Different Ideas Of What Is True In The News Essay, Research Paper

As a child I repeatedly stood in line with my mother at the supermarket waiting to pay for our groceries. I often grew bored and found cheap entertainment in reading the thick, dark print of the supermarket tabloids. I would gaze my eyes and drop my jaw in shock at their stories; but, the one thing I never did doubt was the drama of their plots. As I grew older, I would watch television news magazine programs and think how different the facts, and pictures, as presented on television were from those of the supermarket tabloids. Now I have learned that in order to be constantly informed I must become a media critic, and I must judge for myself the facts which stories are correct. For some time I have found myself straining away from the supermarket tabloids and towards magazines I think I can trust. Upon examination of two periodicals, Time and Globe, it is easy to see the distinction between reputable and irreputable media, with regard to the JonBenet Ramsey case. Through the use of facts, photographs, and aim towards a certain audience a discrimination between drama and information is clear. It is disturbing that the Globe magazine uses melodrama and tension to sell a story in which the drama lies not in the pages of a magazine, but in the heart of all the victims.

The facts discussed in both magazines contradict one another, and further the confusion of the reader. Time magazine challenges its readers to weigh the evidence and decide upon the guilt or innocence of John and Patsy Ramsey. Time magazine concludes that the investigation of the parents has come to a halt, due to the fact that no new evidence has been brought forward for months. This information does nothing to clear the Ramseys of murder, but does nothing to encourage their punishment. In the Globe magazine, a mention of a nylon cord is made to imply that the Ramseys will be arrested and charged with the murder of their daughter. There is no discussion of this report in Time magazine, and Globe magazine does not mention a source leading one to believe that this report is false, or concocted. By linking the Ramseys to the murder of their daughter by the use of fabricated evidence, the Globe encourages the readers to prosecute the Ramseys while destroying their name.

Photographs spread across the pages of Time magazine do nothing to add drama to the JonBenet Ramsey case, whereas Globe photographs add emotional illustrations to a excessive story. The photos shown by Time magazine show Patsy Ramsey gazing at a painting of her daughter. This photo layout choice evokes sympathy for a women saddened by the loss of a child. In representing the Ramseys in this light, a reader is encouraged the readers to view the Ramseys as murderers. In viewing the Ramseys in such a light, one is not reminded of the facts of the case but rather the invention of the magazine.

The readership of a magazine is defined by demographics, and

treatments of the subject matter. The audience of the Globe is different from the readership of Time. Time magazine is aimed at an educated mass of people. The readership of Time magazine consists of old and young, but mostly to those concerned with hard core news, as opposed to national and international gossip. It is important to the readers of Time to be informed, but only with information that is proven, and certified. The Globe magazine is aimed at those looking to perhaps to find an escape from their own lives, into the lives of others. The vocabulary and choices of words is not overly advanced, but is overly simplified, which can appeal to a younger less educated blue collar crowd. The use of strange and sometimes shocked photographs can be seen as a ploy by the magazine to hook and capture the readers attention with show, instead of facts.

It is easy to see despair, easy to feel disgust, and easy to stop habits which further the spreading of gossip by supermarket tabloids. With such cases as the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, in which little had happened since the death of the child, tabloids are known for twisting facts in order to pump new energy into a dying story. In the aftermath of Princess Diana+s death there was a call upon the citizens of the world not to buy the supermarket |ragsX, as a form of respect for to themselves. Reading from these |headline grabbingX articles, insults not only those whose lives are spilled out among the pages, but those whose lives have begun to revolve around these despairing stories. It is a shame that entertainment and news can be so closely related, by fiction, not facts, by despair, not hope, and antipathy, not empathy.