(Mis)representation in News

Generation Influence: How the Media Contributes to Discrimination

Introduction:

I am a brown Bengali child, born and raised in New York and yet was still placed in speech classes to adapt to the already adopted community. I spoke English for the most part at home-- I more so needed classes on how to speak Bengali rather than trying to speak English, something I was very fluent in. Growing up in a Muslim household meant going to the Mosque after school every day, reading the Quran, and learning about my religion. To emphasize, “Muslim” or “Islam” is not a race, yet, society seems to equate religious beliefs to one's appearance. Race refers to skin color--black, white, or brown--ethnicity refers to cultural factors and affiliation with a region based on history, language, or ancestry. Nevertheless, people will continue to look at a woman wearing a burqa and hijab or a man with a long beard, Kufi (rounded cap), and thawb (garment), and deem them as “ISIS lover” or “terrorist.” Though a white supremacist who open fired in a New Zealand Mosque, a place of worship, was not referred to as “terrorist” but as “angelic boy turned evil.” Muslims are subjected to stereotypes built around their beliefs, having it heightened by the negative media coverage. Muslims are linked to words such as violence, fear, hatred, and terrorism.

My mom told me stories about how life was like after 9/11. Stores, policemen, media, anyone, would look at my mom wearing a full black burqa and hijab, fearing her. My mom is a housewife who loves to decorate, cook, walk around the neighborhood and has a heart of gold. She means no harm but because she was wearing a burqa, looking out of the ordinary from the rest of society, her identity was stripped and labels were placed on her. She would be stopped by TSA for extra search, onlookers would demand her to not cover her face, and beg for mercy saying “please this is our country, don't hurt us and go back to yours.” There was a time I was ashamed of going out in public with my mom, bothered by the response but always feared for her life whenever she was out alone. We lived in fear.

Though it is not just Muslims facing religious and racial profiling in media but many other minorities or “subgroups.” Minorities are often linked with historical events, characteristics, beliefs making it be easier for people to target them. For example in a book about race and representation in news, Campbell talks about his analysis on local television news:

many stories on local television news continued to reinforce historical stereotypes about people of color, including ‘positive’ stereotypes of successful African American athletes and entertainers as well as the negative stereotypes of people of color (especially African-American and Hispanic men) as violent criminals (Campbell, 5).

Mass media has become a central source for entertainment and news with driving forces in print media, magazines, television, or social media. It is a way to communicate what is going on around the world, a way of informing people. Twitter, a social media platform was the origin of the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movement. Despite that, there are flaws to be pointed out in news delivered through web or print. With the research I have done, I noticed the media had done nothing but entice the stereotypes against Muslims; (talk about the article) “‘...broadcast several segments discussing Islam as a crusading religion...Frontline sponsored an investigation of the tentacles of Muslim Terrorists around the world...stories about the Middle East are often accompanied by a picture of a mosque or large crowds praying’” (Said). There is a loose application of the word “terrorism” and “Islam” so being that it is seen throughout news headlines. Media has the potential to fight against stereotypes and provide informative news without the influence of their own opinions. The news’ purpose is to inform and educate with about 77% of American reading the news, “Less than one-fourth (24%) of those Americans whose education is limited to High School read a national paper, while more than one-half (50%) of those with a college degree do the same” (Kuypers, 2). This shows the influence news has over the way we view controversial issues. If the news is a prime source for learning about issues, people can often be persuaded into thinking a certain way because of headlines and wording as opposed to generating their own opinion.

Mass media has made contributions to prejudice and discrimination. This paper will focus on the influence the media has negatively and how it is trying to change with the various movements created to show its growth. However, there is a flaw with the way news is delivered in that it is often racially and religiously profiling, contributing to discrimination. I mainly speak about Islamophobia and #BlackLivesMatter as it has affected my friends, family and I the greatest. I am passionate to change this however amongst everyone.  This paper will explore the extent of mass media with evidence on how it is shown and provide a solution to put an end to mass production of bigotry and stereotypes.

Why do we prejudice?

