Thursday, March 17, 2016

Unpacking the Media...

Today in class, we read the newspaper account written by Jennifer Stewart aloud. Her article in Nothing But the Truth frames Phillip Malloy's act in Miss Narwin's homeroom as one of patriotism--but you all had strong ideas about whether or not that was true.

We did an activity in class called THE BOSTON PHOTOGRAPHS in which, as groups of three, you had to start to put yourselves in the shoes of newspaper editors and decide what their purpose is, what their impact should be, and how they determine truth.

You became editors of the Boston Herald in 1975 and determined what you would have done with the photos taken by Stanley Foreman in July of that year.

Our word of the day today is RELENTLESS, which means unstopping, unceasing.

Our word of the day for yesterday was INCULCATE.

For tonight, share a few sentences about the following question: What do you think the purpose of the media is (newspapers, news networks, etc): to inform, to make a profit, to fulfill a certain bias? Is it possible to have zero bias? Why or why not?

78 comments:

  1. I believe it's purpose is to spread awareness and knowledge to the world. People should know what current events and stories are taking place on our Earth and in our community. The news can tell us what type of virus is being spread and how to prevent catching it. It also can tell you if a storm is coming your way and maybe it would be best to stay off the road. These simple news reports could save lives. That's why I believe the news is an important recourse to have available to everyone, and it's main purpose is to spread awareness about our world.

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  2. i think it is to share news. to tell people what is happen right now. i think it is saying hey did you now this or did you this it is to get news out the prople

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  3. The media has their own personal purpose for themselves: to make a profit. Their other purpose is to inform, but they don't care about this as much as readers do. In the media's eyes: Money>Information. It is possible to have zero bias, but it would be really difficult. To do it, the report would need all sides of the story with all the different opinions portrayed equally.

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  4. Allie D. was bored, so she wrote a novel in the comments.March 17, 2016 at 2:53 PM

    I think that newspapers are to keep people informed of the news, it is in their name NEWSpapers. They make sure that people know what has happened so that they can stay with the trends, and with a conversation, if the other side brings up what has happened around the town, they can actually say something, not just awkwardly guess.
    I think that no job is purely to make money, all jobs are for the purpose of the people, from sales engineer to casino owner, newspaper journalists are no different, yeah they need to make a living, but they also need to service the people, it is part of a working society, everyone serves a purpose, whether they are a beggar or the president, everyone makes another person make a different decision, changing the way everything turns out. Think: if president Kennedy hadn't said "we choose the moon" what would a lot 5-9 year old boys think that they would do when they grow up? when they didn't think that they would be astronauts, what would they they want to be? Just think, if your mother hadn't chosen to go to college in a certain area, that could affect you, you could even not exist.

    (mental question: how does this relate to newspapers?)

    anyway, newspapers are just to service the people, changing their mind or informing it, everything happens for a reason, and nothing happens just plainly to happen, if something bad happens, and you think to your self, I am a waste of space, just think, you might convince the next president to say something that changes the course of humanity. (deep thoughts, deep thoughts)

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  5. I think the purpose of the media is to inform us and to make a profit.They want to inform us about these accidents but at the end of the day they dont care about the people they are reporting. They just care for ratings and profit

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  6. I think the purpose of the media is to inform people about what's happening in the world but also to make money for their own company. I don't think it is possible to have zero bias in a media because everybody has an opinion which somehow shows up in their work and somebody will always notice it.

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  7. I think the media is good thing. It can be used to spread important things around. But I believe you can't always trust the news. I my opinion I believe that the the purpose is to to inform/help people when needed

    -Sebastian P

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  8. I think the purpose of the media is to share as much information with the world while making a profit. I also think that the purpose of the media is to covey some opinions that are biased and some that are not so that people can argue. These arguments are carried onto social media which then can be looked upon be some high official and be used to make the world a better place. In the end I believe that the media is a source of entertainment, and information.

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  9. First, the media is to let other people know the info that you know, that is (for the most part) important, or "need to know". I don't think they need to make money/profit because it's just telling people what's going on "out there". It may be possible for a zero bias, but once you hear one side, you may stay with that side and defend it.

