(Screenshotfrom this video on Youtube)
While we care so much about freedom of press, how much do we actually care about the quality of news? Should we just be satisfied as long as the press has the institutional freedom to publish? Is a lot of the news really fake? If it is actually not fake, how good is it though?
Compared to 5 years ago, traditional mainstream news sources now have much less influence already and many more new ones have been established, mostly online. These sources rely much on social media and Youtube. Just like social media and messengers, young people join as the pioneers in the trend and later the older ones joined it too. Now many people get their news mostly from social media or Youtube. The status of newspapers and TV news have changed a lot. These firms now have acknowledged and accepted the trend and changed their strategies. Now most of the news have come to join the competition. And, the focus has shifted to videos instead of text.
As this trend being created, Background music (BGM) for news is also part of it. In the past, there was no music in the background when you were watching the news on TV or reading newspaper. Now news videos on facebook and youtube come with BGM.
When do we usually hear background music? It is when we watch movies, TV dramas, entertainment videos, etc. Most of time, the purpose of BGM is to stir up emotions. Music plays a vital role in those things. That’s why there are awards given for BGM/tracks for movies/TV dramas. Imagine watching Finding Dory/X-men/The Ring without BGM. If you pick the wrong music, you may ruin the movie/drama.
Now that we understand very well of the effect of BGM, we should ask ourselves: should the news use BGM? What is the news supposed to be? It is supposed to be the objective impartation of social, economic and political issues and incidents in the society. The public is there to receive it and may make a judgement about it. Ideally, news should stay impartial. Members of the public can only rely on the news to be informed. If the news is partial, incorrect or inaccurate information, then the public will make wrong judgements based on it. Judgements lead to decisions. You may decide to go out to protest against a policy or to vote for a politician based on your judgement. This means the news affects or leads to certain decisions, and wrong information leads to wrong decisions.
There are different ways for news media to be partial, e.g.: focusing or not focusing on certain issues (e.g. report less of the bad side and more of the good side of a political party), the choice of language (e.g. illegal immigrants vs undocumented immigrants), showing part of the event but not all, etc. These are not new at all, but the use of BGM is. This is probably a little more subtle and less noticeable than the above.
As we know from the above, most of the time, BGM is used for stirring up emotions. Should the news stir up emotions? If news media use BGM for the news, it becomes a tool to influence how the audience thinks about and emotionally relates to the issue or incident. It can help to shape how we see the news, and leads us to think that the issue/person/event is more concerning, ridiculous, positive or negative, etc. than we thought. This definitely violates the purpose of news, which ideally, should be to allow the public to receive it rationally and objectively.
“Now This” is one of the main online news media that you can see on Youtube and social media. When I thought of this topic, it was the first one that popped up in my head. This one is an example of how they inappropriately used BGM for news.(1) Aside from the visual effects, it used music that makes us feel warm, joyful and cheerful, but news is not supposed to influence you emotionally. I cannot guarantee you that the creator likes Obama’s speech, but the effect of the music is definitely to persuade us that Obama’s speech was a great one and we should enjoy it and celebrate it.
Another example from the same network is this one.(2) If you simply close your eyes and listen to the music, you would think you are watching a comedy. Perhaps something like Mr. Bean or Sex and the City. But you are not. You are watching a news video, about President Trump. The music had the effect of depicting the silliness or the clumsiness of the President.
You may want to ask, “What is your problem with that speech? It is a great one! And Donald Trump was really acting silly too.” The problem is, it is not the news media’s role to tell us what we should feel and think. It is supposed to be our own judgement to make. We should be the ones to decide what is right or wrong, good or bad, who is silly, who is great, etc., not them.
BGM for the news is not always unacceptable. Sometimes the music is very moderate and it does not bring too much extra effect to the news. But perhaps discouraging the use of BGM in general is safer for us. Why do we need it to be packaged like that, anyway?
This phenomenon actually tells us how much we like to be fed with news that is packaged as a kind of irregular entertainment. We have an obsession with entertainment that we do not know. The supply of this type of low quality news is the product of our demand.
News is not entertainment. As members of the public, we have to learn to appreciate the plainness of the news. News media should avoid using background music that can subtly influence the audience. Music is great, but not when it is used for the news.
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