Mass Media ; Reliabilty of news

After reading these two articles, "Spilling blood with oil in Iraq" and "TVBS scandal points to credibility problems in Taiwan's media industry" I realised I have to really think twice before believing what the media reports. No matter how established the media company seems to be, we should still assess the news report carefully, especially when it talks about political issues.

In the case of the article "Spilling blood with oil in Iraq", the media always pictured the campaigns as good but when the author went to Iraq, he realised that was not the case. Instead of helping the poeple in Iraq, they were being bombed and killed. For so long, most people who tuned in and follow-ed up on the situations in Iraq by watching the news, were severly misleaded. A totally different picture was painted for them. In other words, the media withheld the truth from the people.

As for TVBS, they are a very popular and one of the more established television company in Taiwan that has been operating for 14 years. Yet, they did up a false report on a robbery. If not for the investigation that has been done, the people will be still kept in the dark. It seems like the media would do anything just to get a good viewership, as it was not the first time such false reporting was made. If the scheme was not discovered, the poeple would still have to fear when walking in the streets at night. Who would account for all these fear that is caused by a false report?

Therefore I have learnt that I have to evaluate and be more careful when reading the news. Indeed what is perceived by the news may not be real.