Seeing is Believing, Unless its on Television

  "News," a messenger bringing an important message to the masses, has played a large part in the political and social structure of communities since even biblical times (think Gabriel, the messenger angel.) In medieval times, a town crier shouted messages from the king to all who where in the streets. More recently, the printing press allowed for government propaganda. Now, the rise of televised news proves to be one of the most wide-spread manners to spread ideas and agendas, particularly those of government parties.

   There are many different types of news stations and publications - from national news stations, to local stations, to national and local print publications - that range in political dominance along both sides and the middle of the spectrum. That being said, as these media are run by humans, who cannot be completely objective, simply because of differences in perspective, each and every type of media is biased towards the particular affiliate's political agenda. While local news is often influenced by the opinions of locals throughout the community (not making it less biased, just spreading the majority of the community), national news corporations are typically financed through companies with particular political affiliations making it seem more biased.
    While health news is only ranked eighth among issues covered on national television, it has lately been a hot topic among politicians. Two different areas - political health reform and self-improvement- are the main topics debated among politicians, and stations such as Fox News (typically very conservative) and NBC (typically fairly liberal) tend to cover the sides of the issue that play to their parties' agendas. For instance, in the news coverage of the Affordable Care Act, one of Fox's programs featured Senator Mitchell McConnell discussing all of the problems of the new health care reform. On the other hand, NBC's coverage of ACA included a nice piece on President Obama helping women about to faint during his speech on the act.
    Yet self-reform topics are often not affiliated with a particular party, rather are more equally promoted. For example, in any story on obesity or diabetes, news stations across the board tend to show the increase in both diseases within the US, say the problem needs to change, and promotes exercise and healthy habits, as I saw when watching both Fox and NBC's afternoon broadcasts.

    As the article Medical News for the Public to Use says, television news has an incredibly influence on viewers' behaviors, and as Americans' primary source of health information is from television news, it is important that viewers take into account the source of media and what the agenda behind the dissemination of information may be.