Act4.3 How the Media Twist the News Paragraph response

Read the the passage below:

In a most ordinary moment on a normal day at work in the Chicago bureau of a major national newsmagazine, I came to a realization that has bothered me ever since. Everyone knows how much power the press has in shaping the news, how its choice of stories and words influence readers. But one afternoon, talking about a rather silly feature story we were doing on pop culture, someone joked, “You know, we can start a trend just by calling it a trend!”

2 I stopped dead. It was true. But I was the only one not laughing.

3 Of course, this was hardly an original insight. Walter Lippmann—journalist, military intelligence specialist during World War I, propagandist, political scientist, author, and adviser to the presidents—made the same observation a generation ago. Th ese words from his book, Public Opinion, bear repeating: Every newspaper when it reaches the reader is the result of a whole series of selections. … In order that [the reader] shall enter he must find a familiar foothold in the story, and this is supplied to him by the use of stereotypes. Th ey tell him that if an association of plumbers is called a “combine” it is appropriate to develop his hostility; if it is called a “group of leading businessmen” the cue is for a favorable reaction. It is in a combination of these elements that the power to create opinion resides.

4 Why is it so easy to lead people into new behaviors, desires, and attitudes? Why don’t people think more critically and see through some of the airy media stories that have no real substance—the stories that are less news than public relations or marketing? As Lippmann noted, it’s the result of “apathy, preference for the curious trivial as against the dull important, and the hunger for sideshows and three-legged calves.”

In one paragraph, explain why Lippmann believed people are susceptible to media manipulation. Cite the text where relevant. Explain if you agree with the statement or not and what people can do to avoid this manipulation. Have minimum grammar mistakes and use varied sentence structure. (100 word minimum)