Media Essay 2011- The most Pivotal Year

Media Essay- 2011- The Most Pivotal Year of our Generation    Andre Emanuel

The year of 2011 has brought to our generation some of the most shocking, and quite memorable topics that could have been heard of. Topics such as the summer riots, the Arab spring, the royal wedding and of course the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack on America and that also changed the world and many of the lives that was involved on that tragic day. The phone hacking scandal has a major part to play in why 2011 is the most pivotal year of our generation in terms of how it has affected us and the media that was involved. Quick scanning over the phone hacking scandal, the newspaper company ‘news of the world’ hacked into celebrities and young people’s phones in order to get a story; this was majorally attacked by the death of Milly dowler, a young girl who was murdered and news of the world hacked into her phone, deleting her messages with her parents having false hopes about her whereabouts, this in itself is unacceptable and raising questions on if we could ever trust the media 100%, our generation relies on the media to bring us the latest stories and also keep us up to date on what is happening in the world. How we take and interpret the media is totally up to us.

A lot of events has happened over the year of 2011 but for me i would say that the phone hacking scandal that took place in 2011 would be presented as being the most pivotal of 2011, and the reasons why to back up this statement, the phone hacking scandal is o ne issue but how it has been represented through the media is another issue, and that is the concept that is the most important. The media has to power to either define us or destroy us, we rely on the media every day, with its categories such as magazines, newspapers, the internet and televisions and radios, even music and with the phone hacking scandal that recently happened perhaps the media has taken advantage of the fact, with the extent of the phone hacking scandal it has caused one of the most well known newspaper companies to shut down for good. Something like this have never really happened before and it is not every day that a major newspaper company closes down for good, and the fact that it happened in our generation, it does have an impact on our lives more than we realise, and it also gives us that idea that if it can happen to celebrities and normal people then it can also happen to us as well. The phone hacking scandal compared to the other to the other major stories that took place this year, may not seem big when you think about it, compared to 9/11 that literally changed the world, our generation may not remember it happening but 10 years on the world stops to pay their respects to the 3000+ people who lost their lives that they, because that they it wasn’t just America that was attacked, they whole world was attacked along with it, and now it being 10 years since the attack and the whole world remembering that tragic day, our generation got a bit of a wakeup call and learned a very valuable lesson that nowhere in the world is safe, and that anything can happen.

The phone hacking scandal compared to the summer riots have roughly about the same impact on our generation as 2011 being the most pivotal year, the summer riots would definitely play a crucial part because first of all it happened in our area so close to our homes, with hundreds of people looting and businesses and shops being burnt down to the ground, years of business development being destroyed in a matter of hours, the summer riots was using media such as the internet and phones in order to get more people involved and also to put forth the absolute damage that occurred to many areas.

The way in which the media dealt with the issues that took place in 2011, is based on each of the media platforms, e-media, broadcast and print putting it forth to the public in whether it was a necessary thing to do. For the e-media platform, phone hacking got involved with such websites as twitter, face book, and also having some clips on YouTube involving discussions about the phone hacking scandal that involved news of the world. For the twitter they had a phone hacking page in which the pubic could follow and keep up to date with their latest news. For facebook they made a ‘like’ page in terms of the phone hacking, although the information they had on the ‘like’ page was a direct link to Wikipedia, the phone hacking was also focused on the guardian website, the telegraph and also the BBC news in which contained quotes from MPs such as David Cameron and David Milliband on what they thought about the issue.

The way in which news international responded with the phone hacking is that rebekah brooks the editor of the news of the world resigned from her job, and news Corp boss Rupert Murdock issued an apology of the ‘serious wrongdoing’ in the UK national newspapers and adverts. For the broadcast platform YouTube had clips which included discussions for the phone hacking scandal, and also podcasts talks on the guardian website, with people giving their opinions.

The phone hacking scandal in terms of theory links with the theory of uses and gratifications put forth by Denis McQuail which states the idea of personal values which links in with the concept of privacy which is important when it comes to our personal lives, also the Marxism theory can also be applied which states the idea of social change, society has changed over the years one of the ways is technology, and the media is using that to their grasp, unaware of the consequences.

In conclusion the phone hacking scandal would have a major part to play in 2011 being the most pivotal year, as it is the first issue that became so big that one of the top newspaper being shut down because of it. The phone hacking contributes to the power of the statement, in a idea that the media is not only based on what we know or how it is presented to us but it is also based on trust, whether the media can restore trust is unknown, but what it can do now is make sure nothing like this ever happens again.