely to perceive that it should be able to provide a safer working environment to journalists, but it’s quite the opposite way around where the likelihood of a journalist being killed is higher whereas in less democratic countries its quite the opposite. (Victor et al. 2016)

“Democracy allows for and encourages increased investigative reporting, which, in turn, can get journalists killed. Alternatively, journalists are not at as great a risk for murder in autocracies not because autocracies make them “safer” but because there are fewer incentives or opportunities for them to pursue stories that would put them in mortal danger” (Victor et al. 2016)

Post 2014 general elections the state has often tried to muzzle the rights and voice of media. Followed by the global rise in the narrative of hyper-nationalism and politics committed to populist ideas. While all governments aim to manage and massage the fourth estate, there is a rhetorical difference in the relationship between the State and the news media before the 2014 elections and afterwards,” – (Mukul Kesavan) “I can’t remember a time when there was as strong a rightward tilt in television news as we have now and the worrying thing is that it makes sound business sense, not just in terms of political access, but in terms of advertising, revenue and profit.”(A delicate balance: The state of the fourth estate | The Telegraph.) (2017, February 12) After 2014 elections there was a shift in a paradigm of people who folllow the leader and those who criticize his populist policies. As Kesavan suggests the change in media was always upfront its either with the institution or against it. The neutral media discontinued to persist in a popular narrative. After Narendra Modi led BJP ( Bharatiya Janata Party) took over ( May 2014) attempts have been made to polarize media. “In this kind of structure, the media is forced not to debate but disemminaate news” (Ketkar Kumar, PM forces Government into a silent zone. In the past media has terrorized the UPA government under the leadership of Manmohan Singh and have challenged and critic them but on the contrary, there is a drift in the attitude now.

The event that led to violent scrutinization of media and some university teachers is in context to the demonstrations held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. A sedition case was filed against Kanhaiya Kumar from the Delhi University for protest and assimilating anti national values. And he was alleged “anti- national”

The event that led to the violent targeting of journalists and some university teachers was related to the demonstrations that took place at the Jawaharlal Nehru University few days earlier. The university’s student union president was being tried for sedition for the alleged “anti-national” protests that took place inside the university campus few days earlier20. The ‘patriotic’ lawyers, unhappy with the media’s coverage of the entire episode, decided to take matters into their hand.

Geeta Sheeshu a critic on this issue commented that “current political movement, irrespective of the party in power is responsible for the impunity with the attacks. The difference between he political party and are currently holding power makes it is that often, the vigilante groups that attack the journalist or awe alliance to the same power”

Coming back to does digital media, the new media compliments traditional journalism? Social media over the time has accelerated the changes in transformation in journalism. With the facilities of interactive dialogue and social interaction journalists can finally run an informal or formal set of discourse with people. Earlier the flow of message was one sided, and the audience were mere consumers but now they are active listeners who contribute and participate.

With the veracity of all kinds of news and information material, the authenticity of what one is reading is questionable. In aspects of social media news, it’s important to understand that individuals who pitch stories and articles aren’t trained and hence there are high chances to lead bias into the material. Irish Social Journalism Survey published the statistic that 64% of Irish journalists said that information on social media can’t be trusted. The question between who a journalist is now has been replaced by who a publisher is. There is a shift from quality journalism to quantity for mere TRP (Television Rating Point)

In Jodi Deans Communicative Capitalism, the idea of social media and selling of personal data to the advertisers was brought up. Communicative Capitalism is a material ideological formation in it the values held are central to democracy take practical material form in networked communication technology so ideals of access voice inclusion, discussion and participation are practically realized through global telecommunications. Changes in information and communication network associated with digitalization personalization, localization, speed and memory storage capacity impacts capitalism and democracy complimenting each as it forms a new combination. Our setting is that of a convergence of capitalism and communication that incites participation only to capture it I the effect of personalized media. On one hand this generates a common communicative mesh through which affects and idea, on the other hand it also promotes individualism. Communication today is captured in capitalist circuits it produces and amplifies. This entrapment in capitalist circuits is the condition of possibility for communication transfer and production. Now that democratic Rhetoric have access and transparency voice disunion reflection participation all of these strengthen

The strengthens hold of capitals in network societies. Thus, to sum up Dean stated that internet is good for democracy helps the neo liberalists aggressive distribution of wealth. Three features of communicative capitalism

• Change in form of utterances from messages to contributions
• The decline of symbolic efficiency
• The reflexive trap of circuits and drives

Industrialization exploits labor while communicative capitalism adds in the exploitation of communication manipulating our responses and preferences She further argues that democracy is an egalitarian political ideal particularly those who can project the synergies that others have, and we seem to lack. Our participation is manipulated in such a way that Facebook or Instagram becomes a story and not the people who are suffering

When the unfolding events are condensed in too story about social media, we lose sight of the economic revolution, we contain a struggle against capitalism within a democratic script, leading on to believe that social media is a wholistic representative of us, they stand for our interest and they are egalitarian ends that revolutionary change is availed through quick fix, helping us believe that our communicative entertainment practices are the best political ones. Democracy is a powerful political idea one that is materialized in social media technologies that let us cover over our current political impedance and imagine our self as active political participants.

Reflecting on the advent of new media or per say digital media substantiating traditional journalism would be a myth. Social Medes is not the answer for egalitarian democratic societies that affirms peoples struggle these struggles unfold in a turbulent and information communication environment are weapons and forces as well as setting an environment. Hence digital media can also be portals of fake news and propagandas, leading us back to the beginning of our introduction whereby the panel debated on the same crisis.

Thus, again Media to efficiently function in India, it must be a democratic field rather than capitalistic or the progress will remain stunted forever. Democracy also comes with the idea of free speech and security. The agenda could be to retrace one’s step backwards to quality and not the number of newspapers sold that is to forfeit the quantitative approach.

The Media’s Influence on Police Officers Killing African American’s

40% of fatal shootings by police officers of unarmed victims, were African American men in 2015 (Lowery, cited in Jones, 2017, pg. 873). Known statistics such as this example, speculate the appearance of individual and systemic racism within the police force in the past, present, and as it appears the possibility of the future. African American’s have faced brutality, discrimination, and prejudice perceptions from privileged White Americans, for centuries such as during the slave era, to modern times as of today. These adverse ideologies society has of African American’s did not emerge out of nowhere, but rather from the media’s representation of racial stereotypes throughout its entire existence. These harrowing stereotypes have depicted that these racial minorities are deviant in the eyes of the Law and social control. As a result of the media’s continuous portrayal of African American individuals and communities throughout the evolution of media in the United States, it’s constructed a pervasive narrative that serves as justification for the abuse of black people, highlighted by police brutality.

History

Although mainstream media reporting had not always occurred, entertainment of ads, theatre, TV shows, and movies became a crucial factor of the beginning of the widespread stereotypes persuading deviance and the enforcement regarding fear of African Americans, particularly males. Through the era of slavery, African Americans were servants and workers of the upper white class. Without a choice, these people were prisoners to this lifestyle, unable to leave or disobey their masters. During the 19th century, it was white Americans objective to portray slavery as unharmful along with the fact that African Americans were meant for the roles as butlers, servants, workers, etc. and that they were pleased to serve these entitled individuals (Morris, 2011, pg.77). This led to the introduction of the stereotype that these African American men were illustrated as “lazy and childlike, docile and happy, in the role of the servant” (Morris,2011, pg.77), this stereotype was shown in movies, picture advertisements, and entertainment such as plays. This representation gave white people a sense of morality, that what they were doing was taking care of these black people, as though they were children (Pilgrim, cited in Morris,2011, pg.78).

The obedient childlike persona of African Americans was carried through into the beginning of the 20th century until America transitioned into the post-slavery era, where it became apparent this misrepresentation needed to be changed in order to keep African American men inferior and defer these men from entering society into situated authoritative, and dominant positions (Morris,2011, pg.79). To hinder the possibilities of this happening it became crucial to characterize these men as aggressive and threatening. This came from the idea that these men were concealing resentment resulting in anger and were willing to lash out against white people at any moment (Morris,2011, pg.79).

This indicated concept was the birth of the “Mandingo stereotype” portraying black men as “primitive and hypersexual” (Weaver Jr, 2016, pg.59). The stereotype was a given way of enforcing rape and murder accusations, whilst dividing black people from white. The change in perception was further spread by a media film by D.W Griffith called “Birth of a nation” which featured the Ku Klux Klan as heroes, and a white woman throwing herself off a cliff in order to escape the African American “brute’s” sexuality (Morris, 2011, pg.79). In continuation, this perception was further spread in advertisements, games, greeting cards etc.

Lynching began as a result of the justification of violence against black people since they were regarded as inherently deserving of these punishments due to their supposed deviance, violence, and sexuality. Lynching serves as a historical perspective of police brutality. Unknown to most, according to Weaver (2014, pg.5) half of the 5,000 lynching during the 20th century, incorporated members of law enforcement’s involvement or disregard. This set an early precedent that police could brutalize black people and get off scot-free.

The history of social control of African Americans by police can be drawn back to the slavery era in the South of the United States. The population of poor white southerners was greater than the population of black slaves, enabling the success of slave control by employing around 5 million poor white southerners into a significant police force who would keep slaves in order, murder those who acted in disobedience, and drive slaves (Bois, cited in Pratt-Harris,2016, pg. 379). Awareness of these task forces, brings forth the indication as to why white people in the past and present have a sense of privilege and ability to control black people, considering it was essentially a source of income during historical times. Along with the specialized police force William Lynch wrote a letter to owners of slaves that provided a method of slave control which embodied hate amongst black on blacks, white servants on black slaves, genders, age, and range of skin color (Lynch, cited in Pratt-Harris, 2016, pg. 380).

The knowledge on historical lynching, specialized police force, and media spread of misrepresentation of African Americans traits carries through into today’s explanation of why stereotypes are still existent such as the Mandigo stereotype, brought forth into modern day media by portrayals of African Americans as “thugs, gangsters, or other black male characters who lack empathy, and only show a penchant for violence and sexual activity” (Weaver Jr, 2016, pg. 60). Centuries of ideologies such as these have brought over a misrepresented view of African American’s in our society and annotation as to why police brutality is existent and rarely consequential, drawing attention to the continuation of white privilege.

