Band 6+: The tendency of news reporters in the media to focus more on problems and emergencies than on positive developments is harmful to the individuals and the society as a whole. To what extend do you agree or disagree?

In recent times, media has been in the limelight and has aroused the wide concern for the pernicious effects associated with it. Some people are of the fervent conviction that focusing on negative and urgent issues is detrimental to the society. From my perspective, I partially agree this view.

There are several reasons why media coverage related to problems and urgent issues is proven to bring enormous benefits for both the social and citizens. Firstly, it is responsibility of the mass media to cover negative issues such as the natural disaster, which allows people to protect them from the potential financial loss and physical injury. To take a concrete example, new reports from the television programs covering the information about tsunami and earthquake of the central of Vietnam set the pivotal platform for warning the government and inhabitants. Secondly, the environmental pollution topics from the mass media is of great necessity for protecting the environment. Indeed, it not only raises the public’s awareness of protecting habitant but also catch the government’s attention to this phenomenon.

However, the excessive reports on problems negatively influence the behavior of people, as well as the journalist’s conduct. It is obvious that when people are exposed to too much news about crimes or accidents, they will lose the sense of security. As a result, they become over-cautious and suspicious of the others which lead to have difficulties to build interpersonal relationship. Moreover, it encourages journalists to create bad stories and deliver the exaggerated news. Indeed, some people believe that the dramatic and exciting news is easy to draw the public’s attention, they tend to write their articles with the emphasis of negative parts of the stories so that their newspapers will sell well. Therefore, it will result in face news and unreal stories.

In conclusion, although the bad news create the felling of anxiety and uncomfortable to a large number of audiences, they are unavoidable in current information. The government and the citizens can learn to solve the problems.