Nowadays, the mass media do not report the news; they make the news. Discuss this with references to recent events.

Nowadays, the mass media do not report the news; they make the news. Discuss this with references to recent events.

Mass media is considered the watchdog of democracy. Are they really doing their part to protect democracy? Do they report the news or do they make up the news? Judging from the numerous cases reported by the press, we can see that the media are abusing their rights and withholding the truth.

Take the recent case of the Virgina Tech massacre for instance, it has been more than one week but the press continues to report about it. Reason being, this will boost up their sales since it capture the attention of many. Their reports on this issue caused the society to be more aware, educate them of what is happening around us. But again, is there a need for them to even visit Cho's parents? What is their foremost priority in doing so? I presume that it is used again to boost it's ratings, to cook up more stories with reference to this event. Also, NBC's release of the videos that Cho has taken , shows one thing about them-unethical. they chose not to care about the families of the victims and distribute the videos, photos and manifestos. In order to get the 1st hand news reported, Chicago Sun-Times journalist Michael Sneed among several others, had incorrectly identified a Chinese American and a Chinese national as the suspected shooter. The erroneous report was released to the public twelve hours before the correct identity of the gunman was officially disclosed by the Virginia Tech authorities.


Also, in the case of NKF's dispute, the press have deliberately published the issue weeks after weeks. This caused much unrest and brought the whole nation to have bias views about charitable organizations. Imagine this, there was only a few articles on NKF's director Mr Durai's embezzlement of the funds, will it cause such a great commotion? Will people shun other charitable organization?

All this was due to the press abusing their power, abusing their privilege of freedom of expressions. But again is this their fault? The media reports anything that interests their readers, who do we have to blame if it was we, who encouraged the idea of making up stories?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre#Inaccurate_media_reports
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Kidney_Foundation_Singapore_scandal

“YouTube has no ethics, it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.” Do you agree?

I agree that Youtube has no ethics and that it has been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.

Youtube is a site whereby people can upload any videos or download any videos for the sake of entertainment. As a result, people tend to take advantage of this and uploaded videos from VCDs and song albums. This is indeed an evidence of youtube not having any ethics. People now get to watch all these shows for free. So who will want to fork out money if there was a Free-Of-Charge deal. Now, the poor actors would have to be paid lesser, since the entertainment industry is unable to generate sales. This has infringed the Law of Copyrights and it is actually an illegal stuff. But what has Youtube done, regarding this matter? To protect their own interest, they chose to be ignorant about this issue.

Youtube do not have much restrictions regarding on the type of videos that were uploaded. This is do that they can have more people visit their website and so more commercialists would want to pay money to have their advertisements up on Youtube. Recently, it was reported in BBC’S NEWS-- Thailand blocks access to YouTube which was considered insulting to him. Youtube did not remove the video upon request as this is conflicting with their interest. But didn’t they even think of how the King of Thailand felt when he know of this insulting videos.

Also, youtube seems irresponsible regarding the content of the videos. There was an article, “Is YouTube just what the doctor ordered?” , dated 2^nd jan 2007. This might not be an accurate piece of information, and following these wrong insturctions might lead to deadly consequnces. Imagine someone who watched this video, asked their friends to view and so on, followed these wrong instructions and informations might cause harm to their body.

All in all, I agree that Youtube has no ethnics and that it should be more responsible for all videos uploaded. This is the minimum effort that they have to put in, in order to be fair to those patronising Youtube.

Teenage life is the best time of one’s life.

Look around you and you will see cliques of teenagers hanging out in public places like shopping malls and bus stops, laughing and giggling amongst themselves, enjoying each other’s company. But then again, is teenage life only filled with laughter? Just flip through the newspapers and one can find articles on teenagers who committed suicide, abortion committed by teenagers due to pre marital sex and many other depressing things that teenagers are going through. So is teenage life really the best time of one’s life?

Nowadays, teenagers tend to follow an “emo” fashion trend. This could be due to peer pressure or influence from the media. Look at the one of the top twelve finalists of the “Singapore Idol”, Paul Twohill, is also into this trend, which is characterized by his wearing of tight shirts and actually having a fringe that covers his face. While is it is okay to follow the fashion trend, some teenagers have gone overboard and has even resorted to self-mutilation to fulfill a fashion trend. Examples include the slashing of their body parts, or even the wrist, which is potentially harmful. Is harming and torturing of oneself a sign of happiness at living the teenage life, especially since it’s a disturbing trend and a sign of unhappiness which is contrary to the belief that teenage hood is the prime of one’s life.

Teenagers are mostly impulsive and there are some who have done things regardless of the potential consequences. Recently, there has been a law enacted that any teenagers under the age of eighteen found in the streets late at night will have their parents notified by the police. In short, a curfew has been placed on teenagers. What does this show about how teenagers are seen and treated even by the government? That teenagers generally as a whole is seen as a group of people by the society as a group that has to be controlled or kept at home for otherwise they will be out in the streets making a din of themselves to the public. It can also be seen from this action that teenagers are not trusted to be able to make decisions that they will have to make in the future anyway, hence how can teenage life be the best time of one’s life if one is not even trusted by the society to make responsible choices?

Then again, teenage life is also one that is highly enjoyable in that one has no need to assume the burdens of a full-fledged citizen of the society. There is no need for teenagers to assume the burden of providing for a family or to even provide for themselves generally. Decisions made by teenagers also have lesser impact than that made by adults, as they generally do not determine the survival of oneself and their family. Teenagers also have no need to worry about tax increases, and most other societal issues. Hence a teenage life is often more care-free as compared to an adult’s life and other than friendships (or relationships issues) and studies, a teenager’s life is more preferable to that of an adult because of the lesser responsibilities that society requires from this group of people due to their younger age (or maturity level).

Teenage life is also the period of time in which one have more time for interaction with peers, to play and to enjoy the company of friends. Through spending time with one’s friends, the teenager is also able to learn important social skills that are not taught in class settings such as handling different types of relationships. A child below the age of twelve would hardly have the freedom to be able to spend time with friends as he or she is usually considered too young and will instead spend most of the time at home or in school. For the adult, one may be too busy working to have the time to spend with friends. On the other hand, a teenager will have both the freedom and the time to spend with friends and hence can then acquire important social skills that will serve him or her in good stead for the rest of his or her life.

The teenage life is indeed the best time of one’s life, where learning is a pleasure as it is easy for one to pick up new things. Also coupled with the newfound freedom that one acquires upon completing childhood and the lack of responsibilities that the teenager faces in comparison to the adult, the teenager life is indeed the best time of one’s life.