Morals and the Media

On Tuesday, we attended a forum on Politics and the Media. The forum showed many of us the real side of the media industry, and that is exactly what it is an industry. The media is a business and the forum showed how they look at things in the same way as a good corporation would. This is where things get fuzzy.
The media is stuck on showing the stories that they feel will garner the greatest audience. So when some scandal breaks, the media is all over it to gain an advantage on other outlets for the profits needed to sustain their business. The problem is that the media is able to dictate the stories that are covered with more extent and what stories are covered only moderately and they tend to cover a more yellow story over one that actually has implications on the political world. I feel that the media must inject a morality towards their coverage to allow for their influence on the minds of the electorate to show the important issues, not the personal garbage that manages to dominate the mainstream media.
Ratings are important for the news media, but they also garner a great responsibility to report the stories that will show the people the information needed to make an informed vote, not to feast on the private lives of the political leaders of our world.

TM