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The effect of the media on public perception
Impact of mass media on society
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I chose this topic because the media has more control over our minds than we as society will ever admit to having overs us. Many people base their opinion of other people through what they see in the media. Most produces behind the mass media are older white people and half are color-blind to racism. Miller and Garran (2011) writes “one reason is that most of the editors and television producers who are responsible for promulgating such images and may not recognize that they are colluding with racial stereotypes. Some media executives, however, do know what they are promoting, and they strive to maintain high rating through news that titillate and stirs people up”. This angers me to know that through producer bias that some produces purposely
The minorities are vulnerable to the media because the minorities are shot and killed by the police. In the case of Michael Brown, who is a minority, being that he is a young black male, who allegedly was walking illegally in the middle of a street was shot by Darren Wilson a white police officer. In the accounts of what transpired Wilson the police officer said that Brown attacked him in his car, but an eyewitness alleged that brown was shot while holding his hands up in the air and was unharmed(“Police Brutality”). However the headlines in the media are emphasizing race, black vs. white, which is a controversial topic due to the history of black and white people. Do to events like slavery and segregation, yet the media seem to play on race instead of facts. Next, People don’t process or take in the truth. For example, in the case of Eric Garner, people bypass the part of Eric selling illegal cigarettes and all people hear is the Eric was put in a choke hold. The media realize how to exploit the minority faults. For instance the minorities have a low literacy rate. That means a most of the minority population don’t know how to read and write. The media know how to use their power to get an emotional reaction without providing a considerable amount of information and that can cause people to make irrational decisions. Lastly, how the media is affecting minorities because what
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 planted in the mind of American society not only by words and images projected by journalists but also in the mainstream news especially. Television particularly the news has the least positive representation of African Americans especially young males. When television became a house-hold item in the early 1950, this was a dark time in American History because there were huge racial tensions brewing in the south. The news show African American mostly young males getting abuse, hosed by police and attack by police dogs during a peaceful protest. It gives the negative images that African American was unlawful people and need to be dealt with swift action. Most of the time African Americans weren’t resisting but the news media depicted the images that they were and police were just doing their job to keep the peace.
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.
Race, stereotype, ethnicity, and racism are all around the world and it has become so normal that more often than not people tend to overlook those factors in the social media. As stated earlier the medias main goal is to make money as a result most white Americans is the medias main source of money. Yet, by doing so the media has segregated people by their race and ethnicity in the type of channels and advertisements they have created.
Since the September 11th attacks, the media has become more bias in its portrayal of ethnic minorities. A news story may not say “Black people may rob your house” but their bias portrayal in the media would make you believe it (Schemer & Wirth). The article features a section on several experiments...
Though obviously people are aware of what they are listening to or watching, thoughts and assumptions can drift into their minds without even realizing it. These thoughts that drift in are extremely influential. The massive impact it can have on America's perceptions leads to generalizations, assumptions, and stigmas. Media influence is not always negative, however. In most cases, it has beneficial and positive aspects.
Racism and discrimination continue to be a prevalent problem in American society. Although minorities have made significant strides toward autonomy and equality, the images in media, specifically television, continue to misrepresent and manipulate the public opinion of blacks. It is no longer a blatant practice upheld by the law and celebrated with hangings and beatings, but instead it is a subtle practice that is perceived in the entertainment and media industries. Whether it’s appearing in disparaging roles or being negatively portrayed in newscasts, blacks continue to be the victims of an industry that relies on old ideas to appeal to the majority. The viscous cycle that is the unconscious racism of the media continues to not only be detrimental to the white consumers, who base what they know about blacks by what is represented in television, but also the black consumers, who grow up with a false sense of identity.
In order to identify how the mainstream media perpetuates racism, we must first understand its...
