Malcolm X Quote About Power Of The Media: How It Influences The Perceptions And Understanding Of the Public

Malcolm X once stated “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of masses. ” (BrainyQuote. com)The media has created issues and division with race because of its history on the topic, large influence, racial bias, and subtitle but impactful use of microaggressions and stereotypes. “The average American adult spends 5. 20 hours watching television each day and 3 hours per day using computers and the Internet.

” (bls. gov) It is everywhere one may look, phones, computers, television, it is apart of a person's daily life. In relation to this, its large platform also easily influences the perceptions and understanding of the public. Its messages are attention grabbing and appealing, its why its audiences stay engaged. The way the media portrays its facts, it pulls the viewers in. people go to the media to gain knowledge of the popular topics of today.

Get quality help now
Bella Hamilton
Bella Hamilton
checked Verified writer

Proficient in: Malcolm X

star star star star 5 (234)

“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”

avatar avatar avatar
+84 relevant experts are online
Hire writer

The media has the influence to change how the public treats each other, and even how two people see one another even before a word is exchanged. Americas television media has always made an impact on how race is viewed. In fact, the debut of television media was during a time when racial tensions were high in a pre civil right era. As the white majority controlled the entertainment industry they had the ability to choose how they wanted blacks to be portrayed. This unequal beginning made it hard for minorities as they had to fight for equal representation and recognition in the media.

Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper
Topic
Number of pages
Email Invalid email

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

"You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy"
Write my paper

You won’t be charged yet!

Use an example from the “coming to terms with racism article to better explain this paragraph. ” The Civil rights movement was definitely a turning point for how the media portrayed race and racial topics. The movement could not be ignored. The American public all had access to a television. Allowing the media to have a profound emotional effect on its audience because of the images show and media coverage of the events.

The media acted as an ally to the movement, but it also became a source to hate for the ones against it. (The info in this paragraph is from https://study. com/academy/lesson/medias-role-during-the-civil-rights-movement. html ) This era showed that the media can work to improve racial misconceptions in society. But because these racial misconceptions were products of the media. Its content has always caused much division within the public’s opinion and conversion. In recent years the media does seem to want to aim for racial neutrality in its topics. Yet again because of its biased roots, racial inequality continues to appear in advertising, news reports, and entertainment programming. The media truly cannot escape being bias. Especially it’s habit of being racially biased. The media industry is an integral element of American society where racial, cultural, and gender biases persist in the media products produced. The media will always side toward the majority, and because of this, they tend to support the majority by presenting negative, or thought provoking images and stories of the minority group. Racial bias almost seems to be ingrained within the society of american media. And Although the representation of Black TV images evolved to reflect socio historic moments in time, negative stereotypes persist (Nama, 2003). The ubiquitous nature of the media means we are bombarded with messages about what characteristics and groups should be sanctioned or shunned, what we should think about, how we should behave toward others, and what we might expect from people based on the groups to which they belong. The media often shows a racial bias by how it associates social problems such as crime and welfare system costs with a certain minority group. The media primarily shape prejudice through two routes: disseminating inaccurate information about social groups (including stereotypes), and informing audience members how society behaves toward and thinks about social categories. This bias can cause racist and negative attitudes to emerge from the content’s viewers. In a study to determine if racial socialization and Black history knowledge influence the interpretation of Black media images, and to identify the relationships among these images, the racial identity, body image, and self-esteem of Black adolescents; One hundred thirteen Black youth completed the Black Media Messages Questionnaire along with measures of racial socialization, racial identity, Black history knowledge, body image, and self-esteem. The results of this study suggest that racial socialization and Black history knowledge influence television-viewing preferences, hours of viewing and magazine reading and identification of racial stereotypes. More specifically, youth who receive affirming racial socialization messages seem more able to identify negative and positive stereotypes. Youth with higher Black history knowledge scores were also more likely to identify stereotypes, but not to endorse negative stereotypes as valid representations of Black people. Youth with higher Black history knowledge scores were also more likely to identify stereotypes, but not to endorse negative stereotypes as valid representations of black people. Crime reporting in broadcast media has been controversial since its conception due to conflicts of racial bias.

Countless stories have been criticized for how reports depict racial groups. Recently the media has shown to do this as police discrimination against black Americans has become the flashpoint of a new civil rights campaign led by the Black Lives Matter movement, and as the steady drumbeat of deaths at the hands of police continues. For example when Travon Martin was killed, millions of Americans saw him as an innocent teenager, and in contrast millions pictured him as dangerous and a thug. The same story can be told for Michael Brown, for Jordan Davis, 12-year-old Tamir Rice and for Terence Crutcher, who was shot because he looked to be a “ bad dude”. The media has used its Saturated coverage of criminal accounts to further divide its audiences racial and ideological lines. Splitting between those who sympathize with the police and those who couldn’t, between those who experienced discrimination and those who didn’t. (the professor, the cop, and the president) News stories of crimes committed by Blacks are more descriptive and include more visual content than stories which depict whites. This may include more visual and informational content for Black criminals than White criminals, as well as content that highlights white victimization. Stereotyping and micro aggression. Microaggressions, marginality, and racism: An introduction. whether intentional or unintentional, hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or groups. The power of racial micro-aggressions lies in their invisibility to the perpetrator and, often times, the recipient.

Television images of Black people are frequently controlled and/or created by non-Black entities that present stereotypical characterizations (Allen & Thornton, 1992). Most racial microaggressions are not made aware that they are exhibiting negativity towards others, including others of a different race. Racial microaggressions account for the many ill actions minorities may experience in their daily experiences within a dominantly white society. producers are also stuck within a society that is affected by racial tension and misperceptions, so even if the media production itself does not reinforce stereotyping or implied racial negativity. The topic will still spark up opions. media portrayals of crime and the viewers responses to them, show how the media creates and repeats the stereotype of Black men as 'criminal and dangerous'” stereotypes involve prejudiced perceptions of others.

The media has created issues and division with race because of its history on the topic, large influence, racial bias, and subtitle but impactful use of microaggressions and stereotypes. But america is becoming even more aware than ever before. And that Awareness and knowing of where media bias can come from and is coming from, will hopefully promote a change. Can the future generations improve the flawed media’s biases? Or will the media continue its ways, as its flaws are said to be deeply rooted within? The media will continue to have a great impact on society but will it ever impact a greater unity between all opinions.

Updated: Feb 02, 2024
Cite this page

Malcolm X Quote About Power Of The Media: How It Influences The Perceptions And Understanding Of the Public. (2024, Feb 09). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/malcolm-x-quote-about-power-of-the-media-how-it-influences-the-perceptions-and-understanding-of-the-public-essay

Live chat  with support 24/7

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

get help with your assignment