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Keystone Pipeline Essay

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Freedom of the press is one of the most important aspects of democracy. In many countries including Canada and the USA it is at the forefront of their civil rights. Yet often when ideals are not in congruency with the government this right is tested. There has not been a great deal of media coverage on the protests taking place in North Dakota against the Keystone Pipeline. Documentary filmmakers are now facing decades in prison over their filming of the protests. Deia Schlosberg and Lindsay Grayzel are facing felony charges and advocates are stating that this is a direct attack on their first amendment rights. It is important to hear about cases like this because we need to maintain media democracy to protect our own democratic society. Furthermore, the agenda setting theory seems to …show more content…

The agenda setting theory describes the ability to influence topics in the media thus influencing how the public views certain situations. Due to the issue not being widely covered, many citizens that are not directly affected by the situation disregard it. This can be very damaging in this circumstance because the pipeline can cause irreversible harm to the environment as well as immense damages to the Native communities that it crosses. It is likely the agenda set by the government is to keep the public in favor of the pipeline because it is extremely profitable. Regardless of the harm it may cause it will benefit the government. The government would attempt to keep the media positive and the truth could cause incredible detriment to their plans. A documentary detailing the protests and likely the affects it may cause could be detrimental to the government plans. Therefore it is possible that the journalists were in violation of the government’s agenda and are thus being prosecuted to halt the dissemination of the

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