How I see it:

                Freedom of Press in media today is tied greatly in three ways, restrictions to the internet, the obligation of society, and the perceived view upon controversy. This can be shown in how the media purports issues today.

                In the “freedom of the internet” issue, today we face a growing idea of how things should be limited. What is meant by this with the freedom of the internet is, who should control it. The world governments are still trying to limit the way that we use the internet, and whether or not the companies that provide us with the service should have the final say in what is restricted and what is saved. In March 2014, the EU passed a new cyber-security law, that in essence.  Jennifer Baker states that “It will be up to members of state how they write the directive into national law” (Baker, 2014). This brings up the issue however, why should a single government be able to control how we post our idea. Perhaps there should be some kind of intervention against our use of free media, however, letting a company control how we use it based on their business is highly debatable.

                An obligation to society that media today presents is through the “whistleblowers” that are shown. Julian Assange, the founder of wiki leaks, showed just how deceptive the world is by publishing many things that were considered “secrets” of the United States government. More recently is Edward Snowden and the NSA scandal. The National Security Agency spies on US citizens. That alone is scary enough. What is worse was later on when Snowden testified that the US government was spying on far more than its own people. Governments throughout the world were working together to better “police” their country through monitoring the actions and conversations of citizens through various online means. This brings the need for journalist willing to talk about the issue, and research what it is that is happening behind the scenes. “The role of the media to scrutinize decisions made by government officials is a particular crucial connection” (Hyklova, 2010) Hyklova’s statement in her thesis is directed towards how it is that governments make decisions relating to war. Her paper continues to talk about the role of media exposing the start of wars. Perhaps today we should focus the same thing on governments, but instead of looking for war, we should observe how it is we are being restricted. A pseudo war even, the war against our free press. We must continue our demand of free speech, press, emotion, and more importantly, to express it how we wish upon any medium.

                Controversy is the adversary to our idea of free speech, however. In today’s society, being able to instantly send messages across the world can create plethora of issues, whether they are based upon the actual content of the messages, or reflection of what is being discussed. One such example of controversy within the media is with the case of Trayvon Martin.  Trayvon was a young black male staying with his father in Sanford Florida for a vacation. Upon leaving a convenience store, he was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a man that was doing a “community watch” for his neighborhood. This sparked a nationwide controversy. Media’s reports of the issue varied. This issue quickly sparked into a world-wide story. What was purported was different within every station, depending entirely on what agenda the news station wished to push. This idea is best stated by with Graeff’s statement “The vicious/virtuous cycle creates opportunities for power shifts around agenda setting” (Graeff, 2014). This horrible tragedy sparked an outcry for change, and with it, we as a society were able to better understand the problems and issues in even today’s world. Change must happen, and through a series of extreme media reports, awareness to the issue came forward. This is the biggest concern for positive change. Awareness of the problem, and the ability to have a group that is on the same page.

                Without free press and media, we lose the chance to connect our problems within society. The price of free speech is high and constantly changing. We must unite together to truly have a chance to keep our ideas spoken, otherwise we risk the chance of being forced quiet.

Bibliography:

Graeff, erhardt; Stempeck, Matt; Zukerman, Ethan. The battle for ‘Trayvon Martin’: Mapping a media controversy online and off-line. First Monday, {S.I.} jan. 2014. ISSN 13960466 Available at: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index/php/fm/article/view/4947/3821. Date accessed: 10 Jan 2015.

Hyklova, M. (2010, January 1). The Image of War: The Changing Role of the Media. Retrieved January 8, 2015, from is.muni.cz/th/224955/ff_m/Thesis.doc

Baker, J. (2014, March 13). PCWorld - News, tips and reviews from the experts on PCs, Windows, and more. Retrieved January 8, 2015.