Prejudice is a preconceived opinion about something before actually knowing what the truth is. It is common amongst the majority of us to pre-judge someone based on their looks or how they carry themselves. The nature of prejudice can be determined to have evolutionary, historical, or even psychological influences. Social psychologist, Allport, believed prejudice was a problem with the development of personality while Marxist philosopher Althusser stated it is an issue of social and economic class. Baldwin's research shows how prejudice can be inherited through [genetic] traits. This is because groups want to “preserve themselves” saying:

“Behaviors that exclude has a sense of ‘naturalness’ in that they help a group survive, and such exclusion of strangers may help to preserve a groups existence. Some scholars have criticized this approach as a rationale for conservative politics that create a notion of ‘us’ and ‘them’ as natural and exclude the other, often in racial or religious terms, in order to preserve the way of life of a dominant group within a culture or nation” (Baldwin).

John Baldwin brief is a collection of thoughts based on racism and prejudice. Baldwin talks heavily about the causes of prejudice and its relationship to racism and discriminations. He uses the example of conservative politics to show how society divides certain groups. The division helps dominant groups to remain dominant as it will “preserve them.” For example, the dominant group is the white population and thus in order to preserve their dominance, they create a division between themselves and “the others.” This stems from the ideals of ethnocentrism where it speaks about “superiority” and benefiting one's culture whilst also diminishing others. This is exemplified through the 2015-16 political race where Trump sought to build a wall to keep illegal immigrants out and openly has stated his distaste for people of color. This act is a matter of trying to keep a race superior while denigrating others.  

There is psychological influence such as the psychodynamic processes and perception.  The psychodynamic process is a mechanism as a form of scapegoating for aggression and social frustrations. It is seen that frustrations can be uprooted into prejudice as it is showcased through White racism in the United States and the rise of Nazism and Anti-Semitism in Germany. Prejudice is an expression of a disturbed personality often due to authoritarian personality theory, “punitive parenting within authoritarian families, which were in turn reinforced by repressive, authoritarian socio-political milieus and ideologies” (Dovidio, etc). Therefore, if you were raised anti-semitism, you may have chances of developing anti-black ideologies. Prejudice has s relationship with a matter of nature versus nurture.  

Prejudice is also a matter of perception such as selective attention, recall of the negative behavior of outgroup members, and attributions. We often categorize people into groups and the social identity theory--a mental placing of people--states that we cannot set ourselves apart from these groups (Baldwin). It, however, acts as a function for stereotyping groups based on actions or history. For instance, a misconception of black people is that they are “ghetto” or “violent criminals” due to poverty and crime levels making it an identification of a group. The way people perceive different races becomes a snowball effect on how they are perceived on media. This construct of perception and categorization is one that is flawed. If we place people in boxes and fill them with stereotypes, socio-political issues, quality of life, we add to the discrimination. One place we see that feeds into this social construct is media with its contributions towards discrimination. That is though, the area we can change.

The Role of Media: Framing

Mass media incorporates any form of media from print, web, music, news, or television. It plays a key role in our lives in many ways with delivering news, being a source of entertainment, and communication. The way news in media is delivered helps us perceive things from who, what, when, where, and why? Yet, when mass media platforms also succumb to discrimination through racial and religious profiling, it feeds into stereotypes.

Kuyper, author of Press Bias and Politics: How the Media Frame Controversial Issues, talks about how media is manipulative especially with how we receive news. News outlets often “frame” stories using facts to appeal to what we see and hear about.

“‘Framing is a central organizing idea for making sense of relevant events and suggesting what is an issue.’ Facts remain neutral unless framed; thus, ‘how the press frames an issue or event will affect public understanding of that issue or event’...facts, ‘take on their meaning by being embedded in a frame or storyline that organizes them or gives them coherence, selecting certain ones to emphasize while ignoring others.’ Framing, then, is the process whereby communicators act to construct a particular point of view that encourages the facts of a given situation…” (Kuypers, 7).  

Kuyper describes the manipulation within this with the way news is presented to us. The presentation or framing of the news is important because it shapes our understanding of the issue. Showcasing a mugshot of a black man with a headline “Black Man Kidnaps Child,” the preconceived notion of labels and stereotyping plus the framing of the articles gives feeds into the idea that Black people are dangerous. This is especially so when it is compared to a picture of a white boy and his family with the headline “Angelic Boy Who Grew into an Evil Far-Right Mass Killer.” The framing of this article is one that is apologetic and guilt from the suspects part. That is, however, the way the media is trying to present this terrorist as.  

