What's media's role? Education or Entertainment

The media has such skewed views on the issues around the world. I took Dr. Wallis' suggestion in class on Monday and decided to pick up a newspaper and watch a little news that night. Besides the fact that media, especially the news has desensitized many people because of all the horrible things happening in the world, it also magnifies many issues. In order to get the viewers attention and keep them watching, the media sometimes educates the public with inflated numbers and distorted facts. While watching the news, I realized the reporters talked about more negativity than positivity. When talking about research or ongoing studies, the reporters highlighted the setbacks instead of discussing the positive aspects and what they have found. For example, they will highlight the flu shot, but then talk about the amount of people that have gotten sick and not the majority who received the shot and were fine. Unfortunately, I have come to terms with the fact that some viewers do not like happy endings, but instead find interest in more traumatic events. In epidemiology, I like learning about real facts and numbers. No one has added extra "fluff" to the studies and research to make it more appealing. It's just real data. The study of epidemiology is interesting because their are so many different applications. I look forward to our next guest speaker via Skype. I believe listening to guest speakers will allow for a better understanding of how epidemiology has many different outlets. I still hope to one day be able to travel around the world and if I become an epidemiologist I will be able to travel as part of my job (hopefully). After looking at the media, I see it in a totally different light. I now know to take every bit with a grain of salt!