Local News Tracking (Extra Credit)

I don't watch the news on a regular basis like I should... I understand that being aware of what is going on around you and what is being covered in your community is important,  I think that watching the news and all of the crimes, violent and nonviolent, can reinforce certain stereotypes we already have been preset to think. This turned out to be a major internal conflict and eye opening experience for me through watching the news every week day over the course of a week and a half. I expected to see the same stories being reported... (yes I understand this is stereotypical and possibly slightly raciest, but at least I am trying to be honest) it would have been no surprise to see an African American who shot someone, or a Hispanic man who stole something or assaulted someone, and a white person (of a lower class) to have been caught doing drugs. This was not necessarily the case in reality.

I found that my stereotyping had caused me to want to reject the media and news for fear of making those stereotypes worse and the ideas splashing over into my life. By this I mean seeing different people in certain areas of town or wherever for that matter and criminalizing them without cause. The news actually did just the opposite to me. I was surprised to find only one of the stories covered was of an African American male doing a criminal act, and to find that it wasn't a shooting, but of a delinquent act of not caring for his grandson which ended up being an accidental death. Also, I was very shocked to see how many women, yes women, who were committing crimes. A woman who has been robbing banks, a woman who has been doing drugs and not caring for her children, a women who broke into a house and shot a man. It was beyond shocking to me that women were performing all of these criminal acts. For some reason I had it in my head that men are the criminals, and a woman only becomes a criminal if a man persuades her to do it. This was not the case. Also, another shocking story was of a someone I actually know. A 25 year-old who has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting a man he was investigating in Iraq. They said that he had executed him; however, the evidence verifies that his story, which is one of self defense, is what actually occurred and not an execution style murder charge. I am trying to not be biased here, because I do not believe that would actually commit this crime, ever!, but the point remains that from watching the news lately and attempting to be a good consumer of the news, that it has only shown me that anyone is capable of committing a crime. However, I did find it interesting that this case is gaining a lot of media coverage because he is an upper-class Caucasian with a mother who is a federal prosecutor and a father who is an officer of the law, in which case is not a usual scenario. 

All in all, I realized that I was wrong with the way I perceive the news media. Also, I was happy to see that even though KOCO News 5 only seemed to have one female African American, she was covering a wide variety of stories. She wasn't segregated to only doing minorities stories. I was impressed with the Oklahoma news, and while there is not as much to report on here, and it is very likely that in larger cities where more crime occurs, more prejudice is seen in newscasting and story reporting, I think Oklahoma is doing a fine job. 

Social Movements and Media

Who determines the news or sets the agenda?

Wouldn’t it be great if anyone would be apart of owning a news broadcast channel, station, or publisher. Then anyone and everyone would be equally heard and the amount of media coverage and diversification of news throughout the nation would be determined by their local stations, and there wouldn’t be some sort of conspiracy of big business to keep certain things from being seen in the news.  The news use to be like this, where the mass media was made up of thousands of local stations, publishing companies, and channels…that was until corporations began merging with each other and forming mega corporations that were then buying up all small broadcasting stations which has now created this since of nationwide news controlled by a select few who run these mega corps.

 

Why do we need a media that specifically represents difference interests of people of color?  Aren’t those interests everyone’s interests?  What can be done to increase the mainstream media’s interest in other topics and concerns?  Aren’t those interests everyone’s interests? 

The answer to this is so simple, we often over think it.  Everyone just wants to be heard. That’s it. Not even all white people think alike or agree upon the same things, so what makes mainstream media think that those outside of the majority would see things the same way as white people, or for that matter even care about the same topics as we do. A major problem with mainstream media is that only one point of few seems to be shown on most any news broadcast, which usually happens to be the majority (white) view or perspective…what white people find to be newsworthy or important. So where does that leave minorities? In the dark, unheard and unseen. That is the problem. So what can be done to fix these problems you ask…that is even simpler. How about we actually make a noteworthy attempt to make something in this nation of ours equal. Show an equal amount of every race and ethnicity in the news, shed light on what might not be important to you (the white mega corp editor and chief) but just so happens to be important to the select few minorities out there who are usually underrepresented.

