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Media Bias In The Hate U Give By Angie Thomas

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Media has become an important part of our lives. It is all around us - essentially inescapable. But with that comes obliviousness to the power of the media. People are so accustomed to the regularity and commonality of media, they often forget the dangerous potential it holds. One substantial danger is bias - more specifically in news sources. Both The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas as well as news reports surrounding the murder of George Floyd are examples of the dangerous potential of media bias. The media presents a variety of versions of a story, some of which show obvious bias against the black community. Media bias is extremely difficult to detect, however, that does not mean it is non-existent. Understanding the ways by which different …show more content…

In One-Fifteen’s father’s interview, he mentions how his son was scared of Khalil and Starr because they were cursing and kept glancing at each other. (146-147) This, along with rumors that Khalil was in a gang and dealing drugs, paints Khalil as a dangerous, uncontrollable teenager who would put himself in the position where he would get killed by a police officer. In reality, however, Khalil was not doing anything wrong when he was pulled over. His personal situation has nothing to do with how or why he was killed, yet the media tends to highlight this piece of information more than anything …show more content…

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we observe that his death is tied to police brutality, racism, and protests - favoring and agreeing with the inequalities the public are protesting. Knowing that distortion and misdirection exists in the media is the first step in overcoming personal bias. Informing yourself of both sides of the story - even if the information may be disturbing - is important. If you tend to look to news sources favoring one side, read articles from the opposing perspective to compensate. Receiving your information from news sources that are deemed neutral (neither left nor right) is an alternative way you can ensure you are getting the whole story with minimal

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News outlets that Americans have today are plentiful. You can access the news and learn about what is occurring around the world practically anywhere: from television, in magazines and newspapers, or on a smartphone, etc. News is absolutely accessible. Each news outlet crafts stories that differ from other news outlets, whether very minutely or rather vastly. Bias occurs.

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Media plays such a huge role in the lives of the average American that it is no wonder that it would affect their views and beliefs. When watching any media story concerning a court case the newsfeed always focuses on what the victims of the crime are affected, not the facts of the case. In the book “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson, it is highlighted how the media is able to change the public’s opinion by displaying facts inconsistent with the case. Stevenson speaks about hot in the early 1980’s the case coverage changed from, “everyone in the community is the victim…” to specifically about how the victim and their families are impacted.

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In 1964, Malcolm X stood before a crowd in New York City’s Audubon Ballroom where he once said, “This is the press, an irresponsible press. It will make the criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. The media is the most powerful entity on earth, because they control the minds of the masses.” In depth, what Malcolm X means by this is that people will often listen to anything and everything the media says without hesitation.

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Khalil unlocks the vehicle door to check on Starr when one-fifteen leaves, one-fifteen shoots Khalil. The statement “white supremacists have portrayed black people as inherently criminal in order to justify unequal protection under the law, police and mob-led brutality, prison labor, and racially biased discrimination in housing, education and employment” (Lewis, 2016). The police officer checking Khalil for drugs concedes with the quote implying that past actions in history have imposed a specific perspective on people of color being criminals, specifically black people; his prejudiced actions also turned a normal activity of dropping a friend home – lethal. Adding on, these predetermined stereotypes affect people of color negatively as officers like one-fifteen act on these stereotypes or create fake scenarios that can incriminate more people of color leading

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Although Officer Brian Cruiser Jr. should have been punished for his actions, while bringing justice to Khalil, he was not held accountable, as the system unjustifiably worked in his favour. Moreover, racism through police brutality and a biased judicial system was demonstrated through Khalil's death. As Starr and Khalil went driving after they left a party in Garden Heights, they were abruptly pulled over without cause. The police officer, known as One-Fifteen, was being very aggressive and asked for identification when they did not breach any restrictions or break any rules. As a result, Khalil questioned the police officer to the point in which One-Fifteen asked Khalil to get out of the car and wait for him to come back.

