Mirror, mirror upon the wall – is reality reflected at all?

Abstract

Journalists often argue that their role in a society is to provide content that merely reflects reality. The critical theories regarding the media’s role in society however suggest that the media are carriers of dominant ideologies, thereby “reflecting” that which is favourable to the dominant party in a society. Normative theories, on the other hand, suggest that political and social structures have a vast influence on the different things that may be expected of the media. Is it perhaps time that the media realise that that which their mirror reflects, is not reality at all?