Modern Day Media Influence on Victimization

According to a report consisting of how people receive news about crime in the United States, a mass of people provided that they receive their information via the media (Russell, cited by Oliver, 2003). This is essential in understanding the large-scale influence the media has on its viewers, and of those acquiring these stories from public discussion.

In a study conducted by Entman (1990) based on Chicago’s local news, Entman would report that stories covering African American’s were more inclined to depict crime, than news reports of white people (cited in Oliver, 2003, pg.6). This led to the statistic that 41% of stories covering African Americans were associated to crime (Entman, cited in Oliver, 2003, pg.6). During a continuation of a 6-month study of news on crime, Entman discovered 84% of crime perpetrated by black suspects were established as violent, in comparison to stories of crime related to 71% of white suspects. In addition to these findings, Entman expressed that when media outlets reported on black suspects, negative imagery such as the suspect being detained, handcuffed, or poorly dressed was broadcasted, in comparison to a white suspect (cited in, Oliver, 2003, pg.6).

The media’s insensitive reports in recent years of unarmed African American men, has created persuasive reasoning in defense of the actions of these police officers to the public. The media draws in and emphasizes these victims past or present criminal history, how these victims are perceived by physique or appearance in clothing etc., the location of where these killings occurred or where the victim has lived, and known stereotypes that have been continuously enforced by the media, such as violence, fear, and deviant characteristics of these victims (Smiley,& Fakunle, cited in Dukes,& Gaiter, 2017, pg. 791).

Circumstances that accentuated these occurrences are, Trayvon Martin who was shot and killed by a police officer when assumed to be a home intruder in his neighbourhood, was discredited by the media in regard to implementing deviance through the use of marijuana (Pratt-Harris, 2016, pg. 381), Philando Castile who had 52 previous arrests due to minor automobile offenses (Jones,2017, pg. 876), and Tamir Rice a 12 year old boy playing with a toy BB gun, implying threat and criminal responsibility. These representations of these victims along with many more destine blame to be placed on the victim.

The issue of biased stereotypical reports of these black victims by the media is brought forth in comparison to Dylan Roof, a white male who mass murdered nine black people in 2015, who notably was arrested by police, and although committing this heinous act, the question brought to attention by the media was in regard to Roof’s mental state, implementing the inquiry of criminal responsibility of his crime.

The medias representation of Black people is causing distrust and division between races. The improvised news the media is broadcasting, further causes racial stereotypes to inflict fear and anxiety from white civilians, as similarly mentioned in the historical context of this matter. An interpretation of research findings by Dixon and Linz (2000) prompted the thought that “white viewers who regularly watch television news may come to overestimate their chances of victimization and be unrealistically fearful of victimization by black perpetrators” (cited in, Oliver,2003, pg. 7). Research discovered that white people experienced increased brain activity in the regions that are associated with fear, when witnessing an unknown African American individual (Phelps, cited in Weaver Jr, 2016, pg.60).

These research findings could hypothetically correlate the excessive use of force by police officers when dealing with black individuals. Officer Darren Wilson, responsible for killing Michael B`rown stated that “he felt like a child in the grip of “Hulk Hogan” and that Michael Brown’s eyes revealed to him to be a demon possessed with the intent to inflict harm” (Weismann, cited in Pratt-Harris, 2016, pg. 381). Whether officer Wilson truly felt threatened or used the existent stereotype of threatening violence by black people as his defence, it is statements like these that justify the actions of brutality to the public, therefore producing victim blaming, and lack of sympathy for these victims of police brutality.

Conclusion

Research and narrative material regarding the history, and modern day influence the media has on negative portrayals of African Americans, demonstrates the impact on societies view of the justification in police brutality and killing of African American’s. Racial bias whether consciously or not in the police force, is influenced by the perception of black stereotypes, negatively painted in the media. The media’s influence on the public’s apprehension of black victims, allows for justification of these brutal killings of unarmed African American men as Dukes and Gaither brought attention to in a study, which resulted in the findings that people reported their opinion that victims were more at fault than the shooter when described in negatively, black racially stereotypical way (cited in, Jones, 2017, pg.876). Recollecting historical narratives, and observing the continuation of negative depictions, and prolongation of abuse towards black people, conveys a discouraging standpoint for the future of African Americans in the United States subjected to interactions with law enforcement and a biased society.

How Media Cover Crime

The media plays a critical role either directly or indirectly in ensuring that the public is informed on matters that affect their lives. There are different types of media and coverage which determines what kind of crime stories are to be covered by each and to what extent. For example, the national press covers crime that is on national limelight rather than individual crime stories unless there is uniqueness in them. Local media, on the other hand, covers most crime stories within a specified geographical area. Since local media has a smaller geographic coverage as compared to the national press, crime stories get in-depth coverage; an advantage national media does not enjoy (McBride &Jessica, pg. 31).

Introduction

Web-based type of media is rapidly becoming common as a way of covering crime. This coverage is done entirely online on social media platforms. Its popularity is quickly growing since a large percentage of the population is technology enabled and the fact that information can be instantly distributed among masses at high speeds. Web-based media has overtaken newspapers as news are shared without having to wait for the next day for a paper to publish them. Web media use was seen immensely during the hearing and sentencing of David Russel Williams. He is a Canadian serial killer who until his arrest in February 2010 was a colonel in the force commanding the country’s largest military airbase (Hickey, Eric, pg. 364). During his sentencing, reporters tweeted live the developments and proceedings of court for the outside world to see. He was convicted of first-degree murder, sexual assault, forcible confinement, and breaking. The challenge that has come with this type of media coverage is there is no protection of the offenders and victims of crime from online trolls and comments that may be hurtful to them (Augie, pp. 7-9).

Media also cover crime in the form of hard news. Hard news is news that is current and being covered as it happens or shortly after. It is usually time sensitive and delivered in a way that suggests that the public need to be on the know while it is happening. Crime stories that form examples of hard news include an arrest, a serious offense, or a verdict in a high-profile case.

In-Depth coverage of the lives of crime victims and their family form what is known as soft news. Soft news tends to look deep into hard news and bring out what may not have been said and discoveries. Those covering soft news tend to be sensitive to the victims’ stories rather than time sensitive.

Columns and editorials have also come in handy in media coverage of crime where writers of columns can report and more importantly, air their own opinion on matters of crime such as made arrests, fines, and sentencing of offenders. They are not always based on facts but instead on the general view of the writer on an aspect in a criminal process. Columnist differs from journalists in that they are not free from bias in their reporting. They have an essential role in keeping watch of the justice system by airing their opinions when they sense that justice was not well served (Augie, pg. 9). Different columnist will have different views on each crime story, and this will always determine who their followers are after each story. Those who agree with their opinion at that particular time will push their story, and those disagreeing will disregard their views. A crime story that may attract the attention of a columnist is if an offender’s sentence is deemed too lenient thus prompting the columnist to write complaining about the penalty and even the judges.

The internet has generally propelled media coverage of crime. This is in addition to the twenty-four-hour news reporting that has been adopted by most national and international television companies such as CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and CTV (Canadian Television). People no longer have to depend on traditional broadcasting where there was a set time for news broadcasting. These television networks are regularly reporting news as they occur, so issues of interest are aired (Bikram, et al. pp. 25-27). This system is of importance in that warnings can be sent out to the public to avoid areas where crime is ongoing. For Canada, a country that has in the recent years seen a rise in crime especially single perpetrator events, shooting sprees, and rampage killers, twenty-four-hour reporting has enabled would be victims to keep clear of such crime scenes. These events can be described as massacres, that is, deliberate killing of a mass of individuals in a ferocious way especially when they can’t protect themselves.

The media industry is facing an upcoming challenge in reporting of crime by having less personnel and inadequate resources due to declined revenues. This is because there is competition in the media industry with the introduction of many media houses and outlets all competing for the same story. Therefore, a single story ends up in all media outlets and may suffer dilution or even exaggeration in a bid to bring out uniqueness. Many are times that the media has been on the receiving end for producing fabricating and confusing crime stories what one media outlet reports contradict what the other reports and this result in a confused public.

The Canadian Newspaper Association estimates that there are ninety-five daily newspapers in the country. The competition is therefore genuine. The media has high power in controlling public opinion on matters of crime and to control the formulation and execution of policies of the government. The media has a significant role in determining what stories are aired out and those that are not. It in return determines whose voice is heard and whose voice is silenced as evident in the public outcry that happened after the realization that Graham James, a notorious sex offender had received a pardon. It is agreeable that the media has been immensely involved in seeking justice for some of the crime victims by voicing their grievances and concerns (Bikram, et al. pp. 10 -12).

An issue arises with the complexity of what the media covers or not. The editors will usually control what is included in a news report and what is not. In this way, those who cover new will determine the perception of crime depending on the intensity of news coverage and what details are included in the coverage. The opinion of the public on offense will be based on what the media has chosen to tell the people and what it has hidden (Bikram, et al. pg. 3). It is through the media that the public will estimate the rate and kind of crime that happen in their neighbourhoods and cities. The press to shape the sort of attention the people will give a particular featured story on offense. For example, the way a reporter will phrase the headline and where the story will be placed in a paper will determine whether it captures public attention or not.

Crime stories from the fourth largest category of accounts covered by the media. Because no Canadian newspaper lacks a feature on crime, it is evident to the public that crime rate is on the rise and therefore a cause for concern. Although many forms of corruption occur, homicide garners significant attention and coverage in the Canadian media. This is due to the likelihood of the media to focus on stories that are extreme, unique and capable of attracting maximum interest. There are crime stories that are newsworthy and those that are not. The reason some stories are newsworthy is their ability to capture headlines for days, their rareness and the effect they have on people such as shock, fright, and fear. It is common for the media to focus on the homicidal death of a family man and not focus on the killing of a homeless man. The press decides for the public what is worth focusing on.

