News:Reflection Vs Contruction

Does the news reflect of construct reality? The main concern of this essay is to look at the relationship between news media and reality. Whilst debating whether the mediation by the news is in the form of a ‘faithful reflection’ [McQuail, 1994, p.65] of reality or a ‘filtered, screen’, [McQuail, 1994.] that constructs a reality all of its own; I intend to discuss: - · The concept of reality. (Without getting too philosophical!) · The economic and political influences …

…out, ‘Like all public documents, the news is a constructed reality’. [Cited in Chandler, 1998, p.7] But this is not to deny that which is reflected, (the dominant power structure) more to highlight the reciprocal relationship between the two. The media does sometimes change culture, where cultural changes are reflected in the media. ‘Yet to define a situation as ‘real’ is to say nothing of the truth or falsity of what is being stated’. [Elderide, 1993, p.331]