Since
the 1980s, the media has portrayed youth as a dangerous class. It illustrates
that youth are increasingly dangerous even though data show that there has been
a downward trend of youth violence in the recent decades, particularly in
minority communities. In fact, adults are often the ones to abuse children.
When comparing the statistics to the media’s portrayal of youth, one sees that
the media creates a false image of youth as a danger instead of emphasizing the
injustice that many youth face because of that image.
The media has created a negative stigma
towards black and Latino youth. With the rise of rap and hip-hop in the last
few decades, statistics in Male’s article show that crime rates for youth have decreased
rather than increased. Despite the evidence, the media continuously magnifies
the violence among minority youth and attributes the violence to the current
music trends. Recently in Florida, a few black teenage boys were playing loud
music in their car. A white man, Michael Dunn, parked his car next to theirs,
claimed that when the youths turned on the music and screamed, “Kill him”, they
were referring to him. Dunn then shot into the car, killing Jordan Davis. This
is testimony that there is a negative connotation associated with black youth
playing certain music. Davis’s father explains in the New York Times’ Op-Doc video that black youth are unfairly
perceived as dangerous. The media perpetuated the idea that the youth were
dangerous although Davis was unarmed and ultimately the victim. Even though he
wasn’t doing anything harmful, Davis was seen as a threat to a white man
because he was playing loud music.
What the media also does not show is
that youth are often the victims of abuse within families. According to Male,
in 1995 hundreds of thousands of children were killed or abused by their
families. The Bureau of Justice Statistics states that violence caused by relatives
is a common reason that people go to the hospital. More specifically, while the
media is quick to call black youth more dangerous than others, it fails to note
that they are more likely the targets of abuse from drug or alcohol addicted
adults than a threat to others. While the media focuses on black youth as
dangerous they seem to neglect to highlight the adults around them who have
victimized them. They are also at increased risk of an unstable family. Among
many stories that cast black youth as a danger, there are very few that
highlight the adults who have victimized them.
The media often does not consider
that the negative attention on youth may mask the underlying problems caused by
adults. The media wants their audiences to see the world a certain way but its
consistent failure to project the reality of young people puts those lives in
danger. In reality, many youth need to be saved, but this message rarely makes
the broadcasts. Youth cannot be saved if no one knows about their struggles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/opinion/when-loud-music-turned-deadly.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article
-Bridget McDonagh
While African-American and Latino youth are portrayed negatively in the media, there has also been a trend to focus on middle-class, suburban white youth who are getting in trouble. Of course, the media blows this out of proportion for the very reason that these are white teens, rather than the stereotypical African-American or Latino.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is not that surprising that the media would want to sensationalize delinquency among a group that is not usually associated with crime, drug abuse, etc. After all, nothing draws more attention than a headline that says, "Cocaine Invading White Suburban Neighborhoods." In fact, there was a similarly themed article on CNN recently. Unfortunately, I cannot find that article again.
On another note, I found it interesting that Bridget mentioned the loud music case. I did not draw the link between the music and the negative portrayal of hip-hop and rap as scapegoats for the misbehavior of youth.
The issue Bridget is pointing out reminds me of our discussion of Ronald Reagan and his political platform demonizing youth. The professor had said that if it were not for his scapegoating the youth, he would not have been able to attain such momentum necessary for his political career. By highlighting the dangers of youth, he essentially directed the nation's attention against the youth; this is ironic because the crime rate around that time had dwindled from 47% to 16% (but Reagan's "War on Drugs" campaign causes the rates to increase in its effect).
ReplyDeleteI liked how she bought up the fact that media does magnify the dangers of youth, especially those of specific race and gender; it diverges the popular attention from something more urgent, like the awareness of abuse.
I find it interesting how in criminal law, we tone down the level of punishment youths receive because, among other things, they have less control over their environment. For example, youths who grew up in tumultuous families have a higher chance of running into trouble with the law. And here we are talking about that exact thing: abuse in families negatively affect youth, and can deeply affect how they go about in society. But somehow, society has managed to bring it all back to the youth again.
When it comes to McDonagh’s essay, I really liked how she approached the idea that the false image media gives to youth actually results in more injustice for youth as well as more danger. McDonagh also points out the fact that with the rise of hip-hop and rap there actually has been a decline in crime overall and she proceeds to give an example to show how, even when statistics point otherwise, people still have the erroneous idea that youth (black and hispanic youth specifically) is a dangerous class that people should be aware and afraid of.
