Journal Entry #7: Media is Corrupt

As my housemates and I were watching a news story on the swine flu in our living room the other day, one of them suddenly said, "the media is making the swine flu into such a big deal to scare everyone, when it probably isn't even that bad. The media corrupts people and turns everything into something negative." This is so true. You never hear about anything positive or good news on TV. News reports are, for the most part, very negative. You turn the news on and hear about how deadly the swine flu is (when it has barely killed anyone in the U.S. yet) or a stabbing in some inner city neighborhood. Or, you open up the newspaper and read about a potential terrorist attack or how poorly the economy is doing. Then, as you continue flipping through the pages of the newspaper, you will eventually get to the positive stories, but the article is most likely very short. The media loves to turn everything into a bigger deal than it really is, in order to draw in viewers. This makes perfect sense, because everyone loves to hear about the newest gossip on the street.
Although we are exposed to different types of media each day and don't think twice about it; today's society really has become corrupt due to media. Think of celebrity gossip sites; the media loves to poke fun at celebs and find every possible negative thing they can about them. Miley Cyrus, for example, is an innocent sixteen year old actress who gets put down by the media no matter what she does. The media doesn't let her breathe on her own...they will probably find something wrong with that also. And then there are the celebrity couples. Celebs can never keep a relationship or a breakup secret because once the media gets word of something they will let everyone know...and usually make it negative.
The one thing that really bothers me about this issue is how it portrays America as being so negative. It is depressing when every news story you read or hear about is something devastating. It's time for the media to start focusing on the positive news stories because the way our economy is going right now, Americans need some cheering up in their day to day lives.