One
morning I arrived at my high school and heard some dreaded news—there’s a bear
in town! It was this 20 foot man eating
monster roaming around town eating everything in its path. The next day the local paper released it
weekly edition and sure enough on the front page was picture of the bear
hanging out on the railroad tracks. Tips
about how to prevent the bear from coming on your property and the reassurance that
the local police department knew about the situation was also in the
article. The fact the DNR wouldn't come
and take the bear away from the community still frighten many residents. By never being exposed to a black bear in
town, residents and I were all of sudden worried about what the bear could do
since all we have been exposed to our entire lives is that bears eat humans and
create destruction.
When I was
younger, Bears were given a bad rap in movies and on the news. I only heard of the instances when bears
mulled people and never heard of the many bears that are afraid of humans. The media both on that frightful day and in my
younger years always gave bears a bad rap.
Something new walked into town that day and we were afraid of that new
thing due to past experiences with the media.
The
media in this instance set the agenda about our belief of bears. They were the ones to report negative bear
stories in order to install fear in the public and increase interest in their
programs. By having the authority of a reputable
news source, our local paper was able to start the story off with scaring us
about the presence of bears. By having the authority they had, the paper was
able to create concern about an animal that wasn't much of a threat at
all. In fact that bear was scared of us
humans.
https://www.google.com/search?q=black+bear&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=LMJOU4enAcqzyASkuoLIAw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=667#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=_x8o5hlph2tI-M%253A%3BYqJ3qKLfG_StIM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fbeartrust-dev1.org%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2011%252F05%252Fblack-bear-cub.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fbeartrust.org%252Famerican-black-bear%3B903%3B606
I agree! I personally have never encountered a bear but don't ever want to because the way they are portrayed. The media does seem to make things seem worse than they really are to make it entertaining. I have been so disgusted with the media and how they constantly report events that are negative. It almost makes me not want to watch the news anymore because everything they report seems so negative. I wish they could try to make news reports more positive or at least add a positive story or two into their role of negative.
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect example of the way the media spins most news stories to accomplish some sort of goal or agenda. Bears are a nuisance only because we have invaded their natural habitat and they have no where else to go. I also agree with Kaitlyn that the news has become very depressing. My question tho, is where can we turn to get unbiased and reliable news? For example: political campaigns. How do we know what is really true?
ReplyDeleteAnimals is always protrayed in a negative way in the media. This reminds me of the movie Jaws for some reason. Because of the movie, a whole generation of people have a bad perception of them. I know of a fact that dogs kill more people per year than most of these "dangerous" animals, but you often don't hear about it.
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