The media plays a requisite role in the society when it comes to passing information to people in different demographics. It creates an opportunity for them to be educated in one way or another. This is more prevalent in the event when there is the provision of all the relevant facts regarding an issue that is likely to affect the target audience. People get an opportunity to construct their opinion based on the facts provided. There are those that even recant their previous opinions based on the new knowledge acquired regarding the issue. Others tend to get more information to add to their arguments.
However, this is not necessarily the case in the current state of the media outlets. There is a lot of bias taking place, where the information provided seems to lean towards one side of the issue being discussed. This makes it grueling for the media to provide all the relevant facts regarding that particular issue. Most of the information provided is more inclined towards what the media wants the people to believe. As a result, the masses form their opinion based on inconclusive facts, and this might be detrimental while moving forward as a nation (Nava & Dawidoff 7).
The media has problems while dealing with issues regarding the faith of the audience. Among the problems that the media encounters is the desire to please its audience. Every media outlet has an idea of what its audience expects from them. This is based on its orientation and prevailing demographics. Different people will have a different opinion regarding a certain issue. This is based on how they have been brought up, and what they have been taught to understand as the right course of action given a certain situation. As a result, media outlets take sides on issues that elicit the audiences’ faith based on what they think the audience would relate with (Nava & Dawidoff 9). In case most of the followers to certain media outlet’s contents are Christians, there will be a tendency for the media involved to provide facts against such issues are gay right and abortion. This would mean the provision of little or nil facts that tend to support these issues. The media becomes constrained regardless of the beliefs of the people passing the information.
The media also encounters the problem of how people tend to perceive news. There is the notion that bad news sells. This has been proven from time to time. It is true to conclude that while reading the news, it feels like most of the things being reported are depressing and terrible events. There is more concentration on bad things happening in life as opposed to the good ones. A profound look at the issue shows that the viewers or readers have encouraged journalists and presenters to focus on such things. “Many people often say that they would prefer good news, but is that actually true” (Stafford 1)? The audience tends to have a ‘negative bias’. Psychologists use this term when describing people’s hunger to hear and recall bad news. People tend to respond quicker when negative words are used as opposed to positive ones (Stafford 1). This is why the media seems to take side on issues affecting the faith of the audience in order to elicit the desired response.
I imagine having a TV show that revolves around educating the public about gay rights. The name of the show would be, “Everyone is entitled to equality”. The show would be running for 30 minutes, and this would be on a weekly basis. The target audience would be the mainstream media.
The main objective of the show would be to educate the masses about gay rights. This would involve hosting guests (both gay and straight individuals) to detail their stories. The straight individuals involved with the interviews would entail people that have interacted with gays at a given time in their lives. The guests involved would tell their stories on what they have encountered in life based on their status. There would be an elaboration on what being gay is all about. How the general public views them, and the effect it has had on their lives. The guests to be interviewed will not be derived from a specified social class. It would entail both celebrities and ordinary individuals. The interviews would be the main segment of the show, and the questions asked will be open-ended to help the guests provide as much information as possible.
An example of a favorable topic would include “Violence Against Women Act applies to men and gays too”. The guests would tell their stories of what they have had to deal with based on their status. Such a topic would be a way of creating awareness, and showing that whether an individual is gay or not, they are still human beings and should be accorded equal rights and protection.
Works Cited
Nava, Michael, and Dawidoff, Robert. Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter to America. New York: St. Martin’s, 2014. Print.
Stafford, Tom. “Psychology: Why Bad News Dominates the Headlines.” BBC. N.p., 29 July 2014. Web. 30 July 2016.
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