Manpreet Kaur, 300167970
English 105(ABM) Academic Writing: The Media Question
22/3/2019, University of Fraser Valley
Carl Peters
The News: An unexpected happening
News is information about a recently changed situation. We can find news from different sources like television, radio, newspaper and internet. We all talk about variety of news in our daily lives that are filled with stories about war, terrorism, crime, pollution, inequality, drug abuse and oppression. Whether or not the world really is getting worse, the nature of news will interact with the nature of cognition to make us think that it is.
The news is ubiquitous, we cannot stop checking it all the time on our screens, but what is it doing to our minds?
Alain De Botton asserts that the news holds the identical place in our modern society as religion once did, but we do not recognise its effect on us. In his book, Alain De Botton write 25 news stories from an aircrash to a murder, a celebrity interview to a politician scandal.
Every single news makes different impact on our daily lives. A study found that watching negative news can increase anxiety. Nowadays most of the people use internet as a source of getting news. We do not get appropriate stuff on mass media, the fake news on internet put false effect on people. These types of fake news encourage people to make false assumptions. Sometime tragic news stories capture our consciousness. Like the news of terror attack in India which completely makes every person stressful. In that incident, about 40 soldiers are there in a bus and terrorist suddenly blast that bus. After this happening, all social media like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp all are filled with this news, everyone who see this news were getting depressed by seeing the same
thing on media again and again and filled with anger towards Pakistan. People start hating all people of Pakistan. They became inhuman.
However, news also has positive side. News makes us aware about happenings in surroundings. Most everyone wakes up in the morning grabs news, educate themselves on the worldly happenings. It contribute to transforming our cultural and social masses and brings change in the attitude and belief of common man. People get opportunities for jobs as it also provides information about available jobs in different companies.