Media And Crime Essay

There has been researches conducted on how the media influences in the portrayal of crime due to the offender’s race. For years, the media has had much impact on how society perceives an individual because of how they are portrayed. According to Michael C. Thornton (2009), “News media are important racial projects because they are a key source for producing culture and information.” This being said, the media is a source of information and much of what is displayed can consequently be viewed as negative. As of negativity in the media, crimes committed by African Americans and crimes committed by whites are approached differently. News’ distorted portrayals might influence social reality judgments regarding race and crime (Dixon, 2008). Blacks are linked with criminality more than whites (Dixon, 2008). It does not go unnoticed that race influences in the manner in which the media portrays an offender. As Dixon mentioned, the sequential priming paradigm study conducted by Payne demonstrates how participants were more likely to associate a gun with the picture of a black person more than when presented a picture of a white person. This particular reaction is consequence of the
The power of the media does not only constitute as discriminatory when identifying the characteristics of the criminal, but it also creates fear among society (Dowler, 2003). Society gains the perception that all people of the same race are to be treated equally. In this case, the difference between African Americans (Black) and white people when evaluating their offenses varies to the extent that punishments are higher on African Americans than whites. As a result of the negative portrayal in the media, blacks have been faced with the stereotypical behavior and the fear, the criminal sentencing, and mass incarceration (Chaney and Robertson,