Manipulating Media (Sept. 9th)

On September 7th, I was absent, but on September 9th I joined class online so below is the blog post, based on my notes. 

In class, we were lectured on mainstream news outlets that are heavily biased and often manipulate media in a way that suits their political views. This was the first time we analyzed news articles and I found it difficult to distinguish the bias, especially in articles written by The Guardian. Fox being conservative and overly protective of the US was very apparent, and the quotes in the articles were by politicians of the country who will undoubtedly speak from a biased point of view. Regardless, Mr.Paterson explained how journalists are professionals at being very sneaky, and subtly reflecting the journalist's point of view, portraying the news as if it is the only "truth" to exist. Moreover, even if the journalist writes a relatively neutral article, the editor's job is to cut out whatever facts that they want to conceal as a company, to impress their sponsors or whoever obtains power over the company. Now as I am writing this blog post, I have accumulated knowledge on how to identify the bias and am more experienced with finding out where companies are on the political spectrum. Especially with extreme news outlets like Fox News, I can now fully comprehend and establish the bias Mr.Paterson was talking about. 

Not only did the written articles contain biases, but we also watched videos and discussed how the words are spoken, which term is emphasized, and which part is stressed most. This was very interesting because usually when watching a video, rarely do I actually contemplate the bias or the manipulation happening in the video. However, repetitively studying and pointing out certain phrases that subtly conceals the truths, has made me more conscious and aware when watching the news at home, and other documentaries in my own time. After scrutinizing diverse sources created by different people we were lectured on political systems. Recently, as we get older, we are frequently taught about voter turnouts, political systems, politicians, etc. Notwithstanding, the significant majority of subjects and teachers at school only elucidate on politics in Japan, assuming that would be the most effective. On the contrary, in this class, Mr.Paterson introduced systems like first past the post system, proportional representation (in New Zealand), run-off elections, and how some governments conceal the percentage of eligible voters and their voter turnouts. Learning about Japan is crucial, but through Mr.Paterson, I have come to realize that educating ourselves on how other countries operate is crucial, in order to criticize and view our own government from an objective view. With the elections coming up in Japan, I have recently been thinking about politics in Japan and the outstandingly low voter turnouts of young generations. When the time of elections starts, I would like to put my skills to practice and try to establish the political views of various news articles and tv channels.