| "What a difference a word makes." The
issue of semantics has been an ongoing complain against the media, which has
been characterized by an increasing level of sensationalism and irresponsible
reporting over the years, fostered by increasingly fierce competition and
struggle for wider distributions and readerships. A focal point for the criticism is the coverage of high-profile criminal cases. With such headlines as "Mr. X Arrest for First-Degree Murder" prominently displayed across the front page, it has been argued that such provocative language influences public opinion, causing premature assumptions of guilt before the matter can be properly and legally decided in a court of law. The power of the media to influence public opinion and, by extension, legal and political perceptions, has long been established and recognized, spurring outcries when inaccurate or overly embellished stories result in unwarranted destruction of public image or intrusion into privacy of unwilling individuals. Reporters and editors take the utmost care in their choice of words for use in their articles, but with constant pressure to create provocative headlines in order to sell their papers, the distinction between respectable periodicals and trashy tabloids is becoming thinner every day. The dilemma is exacerbated by the public's seeming short attention span, putting the papers under pressure to make their stories as attention-grabbing as they are accurate. Further obfuscating the situation is the fact that the same phrase can be interpreted in a myriad of different ways depending on who reads it, making it hard for one to judge whether a line is excessive or not. Whatever the causes and effects, however, the freedom of pres laws in the United States mean that any change to the style employed by the media must be self-imposed. In that respect, it appears that nothing will be changing in the near future, since the public's insatiable hunger for controversy and scandal continues to dominate and set the pace for marketable reporting. As the sensationalism and its related effects continue into the longer term, however, there will no doubt be more outcry as the trend continues. This will possibly result in an upheaval of the system; favoring more accurate, unembellished reporting, consisting of hard facts with a minimum of supposition or commentary and devoid of rumors and other questionable sources of information. If and when that occurs, we can truly state with pride that our media industry is only a free one, bat a responsible and reliable one. |