Elijah Ngule

The media over the years have been accused of being biased based on racial sides. The Representation of race in the media affects our perceptions of individuals. Many media outlets reinforce the public's racial misconceptions about crime by presenting African Americans and Latinos differently than whites (Lerner et al., 2003). Television news programs and newspapers over-represent racial minorities as crime suspects and whites as crime victims. Black and Latino suspects are also more likely than whites to be presented in a non-individualized and threatening way – unnamed and in police custody (Gilens, 2009). Additionally, we have seen the media portraying the Latinos and specifically the Mexicans as the people who are involved in drug trafficking as scandals which have created an image that the Mexicans are drug dealers. From the movie Pablo, we have seen how the Mexicans have been portrayed as drug cartels owners who defect justice and are involved in mass killing. Also from the Movie empire, we have seen how the black Americans are considered as criminals, engages in crime, murder and even drug trafficking which portrays the blacks and the Mexicans as evil people in the society as well as dangerous as compared to the whites. Gilens, M. (2009). Why Americans hate welfare: Race, media, and the politics of antipoverty policy. University of Chicago Press. Lerner, J. S., Gonzalez, R. M., Small, D. A., & Fischhoff, B. (2003). Effects of fear and anger on perceived risks of terrorism a national field experiment. Psychological science, 14(2), 144-150. Hi Danielle, I would like to agree with your post , many social media have profiled African American males as unfit, violent, and  criminals. This has resulted to many people to have negative perceptions on African American males which is not the case.