Language & Mass Commincation

I’ve selected the second prompt to further analyse. “It is acceptable for a government to try to shape public opinion through information campaigns”. When asked this question in class I moved to the agree corner, arguing that the government should have the right to shape their opinion, in order not to worry the public. Thinking that the governments deception could be justifiable.

After watching “The Control Room” documentary discussing the Iraq’s situation and the news about it, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t particularly agree with my previous decision. If I watched this documentary prior to being asked that question, I would stand in the “Strongly disagree”.

Throughout the video we’re objected to several different opinions and judgments of the famous news channel “Al Jazeera” due to their completely unbias news coverage. Al Jazeera’s message is “Wake up, look at what’s happening around you in the world”. Al Jazeera provides information in the news completely as it is with no bias or hidden agenda, they do this so appropriately that the two opposite sides of the spectrum have accused them of being bias, within the documentary we hear two different government officials/reports saying “Al Jazeera stop your American propaganda” and at the same time have been accused of being bias completely against the us. Although in reality they do not provide any bias opinions and try to remain partial towards the situation at hand.

Due to this many governments and countries have opposed. As stated within the documentary “Several Arab countries banned their channel for going against their regimes”. This shows that many governments do not want their community to be objected to Al Jazeera unbiased news, this means that the governments within those certain countries fear the truth being known by their people, which is unfair an creates a wrong perception of what the world should be.

As well as watching the documentary we looked at two different stories, that of Jessica Lynch & Pat Tillman, in the Tillman story we see that the mother of the soldier who was discussing the story, was more devastated than ever by the fact that she was lied to about the accurate events that occurred with her sons death. And within the Jessica Lynch story they lied about injuries she had, untruly stating that she’d been shot and stabbed, when that was proven to not be the case.

In conclusion all people have the right to the truth and should not be subjected to untrue versions of the events occurring as it is unfair to everyone involved.

Pat Tillman Article

Jessica Lynch Article

Abortion Bias Article

Article

• use of bold texts to highlight negative aspects of abortion -> "bias by headline"
• very religious ideology
• does not consider people who need it
• use of picture of a sad child with the comment saying "When will abortion stop?", this is an attempt to appeal to peoples pathos and make them sympathize with the children and make people feel bad for the people supportive of abortion
• negative tone
• bias through selection and omission,  the entire article only portrays the negative aspecs of the topic, it does not provide an insight into the lives of certain families/people that cannot provide for the child or cannot endure childbirth, or have whatever reason to abort the unborn child. since it should be the woman's choice 
• religious ideology 
• "bias by source control" : throughout the text many statistics and facts are provided in order for the reader to feel like the article is more valid

Rewrite:

Reasons Why Abortion Should be Pro-Choice
Since the legalization of abortion in 1973, over 56 million unborn fetuses have been aborted, for reasons we may not understand.

By the time you finish reading this article, a few more families/parents may decide that they cannot handle a childbirth and will abort it. which is okay.

is it anyone else's business whether another family does not want to have a child? NO.
so please read the top few reasons why abortion is okay and no one else's business besides the own family.

1. Money
Abortion should be heavily funded, if a woman cannot afford her own abortion she definitely cannot afford to support herself and raise a child with that certain income. Many of the women who accidentally get pregnant may need help eliminating the child, for getting an abortion is infact very expensive for the family, and would most likely not have the support of her family.

2. Abuse
Many women may have been sexually abused or unconsentually been impregenated. In cases like these the government sometimes may allow an abortion, but many other instances they do not, and the mother is forced to raise a child representing a difficult time in her life.

3. Safety concerns
Many people opposing abortion argue of its unsafety, but do they consider the danger of actual childbirth? and pregnancy? a simple short surgery would be less painful than the suffering for 9 months followed by a natural childbirth, or a sea-section, which carries far more risks.

In conclusion abortion should be a woman's choice and no one else besides the mother herself should be able to determine whether she wants a child or not, it is her body, and she will face the consequences. Although abortion is not ideal, many people should at least be given the choice.