ReplyDeleteThis reminded me of last week’s lecture when the professor was talking about the rock and roll concerts and how safe they were contrary of popular belief.
Something that particularly stood out to me was the idea of black youth as a particular category that is seen as more dangerous than others. It seems as though we have not made much progress in society when it comes to how we divide people based on status, race, and youth. Something that I also find interesting is the fact that adults are seen as so distant from youth when in reality they just might not be.
-Karen Ruiz
Bridget did a great job of linking the Males’ article and class lectures with this recent event. The topical example of the recent murder of Jordan Davis helped reinforce what we have studied in class about perceptions of youth and youth-as-a-dangerous-class.
ReplyDeleteThe media both reflects society’s beliefs and influences them. I would argue that the media has not created a ‘negative stigma towards black and Latino youth’, instead, the media is reflective of societal prejudice innate to a historically racially divided country. I would not agree that the media is solely responsible for the prejudice against black and Latino youth; instead they promote existing fears and beliefs. The media feeds into society’s fears because fear-mongering and sensationalized reporting sells papers and grasps viewer’s attention. The increased immigration of Mexicans into America within the last few decades has regenerated a fear of immigrants, fueled by the ‘us versus them’ dichotomy and fear of violent nonwhite youth. This is not a novel phenomenon; the 1917 Immigration Act aimed to ban and deport ‘undesirables’, particularly Eastern Europeans as they were thought to be ‘weak-brained’ and thus more likely to engage in immoral behavior, which posed a threat to the American society1. Therefore, I think it is important to consider the historical prejudices against immigrants and Americans who are not of British decent while assessing the interconnectivity of society and media.
1. http://library.uwb.edu/guides/usimmigration/1917_immigration_act.html
I agree that the media has played a large role in propelling an image of minority youth as dangerous. However, I’ve learned in other classes I’ve taken at Cal that the media tends to sensationalize crimes committed by minorities of all ages, thus inflating the stereotype that minorities, in general, are dangerous. I wonder, then, how much of the stigma towards minority youth is specifically because they are “youth,” and how much is purely racial. Regardless, as Bridget describes, a minority youth certainly seems to receive the worst of both worlds.
ReplyDeleteI also really appreciate that Bridget incorporated a recent news article in illustration of her point. It reminded me that the concepts we study are constantly and directly applicable to events that occur in the real world. Ironically, the specific op-ed that she cited, and the article linked within this op-ed piece, doesn’t seem to portray the black youth in a negative light. The articles make me think of black youth not as dangerous, but as victims of racism. Perhaps I’m being optimistic, but is it possible that a new trend of unbiased reporting in media is slowly but surely on the rise?
ReplyDeleteVery well presentation of Media Portrayal of Youth v. Reality, Bridget. I have to agree the great point that Bridget makes of media, creating a false image of youth as a danger emphasizing the negativity. During lecture Professor Morrill mentions about the negative stigma towards African American and Latino youth. Especially during the urban core youth where nonwhite youth are seen as a whole “dangerous class” creating a culture shift that expands minority youth to be part of this. It also brings the idea of a class were poor people are seen as a threat creating a social order civilization. Therefore, a shift of “Youth-as-objects-of-saving-and study” is established. The example of music brings a new media representation where “youth” are largely a distinct social category. It frames an era of a new threat of “youth” seen as problem. According, to lecture media portrays super predators as culture fear, dehumanizing, and aggressive. However, as crime decline and increase nobody know why? But according to lecture it’s not clear if the super predators were part of it. Instead negative attention to youth as Bridget presented is still under the influence of media who lack their ability to reveal the truth of victims. Overall, great analysis and reference New York Times’ Op-Doc video.
-Marisol L.
This was a very clearly articulate post which highlights the racial dynamics that affect youth. Youth of color, especially african american and latino are not just victims of ageism but also racism. While Bridget did a great job explaining that these youth are often invisible victims of abuse, broken families, addiction and such, I think an important component to consider is how systemic racism also effects youth. They are born into a society where one is perceived as guilty, even having not committed a crime, just for the color of their skin. The abuse they face is not merely from their families but also from the society they live in.
