Question

how does our government control what information we know and don't know? Do you think that our government has too much control?

Answer 1

The government would control what the newspaper prints, what social media shows and what television news reports, as the government gains control of these three media channels, they gain control over what we can see and can’t see. E.g. if a bad event is happening inside the country that the government doesn’t want its people to find out about then the government would forbid news channels and sites from reporting on it or showing it on their channels.

Around true world the amount of control the government has on the media and right of free speech differs; however, personally I believe that with the invention of the smart phone with a camera and social media, the government may face more control issues now than before because people can record anything and post it on social media and it could go viral within 24 hours or even 2 hours. Therefore, for example if the US government didn’t want people knowing about the California wildfires then they would try their best to limit the entrance of news channel representatives, newspaper reporters, etc.; however the government might not be able to stop a civilian in California, close to the wildfires, from taking videos of the wildfires and posting them on social media for everyone to see and share around therefore spreading the word that the government was trying to hide. Those videos could go viral and the US government would have failed from containing the news of the wildfires because someone posted a video of the wildfires, using his/her phone, on social media.