The Corrupt Nature of Sensational News
Now a day’s media people are giving focus to provide immoral news which is giving negative impact on people’s view. Sensationalism is the way of editorial bias in which event topics are presented in overhyped manner which can manipulate the truth of the event. The sensational news is the corrupt form of news. Sensational news affects the senses of human being that arouses the feeling of fear, anxiety and negative emotional reaction. The negative impact of corrupt news can be avoided by media people. The Media people should give accurate news to the public so that people’s trust can be maintained on media.
- Background Information: Sensationalism is not a new concept. The Journalist professor Mitchell Stephens stated that sensational news can be easily found in public announcement on message boards in American Roman Acta Diurna. In 16thand 17th century, sensationalism was also used in the books (Stephens & Edison, 1982).
- Definition: Sensational news means the representation of corrupt form of news. Some methods to create sensational news are appealing the emotions of people by presenting the information in wrong way or intentionally remove the actual facts, giving no focus on real facts, misrepresenting the information or being controversial. This kind of news affects the viewers because as people do not get actual information and perceive the news differently (Grabe et al., 2001).
- Thesis statement: The negative impact of sensational news on the viewers.
The essay explained the importance of accurate news, a case study and also recommends the remedial measures to reduce the impact of corrupt news on society.
The sensational news is distorted form of news. It may include insignificant information to get more attention of viewers. Many people experienced that the news which they watched on the news channel was not actual. On news channel they saw the different thing and when they come to know about actual event they feel anxious that they were thinking wrong about the event. After that people feel like news channel misrepresent the actual facts to get popularity. They feel lack of trust on the news channel and switch their loyalty to other channels (Potter & Kappeler, 2006).
It is known that the news channels play a major role in creation of sensational news but they also work as a major communication medium. The news shown by news channel helps to create awareness among people about world’s events. Sensationalism is generally accepted method by media people to attract the attention of viewers so they present the actual news in spicy manner. Around 80 percent media reporters think that sensational news receive more news coverage than normal news. To persuade the viewers to read or watch the news the news reporters use misleading headlines (Knobloch et al., 2004). Each newspaper contains some attracting headlines which are written for the purpose to get reader’s attention. Previously when there were limited news channels, that time news channels were focused on providing accurate information. Now with the introduction of different media channels, to get more viewers the reporters have changed the way of presentation. All the news channels show similar news but the way of presentation is different for all because there is competition among news channels. Many media channels are focusing on creation of sensational news to differentiate themselves from other media channels. Media channel accept this practice to get viewers’ attention so that they get good TRP and wide coverage.
Media is also helpful to reduce the corruption. By media channels people can get all type of information like political, technological, entertainment and crime events. Media people collect news from all over the world to create awareness among general public. All the crimes are reported by media people. Media is a strong medium through which corruption is reduced. The media reporters do deep research on the event and show to the public accordingly. Only through media people come to know about real incident. Media people first reach to the place where the incident happened and collect all the evidences. The media is the most trusted medium.
The Importance of Accurate News Reporting
The accurate news reporting is very essential. The reasons for accurate news reports are explained below.
- The content presented in news affects the feelings and emotions of people. Their mindset is also affected by the news content.
- Sensational news disturbs the moral balance of the person and people perceive the things differently. People develop the feeling of fear, anxiety and lack of trust after viewing the sensational news (Chiricos et al., 2000).
- It also affects the mental health of the people because people change their behavior toward society. The television programs have an impact on psychological health. When a person views a television program he or she unintentionally gets attached to it and the emotions of the person unknowingly get connected to the television program.
- The things which people view on the television affect the mood and feelings (Coleman & Thorson, 2002).
- News channel provide large amount of information to people on different subjects. People generally visit news to get the knowledge and information about what is happening around the world. News covers all sectors like sports, entertainment, political, crime, current affairs and fashion. Through news people get the information about events which are happening around the world. Sensational news gives negative impact to viewers because through by this viewers do not get the accurate picture of the event (Weitzer & Kubrin, 2004).
