CJ307 Unit 4 Assignment
by Matthew Hepburn
The Free Dictionary defines mass media as, “a means of public communication reaching a large audience.” This definition can apply to most forms of news media in today's day and age. This is nothing new, with examples dating back to the first dated printed book Diamond Sutra, in China in 868 AD, but in more recent years it has become easier and easier to get information out to a wider audience in a shorter time frame. With the invention of radio wires, news stories could be sent via Morse code to far away locations, then came radio transmissions allowing voices to be transmitted even further, and ultimately leading up to our internet which can send information almost instantaneously after an event occurs. A recent example of this is the bombing at the Boston Marathon. It has been reported that images and videos were on the internet before the dust had even settled. People around the world had heard of the disaster while the victims were still being attended to by other bystanders. Now those initial reports were not coming from legitimate news agencies, but the press releases were not far behind.
The Media plays an ever-growing role in information sharing and dissemination. It is their sole purpose to get the information to as large of an audience as they can, as quick as they can. Each second they delay, someone else is breaking the story and their information is losing timeliness and importance as other people cover it. This has been helpful and has also caused some problems in past events. Sometimes they spread information fast enough for the public to help in a crises, and sometimes they spread it so fast it helps the terrorists they are reporting about.
I think that the report Geraldo made from Iraq in 2003 is a prime example of giving away too much information. But the use of media can be good as well. When Egypt decided to revolt against their corrupt government, the protestors were able to use social...