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  10. I think that the purpose of the media is to inform while making a profit at the same time. The media is the main source of information for many people around the globe, but they are a business as well. To answer your other question, I do not think that it is possible to have zero bias. There are always certain topics which we feel strongly about, or have had experiences about. For example, the trial the Mr. Reynolds attended, they asked if the people enlisted had ever been assaulted, because then they would have been biased to the person who was assaulted.

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  11. I think the media's purpose is to inform the world about certain things and it always has a certain bias. The media is supposed to take both sides of the story and combine those to create a story though, the editor always has opinions on which side they like more so it will always have a ceratin bias. Also, an editor might ask one side more questions and so then again the article will have more info from that side so the article will always have a certain bias.

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  12. I think the purpose of the media is that it is to inform you on whats happening (obvious) but, it also teaches you. For example in class, we learned about the woman and the child falling because the fire escape broke and fire escapes are supposed to be strong. They probably made the fire escapes strong in the more wealthier parts of Boston, but in this poor part of Boston, where the big part of the black population of Boston is. So either the landlords couldn't pay for the fire escape to be checked, or the fire department of that part of area didn't really care to check it.

    Ben Molnar

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  13. media keeps the people informed. it also provides jobs and income.it also gives us warnigs of danger like storms or people.

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  14. In my opinion, what the media is SUPPOSED to be for is to help people know what's going on in the world. However, most media portrays only one side of an argument, and typically are pretty bias. Also, some media, such as social media is misused and people use it to talk about other people's personal lives, which is not OK. If it was up to me, I would have it be that you were only allowed to share one of someone else's ideas, personal happenings, etc. if they gave permission.

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  15. William Walling-SotolongoMarch 17, 2016 at 3:15 PM

    I think that the point is of the newspaper and other medias is to inform us what is happening in the world, and I also think that it is possible to have no bias. It is possible for there to be no bias in a newspaper or other media if there are multiple sides of of a story, multiple editors with different points of view about the story and if there is equal attention for all the sides. The point of the newspaper and other media is to spread news about what is going on, there are other shows that main purpose is to make profit but the news is just mainly for informing the people.

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  16. Yes, the whole point of media is to feed people what they want to here. That is they make money. Keep in mind that News people do this for a living so this counts as a business.

    - * (you know who this is right?)

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  17. I think the purpose of he media is to inform people. If there is news to share, or information that would warn people about something that could harm the community (about terrorists for example) you use the media. Also, to tell people about the truth or something that happened in the community/town you would use the media.

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  18. I think the purpose of media is to inform the residents, that something is going on, whether it is good or bad.

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  19. I think that at the beginning, the media was for informing people on situations that happen around the world. Now, I feel like all the news channels, websites and magazines are- like the story in class today- searching for a good front page story so that they can make more of a profit. I think it is possible to have zero bias because you can just tell the story and have no emphasis on any part that you consider bad or good. It probably wouldn't be a very good story. I think the reporters try to be bias though because people will then fight over if it is correct or incorrect and then it will be a big controversy and they will sell more papers or get more views

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  20. I believe that the initial purpose of the media was to inform the public but it costed money to create these notices forcing them to ask for some money, like a tax from whoever wanted to get the news. The news was then turned into a way of making money because people could make dramatic headlines and sell them for less than a dollar a copy and when its so cheap to stay informed why not buy it, quickly making the newspaper very popular and very rich. I think it is possible to have zero bias but then you either have to give many stories (as in like 10-15 a week) or make your stories only factual giving absolutely no opinion at all, there would be nothing like "fire causes dramatic drop," instead there would be "a woman and her stepdaughter fall from a building that is on fire" which in no way does not get the point of the story across, but does not do so in a way that makes people want to pick up your story over the news paper headlining " terrible drop from terrible building" therefore making the zero bias story more boring than the story that people do not agree with.

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  21. I think that the purpose of the media is to inform the public. But some of the media companys only do it to make a profit. I think it is impossible to have zero bias. jake

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  22. I think the purpose of the media is both to inform and to make profit. They want to inform people all around about what is going on, and try to catch peoples eye. By catching peoples eye, they will be able to sell a lot of media in the end. I think that it would be very hard for there to be zero bias.

