NEWS ABUSE
Over the years, the news, with its unfair and unbalanced presentation of young African Americans, has abused these same individuals by what is termed “News Abuse.” News Abuse is the deliberate and willful injury to the image of an individual or group. It is an abuse that can be emotional or physiological. It involves years and years of focusing only on the negative activity of young African Americans, especially young African American males.
It is the deliberate misrepresentation of a negative act committed by a young African American, whether it is a crime or simple mischief, and the subsequent sensationalizing of that crime or mischievous act to make it look as if that individual and act are representative of every young African American. Years ago, New Abuse was blatant, and its effects, therefore, easy to combat. Now, however, it is done subtly.
Examples:
• According to FBI statistics over 30,000 Black Women and Black Children are reported missing every year. But they are underrepresented in national news stories.
• National News stories between 1980 and 1990 about Welfare featured a Black person 81% of the time. The majority of Welfare recipients during that time were white.
• News stories about Affirmative Action featured a Black person 94% of the time. Many others have benefitted from Affirmative Action.
• Many people had never heard of dog-fighting until the Michael Vick dog-fighting story. Bikers and Hate Groups have participated in dog-fighting for years.
• During the 1980’s the Major News Networks devoted 70% of its news coverage of Black Political stories to Louis Farrakan, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson. Calling these men Black Leaders. Constantly, forcing this symbolic representation of Black Leadership on Black People when these men were leaders of their own specific organizations just like thousands of other Black men and Women. However, David Duke, Rush Limbaugh or Jesse Helms were always considered leaders of whatever political group or movement they participated, not leaders of all white people. Why? This is a by-product of the news’ misrepresentation of Black America. Blacks in the news represent or symbolize all Blacks in way Whites do not stand for all Whites.
• During the 1990’s FBI reported 55% of crack cocaine arrest the offenders were white, however during that same time period 90% crack cocaine news stories the offenders were black.
• 1998, in a small city in Illinois a large drug bust featured on the local news, police arrested ten alleged drug dealers–seven were white and three were black. Local news coverage showed all three of the black defendants and only one white one, even though the number of white defendants was more than double the number of black. Unfortunately, many viewers likely paid more attention to the screen instead of the story, internalizing the event as another black crime.
• Actor Charlie Sheen has several domestic violence incidents. He signs new mega- million dollar deal with a network for his show “Two and Half Men”. Chris Brown’s career still hasn’t recovered from his domestic violence incident. Much of this is base on how the News covers the story. (Check out NEWS COVERAGE LEVELS)
When an African-American is involved in a major issue, all of a sudden it becomes the cornerstone of the negative story. Far after the Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill hearings, news features dealt with sexual harassment at work. After the Mike Tyson rape trial, stories about date rape were everywhere. During and after the O.J. Simpson trial, the media found it necessary to discuss domestic violence. In other words, the timing of the news stories tied the negative issue to the African-American male. To make matters worse, even years after these major events, the names, photos, and tape footage of these same African-Americans are used over and over in covering similar problems that permeate all of our society or culture. When covering Caucasian male criminals, the media makes sure you have sympathy for him too: “He was emotionally unstable,” or “he had psychological problems and was on some medication” or “he came from an abusive home” (like Jeffrey Dahmer).
The local news paints a picture of blacks as violent and threatening. When the media covers blacks being accused of a crime, the blacks are more likely to be shown in mug shots or in physical custody of a police officer. TV news coverage showing blacks being physically restrained happens twice as often as similar coverage of white defendants. This insidious bias sends a visual message that blacks deserve to be physically restrained because they are more dangerous than any other race. Yet even black crime victims get less media attention. And consider this: African-Americans are rarely asked for their opinions and rarely seen giving expert advice.
• Putting a black face on crime: From 1990-2000, homicides among African Americans decreased 32.9%, while TV news coverage of African American homicides increased 473%.
• While 86% of all homicides are white -on-white crimes, black-on-white homicides account for 30% of all crimes reported by TV news.
