Race, Gender, Media

1.Who determines the news or sets the agenda?-The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the government body that sets the rules for media. This, as stated in the video, is not necessarily the best representation of what America looks like or stands for.

2.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?
-As with anything, in order to represent a diverse group of people you need exactly that, a diverse group of people. You can not expect people to understand how all people, regardless of race and gender, truly feel or live or even portray those emotions through the media. How can explain something you do not know? To argue that the interest of people of color is the same as the “majority” is hard to say because like I’ve said before, how can you truly have an interest in something you know absolutely nothing about. Most people do not walk around wondering how they can fix other people’s problems. In order to change this, you need diversity everywhere. In the newsrooms, on the radio, on the television, there needs to be an effort on everyone’s part (mainly minorities) to take initiative and say that this has to change.

3.How did the media initially report the war?-“If there was a war on terrorism it started with an attack on the world trade centers”. This statement makes it sound like the United States was obligated to fight this war even though we initially went to war with a country that did not attack us. The idea that if you are not for the war simply meant that you were not patriotic which may very well not be the case at all. However, when you have millions of people who have lost loved ones and the media, who in turn can manipulate the actions of the September 11th event, patriotism is the key role in decision making. People felt the need, after seeing images in the media, to prove their patriotism.

4.How has the media covered recent social protests? Jenna Six – Proposition Eight
-The story first got a lot of attention from Louisiana's media, and from bloggers around the area. From there, it became a national issue that involved people from all over the world to go to Jena, Louisiana and protest what was going on at Jena High School.

5.Was the media beneficial for the Civil Rights Movement? -I would have to say that the media was beneficial for the Civil Rights Movement. However, with everything, there is always a downfall some where. Without the media, I really do not think that people would have truly understood what was going or how severe racism really was. Just look at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas and the Little Rock Nine. Without the media, do you really think the President Eisenhower would have sent out the members of the 101st US-Airbone Division of the United States Army to protect those students against the students, citizens, Governor Faubus or the Arkansas National Guard? Do you think during the late 1950s people really understood, or cared for that matter, about another African American child being killed for using inappropriate language or whistling at a white woman? No, it was not until the magazines started to publish pictures of Emmett Till’s body after he had been brutally murdered that sparked an uproar and just so happens to be one of the many events that led up to the Civil Rights Movement.

6.Please list your thoughts and reflections on setting the news agenda, minority media and the media and reporting the war.
-I wish that we heard more about things like this. Unfortunately, shows like this do not receive the air play they deserve. While I was around family and friends I was watching the blogs and a lot of them stopped and asked what I was watching. Some even asked me to forward them the videos. I think society believes that some people do not care about educating themselves on these topics but I also believe that they also find it easier just to “push it under the rug” and act as if it never existed.