Network news appears to convey more stereotyped impressions, a narrower range of positive roles for blacks than for whites. Representations of whites in network news are more varied and more positive than of blacks, not because of conscious bias, but because of the way conventional journalistic norms and practices interact with political and social reality. The findings raise questions about the journalist ability to represent the reality of black America while adhering to the professional practices that currently shape network news. Mainstream news portrayed African American as criminals, homeless beggars, welfare queens, ghetto-dwelling gang members, or drug addicts in American Society. Perpetuation of young black men as dangerous has been …show more content…
News coverage ignores the facts of how African American was feared in their lives because the LAPD always target them. It was until a young man named Rodney King who was brutally beaten to an inch of his life by the LAPD spark an outrage in the African American Community. This lead to the LA riot in 1992 the news coverage was characterized by two main frames, or themes; the riots were portrayed as a confrontation between blacks and whites, and the coverage emphasized law enforcement and thus downplayed the underlying causes such as poverty, racism and unemployment. The Los Angeles stations news only focused on discrete episodes of violence and the restoration of law and order. The portrayal of African Americans during the LA riots by the news media encouraged the perception that the black community was responsible for the riots. Those who were arrested, only 40% were black and of those arrested while the other 60% of the rioters and looters were made up of whites and Latinos. Yet the media did not report this underlying fact. The media portrayal of this event along with other race riots has again inflicted negative charges and scorn on black awareness. The news media also refused to search for the underlying cause behind the protest choosing instead only to portray African-American males as criminals, looters and just being unlawful. The underlying factors behind these problems were never researched or explained in prior stories. During this time the news media only depicts these images because they know it will drive rating, so they distort the truth and the integrity of journalism just to bring a few more
The news often reports on crime within Black, urban neighborhoods, but seldom does that same viewing public get to see what is truly happening in these communities, and their thoughts and views are shaped just from what they perceive of TV. In Alice Goffman’s book On the Run, Goffman takes a deeper look into urban, Black men’s relationship with the police, and lets the reader see the situation from a side not commonly shown on the news.
The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this particular incident. This type of ethical deviance is something the public has not seen since the civil rights era. Little did Chief Gates, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and the LAPD know what the consequences of their actions would lead to. Moving forward in time to the verdict of those police officers being acquitted of the charges, the public sentiment spiraled into an outrage. The disbelief and shock of the citizens of Los Angeles sparked a mammoth rioting that lasted for six days. The riots led to 53 deaths and the destruction of many building. This is a true but disturbing story uncovering the ethical deviance from the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The two perspectives are from the Rodney King incident are the LAPD and the L.A. riots.
Throughout, the documentary one can come to the conclusion that most of these African- Americans who live in this area are being judged as violent and bad people. However this is not the case, many of them are just normal people who are try...
Police brutality has been an apparent mark on the struggles, trials, and tribulations of people of minorities for years, primarily Black people. From the times of slavery to the present unlawful targeting and murders of black citizens with no justification, police brutality has been an enema in Black American culture for hundreds of years. Seen both in James Baldwin’s “Going to Meet the Man” and in the current happenings of the United States. The hashtag “#BlackLivesMatter” has been a focal point in the current struggle for equality of the races. The current outpouring of support for black lives and
The usage of media is huge in nowadays. People rely on different kinds of media to receive information in their everyday life because they are thirsty for the diverse and informative content. However, inaccurate portrayals of people from different races always appear in the media and audience will exaggerate those portrayals by their inflexible beliefs and expectations about the characteristics or behaviors of the portrayals’ cultural groups without considering individual variation (Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2012); in fact, it is also called as stereotypes. According to a study by the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University (Stein, 2012), racial stereotyping continues to occur in media and the mainstream media's coverage of different cultural groups is full of biased reporting, offensive terminology and old stereotypes of American society. It specifically emphasizes that majority of the stereotyped characters in media will only bring out the dark side of their cultural groups which many of them might not be true, especially for the portrayals of black community: African American.
