User:LBird BASc/sandbox/ATK/Seminar5/Truth/Truth in the Media

How truth in the media has impacted public opinion throughout history

-The Dreyfus affair is a crisis that crystallized public opinion. The Dreyfus affair broke out on 1 November 1894 when an extreme right-wing newspaper, led by anti-Semitic journalist Édouard Drumont, broke military secrecy and revealed that a Jewish officer was accused of betraying France, by spying for the benefit of Germany. press has rapidly taken sides in this history. Most newspapers get involved. Some are anti-Dreyfusards: La Croix, Le Petit Journal. Others serve as a forum for intellectuals (this term is created then) who defend Dreyfus’s innocence. On January 13, 1898, it was in L'Aurore that Zola published his «J'accuse»; in La Petite République, Jaurès, the same year, published «Les preuves». All those publishments influenced public opinion, which had an impact on the whole society, creating conflicts in all kinds of social groups. By the time of the Zola letter got published, the dressing-case had split France in two opposing camps ( the anti Dreyfusards and the Dreyfusards)

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War is an example of the influence of the media, especially when used as a tool to expose the truth.

Truth in the media during the Vietnam War contributed greatly to forming public opinion. Indeed, the Vietnam War is known as the first television war. In this way, it revealed the difficult conditions that the soldiers lived in as well as the massacres of the Vietnamese in their villages. This led to mass protests that rejected the war, and eventually, the idea of war in general. Anti-war protestors denounced the actions of the United States abroad and began to defend the Vietnamese as well as the drafted soldiers. The latter rejected the war as well, by burning their draft cards and not participating. This anti-war movement helped develop the idea of Counterculture that opposed Conservatism, the latter being associated with the government that was treated with scepticism, in large part because of what television in the media had exposed about the war.

This truthful portrayal of the conditions under which the Vietnam War happened was transferred from news to the film industry. The latter underwent a breakdown of the traditional Hollywood studio system studio system, and independent movies were produced and soon gained popularity in part because they provided a less-glorified, more realistic depiction of the American soldier's role in war. Such alternative movies include Apocalypse Now ; Heaven and Earth  ; as well as Taxi Driver.

How truth in the media or lack thereof impacts public opinion today

When looking at truth in the media, it is important to analyze how truth has transformed in today’s world with the rise of social media and the decline of traditional media. Social media had a critical impact on the major political events of 2016 in the Western world: the US presidential elections and the Brexit referendum.

In the United States, there are about 12 states that are considered ‘swing states’, meaning they are not historically democrat or republican dominated. It is these states that most presidential candidates focus on during their campaigns as their votes are decisive for the final results. Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm, worked closely with Trump’s party during the 2016 elections and collected data from US citizens through Facebook, especially those living in ‘swing states’, to later on target these individuals with adverts against Hillary Clinton . For example, the ‘crooked Hillary’ slogan, the main actor in the candidate’s portrayal as a criminal unfit for the presidential role, was created by this company and spread throughout social media through ads .

The 2016 Brexit referendum in the UK also displays the use of social media as a tool to deform truth. Not only did Cambridge Analytica use the same tools as it did with Trump’s election to influence undecided voters through the spread of clickbait advertisements , the Brexit supporters were twice as many and five times more active than Remain supporters on Instagram which means there was an abundance of posts in favor of Brexit made every day. The lack of a real social media campaign from the Remain side was critical in the results of the referendum.

Although it is clear that social media, as opposed to traditional media, is not meant to be a news outlet, it should be expected to spread truth throughout its platform. However, the issue is that this truth is relative to numerous factors such as the social media user and the data that has been collected from him, or which company pays ads to persuade this user. Freedom of speech, lack of fact-checking and abundance of shock value titles makes it challenging for truth to exist in this form of media.

