Managing the news

From ArticleWorld

Managing the news is the act of influencing the presentation of information within the public media. The expression of managing the news is often not used in a positive sense, and is thought of as a form of manipulation.

Managing (or manipulating) the news is done in a variety of ways. For instance, a person or organization who decides to release bad news to a media service will often send a press release on a Friday afternoon, which gives journalists less time to pursue and complete the story.

This helps limit questions, and leaves less room for investigating sources unfavorable to the coverage of a particular undesirable event or incident. News manipulation can also be done by the way of some officials receiving press or news releases early, before the time that others are meant to receive it.

The phrase managing the news is used to create a narrow scope if information, which is biased to the view of the people in favor of a particular subject of interest. It does not always promote the most accurate angle of a particular story, and sometimes can even mislead the public.

Journalists are often faced with difficult decisions. Perhaps they feel the pressure to present the story as soon as possible because it is a very timely event. Therefore, they sometimes may have no choice but to cover a story which they feel they do not know much about. However, the best journalists are ones that present as truthful of a story as they possibly can.