Blog #5

Although it seems that news media has some sort of obligation to deliver the news and inform the public, unfortunately, some news stories are promoted just for network ratings. This is not to say that the news does not report important events, but they usually report events with one of the following criteria: personalization/about an individual, dramatic/confliction events, focus on specific instances and observable actions, something of novelty that deviates from the norm, and stories dealing with prevailing themes or zeitgeist. Because the news also tends to report more negative stories, this can instill paranoia within the audience.

I noticed this paranoia when reading an online article about the Charleston Church Shooting. This particular article was to inform people that the shooter is now going to be placed in a cell right next to an ex-officer who shot an unarmed black man back in April. I thought this article was unnecessary, because it was literally just explaining who his neighbor in jail is going to be, however, it did its job of being enticing and following one of the criteria. This article not only fueled a trending story, but it also brought up another one from the past.

After reading the article I went to the comments section to see people’s opinion upon the subject, and sure enough, people were paranoid about these two men being cell neighbors. Some believed the men were going to talk to and conspire with each other to cause more danger.

http://news.yahoo.com/dylann-roof-and-michael-slager-are-cellblock-neighbors-in-charleston-county-jail-171133605.html