The Media Searchlight

It has come to my attention that many of our concerns in the world today may not be as big as they seem, but that they are often exaggerated by the media. The media picks problems, issues, events, etc and magnifies them based on audience reaction. Take the H1N1 (or Swine Flu) virus for example-- it is nothing more than another simple flu that has surfaced yet, the media has celebrities with face masks coming off planes from Mexico and emphasizes the symptoms to the public to build our concern and fear over this new virus.

This is just one example of how the media can bring certain things to our attention and magnify the importance of these things in our day-to-day lives. If the media acts as such a powerful searchlight to highten our awareness of some events, just imagine what it can do to lead us to ignore other events by simply not bringing them to our attention and not taking the time to inform us of such events. I think it the media has a truely awesome power over the things we know, percieve, and are informed/aware of and that it is very important for us to be aware of this power so that it does not completely control us some day.