The Media in Black and White by Everette E. Dennis

Author:Everette E. Dennis [Dennis, Everette E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, African American Studies, Language Arts & Disciplines, Communication Studies, Media Studies
ISBN: 9781560008736
Google: NsqrfpxRGbYC
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Published: 1997-01-01T05:01:00+00:00

10

Warping the World—Media’s Mangled Images of Race

Jannette L. Dates and Edward C. Pease

Whenever the media cover events or develop new entertainments vehicles that involve race in any form—from O.J. Simpson to “Fresh Prince” to immigration policy to “The Joy Luck Club” to the Nation of Islam to South Central L.A.—something “happens” to their heads. Or, if it doesn’t, something should. In the case of such media offerings, which must involve race in an increasingly diverse America, the ante of audience perception rises and the keepers of the media gates—most of whom are from the white, male “mainstream”—tense up. Somewhere, however deep down, they know that many of their viewers, readers and listeners are not like them, neither white nor male, and see the world differently. And, at the opposite end of the media chain, minority audience members tense up as well when they turn on the television or pick up the newspaper, because they know the images and messages about themselves and their communities they will see and hear are shaped (and misshaped) by white people.

As this journal discusses and others fully document elsewhere, the norm in this country is that the perspectives of white, mainstream men generally create the lenses through which America—whether peripherally or directly—views race, and itself. Thus, there is good reason for many minorities— African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans and non-Caucasian ethnic immigrants who are not part of “mainstream” white America—to think their perspectives are at best warped by the media or, worse, not heard at all. In the year that saw a black man elected president of South Africa, there is irony that apartheid still rules the information age in America.

In a democratic society founded on the premise that an open flow of information is crucial if the populace is to make just, fair and informed decisions, such distortions and omissions in the totality of media content—from advertising to entertainment to news—can wreak havoc on the American population and on how well the media serve society’s represented and unrepresented alike. By definition, information whose sources are limited—whether by political outlook, economic status, education, gender, age or race—is of fatally limited value to a society founded upon diversity of opinion and informed decision-making. News of politics, the economy or social developments sheds a dim light for the larger society if it lacks an understanding of “other” groups, if it focuses on any segment to the exclusion of any others.

This is hardly a new idea, although it has been one difficult to effect. In 1947, the Hutchins Commission report on A Free and Responsible Press urged the news media to promote public discussions on important issues and to help ensure that all community elements have opportunities to express their views. The Hutchins report called for a “truthful, comprehensive and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context which gives them meaning,” and for the press to take care to provide society a representative picture of its constituent parts. The responsibility of a free and

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