30 Million Word Gap

Dear LS104AC,

Here's more info on the '30 Million Word Gap' research discussed this past week during section.

The media's portrayal of youth v. the reality

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&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

-Bridget McDonagh