Mass Media ; Media's subjective Perception

In this case, the media's subjective perception affected the way this incident progressed in a great deal. According to the article "Singapore Swimmers in hot water", it all started when a reporter saw Bryan and Zach smiling when they saw the US team being disqualified. The reporter published this news on the Associated Press, which is a renowned news company. He "thought" and "inferred" on his own that since those 2 Singaporean boys are there for competition, they must be gloating upon seeing the US team lose a chance of winning another medal. Indeed, the thoughts and inference of that reporter landed our two young swimmers into hot soup.

What bothers me is that just with one reporter’s report, a huge impact is brought upon the two swimmers. This not only shows the power of mass media, it also once again reinforce the danger of the media’s subjective perception. SSA’s team manager, David Tay, asked a good question. Why didn’t the reporter go up and ask the boys why were they smiling? This brings the whole incident to a whole new level, which is the motive of the reporter who reported such matters without clarifying with the “accused”. Is he doing it just for the sake of increasing the news selling rates? If so, doesn’t he know that the future and reputation of not only the two young boys but also the whole Singapore Team are at stake here? Or that he might be responsible for sowing discord between countries? All these questions are sure mind bogging. Nonetheless, I do hope that this is not the case.

I am relieved that they are able to clear up the misunderstanding through the media. Instead of smiling in mockery at the US team, the boys actually were in shock. It was the media, which landed them into such trouble; ironically it was the media, which helped them out of it too. Therefore, I would not make a sweeping statement and say the media’s perception is all bad and harmful. Nonetheless, in this case, it was a bad example of media perception. It also serves as a reminder for us audience to always look at the “bigger picture” and not just the picture painted for us by one solitary newspaper.