Outfoxed

I thought the video Outfoxed was very informative and engaging. It showed how little variety there is in the world's public media. I was blissfully unaware of this fact until we viewed the movie in class. I was mortified at the fact that Fox News spreads its own form of propaganda to the masses under the cloak of "Fair and Balanced". I think it's unfortunate that so many people remain unenlightened about their intake of "news". What Fox News broadcasts can hardly be considered news because it has a clear and basic opinion. The duty of the news is to remain unbiased and to present both sides of all arguments. Fox News completely throws this idea out and opts for a more biased approach that employs the use of fear mongering, distorted visual aids, and the phrase "some people say". I am making it my mission to educate all people around me to investigate their news. We live in a day and age where our journalists can't be trusted and where are news is tainted.

Another issue that this movie brought up is the organization of the news and those who are covered in it. During class we got into a debate about why normal people and things that affect normal people aren't covered in the news. The most important aspect of that debate centered around the FACT that women are overall quoted less than men. This fact is shocking and deplorable. During class someone stated that women aren't covered or quoted in the news because they don't hold high positions in society. The idea of this statement being a justification for the patriarchal views of the news media is ridiculous. Our society is dominated by men because so many aspects of it were created by men with the inner workings that support men continuously. Men recieve many unearned benefits in our society and it is a result of extreme patriarchy. For students in our class to follow along with this horrible idea is demoralizing because I can see just how unfair it is on both sides. It is unfair for men to not realize that they have a higher status in our society and it is also unfair that their status is unearned. The news should be one of the areas where your race, gender, sexual preference, or culture shouldn't matter. An individual's news value shouldn't be based on these things because when they are, many groups are left out of the news industry.