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  23. I feel that the purpose of the media was initially to inform the public about important things. (Like 9/11 or the Pearl Harbor bombing.) But the media thought: "Hey, there are millions of people we can exploit to earn lots of $$$$! Let's abuse that fact!" That's why on newspapers and on the news they over exaggerate their stories to keep viewers interested, and increase the channel's ratings, and for people to buy lots of newspapers for the media to earn even more $. That's what I think of the media in general.
    -Justin Smith 2016

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  24. In America, the media is used to partially inform people, but that is mostly the local news who partakes in that. Other American media is used mostly to persuade people that a certain single group, way of life, or something of that sort is wrong and not what the rest of society should be a part of. The media is also often used to persuade people to focus on their business, and no one else.I think there will always be bias no matter what, even in small ways, because somebody will always make one side out to be the bad side and one side will be the side that everyone is supposed to feel bad for. The media also leaves out important parts of the story and will over-exaggerate the parts that they do make public.

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  25. I think the purpose of media is to get ideas and news out there, and to keep the people informed. By this I mean sharing details, and events to the people. Media does this by taking an event and sharing it to people who aren't near what happened. Or they could see this and make a change. If something bad happened they could possibly help. I do think it is possible to have zero bias, but I think its very hard to find. Most likely people are always going to feel for that one side of the story who has the little girl, or the widowing single mother. But there are people out there who need for there to be zero bias for the trial to be fair. I feel like people who have zero bias, are heartless and soulless people (not literally).

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  26. I think the point of media is not to show people the idea of whats happening around them but to show importance in world-wide problems; and to make a point that not everyone has it easy like you or I do. I also think the media wants people to see the changes in our world as these bad things happen across the world everyday. I also think that the media can be very bias. If you look in the new, people report about fights or conflicts, but you never really hear about the other side of that conflict is. Like why it happened? Or why did they choose to do this?

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  27. In my opinion the media is to inform people about what is going on in the area as well as other places around the world. Many people have jobs in the media from covering a story on the news to writing a newspaper article. Also I think the media is really important because otherwise people would be less aware of what was going on. For example if there was a burglar in town that has already robbed multiple places but has not yet been caught, people would probably need to be informed(by the media) to be aware of the situation. The people who are working to cover stories and stuff that is going on do make a profit so i think that may also be part of it. Lastly, usually the stories the media shares are bias. It is nearly impossible for them to make a non-bias story interesting, so usually the stories the media covers are bias(my opinion). -Gia

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  28. I believe that the purpose of the media is to inform. I believe this is true because the media is mostly what keeps us informed about the rest of the world. The media also tells us what we need to know about lets say the weather. I think it is possible to have zero bias but it would ether need to be all facts or have many stories in a short amount of time.

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  29. I believe that the point of a news paper is to inform what major events are happening in the world. I also believe though that newspaper business's want to make money and not go out of business. Therefor profit needs to be made. So someone's they will take a minor story and make it a big deal to get a big headline for attention and profit. So I also believe that their is bias to make profit.

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  30. I believe that the point of a news paper is to inform what major events are happening in the world. I also believe though that newspaper business's want to make money and not go out of business. Therefor profit needs to be made. So someone's they will take a minor story and make it a big deal to get a big headline for attention and profit. So I also believe that their is bias to make profit.

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  31. I think that the media is mainly intended to keep people informed, and partially to give people something interesting to hear. It lets people know things they might not otherwise know, and publicizes things that people might want publicized. There is always something to learn about or hear. For example, if a big event is going on, like the Superbowl, but you can't watch it, you can listen to it on the radio. Also, in a case like the Boston marathon bombing, the media kept people informed of what was going on, what had happened, what was developing. Also, if you want something interesting to see, you can browse through headlines, and read all of the eye-catching things. Lastly, if a person wants something publicized, they can pay to have it in the paper, like an ad, or get interviewed and have the media publish their story if it is good enough. What we learned about today in class is a good example. Since the story about the girl and her mom was published, something big happened, something that probably wouldn't have if the media hadn't published it. All the fire escapes in Boston were checked. So, the media has many purposes.

