Effects Of Mass Media In The Media

A number of recent investigations have concluded that news programs often systematically misrepresent black Americans as perpetrators of crime and whites as victims of or defenders against lawbreaking (Dixon 1). According to those investigations by Dixon and Linz (2000a), “Blacks were twice as likely as Whites to be seen as perpetrators, six times more likely to be portrayed as perpetrators than officers, and overrepresented as criminals.”

To dig deeper into this overrepresentation of black criminality, we have to look at the loophole in the Thirteenth Amendment, which allowed slavery as a form of punishment in the prison system. The policymakers recognized the opportunities to acquire forced labor through mass incarceration and made use of the perpetuating cycle of racial formation, where representations and the actions of the institution often reinforce each other. The structural institution, or the policymakers in this case, used overrepresentation of black criminality to racialize crime. The overrepresentation of racialized crime then validates the need of criminal laws and their unequal application across racial groups. In the end, the institution created the false representation that justifies its actions which further feed the representation. The vicious cycle introduced racial discrimination into the justice system and guided the process of mass incarceration.

Today’s media’s representation of Blacks and race leads to two different but closely related views: The first assumes that crime is stereotypically

Within American society, the media is the capital contributor in how victims of color are portrayed. Criminal news stories that showcase an illicit occurrence involve a “black male,” whether they are old or young, as a suspect (Robinson, 2000). A racial hoax is an attempt to deceive by using race as pretext for that deception (Russell, 1998). Eberhardt argues that the media incessantly reinforces racial hoaxes, especially those that depict African American males as criminal or as those who have contributed to their own victimizations due to injudicious stereotypical views. Economic class and historical portrayals of minorities serve as coadjutors to contemporary prejudicial inclinations and biases (Eberhardt, 2004). As minorities often have smaller incomes, African American males are usually viewed as more dangerous and are quickly pointed to as the main suspects of crime (Robinson, 2000; Sampson & Wilson, 1995). The perpetuation of racial hoaxes by the media is also dependent upon historical constructions of African Americans (Muhammad, 2010). Minorities have often served as scapegoats and their status and role in American society have been devalued (Barak, 2010). Throughout history, there has existed the

In our society, there are many stereotypes for every race and ethnicity, but one of the most prevalent throughout most cultures, even among African Americans, is that most black men are criminals. This is something that, although I understand is not true, has become so ingrained in our society that it made me act differently unintentionally. Even if only in insignificant situation, such as keeping a watchful eye on my belongings when a black person was around or by simply being fearful when a black man was walking behind me, I knew my actions were prejudiced. It’s difficult to break a stereotype when statistics seem to prove it correct. The documentary The 13th and Michelle Alexander describe how mass incarceration, partly resulting from the

For the past of couple of years the country has experienced tragic events in which society can see the disparity between races. When it comes to criminal acts, society distinguishes white and black offenders because of how they have been portrayed by the media. The media is in charge of informing the community of daily news. However, the media is also the cause of why black people are perceived as “bad people” due to their race and how the media describes their criminal acts. Blacks are linked with criminality more than whites (Dixon, 2008). The media is the prime contributor of why crimes committed by black people are seen more dangerous than those committed by white people, even if the crime by both race is of a same scale. During these four

Even though this stereotype might be backed up by statistically, a white person who commits similar offense and has equal criminal record to a black con receives shorter prison sentences. Hence, the stereotyping of blacks in the media has only helped to maintain and in fact perpetuate the black stigma govern by systemic racism in the American mainstream. For example, a study shows that “television portrayals, regardless of their accuracy, may affect minority members' perception about the self as well as their own group” (Fujioka, Yuki, 1999). Therefore these misconceptions depicted by the media do not only skew the minds of people in society but also the group of minorities being misrepresented and

The unfair and unjust of racial disparity within the criminal justice system has been an ongoing topic. This topic is important as it can enlighten people with research that racism and discrimination still exist in America although the law states African Americans are free. This may be able to shape previous research by introducing new information not mentioned before and new studies that support the topic. The topic was based on the film 13th: From Slave to Criminal with One Amendment. Research suggest that although the 13th amendment was established to abolish slavery of African Americans in the United States, there were laws and loopholes implemented that legalized slavery by arresting African Americans and making them criminals. Criminals in America are stripped of rights similar to the rights that African Americans were without as slaves. The criminal justice system has

