GP Essay Term 2 Week 5

“Consider the view that the mass media give us false heroes”

Mass media are newspapers, motion pictures, radio, television, and magazines, all of which have the technical capacity to deliver information to millions of people. It is very easy for it to portray a heroic image in people’s mind as most people believe what it says. It has tremendous influence on people’s thinking and their way of looking at things. The heroes are people who did something that contribute greatly to the country and the people live there. They are the ones who are believed as responsible, sacrificial, genius, caring and possess great ability which most of the people do not possess. The heroes can be political leaders, successful economists or humanitarian aid workers.

I strongly agree that the mass media always give people false heroes. As we all know, government is the most powerful organization in a country. It is in charge of most of the departments, industries, organizations, communities and companies. It is extremely important for them to portray a good image of themselves to their people in terms to make people follow and obey any of their decisions. Therefore, they make use the mass media to do propaganda.

Sometimes, the government tries to hide the truth from its people or make up something to tell them. For example, when some of the leading cadres make mistakes like corruption, the government will forbid the mass media to publicize the information and block it from spreading. In this case, the government is trying to hide the truth from its people by using its power. Oppositely, they may order the mess media companies to create information which do not exist at all and publicise them. All these information is to prise the government and portray the members involved as great heroes. In this case, the government is trying to concoct the truth and use these to propaganda the nation. This will help the government to maintain its good image in its people’s mind and hence the people will satisfied and they will not create problems for the government. Therefore, they are able to hold on to power for a longer time and enjoy the privileges.

Propaganda is a kind of publicity that is intended to spread ideas of information which will persuade and convince people. The government use propaganda to portray the president as a hero. They use all kinds of manners to convince and influence people that the president or some leading cadres are people who have great abilities and strength to rule the country, they are capable of being a leader and they are willing to devote everything they have to their people. They use their power to coerce the mass media to report according to their willing and intentions. Therefore, the government uses the mess media, which is a very powerful tool to convince its people to make themselves into heroes. However, they also use mass media to hide some of the real heroes who they do not want them to catch people’s attention due to many reasons. The government won’t give the power to them easily.

However, mass media do not always give us false heroes as there are cases that it tells the truth. Internet is one of them. As we all know, there is no censorship on the internet, people are free to post their commands online as much as they want. They can say whatever they want to say about the government and the ruler. People are free to go to the websites and read the commands. Therefore, they are able to express their unhappiness and the unsatisfaction about the government. This defames the heroic image of the government that people has in mind. However, there is still some kind of censorship on the internet as government can forbid people from going to certain websites which they do not want the people to see. Moreover, positive information about the good deed of the government is more available to the people through other sources of mass media which can be controlled by the government. Over long time, they will be influenced unconsciously.

In conclusion, mass media is the best and the most effective way that government use to build up its good reputation in terms to gain support from people. The government has the power to give order to the mass media. Therefore, mass media is not as reliable as people think. It is a tool that government uses to propaganda people. Since, it is unreliable, it does not always give us false heroes.