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  32. I think the purpose of the media is to inform people about the world. If we didn't have the media it could be good or bad depending on the person. If you are a person that likes to hear about stories that are happening all around the world the media is good for you. On the other hand if you don't like to hear about bad stories that have happened or are happening then the mdiea can be bad.

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  33. I think that the point of media is partially to keep people informed about events going on in the world; events, ideas...etc. Media plays a very important role in our country, but I think that social media has taken over. Anyways, media itself has probably saved many live because it brings caution and awareness to people around the world; about events and groups that could potentially harm us in the long run. For example, the photos that we saw. They brought awareness to the people and all the fire escapes were checked so that nobody else got killed or injured from events like those. Thing is, these things cost money...sometimes a lot of it and the reporters need to get paid. Where does this money come from? Probably from taxes, and just selling magazines, people supporting the news stations, etc. This is where bias comes in. I think that there is such thing as having no bias, but it's very hard to make a compelling argument and story without it. People who are interested in a story, well, will pay for it and keep wanting more from certain companies. I think that having bias can help make an interesting story, but maybe not one that is 100% true. So does being bias, in media, mean that people will be more interested, making a larger profit? Or not being bias and having perspectives from both sides, but risking the story/article/report not being interesting.

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  34. I think that the job of the media is supposedly to keep people informed about what's happening in the world. Although, this isn't really the case. As more and more media groups come out, they have to try harder and harder to gain money, as opposed to sharing the news, as they have more competitors. I think that everything the media shares is bias in some way, because they have to tell you what you want to hear in order to make more money. There are news stations that are more republican, those that are democratic, those that have more ethical news items, and those that may try to share only the truth. I think someone could attempt to look at something without being bias, by just sharing the facts, but you might subconsciously overlook a few. The only thing that is really unbiased is video footage, or a sure recording of a moment in time, but then our interpretations of that footage would still be bias. Therefore, although the media may not be doing the job we wish they were doing, and sharing only the facts with the public, I think that job is really impossible.

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  35. I think the purpose of the the media is to inform, make profit, and create bias towards a certain subject. There are true and false articles in the media newspapers, tabloids, etc. There are articles about if stereotypes should be eradicated, which creates bias, information, and profit.

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  36. I think that it depends on the people running the media. I remember that in third or fourth grade, I read a book called "The Landry News", and in the start of the book, it talked about how a good newspaper service told the truth, but also used kindness. Some of the people running the media don't tell the truth and aren't kind. They will do everything that they can to get more money. There are some news reporters that you cannot trust at all because they can warp your words into so many different things. There is a news outlet that will steal identities from people across the world and create a false story about them. The purpose to those people is to make as much money as possible. On the other hand, there are a lot of good news reporters that are kind and tell the truth. Their purpose is to let people know what is going on out in the world- what media was originally intended to do.

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  37. The purpose was to make money, people invent social media aps and medias like newspapers as a way of making profit, but on the other end the buys side it is to be exited and or informed by news that they bring you.

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  38. I think, being the daughter of a photojournalist, is to report the truth. In the media, sure, they want to report something interesting, but the only way people will want to read it, is if it is the truth. The people of the newspaper have a bias. There is no escape from being bias, it's just a thing most people have. They might have an opinion, but their job is to report the truth, the whole truth, an dnothing but the truth.

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  39. Nick T. Its all for profit.March 17, 2016 at 5:45 PM