ReplyDeleteThis leads to my perspective that rather than trying to save these youth, the state may be better off considering the impact of racism on youth and establish a new outlook onto them - not as criminals in the making but the bright future of the US who does not saving but rather support to rise to their full capacity. That support includes better education, job prospectives, and health care but also finding ways to work with parents to break the cycle of addiction and abuse that are harmful to their children. Since poverty and racism are root issues of these, one might want to consider how to make changes there.
I feel that Bridget emphasized the main point of the Males article really well. Not only did she bring up the main point that the media portrays youth in a negative light most of the time, but she also brings in the article from the NY Times to bolster her argument that this is still a prominent problem today. I do feel however that this problem will never resolved until we find a blend between the youth centered and adult centered perspective. Even today society commonly associates violence in movies, music, and video games as negative influences to youths. However I feel that many of these articles that make this claim often fail to acknowledge other factors such as environment and the attitudes of a child's parents. As a result, I agree with Bridget and Males for the most part that the unfair portrayal of youth in the media has created this perception of youth as a dangerous class even today.
ReplyDeleteBridget makes an interesting argument regarding how youth, especially black youth, are often misunderstood as "a dangerous class" who needs to be constantly watched and careful of. This leads to perhaps another serious problem we face in America today: racial profiling. The common view of dangerous criminals in American people's mind is an African American or Latino gang-like youth, walking down the city streets in a hoodie and baggy clothes. It has been on media's attention that this imagery has led to racial profiling, which in turn led to unnecessary and tragic deaths of youth by law enforcement.
ReplyDeleteI think that such imagery is based on false assumption and we need to turn our focus away from race and to socioeconomic status. America is a highly racialized country, so often dividing the world into race and societal issues into racial issues, when in reality, the real problem at hand is the socioeconomic inequality. As Males and Bridget pointed out, many African American and Latino youths are subject to abusive or drug/ alcohol addicted adults, not because they are prone to get addicted to these substances more so than white or Asian adults, but merely based on the fact that they are from low socioeconomic places, such as the inner city where drug trafficking is quite common. I think our society, specifically the media, is basing its problem on the race, when in reality, the focus should be on the impoverished and the socioeconomically disadvantaged.
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ReplyDeleteMedia plays an important role is creating and shaping the image of youth in society mostly because modern media is largely unavoidable. Bridget does a great job in outlining the shortcoming of media portrayals of youth and the problems it creates. The media chooses to focus on stories that will cause a stir or interest because media is largely money motivated, so it does make economical sense that common social biases and interests are incorporated into their portrayals of youth ,such as emphasizing minority youth problems. Modern media can influence society with the sheer speed in which news is delivered, which combined with the media's tendency to enforce common stereotypes by focusing on the issues that will get the most attention, creates an unfavorable cycle of influence.
ReplyDeleteBridget includes many connection to the recent lecture to make for a very informative essay, and I agree with the notion that the media creates false images of urban youth . I like the last point she makes about minority youth stories avoiding the adults involved in the problem and emphasizing the youth instead.
Bridget managed to clearly describe the way that the media portrays youth as a dangerous class, particularly if you are a young Latino/black male. Male's article gives countless examples of how the media manipulates statistics to make them seem as a danger to themselves and to society, whether it is through the music that they listen to, or through the way that they drive. However, I also found interesting that while Male's article gives examples of how youth are still considered a dangerous class, it also demonstrates how youth as still seen as dependent and as objects in need of saving and study. From the way that the media represents youth, it seems as if youth are a danger to themselves that will drive recklessly because they do not know any better. This is highly reminiscent of the idea that youth are not able to care for themselves and are dependent on adults so that they do not go out of control. Male's article shows how the term youth is a social construct that changes with the way that they are portrayed by the media.
ReplyDeleteThe author does a great job of describing that the statistics given by the media are often skewed and are meant to manipulate its audience, more often than not to present youth as dangerous and reckless. The author also does a great job of illustrating Males concern not only with the misused statistics, but also with the lack of representation on youth poverty and other injustices affecting youth. I especially liked how the author including the Michael Dunn case considering that it is a much more recent case. Nonetheless, youth as a dangerous class is the believe that all youth in general are capable of crime; however, this doesn’t translate in the way that it is only inner city neighborhoods, where predominately black and brown juveniles live, that are being policed. Even though heinous crimes have been committed by youth of all backgrounds. There are no initiatives to police white neighborhoods illustrating the criminalization of only brown and black youth. Furthermore, recent publicize shootings have all been committed by white-adult males, however there isn’t a focus on white males as a dangerous class or even adults as being dangerous. This illustrates Males point of how data is skewed, and the media tends to focus on youth but not adults.
