Lesson 12 — Activity 3: News Media that Persuades or Entertains
Completion requirements
Lesson 12 — Activity 3:
News Media that Persuades or Entertains
As with all kinds of
communication, we need to consider the source of our
news if we are to be confident that the information we are receiving is accurate.
We know that different news outlets may present the news in different ways. We
need to be aware of any bias news items may reflect. It may be a good idea to
consider the perspectives of a variety of news sources and arrive at our own
conclusions based on the varying points of view we are exposed to.
One type of news show that has gained popularity over the past few years is the
satirical news show, such as This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Mercer Report,
The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Saturday Night Live. These shows use satire
— poking
fun at human behaviour —
to make commentaries about political situations and other
aspects of our daily lives. These shows use humour to draw our attention to the
actions and decisions of politicians and celebrities as well as ordinary people.
Image
courtesy of GettyImages
Editorials are also part of the news, especially in newspapers and magazines. The
purpose
of an
editorial
is to express an opinion about a
current
event. We need to be
aware that editorials are different from news articles in that editorials are expressions
of an opinion about a topic rather than a straight representation of the facts.
Some of the clues we can look for to help determine bias are the words and images that are
chosen to tell or portray the story. Words that have emotional connotations
— that is,
words that make us feel a certain way
— are sometimes chosen to influence our opinions.
In the same way, pictures or images can be used to create an emotional response in the viewer to the news.