Goodman, Mark. "Chapter 8: The Media Contribution to Racism and Sexism." Mass Media and Society. Mississippi State University, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
The use of media has always been very tactical and representative of a statement or purpose. The issue of race has always been a topic of immaculate exploration through different forms of media. Mediated topics such as race, gender, and class have always been topics represented in the media as a form of oppression. The widely use of media surrounds the globe extensively as the public is bombarded with media daily. There are many different types of media that circulates the public making it widely available to anyone. Media can hold an immense amount of power as it can distort the manner in which people understand the world. In our society the media creates the dominant ideology that is to be followed for centuries in the classifications of race, gender, and class. Media can be a powerful tool to use to display a message which, is how “…the media also resorts to sensationalism whereby it invents new forms of menace” (Welch, Price and Yankey 36). Media makers and contributors take advantage of the high power that it possesses and begin to display messages of ideologies that represent only one dominant race or gender. It became to be known as the “dominant ideology of white supremacy” for many and all (Hazell and Clarke 6).
One of the greatest exports of American culture is American media. American media is one of the most widely distributed and consumed cultural forms from the United States. This means that not only do Americans consume large quantities of their own media, but many other countries in the world consume American media, too. People in other countries will not interpret or understand the media in precisely the same ways that Americans will and do, nonetheless, many aspects of American culture and American reality are communicated to numerous viewers as part of the content in the media. The media is an important tool in the discussion of race, class, and gender in America. It takes a savvy viewer to discriminate between and understand what media accurately represents reality, what media does not, or which aspects of experience are fictionalized, and which elements ...
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however what is considered beautiful by some is not considered as beauty when discussing diversity within the media. Society is based on criticism of judging one’s characters body, shape and or race/ethnics background. In the media the society only sees one type that is only focused on perfection to the mind; however within the United States, it is very typical in that the media lacks ethnic representation, cultural identity and gender inequalities. There are no ethnic representation when it comes to the media world and that the media has been trained to believe that the ethnic groups are not valuable. African Americans and Hispanics writers are the minority group when it comes to a social group. According to journalist Prince and Television critic Deggans “CNN , let go one of its most high-profile anchor of color, Soledad O’Brien, replaced her with a white man, Chris Cuomo. Wolf Blitzer gave up one of his hours to another white man, Tapper. Though Zucker met with both National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalist to try and address their concerns, there has been no overt sign from CNN that it is bringing on any more anchors of color, ”(Mirkinson p.1).
Today it seems almost impossible to get a straightforward answer on any major topic from the media. All sources of media have a specific audience that they are intending to hear or view the information that they have prepared, therefore they will cut bits and pieces out so that only the message they are trying to get across will be received. So indeed there is a media bias, and yes it more often than not slants towards the liberal view point, as many reporters and journalists have liberal views themselves.
Currently there is a long-standing debate dealing with the effects of media. Some believe that the media is just something to indulge or watch and that it has no significant affect on people while others say that has a powerful pull on society as a whole. Research indicates that bias in media articles leads to minorities and women being portrayed in a stereotypical or harsh manner (Hazell and Clarke 3). This leads to African Americans being seen as individuals fit for “lower status occupations,” (Hazel and Clark 7). Black men were also seen as hostile, intimidating figures mainly working as athletes or musicians while women were portrayed as domineering, overly expressive people (Hazel and Clark 9).
The elimination of media bias is pretty much impossible due to the fact that large corporations head the media, and the heads of most large corporations are white men, but by the implementation of certain strategies it would be a move in the right direction. Media bias is a problem, though it may not be blatant, it is serious because it could be helping to form people?s beliefs about others. People are scared of the unknown, and by giving them a certain portrayal of someone they have had no interaction with; it can have detrimental effects. Who knows actually what impact media bias has had on the nation as a whole. How do we know whether or not media bias has made an individual not get or even lose a job? How do we know how many friendships media bias has stopped from even being initiated? Hopefully one day we will be able to recognize what media bias is, only then will we be able to begin the process of fighting to put an end to it. Only then will we be able to create a fair, unbiased media that is diverse and one that encompasses the ideas of an ideal media.