Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Sophie Ali: Project #1 Midpoint Update









Race has always been a topic of interest, a source of contention, or just another variable thrown into the pot of characteristics that makes people different from one another. It also happens to be one of the biggest factors that gets spotlighted, or avoided all together, in high profile news stories ranging from missing people coverage, to murder cases, and even terrorism attacks. However, a disturbing trend is being seen more and more in today’s news, one where racial profiling is used to group people of the same skin color under the same category, taking the negative behaviors of one person and transferring them onto all people who look like them. The gap between races, which should be getting smaller, not bigger as time goes on, is cemented by news stories and television stations and nothing is being done to stop this. While not all news media in 21st century America perpetuate a pro-white, anti-minority sentiment when reporting crime stories, major stations, such as CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, have a biased tone to their reports.


      I.         Introduction
    II.         “Liberal media” myth
a.     Media In Society
                                               i.     Conservatives admit to cover-up
  III.         Major news stations introducing too much opinion and not enough fact
a.     Study by stateofthemedia.org
b.     Example: Fox News religion correspondent Lauren Green interviewing Dr. Reza Aslan, author of the book “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.”
   IV.         George Zimmerman/ Trayvon Martin Case
     V.         Coverage disparity in murder cases
a.     Fox News' Racial Crime Coverage Is Hurting People” (mediamatters.org)
   VI.         Coverage disparity in missing women/children cases
a.     Baylor University article
b.     “Missing Children in National News Coverage: Racial and Gender Representations of Missing Children Cases” Study
 VII.         Fighting Back: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
a.     “The R-Word”
b.     “Weak Constitution”
c.      “Black Friday Profiling”
d.     “Islamophobiapalooza”
VIII.         Possible Solutions
a.     Narrowing gulf between races
b.     Take everything with a grain of salt
c.      Do your own research
                                               i.     More sides to a story than the what the news tells you

   IX.         Conclusion

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