How the Media Control People’s Opinion of Public Institutions

After New Year’s Eve, many people discussed whether it was the right decision of the police to control several people, who they assumed to be North African. This took place in order to prevent events like the sexual assault that had happened the year before. On the first day of January, the police justified their decision by mentioning that most of the controlled men were of North African origin. Nevertheless, some days later, they had to correct their assumption: after evaluating the personal data of 425 people, it became clear that only seven per cent of them were North African, there were even 46 Germans among them.

As the media controls the information people receive, it automatically has an influence on people’s reaction to certain events. This became apparent in the previous mentioned case. Depending on the received information, people either accept the police’s behaviour or protest against it. The outcome of the investigation may have had an influence on people who were not sure whether it was the right decision to control a person based on his/her appearance. Nonetheless, one article clearly dispels this scepticism by stating that the authenticity of the identification cards of these people is uncertain and therefore there might be far more North Africans among those 425 people. Moreover, this information is also important for current political debates whether refugees of certain countries like North Africa are problematic and should therefore be deported much faster.

Finally, a statement of the regional police director is presented in which he mentions that their reaction had been correct although they learned that one should better judge a person by its behaviour than by its appearance, and that early assumptions about nationalities might be wrong.

Hopefully, this case has served as a good example to point out how certain information offered by the media forms people’s opinion and therefore should be treated carefully, especially when certain conclusions seem too hasty. Besides, one should be aware of how much power revealed or hidden information has on society as it may justify or attack several institutions.