the media is corrupting our society

Media is a medium to spread news and information to the rest of the world. Corrupt means to induce harm to society. Put it together and you will understand that we are trying to say that this medium that has been in contact with us for many generations is the cause of many evils and thus harming our society. Our motion is that the house believes that the media is corrupting our society. Biasness in media is nothing out of the ordinary these days as news is sensationalized in order to achieve maximum revenue. Why is biasness affecting our society? For example, between the TIME magazine and its other local counterparts, the cover picture and description of the O’J Simpson case was drawn him to look as though he was the guilty party instead of taking a neutral stand. This shows that the magazine had portrayed him as a criminal before he had the chance to face a proper jury. This is racial biasness at work. This affects our society as it spreads the message that feeling biased towards another ethnic culture is okay. This is one possible cause why the number of racial discrimination cases is on the rise. Another example was the Maria Hertogh case that happened in Singapore a couple of years ago where newspapers bad-mouthing the opposition race resulted in a horrific riot that left many dead and dozens more injured. Who knows, even some might even be fake.


Corruption is the degradation of the society's moral sense as well as misleading the society by painting a false picture of matters. The media corrupts our society by airing various risqué advertisements which promotes promiscuity and makes people feel that promiscuity and watching obscene material is socially acceptable. This results in many children, teenagers and young adults starting to get attracted to watch obscene material and they may even get addicted to it. Moreover, the media also airs many advertisements which promote materialism. This inculcates materialism in children from young and may result in them growing up to become cold-hearted and selfish people who care for nothing but money so as to pander to their material gratification. The media paints rosy pictures of many things. For example in Iraq, during Saddam Hussein's 'reign', the BBC did not publish articles about the former Iraqi dictator dirty deeds. In 2003, CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan admitted that for the past decade the network has systematically covered up stories of Iraqi atrocities. Reports of murder, torture, and planned assassinations were suppressed in order to maintain CNN's Baghdad bureau. The media has shown that it is indeed capable of misleading us by not reporting truths about issues which might concern their interests. The mass media do indeed makes up stories sometimes. Let me give you another example. I quote from http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?es=FB0910FA395B0C728DDDAC0894DB404482 :Investigation by team of New York Times journalists finds reporter Jayson Blair committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud while covering significant news events in recent months; major findings are these: he filed dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states, when often he was in New York; fabricated comments, concocted scenes and lifted material from other newspapers and wire services; also he selected details from photographs to create impression he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not.