• While less than 1% of all arrests are black-on-white homicides, these acts of violence represent 30% of TV’s crime news coverage.
• Between 1980-2000, Of the 12,000 evening news stories aired annually by the three major Networks, less then 1% is about positive stories about blacks, when blacks were included they were portrayed negativity 95% of the time.
News Abuse is both verbal and non-verbal, using words and signals to convey a message. By constantly focusing on only the negative stories about young African Americans, these same individuals are repeatedly broken down by the media and never built back up
It is obvious that, for the many African Americans that depend on the news for their information, this would be harmful. But what about those that don’t watch the news? How could it possibly effect those that don’t watch? Well, they are powerless to combat the image that the news presents. The television news, along with other media outlets, have the power to control the presented image of young African Americans. The mistakes of a few, the negative actions of a minority of the young African American populace, are turned into the actions of all young African Americans. The positive contributions of the majority are rarely, if ever, mentioned. Although no one condones the negative actions of the minority of the young African Americans, the media focuses only on this, and often, it masks this negativity by claiming that they are trying to help the African American community by drawing attention to problems and creating debate over solutions.
For years, headline stories have read something like this:
• Twenty-five percent of young African American men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five are in prison.
• There are more black men in prison than in college or the military. Additionally, there are few who have earned a college degree.
• The black male is an endangered species who often won’t live past thirty.
• Frequently, a certain percentage of black males choose to have all of their kids out of wedlock.
• Etc………
After all this manipulation of statistics, the news will then introduce a professional sociologist, psychologist or black leader to discuss the issue. The reality is, however, that the news was never concerned with the issue they are bringing up. They just want people to focus on something negative about young African Americans. If the news really cared about young African Americans, it would also talk about the Ninety -five percent that are not in prison and mention the many young, black males that are victims of crimes, Black Females that are victims of rape, Black children that are victims of kidnappings, these stories get little or no news coverage. It’s all about manipulating statistics.
We did a Comparative Analyst study back in 2004, using crime data of black and white youth between the ages of 18-25 who came from two-family homes, similar education background, similar economic background, and similar geographic background. We found that the white youths had a higher crime rate. Black kids from good families and good economic backgrounds rarely got into trouble.
So stated that Forty percent of Black males from the ages are in prison is a form a news manipulation to make Blacks look like criminals.
Using their data, there is two million prisoners in the across the country. Using their data, it states that Blacks are fifty percent of the prison population. (Which could be an injustice?) That means there are one million black prisoners. The black population is over thirty million. That is less than three percent of the Black population. Now you can argue about the high crime rate or how Blacks are twelve percent of the population, but fifty percent of the prison population. (Which could be an injustice?) This means that Ninety-Seven percent of Blacks are not in prison. That is a headline we will never see.
News Abuse is also neglect. By choosing not to present the positive sides of the African American community, they neglect it. Although the news might show something positive in sports or entertainment about young African Americans, in the mundane, day-to-day stories, the news would rather tell a positive story about some pandas at the zoo having a baby or a hot dog eating contest. However, it will never compare to the years damage the media has done to African Americans. That damage will take decades to repair, if it can be repaired at all. The sad part is that, like most abusers, the news is in denial, making up excuses, saying that it was done for ratings or money or some other, equally feeble rationalization. The only reason why there have been improvements is because organizations like YAAAMS are calling them on their behavior. Still, they are a long way from rectifying the situation, having only grown more subtle in their abusive habits. They think that, because they are doing more negative stories of whites, they are now being fair, but for every story there is story of some young white guy started a web company and then cheated the government, for every Scott Peterson story, there is a white man sitting there telling you the story, giving you instant balance. The white community is built back up through this, but the same news story breaks the African American community image down, never to be built back up. Now, there may be too much damage done.
Balance is the key, and it has always been the key. It’s not that I don’t’ want the news to tell true stories, but I want the negative, true stories to be balanced with positive stories about young African Americans.
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