Read up on the Rupert Murdoch phone scandal. You can find some links (from TIME online) I posted up in Week 6, as well as read up on the Newsweek coverage of the news. In relation to the news coverage on the scandal, answer the question: "The news media should be blamed for the unhealthy paparazzi culture and going to the extremes for sensational news. How far do you agree?"
I would agree with this statement. This paparazzi culture is actually started by the greed of the media, wanting to make more money by having more news to report on. In the Rupert Murdoch scandal, the News of The World hacked the phones of murder victims and loved ones of dead soldiers and victims of 911. This was what angered the public, because although phone hacking is not a rare thing, it normally affects only royalties, stars and other famous people, but this time the public was involved. Those famous people have to give up their privacy for their jobs, which is not the case for the ordinary people that are involved this time. Greed has a big part to play in this scandal as the News of The World leeched those very personal and private voice mails of the ordinary residents of Britain for their gossip news, in an effort to attract more people to buy their papers, especially those who like such genres of news, to make money. Another example is the news media in Hong Kong which has a great portion made up by gossip news. The media in Hong Kong go to very extreme means trying to get news to report, to the extent that they stalk some politicians and movie stars. Another example is also the death of Princess Diana. The media was blamed for the death of Princess Diana as it was the media scrutiny that Diana was trying to avoid that eventually made her enter the car that was driven by a drunken chauffeur, who lost control of the car, resulting to the crash and the death of Diana. However one might argue that it was the demand for such news by the paparazzi lovers that forced the media to go to extreme means to obtain news, but this is not that case in my opinion as what the people demand is not necessarily what they get, and that it was the initial burst of gossip news in the media that got the readers addicted, and this addiction was then made use of to make more money. Subsequently when the demand becomes increasingly higher the media then took the opportunity to earn yet more money through such disgusting methods so that there is a continual flow of gossip news to leech on and report about.
Great example about the Princess Diana issue tietgan! However, i feel that you missed out on the point that law is also neglected to allow the media to earn yet more money through such disgusting methods. If they would make harsher rules and regulations, the news media would not have done such means and in this case, Princess Diana would not have died
ReplyDeleteHi TietGan! I feel that you can try to paragraph your views so as to make for a better reading experience for your readers. It is quite incredible that yo can bring forth such an example, elaborate and link it back to the topic. You have also utilised the technique of common understanding in which you explain with feelings that an average layman will takeaway from your views. Good job and keep it up :)
ReplyDelete-Liang Hao
Hi Tiet Gan, I like the fact that you have included many examples to support your arguement I also like the fact that you used some counter examples to justify your argument. However, I do not quite understand when you said: "what the people demand is not necessarily what they get". Perhaps you could explain further. Your rebuttal seems to suggest that the unhealthy paparazzi culture is a chicken and egg problem. This seems to contradict your argument that the news media are solely responsible. Anyway, good job in general :)
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