Stereotypes Of Evil In The Media And Society

It would appear that evil exists in our world. Millions of people are starving across the world, nations are constantly at war, natural disasters take countless innocent lives, and the hand of man has bestowed great injustice unto his brothers throughout history, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust. Evil seems rampant and senseless.

All throughout our history, we have come to label events, object and people as either good or evil/bad. We tend to believe that the world itself is driven by good forces and evil ones. Since this is a term we often take for granted, it should not be debatable, and all of us should have the same concept about it. Sadly enough that is not true. Societies and culture shape our understanding of evil.

The world we live in contains people, people that are evil. Within the world throughout history and even today people show themselves to be more good than evil. In To Kill A Mockingbird, The Emmett Till trial, and the recent rape/sexual battery and other sex acts against 4 teenage girls in Mentor, Ohio the evil prevails. People have been treated like property since the world began. The world can not be trusted to be full of good. People are more evil than good.

Getting rid of stereotypes is not an easy task that can be fixed overnight and it takes time to try to eliminate these problems. We need to be united and comprehend each other to eliminate the problems that offend one another. There is no need for the existence of these stereotypes that all they do is hurt others. Most of the television shows and commercials created by the media that help create stereotypes are derived from the idea of an individual or a group of people. Just as these individuals create stereotypes in the media society should use the media to their advantage and campaign against use of stereotypes in a lot of the media. There is many ways to accomplish getting rid of stereotypes but the main thing we need to accomplish to

The media plays a big role in how one gets and stays informed about all the local, national, and international events. Media can be local and national news channels, newspapers, social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Even though all media reports on the same event that does not mean that all the information is the same, the way it is reported, the same or the way people perceived the information. Most often the way media may report an event affects the way one looks at the event, how one remembers it and the way one creates, and justify any racial bias or stereotypes that one may have. Some prime example of this is the how media portrays Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin compared to White male shooters.

Since the dawn of time, mankind has been plagued with the ever existing evils of the world. From the first murder by Cain to the opening of Pandora’s Box, the concept of evil has permeated itself into the societies and cultures of the world throughout time. However, in a world of darkness we stand not alone. For wherever evil dwells, the forces of good are always likewise present to maintain the balance: right? In today’s western world we often take this widely accepted belief for granted. After all, for every super villain there is always a hero, and for every damsel in distress there is always a happy ending, or at least that is what the media would have you believe. What I begin to see as I delve further in to the concept of good and

Turn on CNN or Fox and Bias pounds you over the head. They each have their own talking heads or political correspondents to decry their “ expert opinions”. Since the advent of the 24 hour news cycle back during the Gulf War, when CNN was launched, the”news- junkie “ was born. News became less of a journalistic report of the facts about what was happening in the world and more about infotainment, it became more biased when Fox news came along and all of the other stations. Media has always been slightly biased according to the owner or publisher of the journal or the media source. The target audience of Fox news is a very conservative group, the aim is to entice them to be infuriated by the opinion of the host and guest. Occasionally a bit of truth is broadcast.. The exact same can be said for the audience of Mother Jones, MSNBC, and other forms of media. The headline grabbing story I have chosen is very important as it is a matter of National Security.

Does the media affect the way you look at the people around you, with different ethnicity, a different race and or culture? The perfect opportunity to hinder the lense of individuals is given when African Americans get murdered by police officers and individuals upload the scenes online. In today’s times, individuals have probably watched a Disney movie, especially children. As a famous quote states, “You can not teach old dogs new tricks.” Children are the easiest to persuade mainly because their brain has not fully matured. Directors understand that children are easy targets, similarly to news reporter who know how to catch the attention of an audience, persuading the way you see other people.

