"Telling the truth is often difficult, at times there is a temptation to see it as undesirable"
Discuss with reference to Frontline and related texts.
In looking at the media and society today, we can see that the media's drive for ratings, and the difficulty in telling the truth can lead to the temptation to see it as undesirable. Telling the truth can be difficult, as, when facts are changed, the lie can become reality. As Paul Sheehan said - "When a lie is repeated often enough it becomes conventional wisdom, an accepted fact, a media truth". Examples of the way the media constructs and manipulates the truth into an emotion-fuelled story, beneficial to ratings can be seen in the series 'Frontline', the film 'Wag the Dog', the documentary 'U.S. Media Blues" and in various articles from the paper, and these examples exemplify the way the media represents events to create a plausible and credible story.
Wag the Dog
Wag the Dog
English: Barry Levinson at the 2009 Tribeca Film F...The ABC's "Frontline', created by Rob Stich and Tom Gleisner in 1994, is a good example of lies becoming the truth, and, juxtaposed with the use of satirical comedy, it examines the behind the scenes of a current affairs show, and their avoidance of the truth because the falsified story is more desirable. This is very much the case in the episode 'Add Sex and Stir'. Brooke's story about women's sport demonstrates how the medium of television allows distorted constructions of he truth to be manufactured, as the real truth is undesirable for ratings. Brian even states 'Women's sport ⦠it's the enemy of ratings'. To make the story more desirable, they 'add sex and stir' by claiming that the player was dropped due to prejudices based on gender bias - for 'not being a lesbian'. This demonstrates the media's obsession with...