Is the media successful in distracting us with sensational crap so we don't learn about vital world issues

Answer 1

Yeah they do, but not as a conspiracy. They have to talk about the things that they believe we (Americans) will want to hear, so that we'll watch the freakin' commercials too. People in other countries are always very surprised at what our media leaves out. To a certain degree, it's true. Many Americans don't care about world news. I hate to admit it, but the attention span of an American pretty much stops beyond his line of sight.

Answer 2

Your statement is true if all you depend on is one source for your news. I will give you a for instance. This is not necessarily a true picture but it will give you the idea. If you only watch Fox News, their fair and balanced approach is decidedly slanted to the right. If all you watch is CNN, their truth is decidedly slanted to the left.

So what you have to do is stay ahead of the news. You have to have many sources and sift through all the BS until you have decided on what is the truth. Truth is the hardest word to define. In the USSR, the state newspaper was called Pravda, which means Truth. Really what you end up with after all that reading and watching and listening is only part of a story because most of the story the media never gets. The officials in any government only leak what they think is important enough or easy enough for the general public to believe.

Answer 3

To a degree. I believe the media, as a whole, does have their own agenda. There are many world issues that are purposely kept out of the spotlight for reasons such as monetary, political or even damage control concerns. Much of the media are little more than puppets on a string.

Answer 4

They are not trying to distract you. They feature items which will draw a crowd. That way you will be around to watch the ads that try and sell you hemorrhoid cream and toothpaste.
I've been listening to english language short wave radio since 1949. They aren't commercial news operations and they really cover the news. I also read about one dozen web editions of english language papers from other nations.

Answer 5

Mass media can not be constructivist educators because constructivism demands the application of individual psychology and attention is given to each individual pupil or student; mass media is not that function.

'The writings of Piaget (e.g., 1972, 1990; see Piaget, Gruber, & Voneche) and Vygotsky (e.g. Vygotsky, 1986; Vygotsky & Vygotsky, 1980), along with the work of John Dewey (e.g., Dewey, 1997a, 1997b), Jerome Bruner (e.g., 1966, 1974) and Ulrick Neisser (1967) form the basis of the constructivist theory of learning and instruction. '

http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/piaget.html


The constructivistic approach to teaching and learning is based on a combination of a subset of research within cognitive psychology and a subset of research within social psychology, just as behavior modification techniques are based on operant conditioning theory within behavioral psychology. The basic premise is that an individual learner must actively "build" knowledge and skills (e.g., Bruner, 1990) and that information exists within these built constructs rather than in the external environment. [See Ullman (1980) versus Gibson (1979) for an overview of this controversy within the cognitive perspective.] However, all advocates of constructivism agree that it is the individual's processing of stimuli from the environment and the resulting cognitive structures, that produce adaptive behavior, rather than the stimuli themselves (Harnard, 1982).

http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/construct.html

Answer 6

If you feel that certain parts of the media are distracting you, why don't you concentrate on the parts of the media that you feel are necessary for your personal edification, enlightenment, and perhaps ability to take profit.

Answer 7

Only if you depend on the media to learn about the world.


BTW, the goal of the media isn't education but ratings. They will put on WHATEVER attracts a crowd.

Answer 8

Yes...by distracting us with sensational and often trival issues, they keep us 'dumbed' down.
Some people are so wrapped up with these issues, they can't see what is really going on.
Scary!

Answer 9

Yes, why else are people like Paris Hilton famous? And how long were we hand fed stuff about Anna Nicole? Nobody cared about that!!

Answer 10

The news usually focuses on negative matters.