MIT 2412: Response Post

 This particular post is for my class MIT 2412: Blogging for Politics and Profit. 

The online documentary, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism discusses public’s lack of participation in how the media is bought and distributed. The media is supposed to be an outlet to foster democratic practices but the Fox News model showed in this documentary exemplifies that this is not the case. David Brock, President and CEO of Media Matters America stated that the media is undermining democracy as a whole. On the other hand, the monopoly of large media conglomerations has given way to citizen journalism. Today, the blogosphere has exploded and people turn to blogs like The Huffington Post and TMZ to get their news. Major media outlets have become a propagandistic tool full of marketing ploys. This has forced people to turn to smaller media outlets in order to corroborate mainstream news and get details that major outlets leave out.

The difference between reporting and reporting an opinion are very different. Outfoxed demonstrates that the line between news and commentary is blurred.  Large media conglomerates are assumed by the public to use credible sources. However, reporters for these outlets abuse the line “Some people say “ and use the general public as a source. In this respect, they are reporting news from a “source “while masking an opinion.

Your probably asking, how does this relate to L&L? Similarly, fashion consumer magazines are supposed to be authorities and report the best products in beauty and hair. How does the public know these products are the best ones or they are just featured because a cosmetics company has given the magazine sponsorship.  Even if magazines say they do a poll of their readers to find the best products its hard to believe that method of collection of this information is entirely “fair and balanced”.

(photo: fashionmagazine.com)