Gloria Anzaldua is an American scholar of Chicana culture, feminism, and queer theory. “How to Tame A Wild Tongue,” a memoir about a Spanish speaking student is asked to speak English by her school. When efforts are unmade for a drastic change, the school places her in speech classes and contacts the family in a degrading manner to have their family conform to the mass of the community. A quote Anzaldua makes, “‘Who is to say that robbing people of its language is less violent than war?’” alludes to Ray Gwyn Smith to exhibit the extent of trying to assimilate ones native language to fit with the rest of the people (471). She uses this quote because she wanted to compare the danger into making someone fit into a norm by taking away a part of them to war, something destructive. War is the fight between something with an end goal of justice. Though even if one wins the war, justice is not always served. In this case with the idea of robbing language, the end goal is for a student to understand English, the common language used in the States. However, justice is not served because the student is being forced to conform to something she is not yet comfortable with. The comfort lies in the fact that Spanish is her native language, it is a part of her identity. Asking to follow suit with the school's regulations without creating a new sense of comfort is like asking to give up a part of them. The dangers of war are the fight and robbing someone of its language is a fight with one's identity.

Comparing media to the school, media acts a popularity contest amongst social groups full of gossip. Social groups represent the perceived groups we create: Black, White, Muslim, Jewish, gay, straight, etc. The school trying to get Spanish speaking students to speak English represents the media presenting bias news. What this means is, is news producing articles that attack a race or religion and favor another to have us think a certain way about the groups, almost like locker room gossip.  The Daily Mirror, a British newspaper with its first issue dating back to 1903 recounts celebrity news, politics, sports, and entertainment. They have made headlines which were quick to racially profile a Muslim boy calling him an “ISIS maniac.” However, they strayed away from the word terrorist when referring to the white supremacist New Zealand terrorist by calling him “An Angelic Boy.” The presentation of each article made the New Zealand terrorist look innocent and gave off an apologetic tone while the “ISIS maniac” was left to look at as a feared criminal. As mentioned before, we categorize people based on race, gender, religion and when there is news about a specific person, in this case, a Muslim boy, we put that into the box labeled as “Muslim.” We connect such news and categorize them into groups, in turn developing stereotypes. If there is a reported crime about a black man, that feeds into the stereotype that Black people are violent. It is what many mass media platform are trying to do, they are trying to create “evidence” to support stereotypes.

Another example of this is in the New York Post, a daily New York newspaper with its first issue dating back to 1801. The newspaper vocalizes news related to celebrities, politics, sports, and entertainment. Recently, they were slammed for producing a racist cover targeting a Black Muslim congresswomen Ilhan Omar. Omar has been the center of racial and Islamaphobic slurs, having her speeches taken and twisted by the media.  Omar who was giving a speech about Islamophobia made a comment about 9/11 saying, “some people did something.” However, many people took this and used it against her. One is the New York Post that used this phrase with a triggering photo of The Twin Towers burning. This newspaper targeted a Black Muslim congresswoman over a mistake she made when making a statement which created an uproar “Hundreds of people protested Omar outside the banquet, with chants that included ‘Burn the Koran,’ ‘Ilhan go to hell,’ and “shame on you terrorists’” (Rosenberg). This distaste over what Omar had said went from hate against her to hate against a group of people, Muslim people who are being targeted with a stereotype. I would like to question what would the response have been if this was a white woman that said this? Would New York Post have made this headline? Though the answer may be debatable, the answer is no because this did not happen to a white woman but a Black Muslim congresswoman. Trump has made countless comments about women and yet Ilhan Omar is a target of a hate crime due to her being black, a Muslim, and a woman. Ocasio-Cortez, a U.S representative, defends Omar and says, “...to elicit such an image for such a transparently and politically motivated attack on Ilhan...We are getting to the level where this is an incitement of violence against progressive women of color” (Rosenberg). This supports the idea that mass media plays a role in a contribution to stereotypes and discrimination through their use of headlines that attack groups of people.

