Running head: MEDIA CONTRIBUTION TO RACISM

Media Contribution to Racism

Maribel Terrones
University of Texas at El Paso
RWS 1301
Professor Belekeh Chowaing Chagra

Terrones 1

Running head: MEDIA CONTRIBUTION TO RACISM

Terrones 2

Abstract
In the media portrayal of racial disputes, it leaves gaping holes within their coverage.
Only portions of racial disputes are being shown to the public eye and by doing so creates a
community to allow themselves to assume the worse about other races. Because of the lack of a
better news outlet the formation of a social construction becomes evident. The ranking that some
races are better than others becomes clear and by the representation of doing so they should be
presented in a certain way. The perceptions of how racial disputes is seen becomes twisted and
warped due to the different techniques that media outlets use. Whether the means might be
segregating races by the simple usage of words or to the opinions that are used within reports.
The influence of media technology creates an increase of racism due the lack coverage by
allowing the general public to fill in the blanks so to speak. By doing so it creates a gap in the
presentation of how certain races should be seen in the public view.

Running head: MEDIA CONTRIBUTION TO RACISM

Terrones 3

Introduction
Diversity within a community allows for the social construction to the different
perspectives in how certain races should be seen within a community. In accordance to the AntiDefamation League the very definition of racism is that one race is superior or inferior to
another, that a persons social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological
characteristics. What can be seen through any means of media attention only illustrates the halftruths of racial disputes. By doing so it only allows for the creative imagination to fill in what is
lacking. What seems to catch the attention of society is the different levels of representation or
misrepresentation of how discrimination between races is perceived through any means news
media outlets.
The Media Formation of Bias Coverage
In any society, the impact of racism is an inevitable action that will take place. It is an
action that has taken part in the social standings of time. The media attention, or lack of creates a
negative picture toward certain induvials that are seen as inferior in their community. Due to the
creation of this picture it illustrates a separation in races. This idea can be seen through the
reporting of racial disputes. According to an article written by Bob Cesca (2012) he talks about
the experience that another reporter has encountered. Chaz Pazienza, (the reporter Bob Cesca
talks about), wrote a piece about a case involving several African American youths in Norfolk,
Virginia who allegedly beat up a pair of reporters from the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, Dave
Forster and Marjon Rostami. In which case Forester was white and Rostami was Iranian. The use

Running head: MEDIA CONTRIBUTION TO RACISM

Terrones 4

of this information shows the image that roles were flipped. It is almost always seen in media
outlets that white persons are the ones afflicting violence upon black induvials. According Cesca
(2012), Chaz defended Bill OReilly( host of Fox News) and Fox News Channel for saying that
theres a double-standard at play: on one hand the press and, specifically, cable news continues
to be outraged by the Trayvon Martin case( fatal case were a 17 year old black boy was shot and
killed due to racial profiling), while on the other hand, the Virginian-Pilot case didnt receive any
attention at all, thus ignoring a black-on-white crime and illustrating some sort of doublestandard epidemic(par.5). This demonstrates that the double standard of the uneven portrayal of
racial disputes is not just black and white but also white on black. Due to the rash decisions of
stereotypical judgments it transforms into a bigger issue and enlarges the tensions between races.
With the lack of a more efficient news outlet that covers the disagreements and hatful acts
between races it continues to increase the levels of distrust.
Four Reasons of Confliction
In the article Four Lessons From The Media's Conflicted Coverage of Race written by
Eric Deggans, depicts some of the reasons of the lacking coverage. According to Deggans
(2014), We are not having the right conversations (par.3). With this in mind, society does not
look beyond the act that takes place. Furthermore, Deggans threads the idea that society lacks the
courage to ask the hard questions, No one asked those kinds of questions; there wasn't time. It's
too much for a five-minute TV segment (Deggans 2014). Deggans explains that without hard
questions it leaves room for doubt in what is being seen. Secondly Deggans explains the idea
that, to talk about systemic racial issues during a crisis is always much harder (Deggans 2014).
Deggans explains that looking beyond racial issues happens when people thoughtfully consider
perspectives different from their own (Deggans 2014). In the hopes of putting aside ones

Running head: MEDIA CONTRIBUTION TO RACISM

Terrones 5

judgments it grants growth within a community. Thirdly Eric Deggans goes on to explain that the
pathways that news outlets part take in go out of their way to allow for their input when
discussing racial matters. Piling on-site analysis from pundits on top of news coverage focused
on an emergency confuses the issue (Deggans 2014). By allowing opinions to become part of
reporting issues it embeds the seed of doubt and allows the distrust of other races to grow. Lastly
Deggans goes on to explain the technique of how news outlets try to come across to their
audience. Each cable news channel fine-tunes its coverage for its target audience, including
how that target audience sees racial issues (Deggans 2014). By creating a certain tone for the
audience, it pushes the audience to feel certain types of feelings and opinions of upon others.
Alongside to this it generates for a control of how feelings should be felt and perceived
throughout media attention.
Crimes Committed Due to Race
When looking at how there is a lack of coverage portrayed in the media outlets,
community members will show a type of support toward the matter at hand. Taken from the
article Racism in America Today Is Alive and Well And These Stats Prove It, this diagram
indicates the reasons for belief that most crimes are committed due to race. In correlation to these
crimes the second highest reason that is believed to the increase of crime levels would be due to
sexual orientation. This graph accurately illustrates the reasons why a community feels the
negative reasonings of media attention within a society. It also demonstrates that there is
common fear that hate crimes can be due to the color of ones skin not the actions that take place.

