No one will read all of this. So let me sum this up for you. Almost every time you see a story about poverty in the news, you see a picture of a black person. Almost every time you see a story about crime you see a picture of a black person. Why is this important? This is important because what you see in the media shapes your opinions and beliefs. You may believe that the majority of blacks are poor. You may believe that the majority of blacks commit crime. This leads to profiling. This leads to racism. You may believe that black people want hand outs and are angry people. The following piece of literature will prove that you believe what you believe because you were fed misinformation by the media. This is especially important in Utah. If you lived in Atlanta you would have grown up with black teachers, black neighbors, black friends, and classmates. In Utah, where 1.3% of the population is black, you form your opinions of the black race based upon what you see on television, news articles, and the few black friends that you may have. This is not an accurate representation of who we are. Let me explain to you why modern racism exists. Let me back up my claim with facts and statistics. What if someone watched and studied 36 television markets for 55 days to see if blacks were portrayed in a negative light? What if someone examined every magazine cover from 1946-1995 to see how black people were portrayed versus white people? We are not portrayed In the same light. We are not given equal treatment. We are portrayed as criminals when a crime has not been committed. We are portrayed as poor, in states which have a higher percentage of white people in poverty. This leads to a negative perception of our race. We are seen as unintelligent, uneducated, violent, lazy, people who want a hand out. This is not the case. Lets talk about Robert Entman. Robert Entman had a few hypotheses. He believed that the media actually shapes our beliefs about race and ethnicity. He decided to do a study of 36 markets for 55 days to see how blacks were portrayed in the media. Below are excerpts taken directly from articles written by Entman and Barlow regarding their statistical analysis of how race and ethnicity were portrayed differently relating to whites and blacks in the media. Simply put: You believe what the media feeds you. We arent violent. We do not commit more crimes, we are profiled more which leads to more arrests. We are not angry. We are not who were are portrayed to be. We are so much more. A. . There are consistent differences in portrayals of blacks and whites in crime stories that may stimulate the hostility component of modern racism. B. There are consistent differences in portrayals of blacks and whites in political coverage that may arouse the second component of modern racism, resistance to blacks’ political demands. C. The high visibility of authoritative black journalists communicates messages likely to support the third clement of modern racism, denial of racial discrimination. The third hypothesis concerns the paradoxical function of stations’ responsiveness to the interests of the black community. The stations’ most visible response is employing African-American anchors and reporters. The hypothesis is that those journalists stand as symbolic affirmations that discrimination no longer impedes African-Americans, thereby contributing to a stereotyped understanding of black progress that undergirds the third component of modern racism. But the prominent black presence in local news may also undermine traditional racist stereotypes. These are some of the findings. In stories relating to crime, whites were less likely to be shown in handcuffs. 11% of the stories gave a pro defense story in favor of blacks versus 29% of whites. That means that someone of the white race gave a story in defense of a white person. In stories regarding black crime, black and white police officers were often seen speaking about the defendant. In white stories about crime, the majority of the officers speaking about the defendant were white. Violent crimes by blacks were reported more frequently than whites. In stories about politics, black activists were shown mostly in stories that pertain to the black community, while white activists are shown in stories which affect the entire community. In more recent years, however, although Blacks did not surpass the actual number of Whites in nationwide arrests, their presence in these statistics has been greater than their representation in the general public. For example, although Blacks compose approximately 13% of the U.S. population, in 2002 they accounted for 38% of arrests for violent crimes and nearly 30% of arrests for property crimes. Juvenile arrest statistics indicate that during the same year, Black youth accounted for approximately 43% of arrests for violent crimes and 27% of arrests for property crimes (U.S. Department of Justice, 2004). Researchers have suggested that crime committed by African Americans may be especially salient not only because it exceeds what would be expected based on the racial composition of the country but also perhaps because the violent crimes that tend to be most fearsome are the ones that are most dispro- portionately perpetrated by Black males (Kennedy, 1997; Stinchcombe et al., 1980).