    The purpose of the media is to make money, unless their is someone so deeply concerned about fulfilling the curiosity of people using the efficiency of messages. It is balanced by the natural stock cycles (if that is what they're called) of demand and abundance. The MEDIA'S purpose is to make money, but the reason the GOVERNMENT helps them is for efficient communication. If there was no media, then someone would realize how profitable it would be to make a news or radio channel for this and earn billions from the extensive commercials possible and lack of competition that come with a monopoly. (whew, no fully boring world possible) However, if any media lies or is heavily biased, they will lose much reputation, but following an interesting story, while it may cost more, will cause them to gain reputation among the current national media superpowers. If there is one true media station not after the profit, so what? Other channels are most likely better. As for their global support,/; protesters, governments, presidential candidates, and even ordinary people want other people to know their stories/beliefs. In this way, they take advantage of the natural demand-abundance cycle and financial profit from communication, they help them with their stories in return. (And maybe pass a few laws.) All the same, this also keeps the society happy with interesting and debatable news. In fact, early media was used only by the government, but now free labor removes the old costs.
    As for zero bias, this CAN be achieved in a very boring straightforward way. People from extreme sides of a conflict, as well as some who are neutral, should be interviewed or be able to type up their own short view with limited time/characters. from truly seeing all sides, (or as many as possible), the bias is effectively reduced. (Example, a teacher wanted to see whether people thought zero bias was possible, the let all his students respond.)
    WOW, this is long.

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  40. the purpose of the media is to inform and educate the world of the current happenings. it is also a way of big company making moeny like hyping as new movie or new iphone. media is a very broad term and could mean the news the internet the newspaper and the radio.

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  41. I don't think that the media does what they're supposed to do, like they talk about things that people don't really care about. They just want to make profit, they don't really care what people think about their articles. Their purpose is to inform, yet they don't do that as well as they do making profit off of unnecessary articles. People want to know about major events, and sometimes the media provides that, but not enough happens in the world for the media to use. There are crises happening all of the time, but most of the time, it's unheard of, or the media doesn't think it's worthy of peoples interests. The media does a good job at making money, but it is very hard to complete their task of noting everyone of everything that transpires in the world.

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  42. I think the purpose of the media is to make profit and to inform. However, it depends on the company, some companies try to mostly inform, but a lot of companies just try to make profit.

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  43. The original purpose of media is to inform the public about events going on around the world. Money is indeed part of this industry, because, to quite frank, very few people would want to report on events that most of time don't pertain to them. Plus while not getting paid. Back to the point, there is also possibilities that the media may seem bias to one side, intentionally or unintentionally. There is almost no way around it.

    My belief is that there will very likely never be zero bias in a news story. In the eyes of the beholder, one will tend to either find the article itself to be bias, or are led to believe that one side is "better" than the other in their own opinion.

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  44. I think the primary role of the media is to inform, present the news, state the facts just as is. It doesn't necessarily need to fulfill a certain bias. But the media is also in the business of making a profit. That may compromise how they put the information out there. I think there can be zero bias only when they are just stating facts but if they are doing analysis of any kind, peoples personal biases most likely will come through in their reporting. For example, if someone doesn't like black people, he or she will make them look bad in the news. Peoples biases can be presented as facts when they are actually not. The role of the media is very important and has many purposes, but we have to be careful that the reporting is fair and true. Otherwise it can be dangerous when people are made to believe something that's not true.

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  45. I think the point of the media is, to inform the people daily news. But they are still in it to turn a profit. Who would want to do it if they would did not turn a profit. Sometimes it can be taken to far and they would put a graphic story on the media.

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  46. The original idea of media was to inform people with the whole truth but that did not cause much interest to people. Therefore, the information being presented has been changed to tell some of the truth about the situation and the main idea (of media) now a days seems to be making a better profit.

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  47. I think the original purpose of the media was to inform people, and of course, some intend to do only that: tell the people all the facts they know about current events. However, I feel that many forms of the media have strayed a bit and are now focused more on profit than actual news stories. To do this, some writers will mostly show one side of the situation and exaggerate a bit to make these stories more eye-catching, exciting, and well-selling. As for bias, I think it's very hard not to side with one perspective over the other when narrating an event. It is also very difficult to get all the information needed to tell the complete truth, so some details essential to the story may be intentionally omitted. This could potentially add to the bias. If a writer is swayed in one direction, it is likely that the story will be too. To be honest, I am not sure whether an article could have zero bias. It seems possible but I have yet to see one.

