Vote totals:
Yes:
100%
No:
0%
Neutral:
0%
DEBATE: THE TABLOID PRESS IS REACTIONARY
THE TABLOID PRESS IS REACTIONARY
False Journalism
Tabloid newspapers’ obsession with rumour and conspiracy feed what borders on false reporting rather than publishing established events.
Some of the newspaper’s claims may seem outlandish, but it is important that there is a public forum where alternative opinions on current events can be expressed. Some rumours, after all, turn out to be true and the majority of the readership are intelligent enough to make up their own minds, having seen events reported by various sources.
THE TABLOID PRESS IS REACTIONARY
Tabloids simply pander to the angry mob
Tabloids’ choice of rhetoric and their obsession with rumour and conspiracy results in their journalistic integrity failing. Tabloids simply pander to the angry mob, simultaneously proving them more ignorant. Take for example, the campaign against paedophiles by UK based tabloids. Caught up in the angry campaign, vandals, after mistaking the job title ‘paediatrician’ to mean paedophile, attacked a doctor’s surgery. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/901723.stm
There will always be a minority of members of society who react violently to issues without really thinking their actions through. Tabloids cannot be held responsible for this; they do not incite their readers directly to violence or demonstration. While their handling of issues may be a little sensationalist, they raise awareness of very real threats in the modern world.
THE TABLOID PRESS IS REACTIONARY
Profit machines
Like all businesses, the tabloids are there to make money. Their particular attraction is te ability to appear traditionally conservative: it prints stories that are pointing toward the decline of standards in UK society, whether it be youth crime, the police, the UK’s global power. Mixed with this is a strong sense of patriotism- mainly the victims of this position are immigrants and the EU- as well as the syle of being papers for the everyday UK person, simpler language, easier storylines and an anti-class feel.
They can be reacitonary when they believe that their demographic who they appeal to wish them to be. The constant furor every once and a while which the newspapers stir up such as a missing little girl, a brutal murder, or foreign enemy is no way near objective as they have a tradition of painting the world in black and white, and they cannot stop now and explaion to their readers than the world is more complicated than they could ever imagine. Neither would they want to, because it is a business, and those who run it profit by it and wish to carry it forward so long as it remains useful.
THE TABLOID PRESS IS REACTIONARY
Freedom of the Press
They must however publish true and accurate stories. Freedom of the press does not constitute the freedom to spread lies and make false claims about people. There have been several recent court cases where tabloids and magazines have been forced to pay damages to famous people after publishing false stories about them.
No matter what content is published in newspaper, the freedom of the press is absolutely paramount, regardless of their effect on readers.