The mainstream media focuses on the viewers and what the viewers would like to know. Most people watch the news to obtain information about what is going on in the world. If the topic that is brought up on the news sounds interesting or sounds like it will affect the viewer will watch to see what is happening. Appealing to the emotions of the viewer will make the person want to know more and see what will happen. The consumers of the information tend to believe what they see or hear. Viewers tend to believes these sources because a news network may be based on the same political views as the viewer. Some people will not watch certain news networks because of what is put out there about the political aspect of the world. Although that is one of the reasons viewers watch the news, the views may just be watching this one news network because it may be the only network available to the person. Viewers care about can be seen with the eyes, since not everything a person

The more exposure to media messages the more this is linked to reality and therefore risks are overestimated (Dominick, 1990). More exposure to negative media messaging means the individual will present with less arousal and be more tolerant to negative behaviour due to desensitisation (Carnagey, Anderson and Bushman, 2007). Danger perceptions in reality can be distorted by media messages such as the overestimating violence from strangers and underestimating domestic violence (Heath, Gordon and LaBailly, 1981). Cultivation theory suggests that media presents a distorted view of reality (Gerber et al, 1980) and therefore can influence perceptions of crime or risk (Romar, Jamieson and Aday, 2003) (Lowy, Nio and Leitner, 2003) rather than individual's using their own experience to influence their beliefs. Media perceptions could impact on how individuals behave (Streigal-moor et al, 1996). This has been seen in the influence of media body perfections (Swans et al, 2000). The impact on such influence could be eating disorders and low self-esteem were their body is not the same as those in the media (Shomaker and Furman, 2010).

We are currently living in a time period were seeking truth became one of the toughest things you can ever get. Imagine you knew nothing about a certain culture or country, and all you knew about it were few biased opinions delivered from your local media. This is the media today. I was a lucky guy when I had the opportunity to work in that field and experience how certain ideas wanted to be carried to the people. I originally come from Kuwait, but I was born in New York. I worked in Ministry of Information when I was 17 year old and became a public figure because I was one of the youngest individuals to work in the Ministries history. One thing I learned was, media can convince the overall population with the ideas and perspectives that they desire.

Stereotypes are inaccurate depictions of a certain group of people based off a cliche addressed to them by anyone. This natural act which often feeds off of implicit biases that are unconsciously brought about by many aspects from past experiences to the environment you are within. Whether these ideas advertised by the media are used to fuel desires for the “greater good” or used to instil hate within a community, they have been a part of society for generations. Research and instances throughout the media support the fact that the media does promulgate stereotypes in a negative manner and therefore should be discouraged and fought against to improve conditions for individuals worldwide.

Racism is mostly expressed as being harsh or indifferent to one of another race or the opposite gender. Racism was supposedly resolved after the north beat the south in the Civil War. The word racism has gradually become less common as the word stereotype has become more popular. Stereotyping has the same concept of racism, but the person stereotyping is not harsh or vocal. The person that is stereotyping a group of people has a fixed image of how that group will act. Stereotyping is very common in today’s society. As more and more people gain easier access to communicate via social media this problem has been growing. As evidence by women, Muslims, and African- Americans there is a direct correlation between social media and racial stereotyping as they both continue to exceed humanistic limits.

The second part is conscious thoughts and how media plays a role in it. The things you are exposed to and learn are the building blocks of how you think and relate new things to the information you already have. In school children learn by repeated exposure to information which in turn is reinforced. in other words the more you hear something the more likely you are to believe it. This also works with things you are exposed to socially and through the media.The media interacts with a lot of our everyday choices. We are more likely to pull ideas from things we know or can reference as an anchoring point other than pulling ideas out of nowhere. This can indeed reinforce stereotypes or judgements placed on individuals. An example of this in the

he United States has claimed for years to be a melting pot, where race or various preferences do not define our role in society. Most everyday people do not even realize or notice the amount of stereotyping that occurs in mass media. It is important to understand the different types of discrimination marginalized groups face. Stereotypes can affect everyone, whether it is based on their race, gender, or sexual preference. Media makers could easily find ways to not discriminate against people, but perhaps this would make that specific media outlet less popularly attended to.