Is it the truth? According to the movie ‘A few good men’ (1992), “You can’t handle the truth!” The advertising sponsors pay big money to gain the attention of their audience and the audience demands the “truth” from the media. Sponsors would like one to believe that the voice of the audience is the one that matters. The media claims that they will report according to what’s the demand of the audience. More often than not the media will use keywords and phrases that sway the audience in the direction of the sponsor’s point of view. In 1982, Senator Jepsen addresses to the public how the media regulates journalism. Jepsen (1982) goes on to explain that there is an illusion of power that is necessary for media to portray. Jepsen (1982) explains that it is a matter having people believe that someone is a key player and has the power to tilt the mirrors in their direction to go along with the “mirrors and blue smoke image”. People see what is going on over here and completely unaware as to what is going on over there. The Media has deflected fault of people in power and focus on the images that they want you to see. This is often misconstrued as good journalism when in fact, it is bad journalism because not all the facts are presented. A great example of the mirrors and blue smoke image is the historical event in media journalism taking place within the political campaign of the 2016 presidential election. The media is …show more content…
The majority of people believe that the media is biased but believe that the mainstream media is reporting all the information. Nonetheless, once people see something they don’t like, they notice things that reinforce the belief that there’s bias (Media Bias, 2015). According to Farhi (2012), the media themselves, do believe that there is some bias in reporting but not to the extent of one-sided favoritism. On the other hand, according to Jones (2016) the bias within certain networks is very evident. Jones (2016) claims that networks such as CNN and MSNBC are very pro-Hilary Rodham Clinton and have openly endorsed the Clinton campaign. For the first time in history, more than 150 newspapers have openly endorsed a presidential candidate (Harrington & Berke, 2016). In the past, most newspapers have tried to remain somewhat neutral but in this election, picking sides has become the norm and they are under constant scrutiny for doing so. Farhi (2012) reiterates, “all that scrutiny of the press may suggest an inescapable conclusion: There’s something wrong with the news media. All the time.” In addition to all biased news media, many organizations have come up with their own version of news often reporting to either a more conservative or more Liberal point of view, thus creating an intentional bias. This means your chance of running into news that seems biased has increased exponentially, elevating the impression