Wanted: The media we need

In today’s society, we are surrounded by media trying to inform us about important social, political, cultural, and/or economic matters. Many individuals such as our grandparents tune into the news every night at six. Our family members watch news networks faithfully every night because they enjoy staying informed and finding out what is happening in their own city. “Like when one watches TV, no one watches shows that they do not find interesting and if there are boring ads people change the channel” (http://boston94.blogspot.ca/). In comparison to news networks, is that type of media we want the same as the media we need? I believe that even though people like to watch the news and keep themselves updated with what is going on around them, we do not need this type of media. While reading my fellow classmates blog posts, I stumbled across this very point. “Ever noticed how lately when you watch the news it seems like nothing good is ever happening? It is only ever tragedies, wars and despair” (http://brockbadger.wordpress.com/ ). Though we may want to watch the news, we do not need to surround ourselves with all these negative thoughts.

My personal media choices do not better inform me about important social, political, cultural, and/or economic matters because I choose not to find out about this information. I do not like hearing about the latest murder downtown but the news pushes those types of stories on us because of the ratings the network will receive. Everyone would rather hear about that murder, than hear a heartwarming story about a fireman recusing a cat out of a tree. “In terms of politics and news, most conservatives will only consume channels like FOX, and most liberals will only consume channels like MSNBC or CNN, this is why there is bias in the media, because it’s what society wants, this restricts people from seeing both sides to a situation and can lead to ignorant people “ (http://ihadatoughtimecomingupwithanameformyblog.wordpress.com/ ). It is not difficult for us to find information about what is going on around us, but we do not need to watch the news each night. By watching the media we ‘need’, we are only hearing one side of a bad story. The media we want is not the same as the media we need. Our society needs to become surrounded by the good things that are happening in our neighbourhood, not always the bad and scary.