I
read a lot of my news in newspapers or internet articles from Wall Street
Journal and CNN. Reading helps me retain the information better, and I feel
less like I am being yelled. That being said, watching the news has been a
change for me. While watching Fox News and MSNBC, I still felt as if I were
being yelled at on both news sources – but I did have this feeling more so with
Fox News. I have always had a stereotype of Fox News being incredibly
aggressive, and I still feel that way. The news source would have many
interviews were it felt as if people were just yelling back and forth with each
other. Though, I was surprised to see that MSNBC had a temperament that was, at
times, just as aggressive as Fox News. MSNBC would yell when people disagreed
with each other, but Fox News anchors and reporters are always yelling at each
other – even when there was no disagreement. I do not enjoy this way of
reporting, and this is why I mostly read the news.
Another stereotype I had of the news
sources was the anchors used. Many times when I have watched Fox News, there
has always been a bunch of older white males. When watching MSNBC, I saw a
number of younger African American women as anchors. While this seemed to be
true at the times I watched the news, I did go on both sources web pages to
find that my stereotype of Fox was mostly true, but I was surprised to find
that MSNBC had mostly white anchors.
I also believe that most people do
not see new sources as always being truthful, which is a sad stereotype of many
news sources. It is hard to trust people who are only there to push an agenda.
One thing I saw about both stations was the leading questions being used. Fox
News and MSNBC were both bad about asking questions that gave people the
opportunity to push their agenda – rather than pushing to reveal the truth.
Both news stations have their own
stereotypes, and many do seem to be true. I do believe that both hold a lot of
the same stereotypes, and that they are both reporting to push their own agenda
– but one persons agenda is another persons truth. When it comes down to what
these two sources choose to report over, I believe that both sides believe they
are reporting what is the truth.
I agree with you Michael, it's just everyone trying to push their agenda on other people. It's like the news can't tell the truth when they don't agree with it, they want you to believe everything they say even if it is wrong.
ReplyDeleteFox has a lot of blonde female anchors. It's interesting.
ReplyDeleteI hope we can begin to agree on what "truth" is/might be through informed discussion. A girl can dream, no?
I also noticed that Fox and MSNBC were employing different anchors in what seemed to be an attempt to visually appeal to various demographics. Public mistrust of mass media sources does seem to be growing, interesting point—one mistrusts because one can recognize the persuasive tactics of news sources. Great last sentence—I agree most sources are attempting to best display their idea of ‘truth’.
ReplyDeleteI do not know if I necessarily agree with them pushing the "the truth", simply because the news can edit anything they want, making the truth to not be entire. But I agree, the news sources are aggressive. This is why I too stick to reading.
ReplyDeleteExactly, Michael. It's all about the agenda and pushing their ideas and opinions onto us. They cherry pick what to talk about and what to leave out depending on whether or not it agrees with their views.
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