Racism Fueled by the News

In class we talked about how stereotypes of different races are strongly linked to the media. I think that television specifically holds most of the responsibility for encouraging and fueling these stereotypes. Sure movies and commercials, and paper advertisements also play a role in this, but they aren't as repetitive as the shows on TV. News stations especially encourage stereotyping of race. For example when there is a report about a criminal, the very first thing they do is identify the gender and the race of that individual. So when viewers see this report they automatically, and most likely subconsciously associate the crime with the criminal's race. And over time they may even pick up on trends. For example if I hear a report of a man suspected of making a bomb I'm going to assume he's Arab. If I hear a story of a man who was shot in the streets of Boston, I'm going to assume he was Black. If I hear a report about a man who kidnapped a young boy, I'm going to assume the man was white. I can't pinpoint specific stories that I've seen to lead me to these assumptions, but I have them. And I would be surprised if I was the only one who unintentionally makes these assumptions. 

I always hate when news reporters say anything about a potential terrorist scare because one of the very first things they say is whether or not the suspects were Arab. I understand that the majority of terrorist attacks and plots against the US are by Arabs. However the Middle East is really big and there are only a few countries responsible for these attacks. Saying that the Arabs attacked the US again doesn't inform anyone of anything. Taking the tragic event of 9/11 for example. I'm sure the majority of US citizens don't fully understand the reasoning behind the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and that most people have no idea that the conflict between the US and Al Qaeda has been going on for at least 20 years before 9/11. Yet because of the news reports on TV, most Americans only received the message that "the Arabs" were attacking the US. And now Arab Americans have to live with that stereotype for a very long time, if not forever. 

Filling Up The Room

It didn't take me very long to decide on which medium to write about first. One might assume it would be facebook since it's currently tempting me to switch browser screens. But no, I chose iTunes. How could I not? I have it running right now, it's filling up the room...it's kind of hard to ignore. That's what's great about it too; you can use it while you pretty much do anything. Doing homework, exercising, hanging out with friends, whatever you're doing you can have your music playing in the background. But does iTunes have any cultural importance? Obviously it does. It pretty much defines the innovation and advancement of our generation. iTunes has really made the music industry step its game up. Even though record labels have been freaking out about piracy and artists have lost a significant amount of sales because of it, iTunes has also been putting a pressure on them to produce more music. When you think about it, before iTunes, people relied on CDs. Now that we can put all our music together and change the album and artist with just a push of a button means that we are listening to music more often. Furthermore, we are able to pick and choose different songs that we like; we don’t have to buy the entire album. iTunes has also made our society more social. While some may argue that listening to so much music replaces time when people would be talking to others, I believe instead that iTunes has created a whole new way of communicating with others. It serves as a device to connect different people with a common thread, music. Even looking at iTunes now, I can see that I can listen to my friend’s iTunes library who is sitting in a different dorm from me right now. That’s a connection that could never have been made through CD players.

The use of iTunes can be connected to ideology in media. Musical artists can use iTunes to get a message across about society that could reach a vast audience, and they can do so in such a subtle way. iTunes even categorizes these different ideologies for you, by categorizing your music into different genres. A bunch of punk bands probably have a similar ideology about our society, but one that is vastly different from Pop music, which will be completely different to Rap. iTunes has the ability to take different ideologies from different parts of the world, and put them all next to each other in groups on one screen. Again, this is something that would be more difficult to do in years past before the existence of iTunes.

What are Media?

Media are the tools used in society to get information from point A to point B. Although it may seem simple on the surface, the meaning behind media goes much deeper than that. What is this information that is being transferred? What is point A, and where is point B? Media are everywhere, and over time they have become more and more advanced. For example, as we discussed in class Homing Pigeons were used as a medium to send messages from one individual to another. Nowadays, we have email, texting, tweeting, and other internet sites that can do the same thing for us, only a lot more efficiently.

McLuhan said, “The medium is the message”. What does that even mean though? The medium is the message, or is the message the medium? I believe that both statements are correct. For example if I am watching the news on cable television, the media are the television set, the television station, the news report, the news reporter, as well as the story the reporter is telling. All of these separate parts are helping to get information to point A to point B. In this case, point A would be the story that the news station has, and point B would be me, the viewer. This is an example of the statement the medium is the message. The message can also be a medium. This is because the fact that the news station as decided to broadcast this specific news report, it is sending information from point A (the station), to point B (the viewer). In this case, the information is not the actual message, but other embedded opinions within the message. For example, by telling a specific story, the news station is sending the subliminal message that this story should be important to society, to the community. This way, the news station has the power to dictate what our community finds important to know about, thus showing the strong influence it can have over society.

I was debating with myself as to whether the message being transferred from point A to point B had to be an intentional message that has been thoroughly thought out. For example, would a crying baby be considered a medium? Let’s say for the sake of argument, the baby is crying because he is hungry. Is this baby a medium because technically it is getting a message from point A (the baby) to point B (the nearby parent)? However, it is not like the baby sat there and thought, “If I cry now, my mother or father will receive the message that I am hungry and want some food”. This type of transfer of information is much more simplistic and instinctual than again, watching a news report on the television. I believe that the crying baby and other such examples are in fact media. However, they are not considered as “The Media”. I reserve this capitalized version of media for the entertainment tools used by society, such as the television, the internet, the cell phone, video games etc. Although technically there is no official distinction made in the real world, in my head, there is a vast distinction. Technically you really could make anything a media. There are messages hidden in everything, whether it is intentional or unintentional. For example, if you see a bunch of round tables in a cafeteria, it may cause you to make connections and assumptions about the community there, such as the fact that the members of that community must be close and comfortable with each other. The fact that these table invoked thought within you shows that it is a medium, even though the individuals who decided to use round tables, for whatever reason they chose, did not intend for you to think about them in such a way. The Media and media are two different categories in my mind, yet they are all tools used to transfer information from point A to point B. Whatever that message may be, and wherever those points are, it does not matter.