The problem with the modern media is they do not have a sense of social justice.
Do you agree?

Social justice refers to conceptions of a just society, where "justice" refers to more than just the administration of laws. Modern media such as movies and news reach out to the public through medium of entertainment such as television and radio. The reason why it is able to make a huge impact on the people and efficient in conveying it’s message is because in this modern affluent society, many families and homes own at least a television, radio or read newspapers. Through these means, the media is able to influence people’s mind widely in one way or another. The media has such vast audience from the young to the old, it is no wonder it has the ability to manipulate one’s mind.

Certain content printed in the newspaper sometimes may discriminate a particular religion, race or country. When these contents are printed, it tends to intensify racial or religion conflicts. Have the person who published such content ever thought of the consequences of doing so? Have he or she ever thought that conflicts between certain countries may intensify? One example will be the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy that began after twelve editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30/09/2005. The newspaper announced that this publication was an attempt to contribute to the debate regarding criticism of Islam and self-censorship. However, the controversy deepens when further examples of the cartoons were reprinted in newspapers in more than fifty other countries. This led to protests across the Muslim world, some of which escalated into violence, including setting fire to the Norwegian and Danish Embassies in Syria, and the storming European buildings and desecration of the Danish and German flags in Gaza City. Whether the cartoons were printed intentionally or not in the fifty other countries, the media should have known better of the consequences. How is this socially just?

The media may resort to certain means to generate sales. Such means includes advertisement in the newspapers and televisions. This leads to the advertising world altering our reality and twisting the truth. Our desire for status, wealth and beauty made us vulnerable to the consumerist culture that most new economies have adopted while progressing. Women’s perception of beauty and self-image is influenced by slimming center and beauty product advertisements. This gave rise to the increasing number of girls becoming anorexic and bulimic in hope to slim down to look like those models depicted in the advertisements. Just a mere advertisement could have such effect. Shouldn’t this be a wakeup call to the media that they should not be too driven by profit making?

Televisions and the movies promote violence and sexuality, makes it excessive and glamourous. The psychological impact of film and television cannot be underestimated. A picture is able to convey all sorts of meaning (left to the imagination). In this era, people are more visual. Research has shown that if a news report on television differs from a newspaper account, more than twice as many people will believe the televised version that the newspaper one. Gory movies such as Saw and The Hills Have Eyes have gory scenes like a man chopping another person’s hand and there are movies showing excessive use of guns or planes crashing, so much that people are numb to such scenes). This explains why there are homicides involving gun shots, terrorist bombings incurring casualties and kidnappings. And who knows, maybe the terrorist involved in the 9-11 attack got the idea from some movie he had seen.

The media tend to produce materials in the mindset of making profit hence ignoring the dire consequences that may arise from their action. On the other hand, the basis of what is socially just and what is not, is arguable. Different ideologies and religions will have different conceptions of what a ‘just’ society is.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6213032.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4693292.stm