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  48. The Media's purpose is to inform others about the antiquity and what transpired back then, as well as predicting what the future might hold. Making a profit by writing these newspapers should not be the main focus, however, making no money would not be fortunate and fair either. The Media should capture people's interests, and to do so they often share made up stories or true stories with some tweaks and changes made. This is because events that seem to be exciting occur pretty rarely, making the press have little to no ideas of what to write about in order for the newspaper to be considered interesting-- although everyone is different, so we may be interested in a variety of things. Bias, on the other hand is hugely involved with Media. That way it can convince people to believe in something or give them a clue to solving a problem. But sometimes the press will disagree with both sides which can make people think or react differently.

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  49. I think that they original point of media was just to inform people of happenings around the world as well as locally. This has changed overtime, and some newspapers/media are focused on the old ideas (The Harvard Press) and some are changing into something that doesn't always share the truth. They want people to keep subscribing, to they may have to inflate or deflate stories a little to make them more entertaining. It is possible to have no bias when you literally just state facts with no twisting the story. "Bob went to the police station. He asked for pizza. The police officer said to leave. Bob asked for more pizza. The police officer said to leave again." That is just straight facts and no side is chosen, therefore non bias. Instead, "A hungry guy named Bob went to the police station. He asked for some food and the police officer told him to leave! Poor Bob continued to ask for food and was denied again!" That was more biased and you clearly saw the side the reporter was leaning towards.

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  50. I believe that media is used to inform people of public, or private events. Further more, people mistreat the medias (Social Medias) some people mistreat the medias (I really don't have to give any examples) but to clearly talk about medias in general, they basically connect people from all over the world. Different people with different opinions. And all those ideas, well that's where social media comes in... TO BE CONTINUED!!! *bum bum bum!*

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  51. Well I think that the purpose of media is to keep people informed and sometimes entertained. I mean the reason that media was invented is because people wanted to know more.

    From the viewpoint of the people who buy, read or watch the media(me and pretty much everyone else)they do it so they know about everything so they're not missing out. If it's someone in middle school they look at media because they need to know what's going on in a celebrity's life or what big thing happened that's going to be "gossip" in school. And if you're an adult you probably look at it to see if the stock market has changed or what important political event happened. But either way it's to find out what's going on in the real world.

    However from the view point of people who work with a big business the point of media is to get important or "juicy" facts out there so they can sell more and make more money. Also, when is the last time you read a newspaper or magazine with out any advertisements? All of this is so that they can make more and more money. The more they sell the richer they become. This is why when you pick up a newspaper or magazine you don't just see "Well today there was a bird on the White House lawn." Because if you did you wouldn't buy it. That's how companies work. They give you the facts and you give them the money so they can give you more facts(or spend it a fancy car) so you will buy more.
    There is no way that you can get anything with absolutely zero bias unless you're telling someone that 1+1=2 which is a fact that you can't argue with. For example, if there was a magazine that was $50. The people would either not buy it or argue that that is way too high a price. But the magazine company would say that it's a high quality magazine with lots of fact and important information even though the real motive was just to make more money.

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  52. I think that the media began as a way for people to get informed and notified of things going on around them but as media has been getting more popular it has become more about the money and who has the best story. The media has become a whole different business, now everyone wants the best story. So reporters no longer get a story because they are curious but now because they want to make the most money and be the most money. It has turned to be all about greed. I say this but this is not always true there are reporters out there who do work because of curiosity not because of the money so I cant say that what I said above was completely true. Also people might say well wasn't it always like this. So the media could be either all about money or curiosity but personaly I think it is mostly now about the money

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  53. Emma Gresco-CaulfieldMarch 17, 2016 at 7:21 PM

    The purpose of the media is to inform people of what is happening around the world. The media can be biased when it doesn't show opposing points of view. I also think that the media is a business trying to make money.

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  54. I think the role for media is all just about informing and warning people of what can happen to you. The news alerts us to be careful and to be cautious. Also, media also wants money xD. With media also comes a lot of money for their business. They keep people intrigued on websites which brings in a lot of money for them
    I do not think anything can have zero bias.