It is not uncommon for the media to do more coverage on crimes that are committed by strangers and less coverage on those committed by persons known to the victims. A good example is a sexual assault or kidnapping. A case where a woman is sexually assaulted in her home by a stranger who broke into her home will be more newsworthy than an incident where her husband attacks a woman (Tammy, pg. 18). All the crimes are equal in their intensity and seriousness, but the media will make one seem more pressing. By hiding the others, the media creates an impression that those crimes are not happening and if happening they are unreported. Even worse is the creation of a reaction to the public and especially the victims that such crimes need no attention and it ends up that victims suffer in silence while the society adopts them as regular occurrences.

How the media covers crime stories in Canada has developed a notion that some victims are more innocent than others (Tammy, pg 20). This is an indirect victimization of crime victims by the media. A woman raped while in her house would make an ideal victim than a woman who is assaulted at a party. Such kind of profiling leave out some victims from seeking help as it will be seen like they attracted trouble unto themselves. Legitimizing victims by the media is one of the way media reporting impact negatively on victims.

The media portrayal of onscreen violence has contributed to the general behaviour of people. With people becoming mostly interested in seeing things as they are, the media has been a platform that is increasingly becoming uncensored on things appropriate for display to the public. On-screen viewing of violence has been connected to increased aggression, fear, aping and violence with children being most at risk. There is a recognition of the association between watching violence and being aggressive and violent. With such a discovery, copycat crimes are not a surprise.

According to sociologists, how the media cover crime has dramatically impacted on the lives of people especially the youth with an intensification of anxiety (Gerbner et al., pg. 172). There is a distorted reporting on the part of the media as they are taking on biased coverage of crime. This has in return created a public perception that the world is generally mean and there is the elevation of crime in the streets while it may not be true. What people perceive does not mirror reality.

There is a critical question that the media during its crime coverage need to ask; how much information is too much. With the majority of people technologically empowered, there is a rise in the urge and feeling of entitlement and the right to know no matter how life is impacting a story may be. This prompts the question of whether there is a need for the media to report and showcase all the gruesome details of a crime to the public. That kind of crime coverage instead inflicts more wounds on the victims making it harder for them to surpass their ordeal (Gerbner et al., pg. 175).

Media coverage has its merits and demerits and therefore the industry ought to work towards reducing the adverse effects it impacts on the public and upholds the benefits. This is possible through government policing and regulation of content that is appropriate for public consumption.

References

1. Fleras, Augie. The media gaze: Representations of diversities in Canada. UBC Press, 2011.
2. Hickey, Eric W. Serial murderers and their victims. Cengage Learning, 2013.
3. Gebotys, Robert J., Julian V. Roberts, and Bikram Dasgupta. ‘News media use and public perceptions of crime seriousness.’ Canadian J. Criminology 30 (1988): 3.
4. Gerbner, George, and Larry Gross. ‘Living with television: The violence profile.’ Journal of Communication 26.2 (1976): 172-199.
5. Landau, Tammy C. Challenging notions: Critical victimology in Canada. Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2014.
6. McBride, Jessica. ‘Covering Crime: How the Media Covers Violence.’ Wisconsin Interest 14.1 (2005): 31-37. Retrieved from http://www.wpri.org/WIInterest/McB14.1.pdf

The Watergate Scandal: Success of the American Media in Fulfilling Its Democratic Functions Today

To assess how successfully the American media is fulfilling its democratic function today we must look at what the media’s democratic function is from promoting democracy to political socialisation. Secondly, one must a look at whether the United States media has fulfilled its democratic functions in the past and if the same is still true today. Moreover, looking at more current events and the relationship between Trump and the media. Julia Azari and Hunt Allcott provide some insight into how the media impacted the 2016 presidential election. Lastly, how the American media does not fulfill its democratic functions. Furthermore, it is important to note how the role of the media has changed and the impact of the rise of social media, and how that relates to the media and its democratic functions.

Para 1

It is important to note the role between the media and the constitution. The First Amendment grants Americans free speech and throughout American history, it has limited censorship to almost none. However, one example was during the Nixon Administration with New York Times vs United States in 1971. This was also known as the Pentagon Papers case which banned the New York times to publish these papers and risk exposing government actions during the Vietnam War. Ultimately the Supreme Court said that preventing the publication of the report about the Vietnam war would be prior restraint. The United States is on the whole, unencumbered by government censorship, however, there is some limits to what the media put out. Moreover, for commercial reasons, there are often limitations on what is printed, especially with local news. Local news prevent offending their audience and the people watching and reading are more likely to support what the news is offering or writing about. Issues arise when political or commercial tensions stop free speech. In the 1950s, this occurred during the ‘witch hunts’ during the McCarthyite period, this was when liberal papers and TV channels did not argue against the damning of workers who did not sign loyalty oaths or those who were jailed for being associated with communism.

The media has many democratic functions today. Firstly to promote democracy and to provide the two way communicate between politicians and people. Next, to educate the voting people and inform them on the news and give them insight into how the government operates. Then agenda setting which entails defining what is news. The media operates as a watchdog and can hold the government accountable by investigative journalism and muckraking if they need to search for and expose certain politicians’ scandals. Furthermore, the media also is involved in political mobilisation, which includes parties and interest groups using media to get the message across and mobilise voters and activists. Lastly, socialise people into the regime by political socialisation and regime legitimization.

Para 2

In order to assess how successfully the American media is fulfilling its democratic functions today one must see how America has done so in the past. Firstly, the Watergate scandal showcased that the media could perform its democratic functions. Doris Graber explains how Watergate was an example of the media fulfilling its democratic functions. The media saw Watergate as a election campaign tale and that it was a partisan issue. The media, with the help of congress were able to present the scandal as a misconduct and deceit at the largest levels of government which caused upset. Penances for those who were involved in Watergate and the president himself would not have been agreed to. In order for the public to understand the issues in a comprehensible way it was important for the media to be coherent. When news reporters and people in politics changed the Watergate narrative from a ‘bugging incident’ to a scandal people started to take this issue very seriously. The media and the sources they choose for story telling prove to be essential. Depending on where media get their sources from, skewing can occur. When thinking about major public policy issues sources are an indication for media audiences as to whether a certain subject is deserving of reward. Therefore, Watergate quickly turned into a political crisis as media highlighted Republicans and members of the judicial system who recognised the severity of the Watergate scandal. Overall, the media acted democratically and made sure the Watergate scandal was investigated and the appropriate people were aware of it.

Para 3

Before the 2016 presidential election, concerns increased about the impact of fake news spreading on social media. Some data was collected about the impact social media had on fake news. Firstly, 62% of adults get news on social media meaning easier access to fake news. Also, Facebook was a large portal for fake news and the most well received fake news were more shared than the non- fake news articles. Those who read these fake news articles tended to believe them. Many argue that the fake news about Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton ultimately led to Trump’s win in the 2016 presidential election. Data on fake news was collected and the results were fascinating. Firstly, they took all the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton articles on Snopes and then all the articles from the 2016 election from PolitiFact. 156 fake news articles were found and also they could see how many times all these fake news articles were shared on facebook and then separated the articles as pro- Clinton and then pro-Trump. Furthermore, people were reading more pro-Trump fake news articles. Albeit this, Allcott notes that whether this actually affected the election outcome depends on how convincing the fake news was in impacting voters. However, the rough calculations about how much impact fake news had is conservative in other words an overstatement of the relevance of fake news. Allcott stresses the importance of how many people read the fake news articles rather than whether people bought into the stories. Moreover, the articles may not reach that many people in the first place, the fake news stories may reach a little portion of voters but they may see a high volume of stories. Furthermore, these unrefined findings does not acknowledge the fact that people who are more inclined to vote for Trump in the 2016 election would have probably shared Trump favoured fake news in the first place. Ultimately, this would not have much impact on the votes for Trump due to these people already being supporters of his.

Julia Azari discusses how political institutions relate to the media in the United States of America. The 2016 election story is related to the media dismissing the institutional structure, instead saying that large media reports meant Trump gained more supporters. Azari presents how the media affects presidential elections by working within political institutions. On entering the presidential race in 2016, Donald Trump was a very contentious runner in the Republican party. Trump had success in the primaries, winning a large majority in the primary votes and was very popular in the polls during this stage of the presidential race. Trump coordinated the Republican party by getting his message out there which in turn got enough voters on his side which led to him receiving the Republican nomination. Therefore, the media and news were vital in gaining Trump the nomination. The media is involved in the Republican Party and perhaps their network. In the last few years, Azari notes that a theory has been adopted by political scientists whereby parties are made up of interest groups. The two institutional outlooks create an interesting contradiction. The media spread Trump’s message whilst the conservative media failed to stop Trump from gaining the Republican candidate position. The media had an important role in the 2016 election by portraying a constant message. The media reported what Trump would do as president and therefore the media was pivotal in 2016 in carrying out institutional functions. Furthermore, the media has also solidified the principles and representations of the presidency. Azari notes it is hard to know whether the media really did impact on Trump getting the Republican nomination. Moreover, the media key organised job to repeat messages rather than argue with them. The media and the assumptions with it could be trialed using lab and practical experiments. These investigations, mentoring speeches and other media products, might explain how certain factors are related to the presidency in comparison to other people of political importance. In order to understand the media’s part to play in presidential elections one must understand that the media works with voters, and removes other institutions when doing so. However, in the 2016 election assessing the media’s role gives a different perspective. News media’s goal is to help put out the nominee’s message, a vital part of coordination within the party. The media can strengthen people’s comprehension about the way institutions operate and as one can see, they have achieved this at the cost of people looking for power and questions about it.

