Discrimination In The News Media

The media carries a significant role in the distribution of information in American society. The American populace rely on entertainment and news networks to properly feed them updates on science, politics, celebrities and so much more. The media has this kind of power due to the fast pace way of life Americans live as well as their inability, or lack of want, to read pure and unadulterated academic articles on any given subject. While the media never seems to stop covering vast topics of interest to great length it is fundamentally failing at properly commenting on one of the most important social issues of the century, class and its relation to social inequality. The media is downright disrespectful and negligent in the way it goes

Race in the media is a very sensitive issue now a days. When it comes to minorities we can still see that the media portrays us in a bad light. The image of blacks in the American media has changed over the past two decades with the civil rights movement, changes in attitudes towards minority groups, and increased sensitivity on the part of those who and project these images. An examination of the image of Blacks in the articles and advertisements to show attitudes subtly represented, and these attitudes can be linked to historical and social realities of the time.

The United States of America has been called a “mixing pot” since the birth of the nation. Everyone, especially politicians and educators, will proudly declare that the U.S. is a land of unmatched diversity. The U.S. seems to always be portrayed as a highly cultural territory, harboring a vast population of many races. Admittedly, the United States has come a long in terms of eliminating racial barriers and pursuing equality. All around the world, America is seen as a country of colors, yet mass media does not recognize that fact.

Racial profiling increased drastically for Arabs and Muslims following the attack on September 11, 2001. As a result of this tragedy, many began to associate Arabs and Muslims as evildoers. They were seen to as sinister individuals who hijacked airplanes with bombs attached to their body. However, Muslims and Arabs are not the only victims of racial profiling. Hispanics and African Americans have experienced this same treatment due to the color of their skin. This could result from the belief that whites are treated with respect, royalty, and luxury. Because of America’s history, and the decade of enslavement, African Americans are defined as “slaves and dirty animals” whereas Hispanics were stereotyped to have the career as housemaids and farmer workers with the nickname “wetbacks”. Such depictions of these individuals are still an issue in today’s society.

There is a significant racial bias in how the media delivers certain stories, based on who the suspect of the crime is. For example, content of the story will vary differently depending on if the suspect is white compared to if they are a person of color. In cases, where the suspect of a crime is white, the media may often try to advocate for the suspect. Emphasizing that they may have had a mental illness, acknowledging any positive characteristics of the suspect, or even reminding the audience of the future potential that the suspect holds. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the media isn’t blatantly lying to the public, but the same treatment does not apply to minority races. In fact, the it is the exact opposite is in effect when talking

Imagine walking the same streets as a “sketchy” black man on a dark night, what do you do? Do you cross the street in hopes of avoiding the bulky man’s domineering demeanor? What about when you see a Muslim man walking the street, fully clothed in a thawb? Do you think that he may be the next terrorist to wreak havoc on America? Many Americans’ perception of people unlike themselves has been distorted by the stereotypes against diverse ethnicities and by the discrimination against specific religions. Muslims, among many other groups of people, have been targeted by everyday people because of the actions of people that are of the same race or religion as them.

In this case, the media made all people of color look like terrorists blaming them for actions of others. Muslims are blamed for 9/11, and even though William is not a Muslim, he is stereotyped as a terrorist because of his physical features. For example the invisibility of Native Americans in mass media provides a unique vantage point for examining how media representations impact both identity and self understanding (Leavitt) which means whenever you do see a Native American on media, they are most likely shown as 19th or 18th century figures. Or they are stereotyped as poor, uneducated, and prone to addictions (Leavitt) but in this case William is the exact opposite, yet he still gets stereotyped as a different race because he does not meet the “requirements” for his own race.

Islam is a monotheistic religion, centered around the teachings of the Qu’ran and serving Allah (meaning God in Arabic). However, this Abrahamic religion has been harshly discriminated against in the United States for years. Most prominently throughout the last twelve years, post September 11th, 2001. Unfortunately, issues such as socialization through the media, power distribution, religious ignorance, stereotyping and visible differences have contributed to the ill attitudes towards Muslims. This paper will examine how Americans have been socialized in islamophobia within the United States.

