Journalism is an important part of our everyday lives. The reporters and editors who are part of this field bring the news to viewers or listeners. While reporting the news is crucial to either getting ready for the day, being on a lunch break, or unwinding from the day, the research that goes into a news story that usually occurs behind the scenes in the journalism field is much more important, because a person who is not in the field would not understand the meaning of a news story just from a few facts written down on a piece of paper. In my opinion, journalism can consist of breaking news that can occur without prior notice to the viewer or listener. This occurrence can have some kind of impact that can become emotional, especially when a story is about something that is sad or tragic.
However, journalism can have a dark side that people might not interpret or pick up on right away. In this modern time of crooked and biased journalism, one can become misguided with what is truthful against what is a false story reported in the news. This can happen because there is a need to gain viewership on a regular basis, so journalism can be tweaked in a way that certain stories can come across as factual and honest, when they are really falsified and dishonest. But, journalists will let these type of stories on to the air or in to print media to attract new viewers or readers, or to attract those who lost interest from a lack of quality news, in order to boost ratings for the needs of the journalists’ interests and not necessarily in the interest of the viewers. The stories are simply lies to gain one’s trust for ratings, which I believe is just plain wrong. I feel that boosting ratings like that is a cutthroat method to gain trust from unsuspecting viewers, readers, and listeners. This method is not fair and should not even be considered as the right thing to do to boost ratings. I believe that there are other ways to go about attracting new viewers for ratings, such as only reporting news that is supported by facts. This news should have a strong stance in the interest of the viewer and not have a hidden agenda to assist with the lone interest of the journalists or reporters involved.
The reason why I write for The Mass Media is to provide my own opinion on certain topics that I find interesting. I can support my opinions with information that is researched ahead of time. I believe that writing is an essential part of journalism because it is the first step to reporting a story, which comes right after doing research for a pitch given by an editor. Of course, writing can be considered as the foundation of journalism based on where it stands in the field, which is toward the beginning of getting a story to print media or on to a television screen. With The Mass Media, I feel as if what I write is important because I think that my opinions have a lot of value for a continued production of the paper for the upcoming school year, and I hope to gain interest from readers who do their part in reading about stories that are presented in every single edition that is printed.