Todd D. Nelson, author of Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination talks about why stereotypes and prejudice matters. He starts off the chapter by describing in his words what it means to him and the negative impacts it had on people. For instance, “Discrimination has been blamed for the largest percentage of Blacks living in poverty, and their lack of access to high-paying jobs...also has negative effects on the physical and mental health of those who experience it” (Nelson). He however then goes to explain his point of why he thinks prejudice matters saying, “Believing that one has been a victim of discrimination can increase identification within the ingroup...can also provide a method of buffering self-worth” (Nelson). The flaw here is you cannot simply say that discrimination causes effects on mental and physical health and then diminish it with saying it helps create self-worth. Self-worth is not about being a constant target of hate crimes, stereotypes, and discrimination resulting in being left out of the majority.

Television plays a role in feeding into discrimination especially the youth. Movies like Black Panther created positive uproar due to the fact that it was inclusive. Though, one has noticed are action movies like True Lies have their villains as Arabs “with a desire to kill Americans.” This sets off the impression that Middle Eastern people (who are predominantly Muslim) are villains, that is if you combine this franchise of movies with stereotypes of Muslim people whose purpose is “to demonize and dehumanize Muslims.” This simply serves as another way to feed into discrimination. Framing is depicted within all forms of mass media, importantly it in news. Television news often frames their stories in a matter where stereotyping is used which all in all feeds into discrimination and the way we perceive the news.

“Stay Woke: Black Lives Matter” is a documentary about police brutality and the massive protests that broke out in Ferguson after the unruly death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American man. One scene within the documentary, 24:48, shows a Ferguson protester yelling at a Fox news reporter, “I want you and Fox News to get out of Baltimore, to get out of my city cause you’re not here to report about the boarded-up homes and the homeless people under MLK, you're not reporting about the poverty levels up and down North Avenue…” The protester is trying to emphasize the lack of effort the news reporters reporting about issues. Fox News is there to document ones fight for justice rather than helping to be a part of it. They can be apart of the fight by proactively reporting on issues taken place in Baltimore (and other areas around the world) in order to form unity and receive help from all over. If the news is biased towards race and religion then why is it that they cannot be biased and help fight for justice when they are at the scene? Is it because their personal opinions should not interfere with news reporting? Then how come the news picks and chooses what stories get covered or how they are perceived by others? The people who report the news, either way, let their personal opinions and beliefs get in the way of reporting. Otherwise, they would mention #BlackLivesMatter, how to reach justice and to not simply be one-sided and opinionated.

We see “one-sided opinionated news” demonstrated during the AIDS breakout that threatened the LGBTQ community. Although it is not a religious or racial bias, it a bias against sexual orientation and shows the extent of a mass media flaw. Larry Gross, the author of “Up From Invisibility: Lesbians, Gay Men and The Media in America,” talks about the LGBTQ community constantly being viewed as “outside the mainstream.” Thus, when the AIDS breakout occurred, mass media outlets turned their cheek on reporting about the issue leaving many people in the dark about a health crisis. Gross writes, “The New York Times published sixty-two stories on Legionnaires disease, eleven of them on the front page...The New York Times ran a total of ten stories about AIDS, and none of them made it to the front page” (96). This goes to show yet another version of mass media outlet using their own beliefs to dictate what is being covered and what is not. They also continued to create discriminatory remarks against the LGBTQ community by not inclusive about the reported news and constantly viewing them as “outside the media” or “freaks.”

The way mass media outlet, specifically news outlets from news has an intention that discriminates against groups of people. Though framing is a way of organizing ideas, beliefs end up mixing with facts leading to biased news reporting.

Conclusion:

Martin Luther King Jr. (1928-1968) was an American activist and leader for the civil rights movement most famous for his “I Have A Dream” speech. His Letter From Birmingham Jail was a letter to eight clergymen published in 1968 while he was in jail for civil disobedience. King Jr. actions were called “unwise and untimely,” however in the letter explains the reasoning for his actions. He recalls, “We have waited more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights…” (809), explaining that he is here to fight for those rights. He wrote in his letter, “in any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: a collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist, negotiation; self-purification; and direct action” (807). King Jr did not use violence to reiterate his dreams and his fight for civil rights. Inspiringly, that is what we are doing and have done today. The issue at hand is the fact that mass media outlets are feeding into prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes. Negotiation comes and self-purification comes from coming to terms with this is what is affecting our judgments and figuring out how we can change that. Social media has played a huge role in relieving “framing” and stereotyping. The #BlackLivesMatter movement was adopted on twitter as a movement for people to recognize issues of police brutality and fight for the lives of black people. Social media has also acted out in horrific times in France, Manchester, New Zealand, or Jerusalem to name a few as a safe place for people, building an all-inclusive community. If news outlets were not biased and acted as a safe space,  it would help diminish prejudice and discrimination. News is a way for us to gain knowledge over current events and if the framing of articles acted in a way where it more informative rather than bias, more good can be done than harm. Twitter diminishes bias by stating what the issues are allowing us to learn about what is going on around the world. Mass media, in particular, news, contributes to prejudice and discrimination.

