Mass media has been playing a big part in our daily life. Its impact and significance is something we are unable to deny. I feel that the spiral of silence theory is one that amazes me. This theory states that people have tendency to refrain from expressing unpopular ideas or views.
First, let me talk about why this theory amazes me. In general, most people are more than willing to provide their own opinions on certain issues. For instance, most of us would not hesitate if we are asked to comment on a new movie XYZ. XYZ may be a very lousy movie and not worth watching. However, if magazines reviews wrote that it’s a fantastic movie and not watching it will be your lost, what would you tell your friends? In most cases, people either follow what the magazines say (due to their credibility), or just choose to keep quiet since their opinions belong to the minority group. Why do we choose to hide our opinions even though what the reviews mention is wrong? Is that self-denial or?
So, why do we choose to keep quiet about our opinions? In my perceptive, I feel that there are various reasons. We, humans, fear isolation. “No man is an island.” Who would want to be the odd one out and stand against the crowd? I believe that no one wants to be the centre of attraction in the negative aspect. People often view another person as “weird” if his or her views are different from the majority. To avoid being the “special” one, we would shun ourselves away ourselves instead of follow the views of the majority.
Another reason is the fear of authority. Who would actually go against the government and criticise them? Who would actually dare to voice out their opinions and say that the government’s plan is wrong? To encourage certain behaviours of viewers, most of the time the media would only report the positive side of the government. In addition, which media company would actually go against the government? Our fear to commit crimes has stopped us from expressing our views that will offend others.
So how should we solve this? I feel that the media should not only report about the positive side of certain issues. Neither should they only acknowledge the views of the majority. Very often, it only through knowing the different perspectives of people, then only we realized what is wrong or we can find ways to improve certain things. By ignoring certain views become a disadvantage instead. Maybe it’s time we open up ourselves and be readily to accept any criticisms.
After all, the media should not only entertain us. Exchange of ideas and information is very important as well. Maybe we should not keep num about certain things but stand by our views and voice it out. The minority views should be acknowledged all together. What do you think?
11 comments:
Thanks for sharing with us with so many of your personal reflections =)
At certain point of time, I do agree that the minority views are sidelined by the media because it may not be beneficial for the society or for the reputation of our country.
However, i disagree to the one-sided view that media only supports the views of majority and merely portrays the 'positive' images of certain issues. One very prominent example is the xin.sg website that our news reporters encourage all viewers to contribute their views about any issues raised. As we view the website, we can see lots of different and opposing or even criticizing comments from the public.
This type of encouragement from the media to the public to raise their concerns and views is seen a step of 'opening up ourselves'and 'accepting criticisms'.
i think freedom of speech are ver important as i believed each of us have it own opinion, for the movie example,i think i will stick to how i feel and will not based on the information from the magazine of course the magazine can act as a reference.
For the government part, hmm maybe i lived in Hong Kong for quite a long time, people there are daring to voice out how they feel especailly politices so i believed it depend on which country you are in.
To me, media serve as a educator, they should contain postive and negative issues which also can make us think.
yeah, i totally agree with ya mass media should not only report the positive event, they should consider reporting negative events as well...
i guess in Singapore this will never happen since, everyone is fearful of speaking against the majority or against the governement beliefs.
Though we had speaker corner for people to voice their opinion, but how many opinions are actually heeded by the governement or supported by the public. I guess even if one agreed with the issues spoken at the speaker corner they might not even had the courage to go over and support it because Singaporeans are fearful of the authority. Needless to say, many only complaint sliently. ( talk but no actions.)
Beside, the tv station is also control by the govt so i guess we won't be seeing much of the negative reports anytime soon.
I agree with you that minority views should be acknowledged all together. This can only be applied mostly to Asian countries where they are conservative in giving out their opinions, it could be due to the place in we were brought up where we give respect to other people's own opinion and not retaliate against one's opinion. This can be due to why we hide our views from what the magazine movie reviews. Anyone is free to say what they want and share their thoughts and feelings, we cannot possibly comment " HEY magazine writer, do u actually know how to review?" The section is based on his/her perspective and it is judgemental, different people may look at it from angles. Worst come to worst, we could just write in by sending our own movie review for the magazine to publish (:
For the media side, I presume that you are referring to the Singapore Media (P.S. because the system sounds very "singaporean", US media is not like that). There is a reason to why media would only put singapore in a better light. This is because in Singapore, there are 3 sacred cows that media wont touch, that is : Politics, Race and Religion.
Sigh. It would probably take YEARS before Singapore starts to open up. Let's excuse ourselves with an unique singaporean thinking - Singapore is still young. hahahhaa!
I agree totally! The media should be more partial, bringing up facts to the audience instead of only showing the positive views. Of course, none of us wants to be a frog living in a well. We would like to obtain accurate information from the outside world through the powerful and impacting media.
However, I think the media must potray a right image to the audience due to its great influence. For example, media shouldn't be used as a channel for pornography etc.
Media is so attractive to everyone and it is definitely a great way for us to increase our knowledge and get influenced by it negatively or positively. We should make the best out of our media, and not deteriorating it.
Let the opinions of people be opened in it. Singapore media has room for much more improvement.
At the same time, it also proved itself to be improving with the upcoming talk shows on channel U which discuss social and family issues openly on the streets.
maybe one reason why the magazine may give good comments about a certain movie is because the movie may be directed by a very popular director who has made great movies before but just so happens that this time his/her movie is not up to the standard. the movie might also consists of great actors/actresses but the storyline is just not good enough. so the magazine doesn't want to give a negative report as it might offend the fans of the director or actors as this may affect their sales.
i guess everyone has their own opinions and perspective on an issue. sometimes if you think a movie is not good, another person may have a taste different from you and think the movie was great. Similarly, the author of the movie review may just have a different 'taste' from you and it may not be the view of the majority. it is also quite diffficult for the magazine to post different views of ppl about the movie right? lidat it defeats the purpose of a movie review.
i feel im going out of point here..haha..well..
Wow! I just read something that happens to all of us that I have never realised before...
Exactly, people who have minority views are afraid to open up themselves, they often go with the media instead.
Anyway, I really like that "The minority views should be acknowledged all together", so that people won't afraid of opening up themselves in the public. It's really time to open up our mind!
But, I don't really think that idea would be completely possible. Why? The reason is just because it's our way of life!
For instance, I don't think it'll be very nice to see hundreds of diverge movie reviews in magazines. I feel that most people only wants concise statements. Isn't that so?
Yes, everyone wants a definite answer for each issue. However, when have you ever really seen a very lousy movie review? And it's most of the time when we watched the movie, then only we realise how good or bad is the movie.
I guess that's how media works, "manipulating" the minds of people. It is still up to each individual to decide on what they want to believe.
i felt that people shold be more willing to open up themselves when they are familiar with the person. probaly it might be due to identity. people like popel who are like themselves tat why they keep sensitive comments to themselves.
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