ReplyDeleteI am grateful for Bridget's important and timely article. She raises extremely pertinent arguments eloquently. I especially agree with her exploration into the root cause of the problem. When she says, "What the media also does not show is that youth are often the victims of abuse within families," I am reminded of a saying my grandmother used to tell me: "People don't hurt people, HURT people hurt people." For not only does the media falsely portray youth as dangerous super-predators, but media also neglects the journeys that bring those rare violent youth to commit crimes in the first place. Many youth in these situations come from broken homes full of the abuses and neglect, as Bridget points out. However, I believe Bridget's solution, with closer examination, actually perpetuates the problem as opposed to rectifying it.
ReplyDeleteTo propose that we need to know about youth's struggles in order to prioritize their salvation is to fall into the same downward spiral of youth as dependent on adults. I call this a downward spiral because it leads to the essence of the problem, people controlling what they don't understand rather than relinquishing some control in order to give relative autonomy to the population of interest. As pointed out in the Morrill et. al article, youth have the amazing capacity to speak to their own problems and work out their own solutions. I am not arguing for full autonomy for youth, but definitely a bit more than they already have in most schools and households. Until youth are seen as capable, we will go around in circles asking the wrong question: what do we do with them?
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ReplyDeleteThe author did a great job of analyzing and discussing the key arguments in "Myth: Media Tell the Truth About Youth". For example, the author notes how, contrary to the facts, the media continues to perpetuate a culture of fear aimed at the rising crime rate among the youth. The fact of the matter is that the youth of today are actually less violent and less likely to kill someone while driving drunk than the baby boomer generation, but if you follow the news you would believe otherwise. Furthermore, the author sheds light on an aspect that tends to be overlooked by the mass media, which is the fact that the adults in society are actually a bigger threat to the youth than the youth are to the adults. For example, the author notes "in 1995 hundreds of thousands of children were killed or abused by their families. The Bureau of Justice Statistics states that violence caused by relatives is a common reason that people go to the hospital". This statement further illustrates how the media's perception of teens as "super-predators'' is not only overblown, but almost entirely fabricated. Additionally the author goes out of her way to find a contemporary example, that is both relevant and valid, of the effect that the ''super-predator'' image has had on society. In the example she provides a black male teenager is shot to death by a White adult who felt threatened because the teen was playing loud rap music in his car. Something that seems like an open and shut case actually becomes highly politicized and the actions of the shooter are almost justified because of the media portrayal of the youth, in particularly Black and Latino youth. The author also touches on the notion that the adults need to be held accountable for their role in influencing the actions of the youth when she claims "the media does not consider that the negative attention on youth may mask the underlying problems caused by adults", which is a key point I felt Mike Males was trying to make.
ReplyDelete-Jonathan Verdugo
Bridget I really enjoyed how you focused on the background of those that are being stereotype. You did not try to divert the attention and say that it wasn’t their fault, that they were just being framed. Many people when they see the news and see that a young African American youth is being arrested just say “oh they are finally going to get what they deserve”, but they do not try to look into the back ground of the person. They do not know if this person was abused or maybe they were starving. We as a society are so quick to judge someone by the way they look. We may not notice that we do it all the time, but most of us do it at one time or another in our lives.
ReplyDeleteThe article that you included in your story was also very helpful in strengthen your argument and really shines light on the issue in hand. It shows that no matter how much we think that we have progressed in society when it comes to racial issues have we really changed as much as we say we have?
I also concur with Bridget’s point of how media has a major role in setting forth the view that youth are dangerous. I think she made a good job at exposing that there is a greater stigma towards Black and Latino youth because it puts a face for the category of dangerous youth and how media has come to uphold and reinforce that stigma and stereotype. I also think the author made a good point in exposing the contradictions with the decreasing crime rates of youth and the focus youth and violence by the media which makes it seem as if media is fascinated by the idea that youth are naturally violent and aggressive. This harmful portrayal has a negative effect on youth but the media is likely to correlate their news about youth with pop culture and entertainment. I agree with most of the authors points and also with her statement that media should depict youth struggles to expose a youth centered perspective to the public.
ReplyDeleteBridget does a very good job of showing how the media portrays youth as more violent than they really are. She even goes beyond this to show that it is generally a certain type of youth that is depicted this way, it is black and Latino youths. The example she gives of the white man shooting the black teen because he felt threatened due to the stereotype that the media puts out there about youths really helps to clarify exactly what devastating effects it can have.
