Some parties believed that information provided by the media is not impartial. This essay will explain two reasons why the media could be biased, and what kind of possible actions that we can take to overcome it.
Perhaps the primary cause of the biased media is there is a conflict of interest of the company’s share holders. This may affect how news is reported to the public; if there is a bad event caused by one of the share holders’ companies, the journalists will distorted the information, so public would believe that such bad event is not primarilary caused by that one particular company. Take Lumpur Lapindo as an example, one of companies that was involved in causing that terrible event owned by Aburizal Bakrie who also possesed one of big media company in Indonesia, namely TVOne. At that time, TVOne reported the news with a very subtle narrative which could not say that Aburizal Bakrie’s company is also one that should be blame; that was very different with other media’s reports. The news from TVOne was consequently unreliable.
The secondary reason why the media could be biased is the unskill journalists. Making a trustworthy report takes a lot of effort, and skills such as critical and analytical thinking, collecting data, reading comprehension, a good writing skill as well. Those qualities could be acquired through major in university, or journalist community. However, nowadays, some of media companies hire unqualified journalists who are not bachelor of communication, fresh graduation who have less experience. Other than that, the company does not provide a proper training for them to be ready to get their tasks done profesionally. Because of that, they tend to be biased on writing their reports.
One of possible solutions to address those causes is to optimize the function of the Pers Council. The organization should take full responsibility on imposing strict laws for the media in two ways. Firstly, they would not give any publishing permit to the biased media; secondly, they required the owner to provide proper training for all the new journalists. In conclusion, the reasons behind the unimpartial media are the conflict of interest, and the unskill journalists which can be tackled by one of possible solutions that is to maximize the role of Pers Council.