The definition of race is often based on physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture and eye shape. Race is both a set of genetically defined biological characteristics and culturally defined characteristics. One influence on culture is the media and the media have a huge influence on the way different races are viewed by society. The media consists of communication devices and some media forms include television, newspapers, magazines, film and radio. Misrepresent can be defined as to give a false or misleading representation with an intent to deceive or be unfair.

To Bakar 's point, public figures, such as President-elect Donald Trump, through fear inciting speech, has created a social "us" versus "them" social binary. His call to ban all Muslims is not only distasteful, but he makes an ignorant, un-presidential blanket statement that harms the global perception of Muslim Americans. Last year, it was recorded that 78 mosques had been attacked and 2016 is on track to reach these number of attacks. As a direct result of the recent election, there has inevitably been an increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric and one can only assume that the projection of hate crimes committed against Muslim Americans will continue to rise. People of color are regularly targeted victims of Islamophobic rhetoric—not by these "terrorists"—but instead by those who perpetuate and act on white supremacist misconceptions. These racist groups dehumanize Muslim-Americans for "looking like terrorist" (as if terrorism can be personified) and are wrongly scrutinized based on mere appearance. Even as participants of western democracy, Muslim-Americans often question their role as citizens in a society that has cast them as the "feared other."

Since Islam is a religion that promotes peace and kindness, one could ask where the stereotype that all Muslims are terrorists originated. Following the tragedies of September 11, 2001, Arabs and Muslims have been presented as potential terrorists. This idea stemmed from the theory that, “media bias increases when a specific ethnic, religious, or racial group is seen as a threat to national security.” (Stiffler, 2013). Since the attacks on September 11, 2001 Muslims and Arabs have been “hyper-visible” in the media as potential terrorists. Due to the negative media attention and failure of most media platforms to

The media have published articles that portray many Muslims as terrorists. This has made many Americans believe that Muslims all have connections to Al Qaeda and Taliban making everyone fear them in general. This discrimination is even effecting babies. Riyanna Abdullah was an 18 month old child who was flying on a JetBlue flight from Florida back to New Jersey. She was asked to leave the plane by flight attendants because she was on the no-fly list. Riyanna shares the same name as a known terrorist (Islam uses similar names). Even when the flight attendants saw that she was an infant they still refused. This prejudice against the Abdullah family was

The connection between Islam and terrorism was not intensified until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that pushed the Islamic faith into the national and international spotlight (Smith, 2013). As Smith (2013) articulated, “Many Americans who had never given Islam a second thought before 9/11 now had to figure out how to make sense of these events and relate to the faith tradition that ostensibly inspired them” (p. 1). One way in which people made sense of these events was through the media channels that influenced their overall opinions by shaping a framework of censored ideas (Yusof, Hassan, Hassan & Osman, 2013). In a survey conducted by Pew Forum (2012), 32% of people reported that their opinions of Muslims were greatly influenced by the media’s portrayal of Islam that depicted violent pictorials and fundamentalist Muslims. Such constant negative depiction is likely to lead to the inevitable—prejudice and hate crime. For instance, in 2002 alone there were approximately 481 hate crimes that were carried out against Muslims (Smith, 2013). Ever since the 9/11 attacks Muslim people have been the target of “suspicion, harassment and discrimination” (Talal, n.d., p. 9).

"The US media has been clubbing together terrorism and Islam, influencing the American public to think that all Arab Muslims are "crazy and violent terrorists"… The American media has been a primary agent responsible for creating racist stereotypes, images and

This survey reveals that the problem with the Islam faith is not racial: The Muslim people are welcomed, the Islam faith is not. The violence that has been perpetrated against America, whether executed or planned, has brought to fruition religious persecution not seen since the persecution of the Jews in W.W.II. This “trust no Arab” attitude has brought shame to the Constitutional intentions of freedom of religion intended by our forefathers, and has set religious tolerance back 200 years. Looking at media representation of Muslim Americans prior to 9-11, it shows religious diversity in America, depicting Muslim America as just another religious community seeking to advance and protect their interests, not unlike other Americans. After 9-11 the media portrayed representations of threat and fear, creating boundaries between Muslims and other Americans. Such depiction transforms the identity of Muslims and American religious pluralism (Byng, M. pg. 3).