The Power of the Media to Shape Our Perceptions - 3575 Words

The Power of the Media to Shape Our Perceptions and Understanding of Reality on Gun Control (Research Paper Sample) Content: [Students Name][Instructors Name][Course][Date]The Power of the Media to Shape Our Perceptions and Understanding of Reality on Gun ControlIntroductionThe wake of guns violence in the United States has seen various proposals on how to handle the gun issue. Occasionally, people have woken up to shocking incidences of gun violence on various quarters. Perhaps the most outrageous incidence was the one that involved shooting of school going children by a fellow student, seemingly unstable, or at least for that moment. It is important to note that in these incidences, the media coverage of the live happenings has always been extensive giving the perpetrator of such violence a lot of fame. Various segments of the society have reacted to such incidences with diverging and converging opinions on what should be the best way forward. While the Obama administration has been on the forefront proposing stringent measures for the purposes of reducing or eliminating repeat occurrence , Republicans have a different view on how to address the whole matter. Religious groups and civil society have not spoken in one voice although one may deduce that everyone desires some changes in regards to how the whole issue should be addressed. Some of the emerging schools of thoughts that have come put have to do with logic behind issuance of guns, the ethical and practical implications of the solutions proposed for adoption as policy. Probably the big challenge is that the incidences that have occurred cannot qualify to be categorized as organized crimes. They are spontaneous reactions from private citizens with unforeseeable emotional and psychological instabilities. This has made generalizations very difficult. It has even begged the question whether first time offenders of gun violence can be treated as criminals or patients unlucky enough to be roaming outside instead of being attended to in mental programs. The media is one of the most powerful tools with regards to the flow of information. Most people have a lot of trust in the media. The view of the media is considered by many to be the right view. For this reason, it is easy to manipulate the public through various media platforms. Over the years, politicians and law makers as well as various governments have used this blind trust that the audiences have to propagate different agendas. This aspect of blind trust has been described by Robertson Davies in the following quote, The eyes sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. This quote insinuates that the media has the tendency to change the view of its audience, their attitudes, level of knowledge, and ideal about overall subject. Gun control is one of the most commonly discussed subjects by the media. However, this subject has been discussed in an impartial manner. In other words, the media has not been able to discuss both sides of gun control matter. . This paper shall analyze the effect of media on peoples perception of gun controlB ackgroundIn the American society, gun control issues have now topped the list of communication trends. Incidents such as Virginia Tech University (2007), Tucson Arizona (2011), movie theatre at Aurora Colorado (2012), Newtown Connecticut (2013) etc. have been made the topic of discussion in many media broadcast sessions. Consequently, these media broadcasts have shaped biased perspective regarding gun control Different people have varied views with regard to the gun control debate. Most of these views are directly related to the hype on gun control propagated by the media. After the incident in New Connecticut, the enforcement of the gun control laws took a different turn. The following graph that appeared on edition.cnn.com under the heading How Media Lose Interest in gun control by Danny Hayes indicates the trend of coverage of gun control by different media news channels (Hayes, Why this gun control debate has been different)
Figure  SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: Graph showing the n ews coverage of gun control (Hayes, Why this gun control debate has been different).It is very important to understand the issue of gun control while discussing various arguments and debates over the topic in detail. In this way, readers will be able to form a clear understanding of the proposed argument. It is expected that this will help the readers to form a neutral stance regarding the subject and form a rational perception. This research paper is a proposal argument, which seeks to understand the role of media in shaping up the perception of public regarding the issue of Gun Control. The paper will also provide and suggest some recommendations, after addressing the issue in detail. Thesis StatementThe role of media regarding the issue of gun control is biased. The information they churn out suggests that gun control is the only way to curb supposed rise in violence.It is the media which provides terrorists or psychopaths with an incentive to become the center of attention and b ecome famous. Providing consumers with false information / misconception regarding gun control.It is influencing the public in the wrong direction regarding the topic. The media makes people feel as if they support violence and senseless killings if they are not for gun control.Arguments in Support of the Thesis Fredrick E Allan writing for the Forbes magazine in an article tilted Gun Control: The Congress of Cowards referred to the lawmakers as cowards when they shot down the bill on background check for guns. Elizabeth Flock wrote an article on usnews.com under the title Gun control debate clouds the definition of mentally ill claiming that gun control advocated for gun violence through research done at John Hopkins. Senator Joe Lieberman said that the American people will continue hearing the screams of the people who died in New Connecticut until action was taken. The senator was talking to fox news on the topic of gun control. Fox news Sunday reported Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texa s, a gun rights advocate saying that it would have been better has the principal of Sandy Hook elementary school had an M4 (Mirkinson). It was noted that different media houses followed the bandwagon of gun control campaigns. Different campaigns on gun control were designed by the media organizations to pose as the sole reason behind the violence. In addition, these campaigns which are broadcast everyday on various channels across the country changed the perspective of American citizens. Another impact is that it has allowed terrorists and other dangerous non-state elements to gain popularity. Gun control is not a minor issue, and it should be brought to the attention of the concerned authorities but in a proper manner. No one has ever proposed to completely abolish media coverage over the topic of gun control, but at the same time it is the duty of this society to fulfill its responsibility and curtail the issue in the best possible manner (Jones, Media overwhelmingly promotes gun control). The media advocacy for strict gun control in was heightened after the incidence in New Connecticut. The assumption that possession of gums is the only reason behind such incidences is wrong. Studies have shown that untreated mental illness may result to violent activities. The increase in coverage of violent scenes by the media gives a platform for the publicity of these people. It is important for the media to ensure that they are responsible in the manner by which they convey the information to the public According to an article which was published for The Week; the author has questioned this issue. The author Mat Lewis has questioned the purpose of gun control. According to the article, the extinction of mankind is not dependent on guns alone. According to an article on newsbusters.org titled Gun control? How about media control the author Matthew Sheffield says that the media should not assume that the core issue behind terrorists attacks is the availability of guns alone. This is just one of the factors which also contribute to such disastrous events (Sheffield). According to an article on globalsearch.ca under the title Violence: The American Way of Life, the author John Kozy says that the American society has been a violent society as it has been conceived and nurtured by violence, Americans not only engage in violence, they are entertained by it (Kozy). Keeping this fact in mind, the journalists should consider the fact that they might be contributing to our already violent-society in an unproductive manner (Sheffield). Various studies including one done by Browne and Giachritsis, show that the media has a violent influence on children. The entertainment industry has the tendency to glamorize violence in an effective manner. Various games and movies advocate for violence. Live broadcast of violent issues is one of the platforms that most terrorist use to satisfy their desire for publicity (Sheffield). This does not mean that the argume nt is against the first Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Its an argument aimed at advocating for responsible journalism. There are better ways for lobbying for better gun control measures than the current continued coverage of violence in a bid to convince the public to adopt the laws. According to an article The Power of Media Bias: Most Americans Wrongly Believe Gun Violence Has Increased published on newsbusters.org by Geoffrey Dickens, it was revealed that the information regarding the increase in the gun violence is incorrect. The article gave references and statistics from researches (Pew Research Center Poll), which states that gun violence has dropped by half with comparison to the mid 90s. 56% of the people, who watch news, think otherwise suggesting that the media is propagating fa...

