Media Bias and Outside Perspective

Do we have media bias? Of course we do! We're human beings with emotions and opinions that will influence our work without us even noticing. Some news providers are simply better than others at keeping a balanced view of things.
However, if you truly want the most clear-headed, unbiased perspective of events, you need to take a step back. I suggest stepping back all the way to the UK. The BBC and other British news outlets give us the closest thing to a level-headed take on U.S. and global events as we can ask for of emotional human beings. The British are our friends and allies, but they are far enough removed from us to "keep things real."
I've also noticed that news in Britain is less of an entertainment farce as it is here in the U.S. Here's a fantastic example:

As he states, and as is clear in the footage shown,  coverage of Ebola in British media is "calm, measured.... In America, not so much." It's hilarious, until you realize how many Americans are actually buying into the panic our news sources are trying to generate.
So, if you ever find yourself unsure of your stance on a particular topic/event, political or otherwise, turn off your local news and tune in to something from abroad. If you really are dedicated to getting all sides of the story, watch news from various nations to help you form a very well-rounded view of the situation.

*Also, just a quick addition on the subject of media bias on a more local level: Our own in-state situation of the clearly-biased, church-owned Deseret News attempting to take over the Salt Lake Tribune is a personal concern of mine. If you're not a member of the Church That Need Not Be Named in this state, this monopolization of all Utah media is essentially a gag order. (Disclaimer: this last bit was brought to you by my own humble opinion. You need pay no regard to it if it offends you.)

The Social Network

The Social Network

Mark Zuckerberg single-handed changed the world. The scene above, from The Social Network, exemplifies the empire Facebook was (is) a whole. In this post, my goal is to examine the means in which Facebook, and furthermore Mark Zuckerberg, created a legendary era of social networking.  




The era of social networks indeed began with Myspace, back in the early 2000's. Myspace was the cool thing to do, and if you were a teenager who didn't have one, you weren't with the program. Myspace was a peasant of Zuckerberg's Facebook.

Facebook had (has) every idea possible about social networking. It perfected Myspace, and drove Myspace into the ground. I remember I was reluctant to get a Facebook when it first came out because I was so attached to Myspace. After finally giving in, after most of my friends already signed up for Facebook, my Myspace was deleted within a couple weeks. Facebook had it all, the perfect way to communicate with friends online. The most important shift in our society during this time period was when everything started to become mobile, and Facebook helped lead that transition.

Facebook is still a business empire today. Though it's not as popular for the teen generation, it has become more significant for businesses to promote and for families to stay in touch. From my perspective it's not "cool" anymore, but to others it remains a lifestyle. Its one of the largest websites in the world today, and has been over the last decade or so. It has been the Godfather of all other social networks today, like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, and even apps like Tinder. Each one of those sub-networks has taken a major idea from Facebook and just enhanced it. People like each one of those sites because they are all different, but all are relative to Facebook,



Who knows where Facebook will be ten more years from now, but nonetheless, it has paved the way for infinite possibilities of social-networking and business ideas.  

Media Bias, Social Media Not As Much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aOv1OIwgaA
Start on 4 min.


This video is about a documentary that shows the bias in mass media by corporations. It shows stories that they look over to straight out not report on. Most of these stories come from the 90's and early 2000's. At those times there was a limit of places one could go to get news: television, radio, and newspaper. All of these mediums are controlled by the same corporations, thus similar stories are shown and stories that are looked over have no where else to turn.


Today, I do not doubt that the same practices continue but stories that would get looked over have more of a chance of getting "air time." I was talking to my friend, who informed me about an incident where people are protesting in Mexico over the missing kids and they stormed a government building. This information was not on any major news stations or papers that I have seen. Another story he informed me on was a protest on a major highway in the middle of Mexico where the Natives were protesting on the unfair treatment of their lands. These stories were not posted on any major new stations but he ended up posting them in Facebook and other social network sites.


Video recordings and the posting of these recordings sometimes end up on the news because of the outrage from the people who view them. With social media, news are more into the hands of the people thus more people are willing to share stories that the mass media is too bias to show. Of course people have there own biases that will show but over shadowed stories still have more of a chance on being shown. 

advertising's need for sex, affiliation, and escape

these commercials are ads that demonstrate a few of Fowles advertising's basic appeals. It pokes a little fun at the sex appeal, needs for affiliation, and need for escape , by giving comedic relief via sarcasm. the ads above are funny because of the exaggeration it portray's, i think its a funny spin off of other shower commercials that are usually quite serious and sensual. This makes for good and effective advertising, because its obvious joke that the general public can relate to, leading the general public to buy their product.

Bias opinion via social media

Recently The star of Keeping up With the Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, has released nude photographs of her, yet again has she done this and that does not bother most people at all. The other day I was on twitter and as a scrolled through my timeline I saw people comparing Angelina Jolie and Kim Kardashian, Kim was portrayed as a dirty human being who only cares about clothes, money and exposing herself while Angelina was portrayed as the role model for celebrity women. Pictures of both were displayed but Kim's recent nude pictures were shown while Angelina Jolies pictures showed her helping out little kids in Africa or wherever she was. It is funny in a way because people think Angelina Jolie is a role model celebrity but she too has had nude photos over the internet before and the irony of this whole thing is both celebs have helped communities but have had naked photos of themselves all over the internet. It is just funny how people can judge celebrities based on pictures without fully knowing each story, but that is how social networks seem to work now. Either way both celebs have done good and bad things for their respective reputations but it seems no matter what people will always try and look for every negative each celebrity performs.

Social Media Affects

    So today in class we were watching a video on Cairo and the affect that social media has on our society. I never put too much thought into it but it really does affect a great part of our daily lives. I think that in a way we've become negligent to using our own words and expressing ourselves the way people use to. What I mean with that is, we don't really know how to live without social media anymore.
    Through out this time our society seems to be getting more and more dependent on having a phone and having access to the internet and some even make a living off of being on the internet. In this generation we see younger and younger children walking around with phones. I'm not saying that social media is bad but I do think we're spending too much time on it.
    On the bright side children are being better educated on the effects of it and the problems that could surface from social media. In my opinion its in children's benefit to be exposed to all of the social media because they better understand how to use and become much more familiar with it which is a crucial part of college, so it's something that could possibly benefit them in the long run.
    In the movie we watched today in class the men who organized the entire gatherings were younger men who were more educated on the affects of social media and in the end they got what they were looking for; their president resigned and it opened windows for other countries in the region to fight for what they wanted as a nation and the way they crossed the message was through facebook.

Media Bias

I think we need to think of the bias of every station or tv show when we watch a news program or we read political articles. Each station of website has their own agenda and bias and if you look or read carefully and in an unbiased manner you can easily tell what it is. For example Fox News is notoriously conservative and they will show them in a much more favorable light then they would a liberal point of view. I think this is the very dangerous thing about the media is that if you don't watch with an open mind you can very easily be swayed in your opinions by what one sidedness the station or website is showing. This can happen for a liberal station or website as well it is definitely not limited to happening only with more republican views.