ReplyDeleteAlso she does a good job in showing how this media representation further negatively impacts youth because it covers up bigger issues surround them. Such as being more likely to be victims of abusive adults. The media focus on youths prevents to focus from shifting onto these adults and therefore this problem is masked. It causes us to view youths as the problem when in many instances they are in fact the victims.
Overall Bridget’s essay is very clear and creates a strong argument and her focus on minority youth struck a chord with me. More specifically it was her comments on topics the media generally skips, such as the possibility of coming from an abusive family. I know from previous classes that missing a parent or immigrant status are factors that go into a youths actions, but this was the first time I considered that some of these youths are being raised by people who gave into alcoholism and alcohol abuse. With such role models, is it any wonder that many of those youth end up repeating the same cycle as their parents?
ReplyDeleteI’ve considered and discussed this topic with my peers on more than one occasion, I myself have glossed over those who are lost and in need of saving. I appreciate the extra attention she brought to the issue as it got me to re-evaluate some of the arguments I have made in the past.
This essay clearly states some major issues with the current approach of the media toward youth, especially minorities. I personally think that the media is excessively engaged with the idea of entertainment that it neglects to focuses on the roots of social issues such as "lack of education and poverty". Unfortunately drugs and crime-related subjects are currently more attractive to the public. The media tends to feed the public with crime-related materials in different shapes including movies, news and newspaper to draw more viewers and generate higher revenues. Perhaps this is the main negative aspect of private media industry that effectiveness for the society is compromised for a greater revenue.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the government is indifferent in this regard and does benefit from a deceptive media system. It is much easier to blame poor minority youth for crimes they commit rooted in poverty and lack of education than blaming the government for not providing sufficient funds to schools and education system. I firmly believe that the youth crime rate does not have to be a tragedy or portrayed as a tragedy if the media and the government tend to focus on the roots of criminal behavior.
Despite the negative impact of media on people, the future of the media industry is bright for youth. As it was mentioned in the lecture:"Child savers are children themselves in 21st century". The internet will help people to have much broader perspective about crime and youth. Social media enables youth to narrate the reality of their world. With the help of the internet and social media websites the dominant media companies will be forced to portray events as they are or otherwise will lose credibility.
The author did a really well of analyzing and discussing the arguments presented in "Myth: Media Tell the Truth About Youth". The media portrays a culture of fear that is directed at juvenile crime and their current rates. Whether or not youth are actually less violent or less likely to kill someone is significant, but the media portrays an entirely different view of youth. One point that the author brings up is the crime rates among adults compared to teens, which in fact are higher as stated. The fictional adult view of youth being superpredators still exists and is an irrational view when one looks at the facts. Superpredator is just a made up term by a New York Times journalist that was analyzing the growing population of urban youth. The author talks about the black male teenager that is shot to death by a white adult that claimed they felt threatened because of the music being too loud. Urban youth, and particularly black and latino youth are always the most talked about and publicized news when it comes to juveniles. The author talks about how adults need to start being held accountable for their role and the amount of influence they have over the legal system as well as the perceptions of youth. The profiling of youth is wrong and just because some juvenile fits a certain look does not make it right to assume they are dangerous or a criminal.
ReplyDeleteI really like how Bridget provides the example about Jordan Davis in order to show how the media has the agency to represent youth. Rather than just regurgitate what the Mill article says, this example illustrates how normal it is for the media to report this incident. A group of black, roudy, hip-hop, rap loving dangerous youth are to blame for their own demise by the white man who is scared and must protect himself from their threat. This is the image that the media spreads. It does this at the expense of the reputation of millennial youth today. One incident and one representation is associated with ALL youth, ALL blacks, and ALL urban communities. This case is also interesting because we have the youth's parents speaking up against what happened, and perhaps speaking out against the media's representation of young, black men. This is a lot like the Trayvon Martin case that shook the country last Summer. Even though Trayvon was killed, many still believed that he should not have been in that neighborhood at that time of night. Again, like gang injunctions, youth agency is restricted by adult's because of their ideas about who youth are and what they do. "Youth-as-a-dangerous-class" is perpetuated by the media, which shapes society's association and representation of youth, and in turn shapes law and policy to criminalize youth.
ReplyDelete