The media shows helpful aspects in managing us knowledgeable and relaxed. Nevertheless, the community considers it to gain abundant capabilities and privilege. This essay will discuss both views that arose from the issues above as well as the writer’s thoughts.
It is undeniable that the media helps us to stay informed about current issues as well as provide entertainment during our free time. Television and radio broadcast the most updated information through the breaking news. This piece of information is very useful in our daily life. For example in Surabaya there is a radio station called Suara Surabaya which always reports accidents or demonstrations so that listeners can avoid certain roads which are impacted or congested. Moreover, social media such as Instagram or Tiktok is able to blow away the cobwebs as well as to solve the problem. Some problems in Indonesia take a lifetime to be resolved by the government. Since social media plays a role in spreading wildfire, those problems would be fixed in a snap of a finger. For instance, recently there was a new constitution proposed that broke Indonesia’s previous election law and it went viral on social media as an emergency situation. The citizens then staged a protest until the government surrendered and canceled the new election rules. It can be concluded that the power embedded in media is used in a positive way.
Despite its affirmative contribution, some media companies may publish propagandas information that is funded by the government to create a bias. For example the recent “Ice Cold Jessica Wongso” case has been in the limelight again because it was filmed by Netflix and has stirred ambiguity about who is guilty, even though in 2016 Jessica Wongso was declared guilty. In addition, freedom of the press is considered a democracy, but some reporters use this freedom to publish false or half disclosure to hit headlines without caring about communities being misguided. For instance, a Korean actor named Lee Sun Kyun who is suspected of drug abuse and was questioned by the police, but the questioning was widely publicized even though the actor requested it to be off the record. This impacted to negative public opinion and caused the actor to commit suicide.
In conclusion, the media has both positive and negative impacts on our lives. In my opinion, the media brings more information than bias. During the past few years, the media promoted justice over politics, especially in my country.