 

How was the war initially reported by the media?

The acts of 9/11 caused such a catastrophic rift in the hearts and minds of the American people. We needed to unite, show our patriotism, support one another and especially this was true for the government and our political leaders. No one was questioning what the government was telling us, what they were persuading us to do and think, and if there was any ulterior motives to the actions and ideas being supported as retaliation methods to the acts of that horrific September day. We had no control over what was being put on the news, nor were many of us being skeptical and intelligent consumers of the media we were being shown. Everything from scripted speeches and news conferences were used so that no question that was beyond our government’s knowledge or to get information that they desired to not make known. The reports of the war were simply very Hollywoodized if you ask me. I don’t think we saw the whole truth directly after 9/11 and we saw a sugar coated, glamorous side of the war with Iraq.

image5.png      How has the media covered recent social protests? 

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Because the news media is ran by a small select few, what is covered is simply not the whole story. Everyone has their own agenda, and it seems that the government and these mega media conglomerates’ agenda is to keep us Americans from seeing things in the news, like protests for the war and racial conflicts in schools, that they don’t think reinforces “good” America. Back during the Vietnam war, anti-war protests were the news. They didn’t have a small 20 second or 2 minute blip in the middle of a news segment that was downplayed to sound like a handful of overly liberal people with peace signs on the street corner. The media wants to report news that they think with further their own agenda in one way or another while turning a blind eye on bigger issues like social and racial equality and conflicts, as well as the showing of our right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly when it occurs.

 

Was the media beneficial for the Civil Rights Movement?

I think the media was most certainly beneficial for the Civil Rights Movement. In fact I think media is one of the reasons it was so successful. Mass media allow African Americans all across the nation to ban together and fight for a crucial cause. A movement is only successful if it catches on like wildfire across vast areas and is well supported and the media gave this ability. Sure, not all media was good, but just like today any press you can get is good press. It allowed people to really take a step back and look at their own lives, whether white, black, Asian, Hispanic, or what so be it and really ask themselves if this is America, is allowing what is going on right or just?

Your thoughts and reflections on setting the news agenda, minority media and the media and reporting the war. 

I think my thoughts on these issues are pretty upfront in my writing and opinions on these different topics. However, I will close with the following:  We say equality and freedom are the pillars on which America stands, and media is the greatest form of mass communication within and outside of our great country…so where in our media are these foundations truly found?

Tulsa Race Riots- Extra Credit

"Before They Die" is a short documentary on the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots brief history and it's  survivors that are presently alive. The Tulsa Race Riots in brief occurred on May 31, 1921 as the backlash of an accidental tripping of a 19 year-old black shoe shiner onto a 17 year-old white elevator operator which the white population took as an assault of a young black man on a young white woman, which caused an uproar in the white community and rioting for the next 18 hours. This was in the Greenwood black community in Tulsa where the riots took place. Greenwood was thriving with black professionals of every decree operating in their own successful businesses outside of the white community, which was said to make the white community jealous. Greenwood, Oklahoma was known as the "Black Wall Street" and suffered one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism of all time. During the riots over 30 square blocks were burned, 20,000 million dollars in property damage, and over 300 black people killed with no civil rights. 

This documentary was the story of the riot survivors seeking justice for the wrongful crimes committed against them before they die because over 80% of the survivors are already deceased. Since 2004 lawyers have been interviewing survivors and putting together a case for them to get the justice they deserve. However, even today they are being denied time in the court to plea their case. The government has no reason for denying the case, but simply their cowardice to hear what the survivors have to say. For this reason this documentary was made so that people will know their story and help them in the fight for justice. 

I think this is so pathetic on the part of our judicial system today that they will not hear these people out and allow them their rights as U.S. citizens. The Tulsa Race Riots were almost lost in time due to the neglect of the media to give it any coverage or for the government to acknowledge this injustice. I absolutely understand the case and point of the few remaining survivors and their desire to be compensated and at the very least recognized.