Issue161 ToHeart互改组

dinddind2003UID: 196353

TOPIC：ISSUE 161 - "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：393          TIME：0:58:35          DATE：2006-1-30

It is the nature of media to vanish the reputation of a hero or a would-be hero to meet the public's demand, however, it is usually the media that figure a hero no matter that hero is true or not. Moreover a true hero can not easily be destroyed by media.

Admittedly, it is usually that the reputation of anyone who is subjected to media scrutiny will be diminished. Public usually prefer to hear the scandals of famous persons rather than the achievements of them, and those media which can meet the public's demands will make profits. Thus, to earn money for their shareholders or owners, it is natural for media to seek the scandals of famous people. On the other point, heroes or would-be-heroes are usually so uncommon and great in the public's minds that people usually would like to regard them as examples in life even in the aspects these famous people are not good at. After hear a scandal of them, people may think that these heroes can also make the same mistakes as common people can so that the so-called heroes are no more than ordinary except in some special aspects. Then these heroes’ high reputation will be diminished.

However, it is usually the media that figure a hero no matter the hero is true or not. Media can bring information to the whole world in only a few seconds. Thus they can easily make someone from infamous to famous in a night If a person does achieve some great success, it is the media that put him (her) in front of the public first. TV, newspapers and so on report the greatness as soon as possible, and then a true hero is born. On the other hand, if someone want to become famous, no matter what he (she) have done worth the high reputation, he (she ) can make himself (herself) known to the world through media by some trickish means. Then a bogus hero is born.

Furthermore, any true hero can not be diminished by media. Even media make full concern on the scandal of him (her), a true hero, whose contribution is far more significant than the weak points, is still exist in the public's hearts. There are many great hero such as Washington who led the Revolution War, Roosevelt who is important in the Word War Two, and Gandhi who brought equal rights to Indian. Their contribution is marked in history and every time mention them, hardly can anyone recall their scandal. So perhaps even they are alive in this age of intensive media coverage, a few scandal of them can not shake their high reputation.

In sum, although media will make heroes and then try to diminish them by seeking their scandals, true heroes will still exist in the public's hearts.