Final topic for paper

My final thesis is: The media’s manipulation of stories about steroid use can be seen by the correlation between Barry Bonds steroid scandal and his poor treatment of media professionals in the past. The steps to my argument are to first show how Bonds has been treated by the media, and then compare it to how McGuire and Sosa were treated. Then I will explain how Bonds treated the media differently that McGuire and Sosa. Finally I will use this relationship to show why Barry Bonds received so much publicity in relations to the steroid scandal. My favorite source is Its Outta Here by Bill Gutman because it compares Bonds to many different players, and tries to analyze why things involving Barry Bonds have happened instead of just listing facts. One interesting thing that I learned about my topic was just how rude Bonds is to the media. I laughed when I read that Bonds called a reporter a midget.

Research Paper topic/theses

My topic is going to be the media’s perception and influence around steroids in sports, particularly in baseball.

Thesis 1: The media’s influence and power regarding steroid use in sports can be examined through athletes in major athletic affiliations, particularly in the ongoing Barry Bonds scandal.
Thesis 2: The media manipulation of stories about steroid use can be seen by the correlation between Barry Bonds steroid scandal and his previous poor treatment of media professionals.
Thesis 3: The media’s influence in the judicial system of the United States of America can be seen through the correlation of the amount of the media’s focus on a steroid user, and the amount of incitements against that particular individual that follow.

Reality TV

I do not watch reality TV, or “professional” wrestling, for that matter. I despise “professional” wrestling because calling it wrestling degrades competitive sports. It is a form or entertainment that has been warped by advertizing to resemble an actual competition. I actually feel sad for people who sit there and actually think that it is a sport. I have the same feeling about reality TV. It is a show, a form of entertainment, that has been warped by advertizing (to be consistent) to actually resemble real life. It does not; rather these shows simply comprise of taking people and throwing them into ridiculous situations in order to make people feel better about their real lives. This is not even close to reality. Instead, these shows exist because a smart group of people have found a way of using people’s insecurities to make a ton of money.

I do not feel that reality TV exists to present any arguments or messages. The sole reason for the entire genre is to make money. Reality TV is much cheaper to produce than traditional shows, thus this form of entertainment reaps even larger benefits when it airs on TV. There is no message being conveyed, rather people sitting in a room trying to figure out what it is that people want to hear. Whatever conclusion they come to about what people want to hear is what will be broadcasted in their “reality” shows.

The Media as a Business, not a News Service

The topic that I am thinking about using for this assignment deals with how the media is, in fact, a business and not a service. Consequently it is extremely important for the viewer to be aware. I find the twists that the media puts on catastrophic events to be terrible for society. Rather than spreading the news of the event they turn it into an ongoing story. The twisted result becomes more like a show than a news report. It highlights the disaster in a way that brings more negativity. Often, the person who was responsible gets so much attention they are surely viewed as a martyr. A perfect example is the Virginia Tech tragedy. Seung Hui Cho, the boy responsible for the event, received far too much attention for his actions. The goal of the news became to find out about his life rather than focus on the victims. I am sure these actions have caused other people who may be depressed and angry to see him as a martyr, not a murderer. Another negative effect was the racial backlash that resulted from the incident. Both of these problems could have been avoided if the news channels had just presented the story, focusing on the event, rather than dragging it on into a tale to boost television ratings.

Trust in the Age of Diversity and Spin

1) I found this article to be very interesting. It took the conventional way that we view news and presented it from a completely different outlook. People, in general, view the news as a source of information, so it was out of the ordinary to hear an argument that stated that we the people in fact are the ones who decide what we are presented in the news.
2) This article presents a fairly strong argument. Michael Hedges takes the stance that institutions, particularly the media, use much of their time and money to protect the power and influence that they have over the general public. This is a major feat to attempt considering people are always changing and shifting their views and opinions, so these companies eventually fail to sustain this power. The result is that companies seem to spend more money and resources on public relations issues than production, and the news companies spend more time telling people what they want to hear instead of presenting the truth.
Hedges then moves on in his article to provide effective evidence to support this stance. He provides many examples of how companies’ executives and political heads attempt, in his own words to “sanitize” free information. In support of these statements used to support his stance Hedges explains and informs the reader of Wiki Scanner. One of his final supporting evidence comes from a study from Robert Putnam. The general idea of the study is that the more different views the media presents, the more power these companies loose over the people. Hedges then goes on to explain that the news companies only compound this problem by further trying to control the situation by putting more news with different views out there. All of this evidence ties back to his thesis and provides a very sound argument.
The only major counterargument that I can find in this article deals with Hedges prediction of television. It still remains a dominant force, both in news and advertising, and is not necessarily going to die down in a decade. This is a major bifurcation. Just because the newspaper has lost support does not lead to a conclusion that the television will face the same problem in the following decade. It was therefore a waste of time for Hedges to spend so much time on this relationship in his article—a relationship that when closely examined can actually be used against the article. However, taken as a whole this essay provided a very sound argument.