News Analysis

The prospect that media exists as one big advertisement venture has ceased to become breaking news . More than a few people are aware that everyday in magazines , newss , radio , the internet , on television and so on , mass media is constantly feeding and selling us ideologies Imposing on viewers , readerships , and the rest of the consumer driven world what they should buy , should eat , should wear , and every other banal detail in between . This dim view of media however , is not entirely arbitrary and baseless

Journalist and media critic Ben Bagdikian , in his

book 'the Media Monopoly ' writes how large corporations are taking over networks studios , publishing houses , and various media outfits . This trend concerns the general public because media is a mouthpiece , an avenue for the airing of issues , information and opinions when this avenue is in the select hands of a few individuals and companies , content is limited to what these corporations as so

In local daily newss today , there seems to be confusion in the way hard news is presented amidst the throng of entertainment and advertisement that runs rife in media and the news is no exception . The front page is splattered with news that range form 'hard to 'soft ' from a stories on forest fires and local government , to how one celebrity will be spending her Thanksgiving , to the winning game of a football team , then on to an advertisement of the latest mobile phones for sale . The assortment of such s splashed in a seeming careless manner on the front page of (many ) local daily newss could be attributed to variety , and the desire to cater to a wider readership But the adjoining existence of entertainment , a pressing critical issue and a crude advertisement , sitting in the same page and in close proximity with each other seem unforgiving in how it resorts to a classifieds-type page as opposed to the front page , which is where the most important concerns of the day should be

In large media corporations and in smaller media outfits , what remains constant today is the importance of profit . Hard news is scarce because it costs more money to deliver , and because of its serious tone and lack of predilection to the sensational , it hardly ever sells at least not to the majority of the general public . Entertainment on the other hand is cheaper to come by , and at the same time , yields better profits , in that the public enjoy reading it more . Advertisements are squeezed in where they apply , and sometimes , even when they don 't

The succeeding pages of the news usually composes of regional news , entertainment , sports , sometimes international affairs , the editorial page , the classifieds , business , the obituary , the TV page and even more advertisements . What is intriguing is how these sections were organized to cater to specific individuals and their reading preferences , but also how ultimately , some of these articles hardly differ from each other , in that they aim to inform people about a certain subject matter , and...