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  55. I think the purpose of the media is to inform everyone of what is happening in the world. I don't think that's what the media does do though. There are a lot of articals that infer instead of stating the facts. I think the media should state facts because then the people reading can take in the facts and have their own opinions about the topic instead of only being shown one side of the story.-Kaitlyn

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  56. The purpose of the media is to share news, whether it's something small, like what you did over the weekend, or something big, like someone falling off of a faulty fire escape. Newspapers are called "NEWSpapers" because they share news, doesn't matter if it's big or small, if something happened, they tell you about it, same thing with news on TV. As for the second part of the question; Imagine you had 2 identical people, 1 person told a story, the other told a different story; if you just pulled someone off the streets and told them to pick which story they like better, there's no way that they could be biased if there's no difference between anything besides what's at question, the story.

    -Ethan M (My GoogleAccount isn't Working)

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  57. I think the role of the media is not only inform people but to also entertain. Media is informing people about what is happening in the world around them. In many ways media helps people from potentially being harmed or hurt. The Media is trying to make the world more aware of problems and ways to fix them. ~Jessica DiPietro

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  58. The purpose of the media is to inform humanity about the world. The media should show as much of the story as they can, but that is not always possible. Whether there is not enough information or people intentionally leave out details, the less reliable the source, the less trustworthy it should be. Should is the key word here. People often look to the most popular sources, rather than the most reliable.
    As for bias, a lack is sometimes possible, but only if all information is given, which is often quite difficult.
    Pardon the lack of length of this comment!

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  59. I think the role of the media is to inform people. Though, It only really shows one point of view and can be biased sometimes. The idea of media is changing though. It's not telling the truth always and is sometimes biased. They now either tell only their side of the story or they change it up to make it sound more dramatic than it really was.

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  60. The purpose of media is to inform people of information that they need to start their day. Newspapers should be filled with big things AND small things like winning a baseball tournament or a tragic event like 911. However, we see many different things coming out of newspapers nowadays.
    1. Newspapers nowadays are more and mainly focused on making a profit. The people who write magazines are always trying to find a story that will capture someone's attention. These journalists don't care about if it will disturb people. They only care for popularity to get a income. Why this is bad is
    A: Newspapers will publish things that people don't want to see.
    and
    B: You won't have a chance to look at the little stuff like someone winning a baseball tournament. Your eyes will catch the headline story and you'll most likely end up reading about that.
    2. Newspapers from the olden days to today show us biases in stories. If someone went to the press with a story, the media would only listen to that story and have a bias. They would publish THAT story and would probably end up not hearing the complete truth and facts of others.
    Finally:
    Virtually, it is impossible to have a zero bias because of the fact that someone will beat another person to get their opinion shared first. Newspaper writers will listen to the person that came to them first and publish that as what they think is right.

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  61. I feel that the purpose newspapers is to inform the people of news that is happening and will interest them. While at the same time turning a profit for the newspaper company for example the Boston Globe. But, in order to do this they need good publicity like having articles that interest people and that won't offend people.

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  62. I think that the media fills a certain bias because they are a business. They have to appeal to the people that pay attention to them the most to keep a successful business running. Peoples careers are the media.

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  63. I think it's impossible to have zero bias because if person a says person b is wrong and gives a good reason about why he thinks he's right, but person b claims person a is wrong, and gives a more detailed explanation about why person a is wrong, the interviewer will most likely seem to try to be bias but will go with the person who seems the most correct

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  64. I think that the point of the media is to get important news across everyone. Also to get peoples interest. I think you need to have at least 1 bias in your article. I think this because having zero bias', means having about zero of your facts correct

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  65. I think the purpose of media is to inform people of shocking stories, true facts, safety purposes, etc. So, they want to make sure people are knowing all the things happening around them. For example, sports are always fun to read about, but while there is a big story about a robbery, newspapers want people to know about information like that. They want to keep readers interested, and to let them keep spending money to buy their newspapers. Mostly today, I think newspapers care about profit, like "don't care what that person feels about me trying to get into their personal business and publishing it." The newspapers should focus on what will get the attention of the readers, and if it will be a good story or not.