Para 4

One must examine how the American media does not fulfill its democratic functions. David McKay discusses some of the issues surrounding the media and American democracy is that the media in the US are obsessed with profits which can distort the functions it is supposed to perform. As well as profit, the media in America are very focused on ratings, as in their numbers for readers and audiences that the American media are very commercial on a world stage. Another issue is with public broadcasting which does not seem to be fulfilling its democratic functions today. The role of public broadcasting or news is to meet the needs and cater to the concerns of the public, however, instead it is not very developed and does not cover much of the media output. The media in America is also guilty of distorting certain news and some of the biggest misconceptions are American news giving superiority over foreign news, even when American forces get involved in overseas military action this oversights other foreign news. Another misconception would be finding away to have a consensus position that damages ratings or upset advertisers the least. One example of something offensive occurring was in 2004, when Janet Jackson’s nipple was caught on camera at the Super-bowl halftime show, this led the CBS network to make a public apology. There has also been accounts of the networks failing to responds to political issues such as the Iraq War. Moreover, the media making light of the news and making it simpler and distorting complicated political and public issues by putting ‘soundbite’ clips. The last distortion in the American media is the issue of Fox News, Fox News is unique to the American media as there is no similar platform on the left. This contributes to the increasing political polarisation in America. Fox News and political knowledge have an interesting relationship. Fox News viewers have less political knowledge than those who do not view Fox News. Albeit this, Cassino notes that those who tune into Fox News don’t necessarily are less informed about politics than the average population but that they would be more educated if they were following another news channel. The impact on political knowledge that Fox News has does not harm conservative watchers, but only more moderate and liberal viewers. Furthermore, the issue is not that those who watch Fox News have a lesser general scope about politics, but rather they are not informed on relevant information. Moreover, Cassino says the most comprehensible way to describe the consequences is that Fox news viewers focus on issues that are not shown on other news channels so they are not given the same political information that the rest of the population are getting and therefore are not aware of the questions arising in political knowledge realms. During the Trump administration, Fox News has been an integral part of the presidency. For example, Trump watches TV all the time, especially Fox News. Fox News presenters have also been important to Trump’s presidency, notably, Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro who are both Trump fans. Trump is informed by the media and gets a lot of information from watching Fox News.

The role of the media has changed in America, in the 21st century specifically the media’s role has changed despite there being a sales decline this hasn’t stopped traditional media maintaining their relevance in newspapers or news channels showing to relevant spectators. Between 2007 and 2011, newspapers have had a dramatic decrease in sales and have been called America’s ‘fastest shrinking industry’, going down by 28.4 percent. Their also has been an expansion in online publishing, with an increase of 24.3 percent and a 24.6 percent increase in the internet industry. Not only do these rising platforms replace daily newspapers but also have caused a revised media. Traditional media has been somewhat adaptable, some taking the initiative to include new forms of media amongst their organisation, while some increased their influence as crucial channels to relevant wider audiences and mostly maintaining positions of complex journalism whether local or national news.

In conclusion, the media’s democratic functions does not look like it once did. To assess how successfully the American media is fulfilling its democratic function today, one must define what the democratic function is. Furthermore, it is important to look at how has the media has fulfilled its democratic functions in the past and if the same is still true today. Moreover, the Watergate scandal proved the media fulfilled its democratic functions in getting justice and making sure there was an investigation into the Watergate scandal and that it was taken seriously by the highest government order. In addressing whether the American media is fulfilling its democratic functions today, one must look at Trump and the media and more specifically, the 2016 election and the role the media had in that. Azari and Allcott both agree that the media may have had a part to play in Trump gaining his nomination and eventual presidency and the significance of this. Additionally Allcott assesses the role fake news and the media had on the 2016 presidential election. Finally, assessing how the media does not fulfill its democratic functions and how the role of the media has changed. The impact fox news had on the media and perhaps hindering its democratic function. Overall,

Comparative Analysis of the Internet and Print Media in Terms of Accessibility

Accessibility is the quality of being able to be reached or entered a certain type of something or someone. Internet and Print are two mass medias that have caused accessibility issues, but one is able to conceal the information better. Internet and Print both have their positives and negatives about accessibility when they are being used. The revolution of technology has even had an effect on this where Print media used to run everything and was necessary to have in order to be upto date for example newspapers and informational books, but now internet has taken over and making it both easy access one’s personal information but also hide yourself from everything. Throughout this essay these will be further explained and compared with each other; privacy and personal details, access to updates information and details, and affordability.

Internet and Print media have many issues yet many benefits when compared to each other. Technology throughout the years of media has changed in many ways causing access to privacy and personal details to become a more common motion in play. Internet throughout the years has evolved to the point where everyone can what exactly what you’re doing when and where without the correct privacy settings in place. Although it can allow the user or others to block out anything about a person causing them to become anonymous and hidden from the real whole. Examples of this could be when a user is using Facebook to search another user, they’ll either find out everything about their daily lives, likes, dislikes, past events, etc. Where as when the correct or overused setting are put in place, the user will become completely anonymous causing them to be unsearchable. Continuing with Facebook as an example, it allows a user to post and share their activities onto the internet, leaving others or rather hackers to get a hold of this and know everything about this user. The Internet has rather no limit when it comes to privacy either causing users to be completely anonymous, hiding their identity and allowing themselves through a fake identity to have access to users information and setting, or widely open to the world without any hidden features and still allowing users to have access to their information without hassle. In comparison to print media, the Internet is rather a place where everyone has access to everyone’s information and details whereas print media is rather hidden and cut off at a certain limit. Print media such as newspapers, books, diaries etc,even have their own limit of privacy as well through how much information they share or print to the world. Historical books about famous people will contant everything this person has done or achieved but compared to the Internet it doesn’t explain real time situations on where or when they did some. Diaries also hold issues to privacy issues, if someone gets a hold of the book they will have access to the content with in it. Print media is also not as durable when it comes to damages as their is usual only one original copy and is at risk of fire damage, water damage or environmental damage. Where as internet has backups and can create making copies but still will cause privacy issues if hacked or leaked leaving the user to have all information of this person. Internet and Print media when compared to each other have many different privacy issues when it comes to personal details.

Internet and Print media allow a user to have access to updates information and details. Although technology throughout the years of media have changed, allowing people to have access to all different sources to have access to updates information and details. Information is a large source for information and data but preferable a common source to use for updates rather than print media due to print media having a delay time in processing this information and data on to print which can lead to errors having the print media such as newspapers, to have a setback becoming somewhat an unreliable source. Where as Internet can have real time updates and a larger source of information. The Internet has access to millions of websites some can be unreliable if not used correctly but relatable sources such as digital newspapers like ‘Ninemsn’ allow the users to view real time updates and details on events, hazards, celebrities, etc leaving print media still in their printing phase while Internet has already released and updated their information. ‘Ninemsn’ allows users to view a page layouted out like a newspaper, and once clicked a certain article, the users is allowed to interact with it such as liking, sharing, commenting, etc showing real-time updates in information and reactions of the users and people involved. Where as newspaper is limit what can be shown on each page and covers. The online newspaper allows for videos and images, giving the user more information and details about the event where as Newspapers such as the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ are limited. Newspapers such as these, have a certain limit and word count to each print page it has on it due to having small writing, fonts and small images, where as Internet users are allowed to read larger fonts and images. Also the duriable of the newspaper doesn’t last as long as the Internet, meaning in case of a fire or water damage or even just old age the page will start to disintegrate or fade making it hard to read. Internet and Print media when compared to each other have many different ways in which it allows a user to have access to updates information and details.

Internet and Print media are affordable when it comes to certain audiences when compared to each other. Even though technology throughout the years has evolved into being in our daily lives causes print media to have a fall down in sales, some parts of the world still prefer print media over Internet service when it comes to being affordable prices. Internet affordability throughout the world in at a rate where many parts have less access to it causing it to be more expensive. Internet in comparison to print media is more durable though in the long run through having the cloud, drive, online services to store information with it being damaged, and most of those places are free to use. If fire damage or water damage also occurs having multiple backups for your information and data will be saved and restored easily when in comparison to print media. Internet services are also affordable when it comes to using certain networks such as months payments or weekly payments but in the long run its reliable by lasting longer throughout and transportable when moving from place to place, just use ‘Google Drive’ for example and you’ll be able to see your information and data anywhere throughout the internet by login into your account. Continuing with ‘Google Drive’, this also allows the Internet to be affordable when it comes to storage space. As such, print media takes a whole lot of space whereas Internet allows you to have storage components such as ‘Google Drive’ to storage a massive amounts of information and data. Resources in a later date will probably all be on the Internet as there is many print medias such as books, newspaper, dairies, etc where they require a lot of resources such as paper affecting the environment just to be either throw away at a later date or even destroyed or damaged later in time needing there to be more resources just to make others. Where as Internet only requires a small network space that allows the users to view these books, newspapers, dairies, etc online without affecting the environment as much. Internet and Print media are a lot more affordable these days when it comes to certain audiences when compared. Even though technology throughout the years has evolved into being in our daily lives causing print media to become an efficient source for durable information and data over time, internet is more affordable in the long run although print is more suitable for those who are unable to afford internet and wanting something for a small period of time.

Accessibility is the quality of being able to be reached or entered a certain type of something or someone. Internet and Print are two of the seven mass medias that have accessibility issues and conflicts. Internet and Print both have had their positives and negatives but the revolution of technology has had an effect on this where print media used to run everything and slowly became taken over by a more reliable source, the Internet where it was necessary to have in order to be up to date with information and data, making it both easy to access. Privacy and personal details, access to updates information and details, and affordability all have shown different meanings of being able to access Internet and print media but in the end it’s all the small and has evolved with the audiences taste with their evolution with technology based media.

Essay on Media Analysis: Concept of Narrative Agency and Narrative Analysis

As part of my final essay for DME1000, will be discussing the concept of narrative agency and I will also analyse two set media texts of my choosing. Within this essay whilst analyzing my media texts I will proceed to discussing various narrative theories, differentiating the key difference between a story and plot, as well talking about the significance of the technical and symbolic codes of my chosen media texts.

When analyzing a movie’s narrative ones must know the difference between a story and plot. Plot and story are very similar however are differentiated from each other as Suzzane Keen once mentioned “story means the event of the narrative as “they happened in the imaginative zone, chronological and ordering of fictive time (Keen 2003:75) “ this emphasizes that a story is an essential timeline of circumstance that are showcased in a narrative. A story is a mental construct that connects certain circumstances in the film together. The plot differs from a story however they are affiliated; a plot is a logic that educates its viewers, readers, and audience on why certain series of events make a story. “The fully reconstituted set of narrated even, completed with casual relation and consequences, makes the plot”.

