Does the media influence public opinion a little too much?

Question

I find the media in my country mixes its own interpretations of a story along with the news, and so the people watching/reading it have little chance to form their own opinions based on the facts. They just end up following the media view.

Should the media stick to reporting facts and let the public form its own opinion?

It may lose them some money, but being responsible media takes more importance than being rich media.

Media in my country becomes rich by dissing politicians (generally). People like the media dissing politicians. But do those politicians deserve to be dissed?

Answer 1

Yes it does.  It's scary when so many people let the media tell them how to think rather than learn to do it for themselves.  This isn't everybody of course, but it is a significant percentage.

I don't mind the media doing opinion pieces within reason.  If your local newspaper puts a spin on everything it prints you have a problem.  The media should generally just report facts.  That right there is a big enough influence on society, because what the media doesn't report doesn't get seen by the public.  But in certain cases, like op-ed pieces in the newspaper or certain shows on TV, presenting opinion is okay.  

What's more disturbing to me is something I already mentioned, that people are so willing to let the media do the thinking for them.  Just about everybody here in the US was ready to whip the Iraqis in 2003.  Now they're almost all against the invasion.  Why?  Well, partly it's because it went on more than the 5 days everybody apparently thought it would take to overthrow Saddam, but I think it has much more to do with the media's coverage than anything.  The media turned on the war and started only reporting bad stories.  Suddenly, the public turned on the war too.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.

Fereshte- I've known several people who've been and say that the media conveniently left out all of that stuff.  I also heard about one reporter who only wanted to report on the good stuff and not all the suicide bombings and stuff like that.  He didn't last very long over there.  They don't WANT people to know all that stuff.  I'm not a big supporter of the invasion myself but for different reasons than what the media is portraying.

Answer 2

Why would the media care anyway? It's all about money!

Answer 3

Yeah, a lot of the news media has become about making money instead of reporting the truth. I remember literally WATCHING CNN make up lies about what was going on in Iraq while I was there.  I think that was the first time I realized just how much the media twisted and made up things.  It really shocked me.  I had always thought the media was had to be objective.  

One story that I always find funny was when we were in Baghdad.  The media at this time in the war (the begining) pretty much just stayed in their hotels and moved their camera around when they heard something of interest.  So there was this explosion which was done by EOD (meaning not an attack) and CNN jumped on it.  They saw smoke coming out of the US camp and started reporting that an RPG went over the wall and hit inside the US camp.  The SgtMajor comes running out of one of the buildings, waving his arms over his head yelling to some of us soldiers "Stop burning the trash!  Stop burning the trash!  We're on CNN!"  

And while its funny, its also really sad.  The media should NOT be making up stories like that just to get peoples attention.

EDIT-- I agree with Rebel Man.  You never hear about the hospitals or schools we help build in Iraq, or the school supplies we give to students, or the medical supplies and food we pass out.  You never hear about the Iraqis who would bring up food just to feed us or who worked along side us.  You never hear about the ones who are grateful or about all the good things we do.  I think its sad and frustrating that the media tries to hide that.

Answer 4

Yes it does, and people listen to the media as if it is fact.

Of course the media should stick to reporting facts but that is sometimes uninteresting.