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Stereotypes And Prejudice In The Media

1164 Words5 Pages

Final project #1
Stereotypes and prejudice are two concepts that have been receiving much attention lately, especially in mainstream media. Many news sources have played a part in this through racial baise. An example of this would be how often white male shooters are portrayed by the media as shy, troubled, loners, mentally ill or a good kid that just snapped. On the other hand their black counterparts are not painted in such a warming light. Often when blacks commit a crime, the media tends to paint them as gangsters or thugs. These types of instances of bad reporting associates negative stereotypes with a certain groups. In order to end the stereotypes the media needs to do a better job reporting in a way that is unbiased.
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Victims of color rarely get their accomplishments broadcasted by the media. Instead the media broadcasts criminal records or other troubling aspects from their past. This sends the message that when it’s partially the victim 's fault that a bad thing happend to them. For example after the tragic death of mike brown they depicted him as “no angel” while eagerly looking for a reason why the unarmed teenager deserved to die. “Studies show implicit biases lead many of us to see innocent Black children as guilty adults (Johnson).” The media tends to depict young victims of colour as older than they actually are. For example, twelve year old Tamir rice was murdered by the police while he was playing with his toy gun. Although Tamir was the victim in this case, the news reports continuously refer to him as “young man” and mention how he was “big for his age”. The image that the media chooses to use in their stories on how people view criminals and suspects. White victims and even white suspects, are often shown in positive images such as graduation pictures or family photos. While victims of color are often shown using negative images such as a past mugshot or a picture of them looking menacing. A twitter user started trending the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown, that highlights how the media significantly makes different image choices depending on race. This hashtag shows just how easy it is to demonize a person through racial stereotypes. “The New York Times reports that the hashtag has been used more than 168,000 times as of August 12th

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