As most films go through, a three-structure act: Beginning, Middle, and End. Emphasized by poet Aristotle, I have realized that Tzvetan Todorov’s narrative theory plays a major contribution towards this point.

Tzvetan Todorov was a French/ Bulgarian film narrative theorist/structuralist. Born on March 1st, 1939 in Sofia, Bulgaria; Todorov has had a major influence on Ferdinand’s semiology and g culture. Whilst reading “Structural analysis of narrative” it was mentioned that in 1969 Tzvetan Todorov that “plot consists of a movement from one state of equilibrium through a state of disequilibrium to a final state of equilibrium that is similar to, but not the same as, the first state of equilibrium”. (Richard L. W. Clarke, Novel 3 p1)

The equilibrium is the primary phase where everything in the narrative seems to be completely good and happy. The equilibrium stage of the film is where most characters in the film are introduced and the status quo. Todorov’s analysis always starts off with the equilibrium stage (balance), Todorov strongly believes that as the storyline develops the equilibrium phase will change shifty due to disrupting events in the story, therefore, allowing the narrative to enter a state of disequilibrium (unbalance). As the original equilibrium is ruptured, a new equilibrium must start, new equilibriums will begin until the final equilibrium has been reached.

Bulgarian theorist, Tzvetan Todorov, suggests that all narratives follow a five-part structure and they are following:

1. A state of equilibrium (stability) at the start
2. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action
3. A recognition that there has been a disruption
4. An attempt to repair the disruption
5. Reinstatement of the equilibrium

Todorov’s narrative theory can be applied to Catwoman (2004) in the following ways:

The equilibrium theory is shown when Patience (protagonist) a very shy woman that cannot stand up for herself, goes to work at a cosmetic company as a graphic designer. Tasked to redesign an advert by her boss, she stumbles across a cat on her window ceil. Attempting to retrieve the cat from the ledge, a patrolling police officer thinks Patience (Catwoman) is attempting suicide. Saved by the police officer, Patience agree to detective Tom’s request for a date. Patience and Tom are seen smiling at each other and this connotes the stereotypical scene in a film where the main woman is saved by her love interest and this scene in most films are where women are represented as clumsy.

The disruption is shown in the form of Patience overhearing the discussion between Laurel and a Doctor on new ant aging product having major health problems. As patience’s and presence is noticed by Laurel’s guards she is ordered to be killed and drowns. As her body is found by several casts and she is mysteriously revived.

The third stage of Todorov narrative act “Recognition of the disruption” is when Patience start to attain Cat capabilities, as her movements are odd and uncontrollable. A good example of this would be when she breaks the glass door and tries to brush it off as a dream. Intrigued by the cat that appears at her flat, Patience realizes that cat belonged to an old Women named Ophelia, who informs to Patience that the cat is an Egyptian Mau a rare cat that gives special abilities to select women after they die.

As Patience is now official Known as ‘Catwoman” she encounters one of the man that was ordered to kill her. As Catwoman attacks the guard, he informs that the company ordered her killed and that he did not know who Patience was. Whilst investigating the company she saw another familiar guard on the night of her original death, murdered is blamed for his death.

As the narrative transitions to the penultimate Todorov film theory “An attempt to repair the damage”. Laurel Hedare contacts Catwoman reporting to her that her husband has committed crimes and she contains proof. When Catwoman arrives, George has been killed laurel and frames patience for the murder. As Tom investigates patience belongings and see a diamond, originally stolen by Catwoman at some point in the narrative. Tom put two in one together and confirms his suspicion that Patience is Catwoman. As the evidence collected clearly indicates that Patience is the murderer, however she denies having any involvement of George’s murder during the interrogation. As Patience escapes from the precinct from the help of Mau, she confronts Laurel in a stereotypical showdown between the hero vs. the villain. This concept strives toward Claude Levi Strauss structuralism theory based on binary opposites.

In typical fashion, Patience claws Laurel’s face during their fight and the instant transformation of her face, is a side effect of the skin care product that she is planning to release. As Laurel falls to her death and Patience manages to save Tom and shut down the Hedare company. Tzvetan Todorov’s narrative theory concludes as a ‘New Equilibrium is reached as she takes the mantle of her Lifetimes Catwoman.The narrative of this film is very tightly plotted because their is a reason for everything that happens in the film and therefore the event that occur in the film is a consequence of what happened previously

Whilst analysis Catwoman the concept of the male gaze an how women are perceived came to mind.The term ‘Male gaze’ stem from the way we create meaning through representations. To continue this, point the male gaze is an ideology to showcase the sexualization of women in films. Laura Mulvey a British feminist theorist in film has stated “This the women as Icon, displayed for the gaze and enjoyment of men, the active controller looks.” (John Storey 2015:9). A good example of this would be American actress Marilyn Monroe. Monroe is an excellent example of the male gaze, as she was highly sexualized in films and even until this very day she is considered majors sex symbol and was dependable to investors in in films. The male gaze is majority represented where a female is the main protagonist in a movie, this was mentioned in DME1000 week 14. “When woman the protagonist”. The male gaze was somewhat represented in the above media text Catwoman. In the Catwoman film, women are stereotypical as being very sexualized both the protagonist and antagonist, as we can see Halle Barry character wearing black leather suit and her female assets are clearly exposed. The ending scene of the Catwoman movie is good example of the male gaze, the camera, focuses on Halle Barry’s body language, the significance of this is to concentrate on the attractiveness of the character being represented.

Throughout my time during lectures and seminar in DME1000 Media Analysis, I have realized when watching Catwoman (2004) that Hollywood love representing woman as passive object, convincing myself to partially agree with Lara Mulvey when she stated female protagonist “coded for strong visual and erotic impact signaling to be looked at ness” (Collen Glen:502).

The second Media text I will analyze is Hancock as a superhero film starring Will smith released in 2008. In my analysis of this film, I will use Todorov’s narrative however It partially be analyzed using Claude Levi Straus’s structuralism theory.

Claude Levi Strauss discovered they understood certain words does depend not on the

meaning it directly holds. They understood the difference between the word and opposites or also known as binary opposition. Claude and Roland Barthes realised that words simply act as symbols society ideas between relationships than fixed relationships.

Levi Straus’s theory is conflict is centred on the binary opposites and that binary opposites are vital high point of a narrative structure. Once Strauss’s theory is understood people will start to realize the Hancock movie also trail the similar structure. Strauss binary opposition consist the following:

1. Good vs evil
2. Black vs white
3. Boy vs girl

The equilibrium stage of the narrative is when Hancock the hero is seen intoxicated and woken up by a child. As he does his deeds and stops a bunch of criminals the disruption occurs as the civilians complain about Hancock’s carelessness for personal property and demand he should be arrested. As relating to Vladimir Propps’s theory, the dispatcher ray (second character) persuades Hancock to go to prison to realise that they need him therefore the recognition part of Todorov’s theory comes in to play. The donor quickly becomes friends with Hancock much to the helper’s dismay.

The disruption relapses as Hancock is seen being terrorised in prison by fellow inmates as he’s responsible for putting them there. Attempting to repair the disruption he had caused Hancock silently pays for his crime but due to his containment crime level has risen. The equilibrium resurfaces as he is a free man; the equilibrium is short lived as there is bank robbery causing the disruption to occur and the robber is established as the villain of the movie. Strauss’s theory “binary opposition” comes into light as good vs evil is established between Hancock and the robber.

The equilibrium again resurfaces as he appreciates the police’s help. As Hancock finds out the truth that the helper was previously his wife they fight across the city, as Strauss theory I’ve noticed that a binary code – boy vs girl (Hancock vs Mary). Ray discovers them fighting making the disruption to happen again. the recognition is occurred again as she stayed away from Hancock to protect herself.

The villain escapes from prison wanting revenge against Hancock. Once he had found him they face off in hospital one final time as everything goes Hancock and Mary are hurting struggling to keep alive. The recognition stage is seen when he tries to stay away as far as possible healing from their wounds. The equilibrium is once and for all seen when Hancock puts the symbol of ray’s PR on moon smiling for his efforts.

Strauss, Todorov and Propps’s film theories are hard to recognise in art cinema are because they are independent films that they targeted at specific audience. Unlike Hollywood movies, art film does not target a large audience to create revenue. Art film does not have a huge budget, art film is eccentric this suggests that art cinemas does not follow the identical construction system like Hollywood movies.

It’s hard to uses narrative theories because art movies are surrealistic and directed and producers tend centre around the dreams of characters instead of giving a direct goal, in art movies, there are some codes and conventions such as, relationship

Art film/cinemas have an unclear structure and therefore could be puzzling. The storyline of an art movie is difficult to keep up with. Resulting that theories created by the film Philosopher that cannot be used in art movies. “There has always been a tradition in European cinema for the production of films that challenge or at least subvert the convention of the mainstream” (Jill Nelmes 1999:84)

Using lights and costumes are very important to the mise en scene, lighting can be used in various ways that can give its audience an impression or emotion on certain characters and scene is in Catwoman, when patience is resurrected, she is shown in an aura green light. As the color green connotes life and energy, this gives the audience the feeling of opportunity is represented as Catwoman is brought back to life. When it comes to a movies antagonist dark color are used, dark colour connotes fear and danger, an example of this is when Hancock is fighting the villain and almost dies on the fact that he’s easily wounded around his partner, you also see in movies that criminals/ villain are never in bright clothing but instead in black or brown clothing.

Even though Catwoman and Hancock are depicted from the same superhero genre, as both characters wear costumes, the costume are an insignia of their character’s history and development. The film does not deter from its original character aesthetically.

When it comes to technicality, Hancock and Catwoman are set in Los Angeles and New York respectively. In my opinion, I believe that Hancock and Catwoman used CGI as the building in the background are artificial. CGI add realism and makes the establishing camera shot very authentic. Films could be grounded with a particular “national milieu” Khan, A west well G. ( 2012:27).