Essay on The Effect of the U.S. Government on Students

Many students wonder why they should take Government class. They think that they are not affected by the actions of our government, or that learning about it will not help them at all in their life. Or worse, they think that they have no power to influence the government because of their age. Fortunately, none of these things are true. The United States Government is a big part of the lives of all American citizens, and that includes those who are under eighteen years old. Our government has as much of an effect on students as it does on anybody else. Laws created, enforced, and interpreted by the different branches of government control what we can and cannot do. Public services are taken advantage of by adults and minors alike.†¦show more content†¦Taking a Government class can be beneficial in a number of ways. It can help students better comprehend, for instance, the basic structure of the institutions and authority figures that keep our great country running rela tively smoothly. It can help them understand the viewpoints of their peers, their parents, and their community and the reasons behind these opinions. It can help answer the question, Who has the power in America?. Government class not only teaches the bare facts, such as the procedures of the judicial, executive, and legislative branches, the requirements to hold office, and the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, but also what they mean and why things are the way they are in this nation. Why do we have a bicameral legislative branch? Why have almost all of our Presidents been middle-aged Caucasian males? Why do we have a Bill of Rights and how far do our guaranteed privileges extend? Teaching young people about their government is one way to spark an interest in politics. If politicians never learned about their profession, then why would they be inspired to have a job in that specific field? Government class is also one way to create a more informed public opinion. 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Should Privacy Be Careful Of Who Is Watching Privacy Essay

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Advantages and disadvantages of working in groups free essay sample

A group is a collection of two or more people who possess a common purpose (Bennett 1997 (Hollings and Rimmer (2007) Pg 171)). This is shown where a shared goal is accomplished by multiple people together. Group work can be effective however problems may also arise in which could be detrimental to the effectiveness of the group. Working in groups can increase productivity if synergy can be formed. This is to say that a group can give access to shared knowledge, experience and skills.where the group is likely to outperform the individual in most cases, due to shared resources and shared ideas (Hollings and Rimmer 2007 Pg), so theoretically the best ideas are put forward and used to bring out the best outcome for the task. If formed properly the group can form cohesion so that the task can be done quicker if certain aspects of the task are shared out for everyone to do a specific thing to contribute to the overall work. We will write a custom essay sample on Advantages and disadvantages of working in groups or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page However this cohesion may result in a negative effect in the group, As the group becomes more cohesive, its functioning is affected in a number of ways. First, the interactions and communication between members increase. Common goals, interests and small size all contribute to this. In addition, group member satisfaction increases as the group provides friendship and support against outside threats, (Wikipedia 2011) as indicated by Wikipedia in their article on Synergy. This means that as the group becomes more cohesive social communication increases, so the members of the group may become distracted from the task in hand and therefore there may be a decrease in the productivity. Also because of the increase in friendship the group will develop the same ideas and tend to agree with each other as oppose to differing so new ideas wont be introduced to the main group because there is little effective collaboration as members do not know about each other so there will be an underuse of human resources as other members are not aware of others talents (eCollab 2007). This cohesion links to the two types of groups formal and informal. The  group will initially be formal where a group of people will be brought together under a common purpose without necessarily choosing who they will form a group with however over time through cohesion the group may become informal where there is small groups in the group. This can be damaging to the overall formal group work as informal groups can be so cohered that people out of the informal group can be excluded meaning conflicts can arise. However these informal groups can be positive to behavior of the formal group, because it can as mentioned above bring cohesion, leading to an effective team, which is outlined in an article by UK Essasys.com It is possible for informal groups within the organization to contribute positively to the aims of the organization and informal group norms can be brought more in line with those of the organization through a process dialogue and reasoning with networks of influence within the group. (UkEssays.com).