Issue161,限时[Flamy July]作业,请拍:)

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TOPIC: ISSUE161 - "In this age of intensive media coverage, it is no longer possible for a society to regard any woman or man as a hero. The reputation of anyone who is subjected to media scrutiny will eventually be diminished."
WORDS: 559          TIME: 0:45:00          DATE: 2006-7-21

The speaker asserts that it is no longer possible for a society to regard anyone as a hero for intensive media coverage in this age will destroy the reputation of anyone who is subjected to media scrutiny. I concede that the intensive media coverage today, to some extent, do impose bad impact on famous people. However, I consider that there are still heroes whatever the media coverage will be.

Admittedly, the mass media today plays a vital role in public communication. While it works as a messenger of daily information and people's thoughts, the mass media also play the role as a public speaker who can freely criticize what has happened in the world. On the one hand, understandably, people are more interested at the private things of others, especially scandals than formal and public things. On the other hand, nowadays the intensive media coverage has provided the mass with the access to others' privacy, which usually involves with things that would be kept as secrets by their masters. So media today is really a threatening to famous people and the so-called heroes.

However, as the saying goes, gold is still gold in spite of impurities, and thus heroes are still heroes in spite of small deficiencies. As we all know, there is no perfect person in the world, and people can all bear that heroes keep some drawbacks which make them more real. Even if the media found a scandal of a famous person, as long as the scandal belongs to those which is reasonable and can be tolerated, people will forgive their hero who must have been do much contribution to them. For example, Bill Clinton, when he was the president of the USA, was entangled in by a sex scandal, which, for a short time, had made him unacceptable by his people. However, after the mass had calmed down, the president got his objective evaluation. Since he had done great contribution to Americans and people all over the world in both domestic and international affairs, Bill Clinton is still valued as one of the most famous person in his time, in spite of the scrutiny of intensive media coverage.

Finally, it must not be overlooked that the impact our mass media may impose on famous people. Clearly, the final object of our mass media is to make as much profit as it can, which sometimes will do harm to our heroes who are completely innocent by making stories and lieing to the mass. Take another fact which has happened in another university near mine for example. A student lied on the internet to attack a teacher because of some private affairs. To draw people's attention and make money, some media published that story which later has proven to be made up, imposing bad influence on the teacher. In sum, people should be aware of such actions and depend on law to protect themselves from the invading of privacy by mass media.

In conclusion, there are still several aspects to support my claim of this issue under discussion, which, unfortunately, I have no sufficient time to explore in detail. Yet, the above-discussed facts have already substantiated my claim that heroes are still heroes whatever the media may criticize. In addition, legislation should be set up to protect people's privacy from the inappropriate behavior of today's mass media.