In the wake of the 1992 Riots, the Los Angeles Sentinel and the Wall Street Journal both jumped to politicize the riots, assigning blame, responsibility and power to certain groups and individuals. However that is where the similarities end because the Wall Street Journal tends to steer responsibility away from the Republican government and towards the black communities and leaders associated with the violence. This appears to have been the dominant discourse of the time, seeking to diagnose problems within specific racial communities instead of the country’s institutional structure. Conversely, the Los Angeles Sentinel put all of the focus on the government and the people with the most power and privilege. It maintained a discourse of victimization
In this week’s supplementary reading, author Lydia Polgreen evaluates the recent string of deaths of unarmed black men, all attributed to police officers. The deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, and Laquan McDonald in Chicago have pushed the issues of race relations and institutional racism to the forefront of societal issues in America. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that in most of these cases, the officers accused of the unlawful deaths are usually given the benefit of the doubt and found innocent by jurors. This has culminated in the schism in public opinion of the police force. White individuals are more likely to support the officers’ use of deadly force, while black individuals are far more likely to
In 2014, the death of Eric Garner in New York City raised controversial conversations and highlighted the issues of race, crime, and policing in neighborhoods that tend to be poor and racially isolated. Garner, an unarmed black man, was killed after being tackled and held in a “chokehold.” According to the AP Polls in December 2014, “Police killings of unarmed blacks were the most important news stories of 2014.” The problem is that young black men are targeted by police officers in which they have responded with the misuse of force and policy brutality. It is evident that this issue affects many people nationwide. The civilians do not trust the police department and the justice system because they hold the perceptions that police officers are immune from prosecution despite their actions. In particular, black individuals, specifically black males, do not feel safe in the presence of police officers because they are not held accountable for their mistakes.
... model for how the entertainment and media industries depict black people must change. Despite the progress that blacks have worked toward since the days of slavery, society continues to give in to the monetary benefits of producing self-disparaging entertainment and media. It is not only up to the directors, editors, producers and writers to establish this change, but it should also be the demand of the people, or the consumer. If the images of black people in the media are improved the outlook within the community will improve as well. Not only will positive goals and achievements become more realistic for black people if the media outlets discontinue their practice of equating blacks with aggression, lawlessness and violence, but a greater good will also result for whites, which would be represented by a true autonomy and equality in American society.
The final theme portrayed within race, crime, and The Wire is the media’s influence on public views. The media plays a large role in influencing the views of the public. What the media decides to air is broadcast to the whole world as what is “right” so discretion should be used in reporting information. Blacks already carry a large stigma for many reasons, however the media should not reinforce this. Anderson (1990) states that many learn to fear minorities based on crimes seen on television as well as in the newspaper.
Hollywood’s diversity problem is well-known; however, the extent might be surprising to most Americans. According to a 2014 report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television, Film & New Media, found that females comprised only 30% of all speaking characters among the top grossing films of 2013. (Lauzen, 2014) However, minority women faired far worse than their Caucasian counterparts. As a matter of fact, if one looks at the numbers even female characters from other world’s were as better represented in film than some minority women; the numbers are as follow for women: Caucasian (73%), African American (14%), Latina (5%), Asian and other world tied (3%). (Lauzen, 2014) If the lack of representation were not enough consider a 2009 study which found that when minority groups are portrayed on television the portrayal tends to be negative. (Alexandrin, 2009) A study by Busselle and Crandall (2009) found that the manner in which African-Americans are portrayed, often as unemployed criminals, tends to have an influence on the way the public perceives African-American’s lack of economic success. Furthermore, the news media does an equally poor job in the ways that African-American’s are presented; according to the same study while 27% of Americans were considered “poor” in 1996 the images of America’s “poor” being presented by news media was heavily Black (63%). (Busselle & Crandall, 2002) Today, this can be seen in the way that African-American victims of police brutality are depicted in the media. Even when African-Americans are murdered at the hands of police for minor and non-violent offenses (e.g. Mike Brown, Eric Gardner, and Tamir Rice) they are often portrayed as thugs, criminals, and vandals. What’s more, seve...
Police brutality is the leading cause of African American deaths in the United States. Almost a thousand times this year, a police officer has fatally shot and killed an American citizen. Police brutality is not a practice, it is not a “Stop and frisk” technique to reduce the rate of crime. It is practically wiping out the African American population in America. (Mappingpoliceviolence.com)
To conclude, African Americans are underrepresented in the media. It was 22.8% of African-American serial killers out in the sample given which is still a big number. In the end it is still concluded that White males will be the favorite stereotypes of serial killers allow it to show that African-Americans do not have the brilliance to create such crime. On the other hand, it will lead to law enforcement not wanting to protect victims in the African-American community. A food for thought about how many lives were lost due to these
Nothing has changed: A Demonstration of Blacks in Media during Civil War and Modern era
Despite the political rights and power that African American’s have gained, the racist and supremacist ideologies are ingrained into the minds of Americans and can be seen clearly by what the media chooses to show the public. For as long as I have been alive, the media has been criticized by African Americans for the representations of African American men on television and within other forms of the media. African America men are the second-class citizens such as the butlers or they’re classified as the “Help” in movies; they are the criminals or the thugs in television shows, and the cause of destruction and disorderly conduct on the news. I admit, the quantity of African American’s image has increased since the early 1900’s but the quality