"What I found is that the media's need for money to operate and the average citizen's desire to spend no money is the crux of the failing relationship between the two. I consulted an outside source about the media's relationship with society before posting this discussion. This outside source was a friend of mine majoring in Journalism. What I uncovered digging from him as a resource was that while media was heavily sensational in the last decade, it is recovering. This confirms my suspicion that things are not as bad as they seemed, and that we do have something of a healthy balance between entertainment material and current, relevant information. However, there is frequently a bias in reporting, and I was upset that reporters could be so shallow. I proposed that reporters should attempt to be thorough in the presentation of background information, demonstrating the merits of both sides such that consumers can choose for themselves to reject or accept the information. My friend suggests that while this is the paradigm of good reporting, the real problem stems from Gatekeeping. There is an information bias as several corporations own almost all news reporting stations. So an editor can reject this well designed report in favor of one that merely plays to an individual's interest without attempting to serve the people.


This is not to say that the editors are to blame. If a news company cannot acquire income from the people, whom of which are simply interested in paying for news anymore, all that remains is for the company to rollover for a larger company or corporation in order to sustain themselves. As citizens, these events may be invisible to our perception because they would never make it the ground level, and we consume very minimal amounts of information from independent news companies. I am agreeing with suspicions that the media is not doing their job correctly, however, a man has to eat. If we are not willing to support them in exchange for their help, they will work with who they must or abandon the field entirely. We also have a responsibility in this dynamic relationship to ensure that we support those who help us. It is an exchange of goods, and we are trying to weasel out of our end in the agreement."