Democracy in the US, really? A Brazilian asks?

Question

Do we live in a world where the media reflects the reality or creates a virtual one? I'm Brazilian. I live in Brazil and Brazil has gone through a period of dictatorship, unfortunately. We are coming out of this period of darkness when the media only said good things about it. Nowadays we still can’t trust the media. It defends only the most privileged. But my question is this: Is there any reliable media? Let’s take the US media as example. I notice there are very few Americans who can tell me why the US has been so much attacked recently not only physically but also in the more independent international media (everywhere). The average American is unaware of the reasons of so much hate against his country. There is the international media and then there is the US media which creates its own reality to be broadcasted and believed by 99% of their public. Some believe that democracy is the right to vote. But, how can anyone vote if no reliable information is available?

Answer 1

There is some reliable media. It really depends on what you consider to be reliable, what you consider media.
In the US, many newspapers are owned by conglomerates that lean towards a conservative agenda. Other newspapers are locally owned and have their own agenda.
US citizens have been turning more to the internet to get their info about politics, rather than just the mainstream media.
A good site with accurate info can often be found, but it depends.

If you are looking for truth in media, there are watchdawg groups that examine and report the lies. I list 2 below.

I guess all I can say is people vote (when allowed) according to what they think they know about the candidates and that the media isn't always their primary source of info on a candidate.

Answer 2

USA Media are totally biased


I think the present government is bad
let s think fairly
first,do we have the right to have nuclear weapons and others not ?you may say we are a democratic country but you must know that Ahamadi Nejad elected and choosed by the iranian people(NB we are not sure if the president Bush desereved to be a president or not ,do you remeber the votes of the last state)
second: we are a democratic country but we hit Japan with 2 nuclear bombs at the end of the war without the need to do this (Japan was going to surrender)and we donot know if any japanese generation in the future may take revenege or not.
third:we allow some other countries to have nuclear weapond and help them like INDIA and ISRAEL WHICH is dangerous on the world peace and flaming wars from time to time (it is a reason of the hatred of many nations to usa)
forth:we have a very bad foreign policy against many countries like Cuba,Venezuela,middle east,north korea.,do you think if we have a fair normal diplomatic relation with these countries including iran ,does anyone of the world would attack us ?look at Canada ,it has a good realtions with all nations ,there is no terrorrism against it
fifth:we always attack others which makes them going to the steps of revenge.so if we stop shaking Iran regime ,do you think iranians and they know well that we are the strong power ,may attack us??

sixth: dealing with the iraq was is the worst .prisons of Abou ghareb ,killing citizens ,and many things which make others plans for revenge.

at the time of the second world war ,all countries of world and nations was looking up to USA ,now with the wrong decisions ,supporting some dictators,bad forign relations with many countries .the situation is difficult and there must be a change in the US policy

Answer 3

Ashley c-span is Canadian and it the government network for the the citizens of Canada to watch what goes on in congress on the Hill (Ottawa)...but you are correct that in Canada the news is reported and told by the preparer of the news. In the US the government states anything that has to with the country as a whole has the right to decide what they say. CNN reported just after the war in Iraq began some thing that the US government had trouble with and they did let CNN know that they could repeat it and they did not in the next of the news segment. It is unfortunate that the people of the US are not really get the whole news they get the portion that there government allows them to here. So everyone out there I do feel that it is unfortunate for the citizens of the US because the majority of them are descent people that want to live a full and happy life.

Answer 4

we do have access to international media you know. Cnn fox and the other local news channels are a bit watered down but for those who want to know more about the world, they can read a newspaper or go on the internet. I think that you think that its like North Korea here, where you have to accept what the media tells you because there is no other source of information and because its actually illegal to seek out other sources of information. I assure the US is not a dictatorship. Were just the greatest power on earth and everything we do say and are gets put under a microscope by people eager to find things to dislike about us.

Answer 5

The right to vote, and the right to vote intelligently based on all the information, are two different things.

I wish we had the latter. We don't. We only have the former.

And even where there is information available, most people seem too intellectually lazy to bother doing to research to make an informed decision.

It's not that the media creates the reality. It's that people are willing to listen to only one perspective and believe that they understand the reality.

Answer 6

I'm not puzzled by why the rest of the world "hates the Americans". Look at the questions, and their responses you see right here in the political section. Most Americans seem to have little regard for the opinions of other Americans. How can we expect ex-U.S. people to like us if we don't like ourselves. The media love this, though, its good for business. Earning are fueled by confrontation.

Answer 7

You, like many foreigners, are stereotyping Americans. Dumbing them down, really. More and more are realizing the media has a political slant to it and they're going to have to search to find reliable information. So they do. I personally don't care why the world hates us so much - we're doing our best to get the country back on track, and I can only hope they will either realize that or continue to hate us from afar.

Answer 8

Obama is not qualified to be President. Obama's only experience is as a "community "organizer". That is primarily organizing local thugs to terrorize and extort money from small businesses. That is the reason that Obama and the nitwits in the Obama Administration have made such a mess of the economy. .

Answer 9

You raise an interesting point about perspectivew and media. In the US the media is generally slanted towards the liberal point of view. As for the world perspective, the US does a poor job of getting it positions explained and out to the rest of the world. They definately need to do a better job of that to reduce animosity towards them throughout the world. The US does more than any other country in terms of donations in foreign aid and this goes unnoticed. When disasters occur world wide. the US is always their with aid and worker to assist the victims, yet the resentment continues. I for one, realize that we are looked at as a bukky in our policies towards other countries, but our generousity is always overlooked. We would be greatly missed if we became more isolationistic and stopped the aid.

Answer 10

You are right, over here now, most big corporations have put their grip on 99% of the medias, and ALL of them are now Biased toward a view of the world...
Democracy here is dying and becoming more and more like a totalitarian regime to allow big corporations and banks to control and enslave everybody!