The Crime On The Block - 1440 Words

Our daily doses of the latest gossip and news of those around us never seem to have an objective. We are shown various articles from potential presidential candidates to the latest crime on the block, and very few enlightening stories. Each article may seem rather at random and just picked in order of the most intriguing to the less interesting, but it just goes to show how unknowingly we are influenced by the press today. The press has the power to manipulate the way we perceive our surroundings with the legitimate authority to do so. It is only up to our own morals and ethics to really understand who has power over us and to understand the differences between illegitimate and legitimate authority. Since 1791 when the First Amendment was†¦show more content†¦It is because of our First Amendment rights that it is lawful for media to manipulate us. We give our consent to the journalist to persuade our views in such a way by purchasing the newspaper, thus its authority to do s o is legitimate. We may not approve of the views presented in the article, but it is put upon us as more of an obligation to abide by the norm in order to stay in tune with our peers in what can be called more of a ‘practical’ authority. The other type of authority that we can identify in journalism is ‘theoretical’ authority. This is where we go to the newspapers for information on things because it is more of their ‘expertise’ to do the research or to provide the information. This can be a case of journalism where, as McChesney states, â€Å"Coverage tends to be a barrage of facts and official statements.† On the other hand it can be a very opinionated style of journalism with a clear objective. For example, as Rick Horowitz mentions in his recent Huffington Post titled â€Å"Black lives Matter (The ‘Too’ is Silent)†, â€Å"It s pretty easy to understand. Unless you re trying not to.† His style of writing exe mplifies the second type of power we see in journalism called Liberal2. Liberal2 is a type of power where citizens are deprived of something that they otherwise would pursue. In Horowitz’ post we can see that he leaves no room for