As this age is considered to be the age of information, media plays
a very important role in our daily lives. The television, the radio, newspapers
and the Internet are just a few examples of communication.
When we wake up
in the morning, we turn on the TV, watch the news or the weather forecast.
While having breakfast, a lot of people like to read their favorite newspaper,
and when they set off to work, they turn on the radio in their car. At their
workplace, or after they got home, they use their computers to surf the
Internet.
Of course, we
can’t stay out of the current political topics or not be influenced by one of
the parties, as every single form of media reflects the interests of one party,
at least. None of the tools of the media can be considered to be objective,
though, we still keep using them, as we form our opinion based on our own
ideas, interests and needs, not really on what others may say.
In Hungary, I
would say that the most used form of media is the Internet, as it is available
almost everywhere, it is fast and by the time we get the daily newspaper in our
hands, there are already at least five updates about the same topic we read in
the morning. The more people use the web to search for information, the age of
printed news is about its end, because we can choose what we want to be
informed about, and what is out of our interest. That probably is the reason
why there is a significant difference in the number of newspaper ordering
between these days and a decade ago.
This is not the
same with the TV, as it was and still is very popular. As soon as we get home,
turn it on, we can listen to music, watch a film or sit down in front of
fascinating series. According to our own taste, we can choose whether we would
like to watch something on a public or a commercial channel. The main
difference between them is that the public channels run on the money of the
government and are mostly available for everybody, while the commercial
channels use the commercials for their living. The highest price of a
commercial is at the time when a channel gets a punishment for something, like
the program is proved to be harmful for younger kids, or the age mark at the
corner is not good. It has a psychological reason: when people hear that there
will be a break at programs, they switch the TV to that channel and watch the
clock counting back. The first seconds and minutes are very influencing when
everything starts again, as people see those advertisements first.
An other great
source of income are the reality shows and other programs, which are based on
the viewers votes. People sit down in front of the screen and send text messages
to keep their favorite characters in the game or competition they are watching.
Sometimes the money we spend on sending those messages can be incredibly much,
and this money goes only to the founders of the show, and the channel it runs
on. We should think about that it could me much more useful if we would send
that money to a charity, but as it’s a human habit, we like to spend money what
entertains us, not on things that would be good for others, like orphans, too.
Also, while we
are await the show to go on, there are other long commercials, which are
usually very boring and annoying for an average person, but this is the price
of our favorite programs to run. During the five or ten minute long
advertisement time we switch to an other channel, and watch the news, which is
usually about the bad things that happened in the world. we rarely an hear
about the opening ceremony of a new school or hospital, because not everybody
thinks it to be important, but likes to hear more about natural disasters and
other sad things, like protesting ended up in catastrophe. Also, we can’t hear
a lot about the current political issues, though it is sure that all of the
channels, writers and speakers have their own opinion and tell the stories from
their viewpoints, sometimes influencing our decisions and feelings about the
political parties.
When somebody
decides to work as a writer, reporter or editor, they have to participate in
different style classes and practice a lot of different styles. I’ve heard from
one of my acquaintances that she worked for a television channel for a short
time, and they had to write articles in the styles of specific newspapers for
practicing. In Hungary, we can easily tell apart which newspaper, website or TV
channel reflects which political party’s interests. That’s why I say there is
no objectivity, and it can never be, as people may try not to take their personal
feelings, interests and thoughts in a report or an opinion-piece as hard as
they can, but yes, there still is at least a tiny piece of it in their
products.
The government
always takes control over public channels, just for an example, HírTV is for
the right wing, ATV is for the left wing party. I found it a dirty thing to
take advantage of our everyday habits and influence us through daily routines,
like reading, listening to radio or watching TV. They use our time of relay for
their own interests.
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