are the newspapers about business or truth?

Question

do they play on peoples fears about the current state of society?

can they make problems worse?

do they re-enforce negative feelings towards any group of people?

should they be held more accountable for the stories they print?

are you taken in by what you read in them?

which paper is the worst/best and why?

Answer 1

believe only the date ...and check that.

Answer 2

It's a common misconception that newspapers sell news. What they actually sell is advertising space to a potential readership - they make far more money from advertising than they do from cover price on the newspaper. So, in this respect, the newspapers can never print anything that is going to offend those people it is primarily selling to - ie big corporations, the ones that can afford to buy the advertising space in the first place. So, newspapers are about business.

Obviously they can only sell advertising space if they have readers - and to get readers they generally have to go down to the lowest common denominator, reflecting the thoughts of the majority of the population (some may say "the most stupid among us"). So the sort of reporting is based on fear, loathing, hatred, death, and most importantly, tittle tattle. You rarely see a newspaper chastising big business - minor quibbles maybe, the odd "tut tut",but nothing more. After all, why would they want to bite the hand that feeds them?

Answer 3

Newspapers are not and never have been anything to do with the truth. They are all about influence which they weild on behalf of the highest bidder. They manipulate their readers into accepting the point of view of their controllers, whether that be their owners or theor owners friends.

The Mail and the Express have been known for a long time to be racist. They are aimed at the under educated lower middle classes and most of the stories are alarmist.

The tabloids range from being firmly tongue in cheek to pandering to poorly educated yobs who lack any useful degree of independent thought.

The broadsheets have to be more careful because their readers are more discerning but nevertheless, they still present the views they are paid to present. The Times and Telegraph for the right wingers, the Guardian and Independent for the left.

They are all as bad as each other but when I do buy one I get the independent. Still don't trust a word i read though.

Answer 4

Most papers to me are about business not the truth

As for the best paper none come to mind
as for the worse it has to be the Sun (more a comic than a paper)
One example was there reporting of the pegging of the BBC TV licence to below inflation they made such a big deal out of it. What they forget to tell you is they are owned by Murdock and that it would be in his interest if the BBC cannot compete with Sky TV. He would love it if the licence was scrapped think we could all pay him £300 plus a year to watch TV instead of £128
I have posted a link to the article

Answer 5

Papers are a powerful tool to manufacture consent. The press often defends itself by saying that they only print what the public wants, but the reality is that the public is too thick to know what it wants (or believes) and the papers fulfil this role.

Read this for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegemony

Answer 6

Most of the papers are for profit or political purposes, just take a look at the Sun or the Mirror when there is an election on,

Answer 7

most news papers are not about truth.some are taking revenge on governments.they change the incidents in what ever way they want.
they can dethrone governments.example Andhra Pradesh

Answer 8

Truth? they tilt news and views to the editor's or owner's interests. Who pays the piper dictates the tune! init?

Answer 9

Business
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
New York Times
They are completely biased about what they print...

Answer 10

Most of the dailys are all about gossip hunni

Answer 11

Most of them have their own agendas. Don't trust them till there's undeniable proof.