Does fake news mislead the public?

When reading this section in the book starting on page 175, the first thing that stood out to me was when the passage stated that, “Communication scholars have long considered providing information about the world to be a central function for media, they define the relationship with the media as one of dependency based on goals and resources. According to their media dependency theory, media control information resources that are important for individual goals such as goals of social understanding” (175). I find this to be interesting since the media does cover the news and provides people with pertinent information that they might not have gotten elsewhere. However, I don’t think that they necessarily provide information that is important to the individual because if that were to happen then they would cover everything possible to cover. I think that they stick to covering more the news that a vast majority of people are interested in knowing about. While reading another important part that I agreed with was the quote that stated, “Media dependency theory suggests, then, that it is critically important to examine the content of mediated political communication as such information may well be used as the basis for political knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. “(176) I think that this is true and again best shown with political candidates, they use the media to campaign and also to slander the others chances. Their campaign ads usually give just enough information about themselves or their opponents to waive a voters decision and ultimately vote one way or the other. I find it to be strange that the section stated that many young voters look to comedy shows or stations to base which way they will vote since for one it is a comedy show not something you can take serious and also you can never really tell how factual it will be.

When I started to read the section titled “ Method” there was a section in it that really stood out and it was when it stated “ emphasis on hype versus substance in the broadcast television network’s coverage of the first presidential debate and the Democratic and Republican conventions in 2004, the emphasis on humor versus substance in the same debate and convention coverage”(179). I think that this is interesting because a presidential debate is important although I don’t watch it personally I think that this shouldn’t be something that we joke about or emphasis on the hype of the debate date then the actual debate since essentially whoever wins out of the debate will become president and run our country and then if some people don’t like the way they are doing things they will ask why did we elect him. When instead we should be asking why didn’t we listen to the actual debate instead of speculating on what will happen at the debate and building the hype. I personally think that thinks like presidential debates, and laws are boring they are not entertaining at all. I personally believe that the book proves that this is true and also states why it should continue to be this way. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with politics being boring in fact I think they should continue that way for the book talks about the dangers of making politics entertaining, “ media relies on fictional television content in addition to news as people make sense of their social and political world” I think that there should be a separation of entertainment and political information. I know that the book states, “The audience of such entertainment oriented talk shows and comedy programs is often less educated and interested in politics than the mainstream news audience” (192) I agree with this to some extent. I agree that most entertainment show don’t talk about the news much unless about gossip, however at the same time I don’t think that by watching these shows it makes anyone less educated . As well as just because you watch them doesn’t mean that you cant watch mainstream news ether. I think that it is a choice, and one must think that people watching entertainment shows don’t watch them for the news but for the entertainment factor. I understand that entertainment shows are trying to incorporate news into them since they feel many are clueless to their surroundings but I think that they should keep the shows and information separate because people choose to watch the news for the news, and the entertainment shows to be entertained.