A young professional picks up a newspaper at a local vendor and walks to the cashier to pay just a small amount for at least 50 A3 sized pages of extra knowledge. However, how much of this news is true? For this reason, researches have shown that the newspapers have adverse effects on the society; firstly, because newspapers can provoke unnecessary fear among the public about infrequent dangers; secondly, news presented by newspapers can have negative influences on the publics’ as it can change the public’s perception of events; and finally, newspapers can offer readers a “false choice” as the news can be chosen by other parties besides the publisher.
Firstly, newspapers have become such an influence on the public that it can provoke unnecessary fear in most people. These fears are mostly the fear of crime and the fear of natural disasters; both, in actual fact, are rare events. Most of the public now is ever fearful of the fact that they might get mugged or killed for money; being abducted, raped or killed by a big wave. Although these unfortunate events may be a rarity in reality, it is not necessarily the case for the newspaper readers. Williams and Dickinson (1993) revealed with a survey that newspapers tend to publish more articles on crime and dramatic events such as natural disasters and rape cases. This makes readers think that the dangers are close to home and happen regularly, as they are reminded time and time again. Hence, news articles project a perception that the events have happened seem to happen more frequently. For example, the newspapers published more about the likelihood of another tsunami hitting South East Asia, as the news was popular then. News is obviously exposed to misrepresentation, as everyday events cannot be reflected by newspapers (Williams & Dickinson 1993). Thus, the newspaper can instill unnecessary phobias in people.
Besides that, newspapers are often written in different ways and causes misinterpretation; as writers can plant emotions and biased views into its readers just by changing the style of writing. The way news is written can be so influential that Quinney (cited in Curran 2002) suggested that an individuals’ perception of crime may vary due to the different newspaper he or she reads. This can be harmful to the society when/as newspaper companies are owned by different radical groups or individuals, or sometimes opposing political parties in the same country. It is also stated in Curran (2002), that actions have been taken and put into practice to ensure the media’s support for the dominant government and private interests. Hence, newspaper companies can be used to bring about among the public, negative thoughts, anger or false impressions by articles. For instance, the demonstration that started due to the capture of Hindraf representatives; the newspapers produced news articles with pictures of water cannons firing at the crowd, which may have depicted the demonstrators as criminals. Therefore, it is certain that the newspaper can cause misinterpretation by the public.
Finally, most readers may think that the newspaper is a complete, precise and convenient source of information. Readers tend to think that all news are of truth and covered everything relevant to our world. This is false, because newspapers are often influenced and their posts mediated by the state government, in each newspaper. Curran (2002) revealed several ways that governments use to get broadcasting or the main advertisers they want, such as laws and regulations, censorship and licensing of a publisher. Advertisers too can control the newspapers as money and sponsorship is a key survival tool for newspaper publishers. For instance, if other companies are not comfortable about placing their advertisements in it; the publishers will suffer large losses, thus closing down due to bankruptcy. This forces publishers to overwhelm their newspapers with popular articles and do not have space for other unpopular news, which maybe crucial or important to a certain society. Important news, such as civil wars in Africa does not have much popularity or coverage because the publishers and its partners do not have influence over African countries. Therefore, it is true that newspapers have outside parties that control their posts and choose the posts for their readers; giving the readers a false choice.
The newspaper is more than meets the eye of an average reader. We can conclude that although the newspaper is a crucial source of information, nevertheless, it can also be of negative influence to our society. What is worse is that most of the public do not notice these ill effects.
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