The Media s Influence On Society s Attitude Toward...

Why are so many of the top stories in the news adversarial and geared toward pointing out an apparent ongoing struggle between whites and blacks? Is it because society is only interested in hearing about what is going wrong in the world, or is the media trying to create controversy and increase racial tensions to garner larger television audiences and sell more newspapers? Many stories in the news relate to racism: police brutality, education, crime; the media has a way of portraying these matters or specific incidents to suggest that a vast majority of Americans are racist. What might happen if the media, specifically, and society in general, were to focus on the good aspects of our world and the positive sacrifices that individuals†¦show more content†¦As stated in â€Å"Politics and Ethics in Social Media†, â€Å"†¦The use of such media is now intrinsic to contemporary political, social and identity forming processes†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The second perspective pro vided in this same chapter is â€Å"culture of prejudice† which â€Å"refers to the theory that prejudice is embedded in our culture. We grow up surrounded by images of stereotypes and casual expressions of racism and prejudice†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (237). It would be difficult to determine the magnitude of influence these labels and terms have had on our sociological imagination. Opposing Viewpoints Online states â€Å"Some argue that race itself is an artificial construct, a series of categories defined by governments to divide the population and prevent it from uniting to win justice and economic freedoms for all.† This is a sociological concept and, in a functionalist view, the end result would be race-based marginalization. The media tactically insinuates that interactions between white authorities and black citizens are always racially motivated, and downplay the responsibility of the arrested individual for creating the situation in the first place. If the evening news consistently contains reports of police brutality—specifically white police officers against black citizens—society begins to believe that most white police officers are racist towards black people. The struggles between white