University Name: MI 342 - Reflection on News Production and Ethics

This assignment is a reflection paper by a media student, exploring the evolution of news production from newspapers to television, and the impact of infotainment. The student discusses the ethical issues within the media industry, including bias, the influence of capitalism, and the pursuit of profit over unbiased reporting. The paper references the film "Broadcast News" to highlight moral dilemmas faced by journalists. The student emphasizes the importance of unbiased, democratic media and its role in informing the public, advocating for human rights, and addressing societal issues. The author critiques the prevalence of fabricated news and the influence of political and capitalist funding, concluding that media should serve society rather than become a source of prejudice and misinformation. The assignment is a response to the provided news production videos and background statement, analyzing the production environment, values, and content within the television news industry.

Running head: MEDIA AND THE WORLD
MEDIA AND THE WORLD
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1MEDIA AND THE WORLD
Reflection
I believe that there is a stark difference between entertainment and news. In the
present situation, the news channels and the media houses are concerned about one and only
broadcast and shocase of what is known as “Infotainment” which means blend of both
information and entertainment. In today’s epoch, what i see is that where capitalism and
imperialism is at its peak, there are cases where the CEOs of the news channels are worried
about the TRP of the channel, which means that more the entertainment in the news, more
will be the viewers of the news and the channels and more will be the profit. Sadly, it is the
bitter truth of today’s world. In many cases that i have gone through, there have been
hyperboles and distortions of news in order to make it “spicy” and “compelling” to the
population in order to earn profit. The archaic concept of media, which means the sacred duty
of providing all kinds of news in an unbaised way to the people so that the common men
would be aware of the situation is history. Today, news channels utilize different props, they
even make scripts for the news they show and the anchoring they exhibit.
As a media student and a responsible citizen, i believe that the role of media in our
country should be democratic, unprejudiced and unbaised. According to my knowledge,
media is a very important tool in a democratic country which upholds the thoughts, opinions
and issues of the common man. Therefore, media should concentrate less on the
entertainment topics and focus more on important issues. It should also try to make the news
less fabricated (as they often do to make more profit out of fake news). I believe that media,
if utilized properly, can be a good instrument for the benefit of the people. It is a platform to
talk about human rights, environmental issues, gender issues and industrial matters openly
without any fear of biasness and prejudice. The moment media becomes prejudiced, it loses
its importance. Nowadays, media gets funded by the capitalists and political parties so their
broadcasting also has prejudices in them. Propagandas with hate filled contents make the

2MEDIA AND THE WORLD
situation of a country worst by the media. Therefore, media should learn how to be useful to
the society rather than being a menace.
The movie “Broadcast news” focuses on the ethical and moral issues often faced by
the media industries with the aspects such as credibility, authenticity of the news, education
and experience of the journalists and reporters, relationships of the media personalities and
the workplace and the other layoffs. What i have understood is that the film tries to make the
awareness of morality issues that often hover the journalism industry, such as what type of
news are morally right or wrong and what actions that the industries take are morally correct
and incorrect. It is true that being a media student, i have come across instances where many
broadcasting industries have carried out illegal and immoral activities such as getting bribed
by the political parties and releasing fake and hate filled news and contents that would ignite
the society and make political turmoils in the country. I believe that it is definitely a valid
issue which the media industry is plagued with and rectification of such issues are highly
required to make the media industry credible and trustworthy for the general public.