The narrative agency is the agency of characters that Portray themselves to be independent, even though my chosen media texts are based from the superhero genre, the way their characters are represented by their genders is very different Claire Johnston stated “the fact that there is a far greater differentiation of men’s roles than of women’s roles in the history of cinema relates to sexist ideology” (Claire Johnston & Sue Thornman 1999:32). I believed that with the statement that has been made by C.Johnston and comparing to my text, I think that Hancock has agency as act and speak in the movie to own accord, whereas Cat woman, the supporting cast are the cause of the agency of the film. In terms with men having more agency than women in film, I do agree with the statement as society has made it a norm for men to be leaders and reasons for the own action and this is highly reflected in Hancock and represented minimally in Catwoman.

Overall, I believe that by conducting a thoroughly a conducting narrative analysis, I have understood the difference between a story & plot and how they connect with each other, I have also understood that most Hollywood film follow the same narrative structure that was highly influenced by Tzvetan Todorov. By using Todorov equilibrium theory to analyse a movie, the narrative structure does shift four times before finding it’s new equilibrium. Both Hancock and Catwoman are tightly plotted narratives and therefore what happens in the movie is a cause and effect of events that occur one after the other. Whilst conducting research for this essay, the concept of the male gaze, was very difficult for me, however once reading into Laura Mulvey statement on how woman is represented in mainstream media, I was able to apply to Cat woman and how her character was represented. Although whilst looking into Hancock I was able to use another narrative theory by Claude levi Strauss on binary opposite.

In the end decided to write my essay about question 9 Media Analysis DME1000 – Agency & Narrative Analysis best suited me as I enjoyed researching into many concepts, allowing my own opinion to influence this paper and using the knowledge we’ve gained throughout DME1000 to use.

Bibliography

1. Hallcrossmedia.files.wordpress.com. (1969). TZVETAN TODOROV ‘STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF NARRATIVE’. [online] Available at: https://hallcrossmedia.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/11btodorovstructuralanalysisofnarrative-1.pdf [Accessed 11 Apr. 2018].
2. Thornham, S. and Johnston, C. (1999). Feminist film theory. 1st ed. New York: Sue Thorman, p.32.
3. Storey, J. (2015). Cultural theory and popular culture. 7th ed. New York City: Routledge, p.9.
4. www.tandfonline.com. (2017). Complicating the theory of the male gaze: Hitchcock’s leading men. [online] Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17400309.2017.1376892?scroll=top&needAccess=true [Accessed 14 Apr. 2018].

Ways the Media Distorts the Information in Everyday Life: Analysis of Media Bias

The First Amendment; Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This is one of the most important amendments in the history of the world. It could be said that it is the foundation of our country and why people want to live here. The colonists left England in 1620 and came to this land to have free speech, free religion, and to have freedom of the press. Freedom of speech is the most important thing in this world. That is why so many people come to live here. The freedoms of speech, religion, and press gives everyone a new chance to express themselves. No suppression by the government and no suppression by the churches. The First Amendment needs to be preserved for its original intent. The First Amendment is not a weapon and it is not a tool to control people. The press, or the media, has been suppressing people though. They distort the presentation of information to control people’s thoughts and behaviors. The press was designed to present only the factual information to the people, nothing fake or misleading. The media does not directly suppress people, they cover the truth by distortion, omission, and falsehoods. They invoke the people of the United States of America to take a side for or against an individual or a group of individuals. The Covington School Protest demonstrates how the media distorts the information the everyday people absorb, which is not permitted under the First Amendment.

The Media has many ways that it distorts the information that we see and hear everyday. One example is how the media turns innocent people into public enemy number one. On January 18, 2019 a sixteen-year-old high school was turned into the most hated person in the United States of America. This young man was at peaceful assembly, exercising his first amendment rights, with his friends when he was confronted by a Native American activist playing a drum. The young man just stood there and smiled at the man. When the media looked at the video they had recorded, they turned a smiling, and a respectful young man listening to the Native American activist play his drum, into a racist, white power, activist who has no respect for other cultures. This was taken from a three-minute forty-four second video that the Media took their stance on. If they had watched, and presented to the public, the full one hour and forty-six minute recording that was taken their argument would have been a much different than the one they had. It was proven that it was a non-racist, peaceful assembly that the class of Covington High School was attending. It was also proven that the black, Hebrew, Israelites protesting group was yelling very harshly at this group of High School boys. The Hebrew group began talking about Donald Trump and Catholics because the group of high schoolers had MAGA hats on, while calling the group of young men “crackers” (Covington School Protests, USA today). Currently the young man has a lawsuit against the media for false representation of him on national television. The media uses many tactics to spark people’s anger for events that have little meaning to them. People are starting to catch on to what is real and what is biased.

The media has several ways of distorting information. The most used technique is bias by omission. Bias by omission is “leaving one side out of an article, or a series of articles over a period of time; ignoring facts that tend to disprove liberal or conservative claims, or that support liberal or conservative beliefs” (Media Bias 5). Another method is bias by selection of sources. Bias by selection of sources is “including more sources that support one view over another” (Media Bias 6). That would create a poll of which pizza is better, pepperoni or plain, and of the people you choose to poll, nine out of ten of them are eating pepperoni pizza at that moment and only one eats plain. That would obviously cause an unfair poll as the majority of sources chosen were biased towards one option. Another type of bias is bias by story selection. Bias by story selection is “a pattern of highlighting news stories that coincide with the agenda of either the Left or the Right, while ignoring stories that coincide with the opposing view” (Media Bias 7). That would be like providing a study that says there is a cure for cancer, but another study proved that the success rate of the procedure is one in a million. Providing a story that makes people feel good is good for publicity, but if they don’t present the other side of the story, like how often the procedure was successful, people would go around spreading false information that has only one side of the story. Another form of bias, commonly used in newspapers or news websites, is bias by placement. Bias by placement is “a measure of how important the editor considers the story. Studies have shown that, in the case of the average newspaper reader and the average news story, most people read only the headline” (Media Bias 8). Most people read the headline and formulate an opinion based on that when later on in the article, the author could disprove the headline based on evidence they had collected. One of the largest types of bias is used by television media every single day. This bias is bias by labeling. Bias by labeling comes in two forms. The first is the tagging of conservative politicians and groups with extreme labels while leaving liberal politicians and groups unlabeled or with more mild labels, or vice versa. The second kind of bias by labeling occurs when a reporter not only fails to identify a liberal as a liberal or a conservative as a conservative, but describes the person or group with positive labels, such as “an expert” or “independent consumer group” (Media Bias 9). The second type of bias can sometimes be avoided if people analyze the articles properly. If someone in an article is described as an expert, and that expert happens to be a conservative, then the assumption can be made that the author is a conservative author. The final form of media bias is bias by spin. Bias by spin “occurs when the story has only one interpretation of an event or policy, to the exclusion of the other; spin involves tone – it’s a reporter’s subjective comments about objective facts; makes one side’s ideological perspective look better than another” (Media Bias 10). To determine the bias’s spin, then one has to evaluate which agenda the article falls under, conservative or liberal. Once that is found then you have found the bias by spin. Both conservative and liberal media sources use these biases. That is the issue with today’s media. Neither side presents the full truth to a story. It is all about their own bottom dollar and not how they affect the lives of those who they report about.

These biases are not just used by big corporations or only national television, it is used throughout the world. From the largest company to the smallest newspaper, biases are used and create the world we live in now. The title of an article “Ruling Imperils Right To Protest” (First Amendment Coalition title) is false information. Later in the article the author describes that a protest group was not protesting peacefully as a rock was thrown at an officer and injured him. The protest group had every right to protest until they injured an officer. The article was not on national television or in a newspaper, but the title was proven false as the ruling of the court was correct as the protesters did not protest peacefully. In Bath, Maine, a law was put in place that anyone who wanted to perform a protest, had to get permission from the town to protest, pay a $25 fee for the paperwork, and do all this 30 days in advance of the protest. Most protests are not planned, they can happen spontaneously. That law revokes the right of the people to peacefully protest. Also an organization that hosts many events would be excluded from this law as they host many events throughout the year. Not only did the law limit the protesting capability of the people, organizations were excluded from the law so they did not have to follow the law. The law applies to everyone or it applies to no one, there is no picking and choosing who has to follow the law. “The permit application comes with a $25 fee and must be submitted at least 30 days prior to the event. If denied, the permit-seeker can appeal. A new bill being submitted to the people of Bath that requires any event to pay a $25 permit fee and submit this permit to the town for approval of the event. This infringes on the first amendment right because if a protest were to break out then it would be classified as illegal whereas our first amendment right states that the American people have the right to protest at will. So a protest would have to be paid for, and approved, 30 days before the protest would happen. That is illogical as protests happen all the time without warning. Some are planned and others are spontaneous. Some places and groups are exempt from this law as they host so many events, they would be billing them too much for their group to exist. The law either applies to everyone or no one at all” (Portland Press Herald Dec. 7 2019). Things change over time, like laws, television, and the weather. The media like all things change over time.

The media has become a different entity in the post 2000 years. The news presented is not the same as it was in the pre-2000 years. In the pre-2000’s the news gave more sources and gave more time references. There have been many teams that try to investigate the change in the news but the RAND team has seemed to hit the nail right on the head. “The RAND team found that much of the language and tone of reporting in the New York Times, Washington Post, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch remained constant over the past 30 years, but the team also found quantifiable changes in certain linguistic areas between the pre-2000 and post-2000 periods. For example, the three newspapers’ reporting before 2000 used language that was more heavily event- and context-based than it was in stories written after 2000; pre-2000 stories also contained more references to time, official titles, and positions and institutions and used more descriptive, elaborative language to provide story details. In contrast, the team found that post-2000 reporting engaged in more storytelling and emphasized interactions, personal perspective, and emotion more heavily than did stories in the pre-2000 period” (rand.org, Facts vs. Opinions: How the News Is Changing in the Digital Age. 1). The Media has become the one thing it can not be. It presents false information by creating titles that are untrue and choosing which parts of the story to tell to satisfy their bottom dollar. “Broadcast television journalism exhibited similar differences in the pre-2000 and post-2000 samples. The RAND team’s text analysis found a gradual shift in broadcast television coverage from more-conventional reporting in the pre-2000 period, during which news stories tended to use precise and concrete language and often turned to public sources of authority, to more-subjective coverage after 2000, when news stories relied less on concrete language and more on unplanned speech, expression of opinions, interviews, and arguments” (rand.org, Facts vs. Opinions: How the News Is Changing in the Digital Age. 1).

