Give the Public What it Wants

2 Pages 513 Words

“Give the Public What it Wants”


In reading, “Give the Public Want it Wants” by Mauer, the most interesting thing to me was how juveniles are portrayed to account for more of the violence than they actually do. It seems that now when I watch the news, I seem to see atleast three to four stories on teenage shootings, or teenagers getting heavy drug charges. I still would not hold juveniles accountable for most of the violence. Also, in this article there is a lot of talk about the distortion of reports throughout the local news broadcasts, newspapers, radio, and etc. This was interesting to me because, who knows what is the actually truth. They let us see what we want to see. Just as in the article, Mauer stated that all the reporters had to do were to get to the crime scene and let wind get in their hair. For some reason the public likes the yellow tape, the chalk, and the evidence; in which it seems to be quite entertaining.
I agree with Mauer about crime as being a good visual effect. Crime is a widespread issue. The public wants to know what is going on around them, especially if they feel that they could be in danger. Fear plays a big part to local news stations, newspapers, radio stations, and etc. If we didn’t fear for our lives, then there would not be any need to inform us on the dangers surrounding us. As you watch the news today, you would believe that homicide rates are increasing rapidly. In reality that are actually decreasing. Mauer states that the media never gives data statistics. I truly believe that. The news gives the who, what, where, and why. The public does not get the percentages, and numbers behind the crimes.
For example, let’s take the Kobe Bryant incident. Everybody knows him as a young, successful professional basketball player. It was very entertaining to see that he had first, cheated on his wife, and then denied it. Also, it was just as entertaining because half of...