Today, racism seems like an old-fashioned term. That’s not to say that it’s rare that racism isn’t found in America, but the majority of Americans will most likely agree that most people have abandoned racism. In fact, 1 in every 5 couples in the US will be interracial. Yet, despite popular belief, racism is still very prominent in America, especially within the media. The media has the power to influence the minds of many unsuspecting viewers. In recent years, the media has used its control over the American mentality to diminish the black culture by portraying African Americans on the news or on general television as various forms of degenerates such as thugs and criminals. This negative image of minorities created within production has …show more content…
Similarly to the unequal representation of the Trayvon Martin case, the corporations that run the media are predominantly white. According to the U.S. census data, “with a growing number of non-whites in America, fewer people of color are in decision-making positions at daily newspapers, television and radio stations, and online news organizations.” (Sanders) Clearly, not only is the media controlling the outcome of court cases in America, but the media itself is controlled in favor of whites. This obvious domination of the media inevitably creates racist, biased, and white-washed reports that factor into the oppression of the black community. Even the prestige of Harvard University has found this discrimination to be true. In Harvard’s Project Implicit, researches found that “88 percent of white Americans have implicit racial bias against black people, with a racially homogeneous media industry, and the toxic environment that leads to media injustice is thrown into stark relief.” (Szalavitz) These racial biases will affect the average black individual in practically every aspect in their life. It will hinder their economic opportunities, especially in job-hunting over their white applicant counterpart. Educationally, blacks are almost twice as likely to drop out than a white student. All this and more is directly factored by the media’s …show more content…
The social-media revolution, as editorialist Ruth Harper describes, is “the birth of a democratic movement that emphasizes some of journalism’s key factors: transparency, honesty, and giving a voice to the person who doesn’t have one.” It has already been made clear that the infrastructure of mass media is predominantly white, so the traditional route of journalism would be unfortunately ineffective. Nevertheless, modern technology has given minorities that have previously been marginalized an opportunity to take their opinions to the masses. With the utilization of social media, blacks have been able to unite, mobilize, and rebel against the evils of the mass media. This solution trumps all others because it does not hold the same flaws as the others. For starters, the diversity issues is solved since this revolution is totally driven by the oppressed and not the oppressors. Additionally, the bias that emerges from families that are never fully exposed to an integrated society does not exist within social media since the power to turn a story, post, image...etc viral will surely reach the newsfeeds of even the most socially ignorant across America. Sometimes, pieces social journalism become so popular on their platform that they even spread to others, especially television networks. This action allows positive messages of the black community to infiltrate the very same networks that fight to keep them down. In short, the best