Who Decides What News Is?

After watching the videos, it is clear that there is a problem with the media system. It is clear that the media agenda is not set by crucial issues that effect the public, but by the owners of the radio and television stations, which in many cases they are set to cover what they want. With this issue of not covering important stories for the public, which many of them have to do with minority issues, they are doing the public a huge disservice. I think that it is extremely important for minorities to have media outlets that they can go to for there own cause. I think that these media outlets speak directly to them. Instead of listening to other people's agendas, they can be informed on the issues, which directly affect their communities. After watching the videos I thought that WVON radio station in Chicago is an amazing thing. An African American radio station that started in the middle of the civil rights movement and is still serving the community in Chicago today. That is a special thing, and more of this should be occurring around the country. This success story proves that not everyone has the same interests. I think that the best way to continue to spread the word to minority communities is to expand the range of these racially and ethnically motivated media outlets. Although I believe that this should serve as a building ground to evolve the mainstream media into a source of media that covers everyone's interests. The war in Iraq is an interesting story about covering interests. At the time we were in a very defense mind set following the September 11 terrorist attacks. It was the first time since Pearl Harbor that we as a country had been attacked at home in that deadly of a fashion. When we went into war, the media did a fine job of ignoring the opposing opinion to the war, and in turn did there best to justify the war in a sense to not look un-patriotic. Whether you believe that the war was the right or wrong choice, this is how the issue was covered initially. Today, the media has very different opinion. Although the times in Iraq have gotten far better than when we first invaded, it is still controversial. In the upside, I have friends who are over in Iraq right now. They are doing things like building schools and setting up business and city. They do not want to be there any more than any of us would, but they are soldiers and are doing the job they signed up for and they will be the first to say that. I think that it is a very important part of life to have an opinion because opinions are what have made our country the great democracy that it is, but in the end the support for those who are over there defending our country so that we can live our day to day life’s and go to school and get drunk on Friday and Saturday nights is extremely important. The next time you see and man or women in uniform walking on campus or in the airport, go up and thank them for what they do. I know I do every time I run in to a man or women in the armed services. Anyways, off of my soapbox about supporting the troops. The media has covered numerous protests, from gay marriage, to the war in Iraq. I think it is important that they do not ignore many of these marches as they have done in the past, although I believe there is a limit because if you show too much of a protest, in a media world attempting to be fair and balanced, you tend to take sides on touchy issues in the United States. The Civil Rights Movement benefited the most from media coverage. For many Americans they lived in a bubble of black and white and ignored what was really going on in society. The media opened the doors to ignored images and social spheres that would have never been opened if the coverage had been ignored. We are a better country today for the detailed coverage of the Civil Rights Movement. The media is a very important part of our society, if not the most important. If we do not have freedom of the press as Americans, we do not have democracies. God Bless America, and God Bless the first amendment and what it has done for this country!