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  66. I think media SHOULD be used to get out information that is relevant and important for citizens to know. BUT, saying that, most media sources will just find the most eye catching headlines or pictures and just use that to get people to buy or look at the article, causing the media producers to make a profit for putting up dumb or silly information. I also think newspapers in media is bias because it is a team of people coming up with what to put in the article, and they have their side of the story or their opinion on the story which is what they put into the article.

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  67. The purpose of the media is to inform people of crisis's that are happening around the world. It also informs people, of things that could help them gain things, like for example adds. Also, the media I think is usually in it for the money. They have to capture, and write about heart breaking stories! I wouldn't want to do that! But some reporters, write because they love their job which is a good thing too. But media can be a good thing and a bad thing.

    -Olivia Kehoe

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  68. I think that media is for the people to know what is going on in the world but the reporters take advantage of that and try to make a profit without the people knowing that they are. But with there being social media now a days reporters don't put the main headlines on a newspaper it's all on the internet. Also it is very important that people know what is going around In the worl so they can be prepared or ready to fix something

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  69. Helena Justicz The FantabulousMarch 18, 2016 at 12:37 AM

    I think that the purpose of media was meant to be a way of informing people, but has evolved into telling everyone what they want to hear to make a profit. If everyone wants to hear about celebrity gossip rather than terrorism, then that's what newspapers will write about to make more money. On some occasions, people want to hear nothing but the truth, so that's what the media will write about. Everything is about shock value. As for bias, I feel that having no bias is impossible, but we can still empathize with others and make an effort to understand them. I, for example, will never completely understand those who don't like Harry Potter, but I can try to see why they dislike it even if I don't feel the same way. It is impossible to have no bias, but one can try to gather someone else's point of view. Wow I got carried away.

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  70. I think media is to inform people about what is going on in different areas, media is a way for you to get the information you need about the world today. I think you have zero bias, because most people think that something can be a catastrophe and still want it in the news; everyone obviously has different oppinions, but a lot of them are geared towards the same purpose. Also, like the Boston Photographs some people agreed on getting the picture printed and some people didn't want it printed; but everyone agreed that it was a catastrophe and people in poor neighborhoods needed better care and safety.

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  71. The media was made to inform people with complete fact. But, unfortunately, this doesn't happen because as much as any other form of society, it's a business and people have to make money. Therefore, they must give what people will buy,bathed have to say what people want to hear.

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  72. I think the media was made to comuniate and inform us. But us being us and bissness being bissnesss we corrupted it.... It's now all about who can get the most likes on there new Instagram post. And all the big bissnesss are getting money from that. But it's chill. -Andrea B

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  73. The purpose of the media is to inform the public about pressing matters. There are forms of news that do it for money. Like, pop culture. Others like the Huffington post and my dads company Global Post and thh Groundtruth project are to inform the world about matters around the world, and foreign policy, with little pay.

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  74. 1: I think that the purpose of the media is to make profit and inform the people with little "real" news. For example almost every news company shares 2 terrible unimportant stories about Kendall Jenner or any other dumb thing a celebrity has done. Then the news company puts 5 minutes worth of ads only to return to them talking about corn growth in Australia when the should be talking about the people fighting for our country.

    2/3: I think that it is not possible to have zero bias because of media and influences telling you who's better or worse. For example if you are a foreigner and you didn't know who Donald Trump was and you were watching the news and saw him in it or on social media you would see some of his less good ideas you would probably have a different feeling towards him. Another example is on NBC news and probably a lot of other news stations they show clips of Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton and other candidates doing bad things and not the good things which would affect me personally a lot. -LFrench A block ELA

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  75. i think that the purpose of the media is to keep the public updated on recent events. Some news companies do it for money. i think that it can be possible to have zero bias but most people do have a certain bias depending the environment in which they where raised in.

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  76. I think the purpose of the media is to keep everyone updated with what's happening. And it's not possible to have no bias. It always depends on where you grew up and other various things. so in conclusion you can never be completely not bias.

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  77. The purpose of the media is to inform people about what's happening in other parts of the world. And maybe things that could effect everyone like bad weather and car crashes. Sometimes the media is a bad thing because they don't always have the full story. But most of the time the media is very helpful to everyone.
    Elizabeth Cohen

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