L&C Chapter 15 - Holding Up a Mirror to a Classless Society (Extra Credit)

I found this article to be very interesting because it was written in a very accessible way, and from an uncommon point of view of a journalist. Indeed, journalists, while trying to report the news and get information in a very objective and truthful manner, are limited by two things - the public's demand for "sensationalist", popular news, and other unavoidable factors like geographic location, logistical convenience and so on. For example, Suarez says that networks and news channels often broadcast footage of "young men face down on the streets with their hands behind their necks", and these men are often Black. This is not because white men are less likely to commit crimes, but because television networks have their resources concentrated in dense urban areas where there is a higher population of blacks as opposed to whites, many of whom live in the suburbs instead.

The important thing is that there are many ways in which stereotypical relationships between factors like race, crime, health, wealth, income and gender are propagated, and the mass media is probably the most pervasive method. It is accessible to many people because of its low maintenance cost and geographic irrelevance - a homeless man on a street corner can watch the news on large billboards in downtown areas just as affluent CEOs catch up with the same reports on their Blackberrys and iPads. Thus, people's (mis)conceptions of many social relationships are perpetuated through means like this, especially if (as Suarez demonstrated) they might not be factual and indicative of real events, at least not all the time.

Another point Suarez raises is the perspective of the news media - a "story told by high-status people about higher-and lower-status to lower-status people". As can be seen, the system itself embraces and and includes assumptions about class and status, and is one flaw that is unavoidable simply because of people's need for classification. It is also eye-opening how many characters being reported about are given some kind of characteristic and label, creating a moral story. Often, when people behave in a manner "fitting" of their class and status (rich man acquires a company, more women are becoming housewives), the news world does not bat an eyelid. But when a poor Black man kills a rich white girl or someone buys a $50 million dollar house, the world takes notice.

An article from last year that points out the media's role in shaping perceptions of class and race:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/243644/black-murders-eight-whites-br-media-blame-whites-dennis-prager?page=1