History has changed. Ideas and standards have also changed. Back in the day, when the media or movies showed a hint or a dash of blood, the reaction of the average person was shock and disgust at the blood and gore shown. These scenes and clips shown have become more and more extreme over the years to the level of being hazardous to society. Even in the videogame industry, certain scenes that may have caused outrage and commotion fifteen years ago are now seen as childish and may even be considered as humorous. To put it candidly, most of the mass media has been used widely to its ability to influence and persuade, to glorify, and diabolize thoughts and actions of individuals. Yet people of this generation still spend a great percentage of

This time period is important to note because it was conducted during Bill Clinton’s administration, where punitive laws were implemented that produced more incarcerated African Americans than ever before. More specifically, the study includes all stories where African Americans helped cause a newsworthy event, or were the focus of the story.

Although society is responsible for accepting the historical master narratives that connect African Americans to criminality, more individuals are beginning to realize the issue that internal racism causes. Documentaries, like 13th, are increasing in popularity, causing vast audiences to notice that many of the historical master narratives regarding race and criminality are imprecise. This specific documentary exposes how the media inaccurately depicts African Americans as criminals, and therefore, society should not always trust the media’s representation of individuals. By portraying how African Americans are criminalized, this documentary also offers solutions as to how the problem of mass incarceration can be solved; through not only educating police officials and training them to approach situations in a colorblind manner, but also adjusting structural components, such as laws that require extremely long sentences for committing petty crimes, the amount of minorities jailed for committing petty crimes will decrease drastically, thus allowing federal and state spending to be directed toward more important

America has become one of the most diverse and wealthiest countries in the world. Although the United States is wealthy, not all individuals have benefited from that wealth. Throughout society, African American communities have become marginalized, with areas of poverty, high crime rates, discrimination and few opportunities for advancement. These areas are often locations where racial and cultural minorities live. Racial disparities exist within the criminal justice system and have shown many problems of inequality between the white and black race. In addition to having inequality within the criminal justice system, the criminals also have impacted their family members in different ways due to being incarcerated. The media has misrepresented African Americans by emphasizing African Americans participating in crimes while ignoring crimes committed by whites. People in society are assuming that only black people commit crimes, which is unfair because the incidences of people committing crimes are about equal between the races. Racial disparity favors white people over black people in the criminal justice system. Therefore, society must reevaluate the way society portrays who commits crimes, and where they are committed.

In the 21st century, much of the racism in America is actually unconscious bias. However, the source of this unconscious bias is the media’s hidden agenda to make black people the target. This prompts law enforcements to focus more on black communities instead of the society as a whole. Furthermore, the lifestyle and psyche of African Americans have been injured through the consequences of other people. African Americans are being portrayed as criminals and thugs even though we know deep down humans are capable of unspeakable things.

Does the media negatively affect our thinking? Steven Pinker (2011) explains in his article “Mind Over Mass Media” that the media does not have negative effects on our intelligence. He argues that because of media and technology, our intelligence increased at high levels. The media has created many benefits and opportunities of empowerment for people across the world; I believe that with self-control and non-habit forming behaviors, technology could be the only thing that will continue to keep us advanced and intelligent, without harming our intellect.

One of the biggest culprits of ethnic and racial criminalization in the United States is the media. Mass media is an incredibly powerful societal influencer, therefore it should ideally be the less prejudistic. Unfortunately, the misrepresentation of Blacks and Latinos/Hispanics in the media is clearly present and most definitely problematic. An example of this misrepresentation is the fact that, “Blacks are twice as likely as Whites to be portrayed as perpetrators” in media reports (Janorschke 5). This type of negative portrayal surprisingly resides heavily in Black victim stories compared to White perpetrator stories (Fig. 1) (Wing). This also goes hand-in-hand with the highly contrasting portrayals between Black and Latino/ Hispanic, and