-Entman . News about blacks who acted politically conveyed the notion that they spoke and behaved more than whites to advance “special interests” against the public interest. -Entman testing the second hypothesis, the unit of analysis is the directly quoted assertion (sound bite) about public policy; the analysis coded every sound bite in every story. Members of both racial groups were heard frequently talking about government and policy issues. Blacks spoke about government policy in 146 stories and made a total of 200 coded assertions; whites spoke in 339 stories, a total of 523 times. Individuals or spokespersons for groups representing other ethnic or interest groups, or for groups representing a mixture of ethnics, made most of the rest of the 862 total assertions relevant to policy issues-Entman Traditional American racism identified blacks as inferior and undesirable. But this strand of culture is no longer socially acceptable. Elite rhetoric no longer validates old-fashioned racism. And elites came to a consensus against legally-enforced discrimination and segregation. To some degree, the beliefs of the mass public have changed accordingly. Old-fashioned racism is no longer a central tenet of the American culture, and this alteration in culture is reflected in the content and the hiring practices of local television news programs. No longer are blacks invisible as subjects or purveyors of news, no longer are old-fashionod racist assertions and stereotypes frequently displayed and thereby validated.-Entman McConahay, op. cif. and Gaerber and Dovidio, “The Aversive Form of Racism,” in Dovidio and Gaertner. op. cit.) The racially ambivalent whites recognize that it is undesirable to be a racist and when made consciously aware of their anti-black sentiments attempt to convince themselves that these are not manifestations of racism. Depending on the circumstances, such persons may respond in ways that appear prejudiced toward blacks, or in ways that suggest tolerance (McConah In fact, it is well established that there is a disproportionate amount of the media coverage devoted to violent crimes for which Black males are more likely than others to be arrested (Chiricos & Eschholz, 2002; Surrette, 1992; Young, 1985). Thus, “the image of violent criminals as young black males is routinely reinforced” (Young, 1985, p. 475). In recognition of this, one study argues that Blacks are “demonized” by the faces chosen to depict criminality in crime news stories (Gerbner, 2003). The presumption of this connection has been corroborated by Anderson (1995), who observed, Crime news in America’s cities portrayed an apparently endless parade of young black men under arrest, on trial, or headed for prison; it did not take too long for the automatic, barely conscious association of blacks with crime to become an assumption of urban life. (p. 52)- chosen to depict criminality in crime news stories (Gerbner, 2003). The presumption of this connection has been corroborated by Anderson (1995), who observed, Crime news in America’s cities portrayed an apparently endless parade of young black men under arrest, on trial, or headed for prison; it did not take too long for the automatic, barely conscious association of blacks with crime to become an assumption of urban life. (p. 52)-Entman Entman was not the only who believed that blacks were being demonized in the media. Barlow also believed the same. Race and the problem of crime in Time and Newsweek cover stories, 1946 to 1995. Melissa Hickman Barlow.- Abstract: How news media portray the problem of crime and the violence associated with Black political struggle has led to the popular stereotype of young black males as criminals has been investigated. The study was carried out by examining cover stories about crime in Time and Newsweek magazines from 1946 to 1995. Results show that both periodicals portrayed crime as mainly a problem of urban Blacks. The unwanted label started with news reports on violence in Harlem in 1964 that would cement the link between young black males and crime forever. Others who support this theory Research on the ways in which crime and justice news tend to support particular ideologies or political agendas over others has emerged primarily in the last two decades (see, for example, Chibnall, 1975; Fishman, 1978; Hall et al., 1978; Humphries, 1981; Hickman, 1982; Christensen, Schmidt, and Henderson, 1982; Cavender, 1984; Voumvakis and Ericson, 1984; Gorelick, 1989; Ericson, Baranek, and Chan, 1987, 1989, 1991; Humphries and Caringella-MacDonald, 1990; Barlow, Barlow, and Stojkovic, 1994; Schlesinger and Tumber, 1994; and Barlow, sagepub/gabbidonstudy/articles/Welch.pdf aejmc.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Journalism-Quarterly-1992-Entman-341-611.pdf
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 06:23:55 +0000
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