In my comm. theory class we had a discussion about media and their control. do newspapers control how we think or what we think about? They cannot tell us how we think but I do believe they can influence what we think about. We pulled up 5 different newspapers that are household names. You would find the same stories on about all the pages but with different importance. some would be in big headings and some would be small and off tot he side. each newspaper had what they believed to be the most important at the top. these changed with different newspapers. so are they deciding what is important and then influencing how we think. Just from this little experiment I would definitely argue that they do this. Everyone says to be a critical reader and you can find the truth. If newspapers are deciding whats important or not then reporting they kind of took a choice away. they narrowed it down then gave it to us to decide. depending on what the region was the importance would change. So are newspapers making good decisions on what is important? most of the time I would agree. When politics comes into play I believe it becomes skewed. The political affiliation of the newspaper effects how and what they report. if they have a certain affiliation they will report on certain things they believe are important. If I am not that party then I have to go some where else. being a critical reader is becoming more difficult as time goes on. I guess its up to the reader to decide if they are deciding whats important or if it has already been decided.