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The media has the power to shift our viewpoints and mould how we perceive the world, whether It is fiction or reality, turning people away and bringing them together. Police brutality, racism, and activism are all major factors in changing the perspectives of both the characters and the readers in Angie Thomas' novel The hate you give, which depicts the heartbreaking reality of many people. By looking at how the book approaches these issues, we can learn more about the impact of media on public opinion and the importance of diverse, nuanced portrayals in Building a more just and equal society. Thomas incisively demonstrates how media portrayals of events can change how people view social issues like police brutality, and how the media feeds

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A different quote in this article states “The news media is extremely powerful, and that it can inject particular points of view into its audience. At the other extreme, scholars have contended that the media has minimal effects on individuals because of various mediating conditions, including their selective exposure to media they find congenial to their views, selective perception in accordance with preexisting

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Additionally,“ So his dad can give his son’s side to the whole world, and I can’t give mine and Khalil’s? He’s gonna have everybody thinking One-Fifteen’s the victim.” (Thomas, Page 218)This shows how the police department and the press want to make the public believe that One-Fifteen’s the victim, when it's quite the opposite. This also shows that by putting Khalil in a bad light, by calling him a drug dealer and what not, that it would justify what was done to him. Leading the public to believe that Khalil is at ‘fault’ and ‘deserved it’, which is very common when it comes to police brutalities where the victim is black.

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With this being said, when an officer guns down an unarmed civilian, the media is all over that case. Very rarely does the officers point of view get to be included in the news cast and the main focus is always on the victim’s death. The issue with the media is often the news title. For example, “African American teen shot dead by police in Porterville”. The title of the news articles is usually misleading in order to interest the viewer into watching the news.

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Starr Carter, the protagonist of Angie Thomas’s young adult novel, The Hate U Give, epitomizes the subversion of cultural racial oppression through the development of an identity that encompasses multiple consciousnesses. As an African American teenage girl raised in a middle-class family attending a high school with primarily White upper-class students, Starr finds the need to prove her belongingness to both communities in Garden Heights and at Williamson Prep. Unlike her White upper-class counterparts at Williamson and African American middle-to-low-class counterparts in Garden Heights, Starr’s identity is multifaceted. She must act and interact with her peers with respect to her location, in other words, utilize double consciousness. However,

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Those who have a high exposure to negative television portrayals of African Americans are more inclined to make negative assumptions about African Americans. Sadly, unfavorable portrayals of this particular group of people not only influences the whites’ perception of them, but it influences the perceptions of the group as well. The perpetuation of African Americans as lazy has been embedded in American society, not only by words and images projected by journalists but also by a wide variety of other media and entertainment sources. The implicit bias has impacted the way African American communities have been and are being treated across practically all sectors of life in America, from courtrooms to doctors’ offices. Media bias not only negatively impacts this group’s relationship with law enforcement and the judicial system, but it extends to how they are perceived in society at large.

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In America, Media bias is everywhere, in the United States all the information that an average American received through everyday sources, the news was most likely processed through the media and told through a biased point of view, when the media gets their hands on news if it is important then it probably won’t be talked about or downplayed no matter the source like in the newspaper, radio, television, movies, as well as other outlets that the media uses, the media only seems to share the news that they find interesting, even then the media would most likely have changed the story, in what they say is just tweaked news, what actually happened and what really happened would be two different stories, also the story would be told from one person

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When thinking of the media you think they are reporting the appropriate and accurate information not based on any personal opinions and feelings. Also one would not think the media would be reporting based on one side of politics or the other. The media is extremely biased when it comes to politics and news. While some of the media is conservative-biased I believe the mass media is liberal-biased. Majority of media outlets are liberal companies, media personnel and journalists will identify themselves as democrats and liberals more so than republicans or conservatives and lastly the left side (liberals) of the mass media is persuasive on what information to report.

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Bias is defined as being prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. Americans experience some sort of bias every day, however, media bias is likely the most prevalent. Media can be biased towards liberals, conservatives, or any other political leaning. According to University of Oklahoma Professor, Keith Gaddie, the mainstream media mostly suffers from liberal bias - which is usually hostile toward conservative candidates and causes. Media bias can misinform, exaggerate truths, and cause confusion during voting season.

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Not only does the media have a scarcely portrayal of minorities, but when they do, they repetitively show them in a repetitive negative manner, which is how stereotypes form. For example, when Michael Nam discusses how the news chooses to depict a person in a certain manner because of that person’s race “The type of coverage that gets chosen by editorial staffs then reinforce stereotypes rather than clarifies the news. This is apparent in the different ways white subjects and black subjects are portrayed, such as black victim Michael Brown, who ‘struggled with police before the shooting,’ versus white Aurora shooter James Eagan Holmes, remembered as a ‘brilliant science student’ ” (Nam

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