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PHIL 109 ESSAY 20180611 Paper 2
PHIL 109 ESSAY 20180611 Paper 2
1
and ability to expose the truth. Some people question the possibility for
media and journalists to be objective; since we all have personal biases
that affect our perception.
2
Regarding sensationalism, we must recall businesses have the goal of
making a profit. While some argue providing a good service -in this case,
journalism and opinion- is the best way to generate revenue,
democratically accomplished journalism is not necessarily what people
naturally choose to consume. Media corporations often resort to irrelevant
attention-grabbing topics to get the audience’s interest. Thus, the issues on
the spotlight are not those the citizens need to be informed of for the
functioning of democracy but rather those which ensure higher sales.
2
Some studies question whether people do tend to choose news outlets
that follow their thinking (see Garton Ash, 2016). However, the increasing
importance of social media (e.g. Facebook or Twitter) to source people’s
news and opinions makes the reliability of such studies irrelevant, given
that these platforms algorithmically filter the content every individual is
exposed to match their ideological traits.
3
As aforementioned, the solution to clearly biased media outlets is for
people to obtain their information through different outlets. It seems the
Internet revolution could greatly facilitate this process; since it has both
magnified the number of sources at reach by an individual and vastly
reduced the barriers to access information -most media outlets are free
through the Internet. Yet, recent political developments -such as the
increased ideological polarization in European and North American
countries- suggest that in fact, the use of resources social as channels does
not pluralistic sourcing of information; but rather more segmentation of
the media market. Deterring the extent to which subjectivity is
counteracted in a citizen’s intake of information.
4
Additionally, since all corporations basically depend on its owner’s
decisions, it is unlikely that a media outlet would publish any information
contradicting the owners’ interests. Furthermore, and even more so in
digital media, advertisers are an essential part of media outlets’ revenue.
Hence, it is an uneconomic business decision to publish any content that
might offend or harm the outlet’s advertisers.
5
Bibliography
Garton Ash, T. (2016). Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected
World. New Haven: Yale University Press.