Our Social Media platforms have long been involved in presenting a one sided message to their audiences. Their practice of creating and using mathematical formulas – algorithms, to create a messaging platform that can influence the readers thought process. The unfortunate piece of this information is that readers today are not provided all of the information allowing them to develop their own interpretation of the information. This creates a society of thoughtless drones that only believe what they hear and see.

Essay on History of Mass Media in Nigeria

The history of Nigeria mass media needs to be discussed under two headings for comprehensive understanding. The print media – newspapers, magazines, periodicals and paperback as well as broadcast media – radio and television. This report will brief point into the media history, which also x-ray the performances, problems and successes of mass media from 1859 to date which has been in the fore front in the country’s independence and subsequent nation building. It will also be of great importance to point out the media practice under the missionaries/columnists, colonialists before independence and after independence under the military and the civilian governments in Nigeria.

The Print Media Missionary Press Era

Print media is the forerunner because printing came before journalism. In Nigeria, print media serves as the first and oldest medium of communication in the media history of Nigeria. A professional printer and printing press were first brought into Nigeria in 1846 by the Presbyterian Mission of Rev. Hope Waddell and it was based in Calabar (now capital of Cross River State) with the major function of pamphlets production. Rev. Waddell used his printing press to print religious materials in fulfillment of his mission to evangelize to the people he met in Calabar and its environment and some educational materials but not newspapers. Writing on Waddell’s pioneering effort at printing, the eminent Professor of History, Ade Ajayi, disclosed in his book ‘Christian Mission in Nigeria’ that: “…in August 1849 the printer (i.e., Waddell’s printer) listed that he had produced eight hundred copies of the Primer, five hundred copies of Bible lessons, one hundred and fifty of arithmetic examples, two hundred of multiplication tables, five hundred almanacs with the commandments in Efik, three hundred copies of Elementary Arithmetic and four hundred of the Catechism in Efik and English”. In 1854, printing took a professional dimension when Rev. Henry Townsend fitted up a printing press and inaugurated a printing school in the Mission Compound, Ake, Abeokuta. The first newspaper in Nigeria ‘Iwe Iroyin Yoruba’ was published on December 3, 1859 by Townsend’s printing press, whereas Waddell’s printing press which was the first in Nigeria pioneered general commercial printing. The only newspaper that would have rivaled Iwe Iroyin was Anglo-African which was established by Robert Campbell in 1863 but it died a year later. Iwe Iroyin was however aimed at propagating religion and mass literacy. Iwe Iroyin became bilingual when an English supplement was added to it on March 8, 1867 before it finally disappeared from the newsstand later that year. After the demise of Iwe Iroyin, popular newspaper failed to show up on the newsstands until 1880s. The period within 1867-1880s is regarded as the blank period in Nigeria press history.

Colonial Press Era

This was the period that allegations were raised that the newspapers set up by colonialists were controlled to suit the purpose of the European proprietors on the ground that African events were not reported. All these allegations were combined to convince articulate Nigerians that was high time they had a native press that would mirror their desired aspirations. This struggle led to the emergence of nationalist press which served as the instrument to get mental emancipation from service colonial mentality. By 1920s, the nationalist press had started to operate in a full force. These media emerged to challenge, compete with and finally displace the colonial administration. Most of the newspapers were privately owned, except the Nigerian Daily Times published by Nigerian Printing and Publishing Company in conjunction with Daily Mirror Group of London. During this period, different newspapers were established which served as organs of individual political leaders. Notable amongst them were ‘West African Pilot’ established in 1937 by Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, ‘Daily News’ owned by Herbert Macaulay and ‘Tribune’ (now Nigeria Tribune) established by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1949. These newspapers joined in the advocacy for political emancipation from the colonialists and ‘Tribune’ was a megaphone of its proprietor, advancing his political philosophies and enhancing his popularity in preparation for the struggle for leadership of the country, if when it became independent. However, there were some other newspapers established after the first three mentioned. It was noted that most of these newspaper writers were loyalists of their respective proprietors. One undisputable fact is that, the Nigerian press of the nationalist period was aggressive in agitation and advocacy, fighting in unism for the independence from colonial masters.

Civilian Press Era

This period is regarded as the time during which the government and the governed had freedom of communication to each other for mutual benefit. Thus, for any civilian system of government to be democratic, there should be freedom for every individual to express or publish his or her views or ideas through the instrumentality of the mass media without fear of prior restraints or arbitrary punishment for whatever being published or expressed. The independent constitution of 1960 was the first to allow for freedom of the press, later which the 1963 republican constitution reproduced the 1960 provisions, in addition, the 1979 constitution provided Nigerians a high degree of press freedom such as freedom of media ownership. The press, especially during the first republic was mostly controlled by their proprietors most of whom were politicians and press men became sycophantic propagandists for their employers. They threw professional ethics over board, forgetting the watch dog roles of the press. The Second Republic press also allowed for the politician to win and control the press and the effect of this partisan on the Nigerian Second Republic press was disheartening. The owners controlled the press personnel and newspaper centers to suit their selfish political purpose without any consideration of the citizenry. Under this republic, newspaper often danced to the tune of the owners. The effect of this was that, newspapers neglected stories on issue such as corruption, oppression and ethnicism. Examples of these newspapers who practiced such system were the Daily Times, New Nigerian and Herald controlled and serving as sycophantic megaphones of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), which controlled the federal government, while Sketch and Observer constituted the large mouths of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), which controlled the four Yoruba speaking states and the old Bendel state now Edo and Delta states. An important fact remained that, in second republic press most of the private owned newspapers were strictly monitored and controlled towards the desire of their politically-minded owners as well as destruction of their proprietors’ political opponents sometimes with no regards for truth in their reporting. However, most newspapers tried to be fair in their coverage or events in the current civilian era regardless of the political party involved. This is because most of the prominent newspapers are not owned by notable politicians.

The Press Under the Military

The military like the civilian controlled the press as well but political control of the press during democratic era does not feature prominently during military regimes. Press censorship has also been associated with the military more than the civilian administration in Nigeria. The conditions of the press during the military era, the office of the foreign press in Nigeria was closed by the Murtala/Obasanjo military administration in 1976. The office or Reuters, the British News Agency, was shut for reporting events arising from the abortive coup in which Gen. Murtala Muhammed was assassinated. The use of newsprints as a weapon of control by the Buhari/Idiagbon regime which realizing its significance refused to grant news media exemption from the 20 per cent (20%) duty imposed on all imports. It also ordered that the payment of customs duty on newsprint be done in advance. This led to the April 1985 hike of newspaper price from 20 kobo to 30 kobo. Also, General Ibrahim Babangida’s administration sent a combined team of soldiers and policemen to close down and occupy the premises of Concord newspaper, Punch, Sketch, Abuja News Day and the Observer as a result of the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election. On the other hand, the Obasanjo regime decided to control the government owned media as a result of incessant criticism from the Nigerian press. For instance, the former Chief of Staff, supreme headquarters in the regime, Major-General Sheu Yar’Adua said that journalists working in government owned newspapers should “learn to toe the government tune or quiet”. This directive however put the government owned newspapers’ operation in some kind of dilemma over what exactly to do on certain crucial national issues. On the other hand, privately owned newspapers did not hesitate in playing watchdog roles as well as responding to the constitutional demand of rendering the account of the government to the people during the military era. Today, there are over one hundred newspapers in Nigeria and over fifty magazine organizations.

The Electronic Media

Broadcasting in Nigeria is one of the gains Nigeria had from colonialism. The foundation was laid by the then Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) who conceived the idea of ‘Empire Broadcasting’. This did not materialize until 1932 when the ‘Empire’ was divided into five zones, namely: Canada, South Africa, India, Australia and East Africa. Lord Reith, who was the prime mover behind the idea, was said to believe that ‘Empire Broadcasting’ would overcome some of the isolation and directness that is the fate of many of our overseer relatives. If we bring to them and to others some share of the amenities of the home country and metropolitan interest and culture, which for one reason or another, may not be fully available.

Broadcasting came to Nigeria in stages. The first stage or step was the introduction of wired broadcasting known as ‘radio distribution’ or ‘rediffusion’. On Sunday, December 1, 1935, the wired broadcasting service known as the Radio Distribution Service (RDS) formally took off as it was commissioned in Lagos. Subscribers responded well at its introduction. However, after the Second World War, a 300-watt short wave transmitter was installed in 1948 under the name Radio Nigeria. Radio Nigeria was in the main to rely the BBC with one hour of its broadcasting however, set aside in the evening for local programs which featured entertainment, news and local announcements. The RDS operation came to an end in 1951, the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) was established. It had stations in Ibadan, Abeokuta, Warri, Enugu, Ijebu-ode, Onitsha, Port-Harcourt, Calabar, Jos, Kaduna, Katsina, Zaria and Kano. However, after the regional independence, the Western Regional government demanded its own broadcast station. Thus, on October 31, 1959, the government of Western Nigeria under Chief Obafemi Awolowo went ahead to found Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service (WNBS) the first in Nigeria and in ‘black Africa’. It is pertinent to say, it is the WNBS which also championed the advent of television broadcasting not only in Nigeria but also in Africa. Thus, as contained in the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) handbook in 1981, television broadcasting under the WNBS was initially under the trading name of Western Nigeria Radio Vision Services limited, in partnership with overseas radio-fusion limited, United Kingdom, UK. This later changed into Western Nigeria Broadcasting Services/Western Nigeria Television (WNBS/WNTV). It has ‘first in Africa’ as its slogan. The WNBS/WNTV gave way, a year later (1960) to the former government of Eastern Nigeria, to set up the second Nigeria television service known as Eastern Nigeria Television (ENTV). The establishment of Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service WNBSTV) combining radio and Africa’s first television services, triggered a race by other two regions to set up their own broadcasting services. In 1962, the Northern Regional Government established a television which was an arm of Broadcasting Company of Northern Nigeria (BCNN). Also, in Kaduna was situated Radio Kaduna Television (RKTV). This was jointly owned by the regional government and the British Television Company. The Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) took over when America partnership was terminated. The post-civil war economic boom precipitated the take-off of the new states station in the Midwest, Benue-Plateau (first color television), Kano, Rivers, East Central (at Aba) and North Western states. WNTV gave way to the establishment of many television stations not only in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole.

