BLOG#6

NEWPAPERS




Newspapers seem to be a very credible source to receive information from. News from all over the world can be found in print and on paper every morning waiting for readers to digest. However, these papers all have hidden agendas. Almost all the big newspapers in the world today are owned by corporations which happened to be sponsored by Governments. Most articles published in newspapers today can be written from different points of views. For example, two different headlines in newspapers could cover the same topic but convey different messages. "Youth killed at protest" and "Youth killed by protest" These are two completely different messages and one must stop to think what really happened. Newspapers who have sponsorships will never publish an article that goes against the point of view of their sponsors for fear of upsetting and possibly loosing a sponsor. Therefore most newspapers are being censored as true opinions of editors can never be expressed due to the suppression from management.

Here is an example of Jonah Jameson from the Daily Bugle in Spiderman 2. Although this is a fictional paper we see how editors have the power shape the opinions of their readers.

Mr. Jameson was able to turn the people of New York City against Spiderman even though Spiderman was a good guy.

In the movie Behind Enemy Lines we see how a newspaper was able to bring hope, even though it was a sort of false hope, to the people of Russia during World War 2. At that time the Russians were losing the war against Germany but they created a hero to bring hope for other soldiers and to show to civilians that Russia was not losing the war to the Nazis.

This tactic the Russians used paid off as enrollment in the army increased and soldiers had a new found hope and developed nationalism in Russia.


In conclusion, even though newspapers can be used for good, they can also have hidden agendas. We should be aware that what we read in the newspapers may only contain part of the story.