Nowadays, we can easily find gossip magazines in newspaper stalls. These kinds of magazines never talk about local news, but only the private lives of artists. These magazines also include many pornographic or violent contents, which would have bad effects on the pubic. This shows that the integrity of the mass media is declining. To deal with the problem, there must be stricter laws on the mass media, especially the gossip magazines, so that the standard of the mass media can be improved.
The mass media’s behavior is in fact affecting the lives of artists. Nowadays newspapers and gossip magazines always have paparazzi to work for them. Paparazzi are photographers who take candid pictures of celebrities when they are unaware. They usually follow celebrities and take photos of them when they are not working, but eating or shopping in their free time. For example, they may take photos about an actress who is eating with poor manner. This act undoubtedly affects the private lives of celebrities, as they are not expected to be photographed and do not want to be photographed. Celebrities always need to finds ways to find ways to escape from paparazzi. Therefore, they cannot enjoy their free time and have private lives as ordinary people.
Some may argue that as celebrities are public figures, every one has the right to know about their lives. In fact, this isn’t true. Every one needs privacy. Would you like others to take photos of you while you are at home? Of course not! Then, why should you offend the privacy of others by knowing their private lives?
Apart from that, some media may even make up news. Two years ago, the Chinese Beijing TV station reported news about people using paper to make buns. After hearing the news, many citizens were shocked and stopped eating buns, as they were afraid that they would be served by those ‘man-made’ buns. After some time, it turned out that the news was false- those people were paid to make ’paper’ buns. The TV station made up this news, since they had nothing to report. In fact, this behavior is irresponsible, as mass media should bear the responsibility of telling the public what is really happening in the world, not ‘produce’ unreal news which will cause panic. If stricter law is imposed, this kind of incident can be prevented.
Furthermore, the content of the mass media can alter the value of the public. Nowadays, many mass media, such as newspapers and the internet, contain lots of pornographic and violent content which are usually unreal and misleading. When citizens are exposed to these kinds of contents, their value will gradually change. They may think that violence and pornography are appropriate, and so it is more likely for them to commit sexual or violent crime. In fact, a recent research shows that a person who is exposed to this information chronically has 10% higher chance of committing crimes than a normal person.
The effect of this information is even more serious on children and teenagers. Nowadays, teenagers can easily get access to violent and pornographic information through gossip magazines and the Internet. Since they are still emotionally immature, they cannot analyze this information sanely and often misled by the false information easily. They will develop wrong values on sex; such as thinking that sex is the expression of love, and so they are more likely to have early sex or unsafe sex. Teenagers will then have a greater chance of becoming juvenile parents or contracting sexually transmitted diseases. As a result, stricter law over mass media should be imposed to protect teenagers from this delusive content.
Some people may say,’ If we impose stricter laws over the mass media, the freedom of press, which is of the greatest importance in a society, will then be violated. Therefore, we should not impose stricter control over the media. Actually, this is not really true. Freedom of the press is a promise by the government not to punish journalists and other people who report the news. The freedom of the press is of course important because it allows people to express the view freely. However, freedom is never infinite. If this freedom violates the privacy of people and even perverts the society, then this freedom must be restricted. This is just like a case when a man is eating a poisonous apple. Would you let him have the freedom to eat it? Of course not!
To conclude, stricter laws should be improved over the mass media so that citizens, and hence the whole society, can be protected.