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The general public in the United States has easy access to mass media in the form of television, the internet as well as external sources. While on one hand, the easy access to media is beneficial for the general public when it comes to accessing daily news and information, it can have its negative effects as well, especially when the media is playing a strong role in spreading violence and terror in the public.
To achieve sensationalism and provide exclusive coverage, the media presents the public with extensive exposure to terror-infusing footage. The recent such exposures on part of the media about the coverage of the swine flu (Zuwarik, 2009), the propaganda based coverage of the September 9/11 as well as other terrorist attacks. Such footage while being information and eye-opening for the public, also greatly contributes to creating fear, chaos and amongst the viewers (Ethiraj, 2008).
Previously the public was only able to access the mass public media in the form of television and radio where the content could still be regulated. In recent years with the advancement of the internet, the public is now able to access unregulated content through the internet via video sharing and video streaming from anywhere in the world. This has led to increased chaos and fear amongst the public especially when it comes to terrorist threats (Beckett, 2004) and the spread of viral diseases like mad cow, bird flu, and swine flu.
While the public is entitled to know the truth and have the liberty of choice and free speech, regulation of the television, as well as internet media, is required to control and eliminate fear amongst the public. For this purpose, the government can make an effort to regulate media. News channels on the television as well as on the internet have to be provided guidelines from the national censor board to not depict footage on the mass media which can instill fear and terror amongst the public. The international news channels cannot be directly regulated however monitoring of the channels can be done to censor footage in real-time. Aside from this, another technique that can be employed is to blur the images to reduce the impact that they might have. This is specifically targeted at the international news channels. The videos online on the internet however also cannot be directly controlled or regulated. Efforts can be made to flag such videos and minimize their availability on the internet as well as on the regionally used mobile viewing devices.
The government, specifically the department of homeland security can enter into alliances and joint ventures with other nations to censor and control media of such nature that can imbibe terror and induce fear in the public on a large scale creating chaos. This can be done through mutual agreement-based negotiations.
As mentioned before free speech and freedom of choice are constitutional rights of the American public. As a result, it is not possible to take police action or legally charge those people who might disseminate sensitive footage on the public or mass media. Efforts can be made to censor the image, footage, and videos or make it unavailable to the majority of the public but no legal action can be taken. As a result, the law and order system should only be involved with the regulation and control of communication and public media where it comes to monitoring and censoring sensitive footage that can induce terror in the public.
References
Zuwarik, D., (2009), Swine flu: Are media spreading concern or undue fear, Cable and Network News.
Burchfiel, N., (2008), NY Times Columnist Acknowledges Media Feed Economy Fear
Writer blames digital age, 24-hour news cycle for spreading worry further, faster., Business & Media Institute.
Ethiraj, G., (2008), Terror attacks: Media’s role and its impact, Rediff India Abroad.
Beckett, A., (2004), The making of the terror myth The Guardian.
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