It is evidently shown throughout the documentary, “Stay woke: Black Lives Matter” where activist Darnell Moore says, “This is rage, it is profound sadness, and it was all on Twitter…” activist Taylor then went onto adding, “Social media extended the reach of the activists. It both allowed people in far away localities have a minute by minute view of what was happening in Ferguson and it also meant that activists could communicate immediately about where demonstrations were, where protests were…” The #BlackLivesMatter movement became a social [media] movement to united people all around the world to fight. Movements like these are what bring attention to the matter and how we ALL could help to fight for justice. Twitter acted as a form of the news outlet, it is the birthplace of the #BLM movement, it brought attention to younger eyes and then made its way onto national television to now something to go down in history.

If the news followed suit with the strategies taken in creating the #BLM movement, it can bring more traction. In order to alleviate the bias created by news outlets, headlines should simply state the issue rather than being a commercialized headline. News is not about selling, it is about being informed about what is going on around the world we live in. It is about time there are social media accounts, blogs, online news sources that cater for delivering news and creating headlines for people to stay informed about current events and try to fight for justice through the use of words.

Media Case Study:

The news is a form of mass media in which I found various flaws within it. One of the biggest flaws was the racially and religiously biased seen in news stories that often persuade the audience to think a certain way. We, however, are able to change this by simply getting to the point with news headlines as opposed to making it a catchy headline. A tragedy is not catchy. The news is a source of knowledge about what is going on around the world. That in itself should require the attention of people. Also, the news is information based and thus should not be an opportunity for people to try to make the audience think a certain way.

I made a mockup (click link) of what news articles should look like. For easy accessibility, an app called "Generation Influence" would feature the news article called From the Dining Table, bringing light to conversation most may think inappropriate; for example, politics, current events, money, etc. Things that should be talked about in the news but aren't. News that is inclusive and reaches to everyone.

 Works Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. How To Tame A Wild Tongue. 14th ed., The Norton Reader, Chegg, ereader.chegg.com/#/books/9780393289596/cfi/547!/4/2@100:0.00.

Baldwin, John. “Culture, Prejudice, Racism, and Discrimination.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication, 20 March. 2019, oxfordre.com/communication/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-164.

Campbell, Christopher P, et al.Race and News: Critical Perspectives. Routledge, 2013, Google Ebooks, books.google.com/books?id=bgaUAgAAQBAJ&dq=issue of race and ethnicity in journalism &lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s.

Dovidio, John F. The SAGE Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping and Discrimination. SAGE, 2013.

Gross, L. (2001). Up From InvisibilityLesbians, Gay Men and The Media in America. Columbia University Press,94-109. Retrieved May 20, 2019.

King, Martin Luther. “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Chegg, The Norton Reader, ereader.chegg.com/#/books/9780393289596/cfi/885!/4/4@0.00:2.85.

Kuypers, Jim A. Press Bias and Politics: How the Media Frame Controversial Issues. Praeger, 2002.

Nelson, Todd D. Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination: 2nd Edition. 2nd Edition, 2nd ed., Psychology Press, 2015, Google Ebooks, books.google.com/books?id=HbBmCgAAQBAJ&dq=Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination&source=gbs_navlinks_s.

Rosenberg, Eli. “A 'Pure Racist Act': N.Y. Post Slammed for Using 9/11 to Attack Rep. Omar over Speech on Islamophobia.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 20 March. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/11/pure-racist-act-ny-post-slammed-using-attack-rep-omar-over-speech-islamophobia/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f5323ce0c5c3.

Spruch, Edward W. Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World. Pantheon, 1981.

Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement documentary (2016)[Video file]. (2016). Retrieved May 20, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIoYtKOqxeU