Essay On Inequalities In The Media

Media spiked many thoughts that police brutality is a big deal in today’s times, which then lead to the huge riots throughout the city of Ferguson where Darren Wilson and his family had to be protected from thousands of protestors who threatened his life as well as the entire city. The real story as well as the autopsy reports later came out to show that officer Wilson did not shoot him numerous times as he was running

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

From the disturbing beating of Rodney King to the horrific death of Malice Green to the shooting of Michael Brown shows there is a consistent problem with police brutality and the exertion of force used. Police brutality seems to be a rising issue again with the occurrence of the Michael Brown shooting and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement making sure that any form of police brutality should not be swept under the rug. Action has been taken in some cities around the country for dealing with police brutality, such as police reform, which requires the retraining of hundreds of officers. There has also been talk and use of police body cameras that would record interactions between officers and the public to clear up any discrepancies in police/witness reports. To look at the effects and causation of police brutality we will be analyzing the media’s role, the sociological and psychological aspects of officers who administer the beating, and the timing of when these beatings/killings occurred.

While the media might not directly contribute to discrimination, the media is undoubtedly a significant aspect of modern day society that influences how people think about racial issues (Royce, 2009, p. 1, 17). Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Whites are attempting to keep blacks and other minority families locked into an impoverished political and economic position by using various tactics to isolate them, such as mass incarceration that stems from the War on Drugs. The New Jim Crow helps us in seeing how history is repeating itself and how to legalized discrimination among the blacks and Hispanics by implementing the mass incarceration.

Living in the information age, the prevalence and awareness towards social problems are able to receive more access than ever before. We always hear the term Social Problems being thrown around habitually in the 21st century, but the term Social problem is defined as “A general cause that motivates activists and social movement organizations to address a particular troubling condition”. (CITE). The current world has too many social problems to name off in under 5 pages so for this paper I would like to focus on perhaps the most prevalent one that we are seeing way too often these days. Police Brutality and racial profiling. As a white male, someone who is a criminal justice major in hopes of eventually becoming some type of law enforcement for my career later in life, you may ask why I even care about this issue since it isn’t necessarily affecting my life directly. My response is simple, I am tired of seeing the hashtags behind these deaths and one death from police brutality is already too many.

Despite the important racial progresss our society has made since Emmett Till’s death, from the civil rights era, to present increase of police brutality has still left the Black/African American community in shadows of segregation. The second most recent shooting of teenager Michael Brown has left citizens in ongoing battles with law enforcement officers of Ferguson, Missouri. New Statement (2014) reports, Missouri police similarly attempted to retain control of the narrative, claiming Brown had stolen cigars, and then paying for them, and then claiming he was a bad child and attacked the officer who shot him” (New Statement, 21). Brown autopsy reveals he was gun less and shot six times. Police brutality is not solely about Ferguson, Emmett Till, or the civil rights movement, but it is simply about the history of capitalism and police brutality in America and having many forms of it.

This moving article written by Shaun King in January 2016, details the appalling criminal justice system in America and how many people don’t know or understand the true extent of the racism in the police force. I was moved by this article and it put into perspective statistics I wasn’t aware of (“every single day in the United States, three people are killed by police before they ever get to a jail and at least eight die in jail…”). This article uses evidence (dates, names, etc.), rhetorical questions (What are we supposed to do when…...?) and bias (only showing one side of the story) to position the reader to believe this article, making it very persuasive.

The police involved shooting of Michael Brown has changed the way society views law enforcement, and the method of how law enforcement officers have to interact with this same society. With the deaths of individuals like Brown, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, and with the assistance of social media and bias news reporting, as well as high level officials within our social structure, who’s speech and words can carry a large impact on our behaviors, there has been a picture painted that police are murdering people of different ethnicities without regard for justifiable force. Politicians, celebrities and the media alike, have been a major contributor to the anti-police sentiment and the violent interactions that police

It is seen multiple times throughout the events in Ferguson, Missouri that the media held onto very biased views on the events. Not just one media source, but majority of the media was taking the side with the public throughout the riots. Some members of the media even marched through the streets of Ferguson protesting what had happened. The media standing with the people of Ferguson was a loud voice, showing that the media was trying to “mete out social justice” (Rothman 22). It was understandable to many why the media was

In most cases it takes a great action to bring a real problem to light in a given situation. Something that would put a spotlight directly on the problem, Something that start conversations across the world about the given topic. These sorts of “Spotlight Actions” don’t happen as often as most people wish. However, when they do happen, they usually bring greater awareness and support to the problem at hand. There are also the same actions that draw attention a very biased side of the story, a side of the story that support only one side of the story. This is exactly what happened in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, when the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer heightened public awareness of the police involved shootings of minorities.

Excessive force and police brutality have become common terms for anyone keeping up with today’s current events. In 2014, the media covered numerous cases of excessive force that resulted in the deaths of several people of color (Nelson & Staff, 2014). The most widely covered cases by the media in 2014 were of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black male shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri; and Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black male in Staten Island, New York who was put into a choke by police officer Daniel Pantaleo until he lost consciousness and stopped breathing (Nelson & Staff, 2014). These cases brought attention to the seriousness of police brutality and the curiosity of how often it occurs (Brown, 2015).

Imagine an 18 year-old male gets shot to death through undisclosed means. Was the death that occurred that of an adult or a kid? Some would say yes, others no. For the Michael Brown incident this was a major contributing factor on how people received the news of his death. The true dilemma with defining anything revolves around perception. In reality, not everything can be labeled in simple black and white terms, there are grey areas and discrepancies. Those distinctions remain up to debate. More importantly than an age classification, other terms must be analyzed and defined such as race, segregation, color blindness, white privilege. This paper aims to provide applicable definitions for the topic at hand and explain the issue in detail. This paper aims to answer this question. In the wake of the Michael Brown incident, will Ferguson change race relations of the better or the worse?

Unfortunately, society is not receiving all of the information, which has resulted in riots and the Black Lives Matter campaign. These riots are aggressive, resulting in the destruction of communities and an overall disregard for societal safety. By analyzing media coverage, this paper will reveal how the

The media plays a big role in society. Watching television, listening to the radio, and news media are a staple in American day to day activities (Mantsios 610). The media makes Americans in the United States unaware that there is a stratification of class in America. “We maintain these illusions, in large part, the media hides gross inequalities from public view. In those instances when inequalities are revealed, we are provided with messages that obscure the nature of class realities and blame the victims of class-dominated society for their own plight,” (Mantsios 610). When we think of other countries, such as Africa, the first thing that comes to mind is the starving children of Africa. In the US, the media does not show the people who

The mainstream media is one of the most popular, prominent ways people get their information about social issues, government action, and the general knowledge about what is happening in the world. A topic that has received a quite a large amount of media coverage in history, throughout the years, and currently, is gender inequality. Specifically, the issue of women being stereotyped into traditional “home” roles and not being able to join the work force or, rather, being pressured not to attempt to join. This particular issue has definitely lost much of its ammunition with the breaking of traditional gender roles in the past few decades, the successes of women’s movements and the overall national attitudes. However, not all of the stereotypes have been destroyed, and while women have entered the workforce, they are still being paid less than men for the same work. The lingering inequality of the past and the pay gap are huge issues covered by mainstream media in mostly constructive ways, and it should be receiving much more attention than it has in the past.