- The British Psychologist Dr. Graham Davey depicted that media exposure can contribute in creation of stress, anxiety, tension, depression and more even post – traumatic stress disorder (Johnston & Davey, 1997). So therefore accurate news reporting is needed the most.
On 13 November, 2015 on the beautiful place Paris, terrorist attacks happened which were followed by mass shootings and suicide bombing. Different news channels presented the actual news by using different headlines like Horror is Red, this time it is war, war in the heart of Paris, carnage in Paris. BBC news, sky news and ITV, all channels showed the live coverage on the condition of the place after terror attack on the channels. The guardian’s cover page firstly reported that above 150 people died in Paris attack but later it lowered the figure which was 120. The telegraph newspaper mentioned in the headline that there is probability of more terrorist attacks in Paris. Some eye catching headlines which the media people used were a night of horror, darkest night and exporters of death (Nail, 2016). The big news network N-TV also heighted on its website that it was the huge terror attack in Europe reported in more than a decade. Some news channels also reported future possibility of terrorist attack. There were some variations seen on different news channels on number of people died and injured in Paris attack (Juergensmeyer, 2017).
To reduce the negative impact of sensational news some practices should be used which are explained in below mentioned points.
- The media reporters should avoid the sensationalism practice so that the viewers can get the original information and can increase their knowledge.
- Media reporters should focus on the quality of the news which they are showing on their channel. The news should include real facts and figures. If the readers or viewers get the actual facts from media channels they develop the feelings of trust towards them. Readers can keep themselves updated by receiving the real news from the media channels.
- People trust the news showed by the news channels so they should receive the actual news so that people remain loyal towards the channel.
- The media channels can get real news readers who are attached with the channel because of its The authenticity of the medium is important to give the accurate information to the people.
From the above executed research essay it can be concluded that the sensational news have an adverse impact on the readers. The negative impacts are explained above. It is also recommended to avoid the sensationalism by the media so that public can get accurate news. The news should not be presented in overhyped and corrupted manner. The negative consequences on society can be overcome by using right practices.
References
Chiricos, T., Padgett, K. & Gertz, M., 2000. ‘Fear, TV news, and the reality of crime’,Criminology, 38(3), pp.755-786.
Coleman, R. & Thorson, E., 2002.’The effects of news stories that put crime and violence into context: Testing the public health model of reporting’, Journal Of Health Communication, 7(5), pp.401-425.
Grabe, M.E., Zhou, S. & Barnett, B., 2001. ‘Explicating sensationalism in television news: Content and the bells and whistles of form’, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 45(4), pp.635-655.
Johnston, W.M. & Davey, G.C., 1997. ‘The psychological impact of negative TV news bulletins: The catastrophizing of personal worries’, British Journal of Psychology, 88(1), pp.85-91.
Juergensmeyer, M., 2017, Terror in the mind of God: The global rise of religious violence (Vol. 13), Univ of California Press.
Knobloch, S., Patzig, G., Mende, A.M. & Hastall, M., 2004.’Affective news: Effects of discourse structure in narratives on suspense, curiosity, and enjoyment while reading news and novels’, Communication Research, 31(3), pp.259-287.
Nail, T., 2016,’ A Tale of Two Crises: Migration and Terrorism after the Paris Attacks’, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 16(1), pp.158-167.
Potter, G.W. & Kappeler, V.E., 2006, Constructing crime: Perspectives on making news and social problems.
Stephens, M. & Edison, N.G., 1982, ‘News media coverage of issues during the accident at Three-Mile Island’, Journalism Quarterly, 59(2), pp.199-259.
Weitzer, R. & Kubrin, C.E., 2004, ‘Breaking news: How local TV news and real-world conditions affect fear of crime’, Justice Quarterly, 21(3), pp.497-520.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
