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The Media's Marginalization Of Crime

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The media is the most powerful source of information available to society. News broadcasts influence what society thinks about by perpetually spreading a particular concept or idea to its viewers. As one of the most significant agents of socialization, the media’s coverage and portrayal of crime has significantly marginalized blacks. The media is a structural force, its discourse has a direct impact upon the lives of millions of blacks. Black people’s behaviour in society is affected by the media’s discourse, the aspirations of millions are reduced to a bare minimum because of the media’s racialisation of crime. It is imperative for sociologists to understand the hegemony used by the media, to successfully dismantle prevailing racist beliefs …show more content…
Entman conducted a content analysis of local news coverage in the Chicago area, the research examined both the tendencies and nature of crime which associated blacks with criminality. The analysis suggested that news stories which focused on blacks were more likely to be about criminality, than news coverage which focused on whites. Whereas whites enjoy the balance of news coverage which ranges from respectable and praise-worthy acts to deplorable actions, the representation of blacks in the news in consist predominantly of anti-social behaviour. Such manipulation of coverage reinforces the racialisation of crime. Entman found that 41% of all news coverage that focused on blacks pertained to criminal activity, furthermore, 84% of all news stories about black suspects regarded criminal activity versus 71% of news coverage for whites (Entman 1990, 1992, 1994; Entman & Rojecki, 2000). The percentage of coverage is not the sole factor which reinforces racist discourse, the manner by which the media reports black crime suggests that blacks are inherently criminal. Entman reported that the news coverage regularly included images and innuendos suggesting that black suspects were more likely to be particularly …show more content…
However, there are certain limitations which sociologists face when using this methodology. I am interested into knowing how the media has reinforced racist discourse in society, however, the media is only a fraction of the agents of socialization. I faced limitations by solely focusing on content analyses from media broadcasts. The criminalization of blackness is spread through other agents of socialization, such as family, peers, and even education institutions. Granted that the media has criminalized blackness in its broadcastings, other factors outside mass media have reinforced and contributed to society’s negative discourse vis à vis blackness. Thus, had my focus been more general into the other factors which significantly heighten racism, perhaps I would have gained more insights into the root causes of why blackness has become synonymous with criminality. Moreover, content analyses do not provide sociologists with insights as to why the media has criminalized blackness, it solely puts forth descriptive insights as to how frequently blacks are negatively portrayed. As a sociologist, I want to know the underlying causes and motives which makes the media more inclined to represent blacks as criminals, than white people. Why does the media overrepresent blacks in “reality-based” television and

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