Running head: MEDIA CONTRIBUTION TO RACISM

Terrones 6

Past Mistakes
The perspective to how a community is broadcasted in the public eye, closely resembles
the past impression of race inequality. In relation to the vast increase of the racial disputes in
America, Julian E. Zelizer author of the article Is America Repeating the Mistakes of 1968?,
demonstrates the irony that even with African American president there is still an uprising within
America. Today, America has a president who understands the urgent need to address the
problems of institutional racism that have been broadcast to the entire world through
smartphones and exposs of a racialized criminal-justice system (Zelizer 2016 ). Even more so
this creates the image that with an American leader who has the power to construct the idea of
peace, has no power over the medias influence. Moreover, Zelizer goes on to explain that the
government focused on building a massive carceral state, militarizing police forces,
criminalizing small offenses, and living through repeated moments of racial conflict exploding
into violence (Zelizer 2016). By granting the media the access conveys the message of racial
disputes only allows for a chaotic repercussion of violence.

Running head: MEDIA CONTRIBUTION TO RACISM

Terrones 7

The Techniques Media Portrays

As a result of the racialization in the media it creates a social construction of how and in
what order the media deems fit to broadcast. Yasmin Jiwani the author of the Racism and the
Media, establishes the idea that the news outlets use a specific language to separate races and
classify them to a group of their own. People who were different were positioned as "others."
"They" were the criminals; "they" were dirty, unkempt; "they" caused trouble and disease.
"They" had to be kept out or contained in a separate area away from "civilized" society. Critical
to the media discourse of the time was the opposition between "them" and "us." What "they"
were, "we" were not and vice versa (Jiwani n.d.). Incorporating a language based on separation
between a community only enhances the tension and only solidifies that there is indeed a
separation. Jiwani goes on to further state other techniques used as Another technique used
frequently by the media is the heavy reliance on official interpretations of events concerning or
involving ethnic minorities/people of colour and aboriginal peoples (Jiwani n.d.). This is best
demonstrated when a white spokesperson talks on the behalf of the victim. By doing so it
projects the image that other people of race are not as coherent and intellectual as the white
society.
Conclusion
The many types of diversity help shape the way a communitys perception is molded.
The notion that only one race is greater than another creates room for ignorance and carves a
path for past mistakes to take place within a community. The lack of a better news coverage for
racial disputes should not deter or change a communitys thoughts on any race in particular. In
any case the lack of media attention should generate the desire to ask questions and take more indepth thoughts to consider what is really being reported by the new media outlets. By doing so it

Running head: MEDIA CONTRIBUTION TO RACISM

Terrones 8

establishes that society can think for themselves and do not follow in suit of what they have been
reported to think.

References
Anti-Defamation League: Leaders Fighting Anti-Semitism and Hate | ADL. (n.d.). Retrieved
October 18, 2016,from http://www.adl.org/?_ga=1.197003628.1146055457.1475794321
Cesca, B. (n.d.). Black-on-White Crime and the Reasons for a Media Double-Standard Retrieved
October 18, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/blackonwhite-crimeand-th_b_1521775.html
Deggans, E. (n.d.). Four Lessons From The Media's Conflicted Coverage of Race. Retrieved
October 18, 2016, from
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/12/06/368713550/four-lessons-from-themedias-conflicted-coverage-of-race.

Running head: MEDIA CONTRIBUTION TO RACISM

Terrones 9

Edwards-Levy, A. (n.d.). America Is Deeply Divided Over How Media Covers Race, Police
Misconduct: The Huffington Post. Retrieved October, 18,2016, from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/11/media-police-poll_n_7259942.html
Jiwani, Y. (n.d.). Racism and the Media | Stop Racism and Hate Canada. Retrieved October 18,
2016, from http://www.stopracism.ca/content/racism-and-media
Norman, N. (n.d.). Racism in America Today Is Alive and Well And These Stats Prove It:
News.Mic. Retrieved October 18, 2016, from https://mic.com/articles/140107/racism-inamerica-today-is-alive-and-well-and-these-stats-prove-it
Zelizer, J. (n.d.). Is America Repeating the Mistakes of 1968?: The Atlantic. Retrieved October
18, 2016, from http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/is-america-repeatingthe-mistakes-of-1968/490568/