-trump

When Le Pen was presenting his candidature in 2002 for the presidential, he got helped by the media to get to the second tour. Jean Marie le pen is a populist politic man who claims racism and wanted to go out of Europe, he is representing far right in the french politic system. During the presidential campaigns in 2002, the television medias mainly published stories about insecurities in France, especially in the suburbs of Paris. for instance, 3 days before the elections, a story of « papy voise » came out. Paps Voice was a grandfather that lived in the suburbs that got attacked by young thugs and they brunt his house. The medias reinforced about the insecurities in France and this helped impact the elections that was just a few days later. « Un thème sur lequel surfent habilement Jacques Chirac et Jean-Marie Le Pen. » (L’express, 2011) . This says that the two candidates know how to use and control media to use them in their advantages. In response to this uncertainty climate in France, people got afraid about their security and health, which is one of the main debates in politics, this helped Le Pen get votes. As a result, the National Front passed to the first tour but then he got stopped by the votes of the second tour which were 82% for Jacques Chirac and 18% for Le Pen. This shows how media can influence public opinion just by deciding to show a certain aspect at a certain moment, by revealing their subjective opinions. Their opinions are biased which can influence many people that do not show a critical aspect of what they read. The first way journalists get involved in elections is by choosing which candidates to cover and how much. Those choices alone can have a huge effect on voter perceptions. .

-Brexit

LBGTQIA+

Many times certain facts or 'truths' are presented in biased ways in order to sway popular opinion to be against certain social movements. This is particularly true for the LGBTQIA+ community as well as the feminist movement as numerous more conservative news outlets subjectively caricature them.

A telling example would be that of the Proposition 8 campaign of 2008. This Californian state constitutional amendment was put forward to ensure that "only marriages between men and women are valid and recognised in California." During the campaign for this amendment many social groups spoke out such as the Catholic Bishops of California who supported the proposition. In their statement , the group of religious leaders use biblical justifications such as bible passages to sway the wider publics views on the matter. Moreover, many advertisements in favour of the proposition we're broadcast throughout the state. Many of these clips being laced with stereotypes of what homosexual marriages entail. Social bias is explicit in these examples and show the subjective nature of media as a whole, this undoubtedly with the example of social rallying or political campaigns.

In North Korea

North Korea has one of the most repressive media environments in the world, ranking only second from last among 180 countries in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index. Even though both local and international news are available in North Korea, news would be censored by the government according to their interests and anyone who is in possession of unauthorised media would be prosecuted. Despite this, some North Koreans employ illegal means - such as tuning in to foreign broadcasts and using imported mobile phones, to learn more about the outside world or even obtain information from them in order to learn about happenings in their own country. Nonetheless, many locals are unaware of or have little knowledge of the outside world, with many North Korean defectors stating their surprise when they discovered how different the outside was as compared to what they thought it would be. Resolving this is a difficult task as North Koreans have no freedom - in terms of voicing their opinions, accessing information and moving around.

How truth in the media impacts international relations

( subaltern etc) Third world countries The portrayal of the riots in HK

Journalists have the unique ability to help accelerate climate action through advocacy and education, but their potential to help achieve the global climate goals agreed in Paris last year still remains largely untapped by the media coverage that they choose to do or not, they can influence mentalities on the subject and impact a civil implication. They are the one that own the informations so the way they share can have a powerful impact on public opinion. It becomes a problem when they choose not to cover an important event, for instance in September 2019, the amazionan forest had to face an importance and dangerous fire that was spreading, it took more than two weeks for the media to talk about it and expose it as major news. In reaction to this late process, many influencers on social media (such as actors, footballers) has shared the news, to enable individuals to get the news and at least be able to know that this major crisis was happening Journalists have the ability to help accelerate climate action through education and exposing facts to the population, but their potential to help achieve the global climate goals agreed in Paris last year still remains undone. Public awareness plays an important role in changing the ways of life of each individual. Scientists and media scholars who express frustrations with inadequate science reporting argue that it can lead to at least three basic distortions. First, journalists distort reality by making scientific errors. Second, they distort by keying on human-interest stories rather than scientific content. And third, journalists distort by rigid adherence to the construct of balanced coverage. Bord, O’Connor, & Fisher (2000) argue that responsible citizenry necessitates concrete knowledge of causes and that until, for example, the public understands what causes climate change it cannot be expected to take voluntary action to mitigate its effects.