The media has the power to inform the public, but often the information they receive is distorted. The media has shaped our view of society and the process by which we choose our leaders, make our rules, and make up our values. The media has the power to encourage people to like or hate the government. They promote what they believe is easiest for the public to accept, but in the process it fails to cover the issues properly. "The media can make us wiser, fuller, sure and sweeter than we are" (Orr 61), but the media can also cloud the public's judgments, and cause confusion and disillusion as well. From Churchill to Hitler to the former Soviet Union, it is quite clear that radio, television and newspapers have the power to change and make history. A clear example of the power of the media was when Orson Wells made his famous radio broadcast about "witnessing" the landing of a spaceship full of Martians: "America saw that the power of the media could appeal to the public easily and cause mass hysteria" (Williams 25).
Noam Chomsky, an established political thinker and magazine editor, stated in an interview in 1990, "If you follow mainstream media with great care and skepticism and approach it with the right understanding of how propaganda works, then you can learn a lot. The normal reader is fooled into believing the propaganda that they are being fed. The media shapes and selects the events and offer their biased opinions to the mass audiences." The media modifies information to fill what they believe the public's interest is (Szykowny 9).
The media feels that they should act as a "watchdog." This causes many of the ethical problems among the media because they assume the responsibility of keeping a check on the government, by acting as governmental critics, governmental experts, etc. The media digs, researches, and snoops in governmental affairs, which eventually leads the media to speculate and create rumors while they are trying to expose corruption.