I wanted to include this video to complement Janel's and Liz's week # 5 class lead discussion on minority representation in the news. Although a parody to make fun or even make light of the disparity of how minorities are represented in the news, it still is based off a very real bias.
As the authors stated in our week 5's reading from the Mastro and Greenberg article, "the news media provide daily inputs in text and visuals which are likely to contribute an additional and important share to the images of minority Americans."
This made me take a deep look into the art of framing and gatekeepers in the news and media. This video really helped to further conceptualize and reinforce the ideas from the readings and the very real consequences of gate keeping and framing.
As the quote mentions the media of news uses text (words, verbal and non verbal communication and language) and visual (scenery, environment, artifacts) to shape [frame] the content of the news regardless to the reality of an actual event, to create a "spectacle". Moreover, shape reality into what it [news media] wants to portray.
Ultimately this framing has real consequence as week 5's readings demonstrated that this perception no matter how real or constructed the reality it is society forms a biased perception of how minorities behave. Oftentimes, the perception is minorities are violent, lazy, inarticulate, non- achievers, that just sit around and can be grossly entertaining when the news cameras roll in. Consequently, adds more fuel to the "Colorblind Racism" discourses/ frames as discussed in week #3 reading by Bonilla-Silva.
This video from Comedy Central's "Key & Peele" sketch show, illuminates just how disproportionately minority news coverage is. In the very beginning the news reporter explains to his camera man that they are sent out to get some "filler" material. After the cameraman points out there is obviously no news to report, the news anchor has him to arbitrarily name a fictional character (Pagasus). The reporter responds "In this neighborhood there is always a story," and they go on to collect the news story; wherein, the minority residents from the hood performs their role as expected, although this creature is obviously fictional and no report or sighting of this creature was made. And as Keba mentioned in her post things like "South Lenox neighborhood" were used.
This notion reinforces the comment in the Mastro article, "African Americans seemed to be negatively portrayed more often than the Caucasian or Latino characters. They were judged as the laziest and the least respected; their dress was the most provocative and most disheveled." All the minorities in this sketch were disheveled, and when the reporter approached the first people they were just sitting on the porch hanging out at which time appeared to be in the afternoon, when many people are at work. Finally, at the end of this news report a riot break out. So there was a news story created on top of a fictitious news story.
Therefore, I asked myself these questions (keeping in mind that this video is a comedy sketch, so I am using it as a metaphor to real news coverage):
- How much of the minority news coverage is authentic or dramatized?
- How does the framing by gatekeepers sensationalize the news content?
- Will studies and critical analysis as the Mastro article help facilitate change in how gatekeepers portray minority news coverage?
- Why is this style of news minority coverage so appealing?
- Will this portrayal always remain constant with the reinforcement of fictional representation, could it change if the fictional representation of minorities improved?
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