This local news assignment definitely opened my eyes to how the news is reported. I usually watch the news intently following each story reported, but rarely do I think of how and why the story is being told. I never realized how much the news effected my perceptions of people concerning race and gender and I never realized how biased a newscast can be. There are several aspects of the amount of bias that goes into the newscast. For example, the amount of violent crimes reported committed by white men are far less than the stories reported on black and Hispanic men committing the same kind of crimes. Also, crimes committed by a minority are likely to be reported more meticulously . They usually show the neighborhood of the crime, and details of the victim. Another result of my tracking of crimes reported in newscasts is that most news anchors reporting on minority committed crimes are predominately white. I honestly never thought about the race of the anchor reporting the news, and I never thought their race inhibited their abilities to report the news. I now see that race does not inhibit reporting of news, but it changes how the reporter is told to report the story.
The news and the rest of the media build perceptions on race. Sometimes the media is accurate and sometimes they are not. People have to be read between the skewed lines of the media. Everyday crimes are committed by all races, but it is up to the media to decide how they are reported. Some are reported to seem more severe and others are reported to seem less severe. There is bias in every story being told. It is up to the people watching the newscast to see the real truth behind the story the anchors telling.
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