media and race
...erefore, the media is important in regards to race and ethnicity because it is the primary source of indirect or mediated experiences that reinforce racial attitudes and beliefs. Many stories in the newspapers with regards to Aboriginal people have been of a negative attitude, continually referring to acts of criminality and deviance. It is not very often that a news story regarding the success of an Aboriginal person is portrayed. Thus, mass media can be viewed as a place where reality is constructed and racism is produced. It is no secret that the news media is market-driven, therefore they are not merely a tool to inform the public; they are also mechanisms that construct social reality through the placement of coded messages that reinforce an idea of what is good, acceptable, and desirable. Those in control of the media output to a large extent, define society’s beliefs and values, through which society then organizes life. Racialised messages in the media include words, images and categorisations that reinforce an understanding of reality in which people of colour and immigrants are recognized as having a lower social class status than white people. For example, a recent issue in the media was the Tampa Crisis, and the admission of illegal immigrants. These judgments are then used in turn to construct rules that maintain white power in society, and degrade those of a different race. The problem with this is that much of society would consider media portrayals of events and issues as a reflection of the real which lead to unequal treatment of certain races. Although it is erroneous to identify all criticisms of minorities and immigrants as perpetuated by the media, there is no doubt that they continue to promote and reinforce most racism. One major issue is that the mass media use generalizations of racial stereotypes. Stereotypes are an effective way to invoke consensus about the way society thinks about a particular social group and imply that all members of society arrived at the same definitions collectively. It is usually from these stereotypes that individuals get their ideas about a social group. For example: since the Se...