Conclusion

Today, one finds out in Nigeria that each state has at least two television stations, one for the federal government. The federal government owns the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) which was inaugurated in 1977. Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) was also established in 1978 with NTA as federal monopolies. The decree 24 of 1977 which established it was promulgated in March, 1977 but took effect from April, 1976 by the decree, the NTA became the only body empowered to understand television broadcasting in the country, and it commenced network news to all states of Nigeria. Broadcasting system in Nigeria has taken a giant step with the advent of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) which was established in 1992 to monitor and regulate broadcasting in Nigeria. This came as a result of decree No. 38 of 1992 which ushered in the participation of private broadcasting stations and outfit in Nigeria. The decree put under NBC all transmission by sound or vision by cable television, radio, satellite or any other medium of broadcast from anywhere in Nigeria to its authority. However, there are over fifty radio stations owned and controlled by both federal and state governments, about thirteen radio stations owned by the private sector. While there are about thirty-two television stations owned by the federal government, about thirty owned by the state government and about ten owned by the private sector. This is the reason Nigeria has been regarded a media proliferation due to the continued increase in mass media, thus, print media-newspapers and magazines and broadcast media-radio and television.

References

1. Ogunyem et al. (2014). Problems of Mass Media in Developing Countries Available at: https://www.academia.edu/13803547/Problems_of_Mass_Media_in_Developing_Countrie (Accessed: 23rd March 2019).

Essay on Why Marvel Is Better than DC

“Just because something works, doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.” – Shuri (Black Panther, 2018)

Marvel vs Dc has been an ongoing debate for years now. Who’s better at producing movies? Who’s better at selling comics? Who has the best characters? Don’t get me wrong all of the questions above are valuable but the real question we should be asking is who is better at marketing and advertising their content?

Introduction: The Marvel vs. DC Debate

Let’s start by explaining who these big companies are.

Marvel was founded in 1939 (80 years ago) and it’s an American media franchise that since 2009 is owned by Disney. They started with comic books and since then have made their way into the cinematographic industry.

DC Comics was founded in 1934 (85 years ago), for those who don’t know DC stands for Detective Comics (because it was because of a comic book series about a crime that the two founders of DC ended up teaming up and forming a company using the same name). They have since been a huge part of the comic book industry and later on of the TV and film industry. They are currently owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Historical Background: Marvel and DC’s Origins

To understand the importance of marketing in the cinematographic industry and its impact on Marvel’s revenue, we have to understand what Marvel was and what it did to become who they are today.

Back in the 90s Marvel was pretty much done for, they were strapped for cash and the solution that they found back then was to sell the rights to some of their heroes.

Back then DC’s heroes were already well known; with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman under their belt, it seemed like they had nothing to worry about, especially when Marvel sold the rights of their top heroes Spiderman (to Sony) and X-men (to 20th Century Fox).

After the deal, Marvel was left with some money but no well-known heroes to work with. That’s when their marketing strategy really began. Let’s think about 11 years back. Beginning of 2008 who would you know that would recognize Iron Man or would know that it was not only the title of a Black Sabbath song?

Before the movie, Iron Man was released not many of us knew who he was and now there’s not one kid who doesn’t know his name.

Marvel choose a long-term strategy. Instead of releasing separate movies or even just working on the avengers straight away, they chose to build the brand first.

Let me give an example of how they worked using a cosmetics brand. Let’s pretend that there’s a new brand in the market that not a lot of people know of, so instead of releasing a full line of cosmetics and deals, they choose a long-term strategy to introduce their products one by one to the public to build the brand’s image.

At first, they release lipstick (Iron man) after that they release their bronzer (Hulk) their eye shadows (Thor and Captain America), and so on. When their products are well known individually they wrap all of them together in a pretty purse (a great production) and release them together as a whole (The Avengers).

What we have to understand is, the idea was always, from the get-go, to sell the purse but instead of just doing it with what they had available they strengthen the name of the brand because with a strong name it’s easier to sell products.

They chose to work on a long-term strategy to make more money later instead of making quick cash immediately.

The Marketing Genius of Marvel

Comparing Marvel and DC ends up being inevitable, they both have very similar products and dare I say almost the same fan base. This entire market focused on superheroes started with comic books, and both of these companies (Marvel and DC) are greatly expanding this market and taking it to a whole new level by utilizing all types of channels available in a vigorous effort to make their characters more popular and well-known.

The animated series DC has Batman: The Animated Series that won an Emmy award, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, we all have watched at least an episode in our earlier days and the reruns were watched by our kids or younger siblings.

DC also has the longer-running superheroes series on TV with Smallville a Superman prequel about his teenage years that ran for 10 years (2001-2011).

DC’s Struggles and Successes

In the small screen aspect, we can say that Marvel is following in DCs steps and providing more content to their fans.

Since 2013 we are being bombarded with Marvel TV series. We were introduced to SHIELD and their characters throughout the Marvel movies, and after the success of The Avengers, a TV series based on those characters was released. Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. won a ‘Most exciting New Series in 2013 in the Critics’ Choice Award and has been an ongoing series on ABC (an American broadcasting company) series ever since.

Another 15+ series from Marvel were released or are bound to be released in the next couple of years. These series are spread across different platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Freeform, and the newest Disney+. It’s easy to see how Marvel is now everywhere, which is another part of their marketing strategy.

Some people choose Netflix, some choose Hulu and Disney+ but different Marvel series are available in all of them.

This essay is by no means trying to bury the work that DC has done. Their heroes are still well known and still bring audiences to the movie theatres but if they want to catch up with Marvel’s success they will have to come up with a stronger marketing plan.

DC keeps excelling on the small screen with Gotham, Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl and they also found a great way to do a crossover, with the last 3 shows mentioned being connected in the same cinematographic universe. They tend to get high ratings when the characters get together in the different shows, but this is not enough to bring their heroes up into the 1st place again.

A way into selling is by making people relate to what you have, that’s why people buy products promoted by digital influencers that they like because they relate to them. Marvel is doing a great job of bringing the characters closer to the audience, we are all cheering for them and sad when they get hurt and that’s what keeps us following their journey. We want them to win and we want to see it happens. DC, on the other hand, keeps their heroes a bit above us and that creates a bigger difference between us and the characters that influence when we want to choose if we want to watch them or not, and that has been proved.

A study conducted by ZappiStore used facial expressions of people reacting to both, Marvel and DC trailers. The study showed that Marvel movies achieved more success because the audience find them more appealing and emotionally engaging than DC movies. That has a lot to deal with how the movies are produced and the idea behind them.

The Emotional Connection: Marvel’s Edge

What I mean by this is, in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) all the films are made in a way that they complement each other and at the end of each movie we have a sneak peek of a scene that shows what we are supposed to expect and to peak our curiosity on how things are going to connect and it creates that anticipation feeling that drives us to the movie theatre.

On the other hand in the DCEU (The DC Extended Universe) the films are produced in disconnected ways where the movies are pursuing individual successes without showing the development of characters and without hinting at what’s about to come.

DC is trying to change this image though, they did hint at the idea of the justice league movie in Batman vs Superman, the same movie in which they introduced wonder woman before the release of her solo movie, so, they are trying to achieve a similar feeling that the MCU created they are just not having the same success.

Justice League was released in 2017 bringing all of their biggest heroes together (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg) and they also used a lighter tone to the movie to appeal more to the audience.

They were eager to compete with Marvel, and because they wanted to be up to par fast, they didn’t give enough time for their characters to conquer the public’s heart.

Even though the public is aware of the existence of the DCS superheroes (even more than they were aware of the Marvels heroes when they first started) the production and the way they are introduced in the cinematographic universe is different, and without getting their public involved and invested in the characters, the movie ended up not being as successful as The Avengers (the equivalent of the movie on the different company).

In the comic book side of it though DC has been trying and even succeeding in marketing its brand. In 2016 they came up with the rebirth book collection. In this collection they had a line-wide re-launched of their titles, they all had different covers and were released twice a month (Their previous comics were released once a month) and the collection ended up being very appealing to the readers making the sales of the comic books soar right after the launch. But even so in August 2019 in every two comic books ordered from Diamond Comic Distributors by North American comic book, one was a Marvel comic book which means that Marvel held a 50% share amongst all other companies for the month of August.

Conclusion: The Future of Marvel and DC

The quote by Shuri in the Black Panther shows what Marvel is going for, they have a system that is clearly working but at the same time they are not holding back, it’s the opposite, they are pushing forward and trying to improve even more by pushing their brand in all channels, they are present on tv, comic books, toy shops and more importantly on the cinemas. They are also very present on social media, all of their actors are constantly posting about the movies and hinting at what’s about to come, their interviews get constantly shared on social media and that keeps the public interested.

DC is also following one of their hero’s quotes and dare I say not in the best manner.

“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.” – Batman

What I mean by this is, DC has great characters which we were raised listening to and talking about, but even do they have this strong core they are not doing much about it. They are taking them for granted and not working on them in a way to make them more interesting to the public and that’s the reason that their numbers are going down. I do believe that if DC works in its marketing strategies it can be up to par with marvel they need to evaluate what’s best for their brand even if that means starting again and working to build the brand back up.