October Blog Post

Luke Tokunaga

COMM 160

10/25/16

October Blog Post

            “In this way, power is always at play- Culture becomes the system of power that overlays a social system, informing people how to live their lives” (Warren, Bassett, 175).

In class we talked about how cultures are mediated, and there isn’t a better documentary that represents that than the Netflix Documentary 13^th. In this documentary African Americans are portrayed as crazy, animal like, and even labeled as “Super Predators.” They were shown as dangerous people, shown trying to attack and “rape” white women.           But what was shown in the media, people would actually believe what they see. They were being watched very carefully and arrested for such small things. Officers would find anything they could to put them in jail and keep them off the streets. But from one thing to another, drugs became a big part of the media and the use of drugs specifically from African Americans. It was said that it became a war on drugs, and the drugs weren’t seen as a health issue, but a crime issue.

            The way the culture was mediated, people of the African American race started to give up on their own selves. It was said so much in the media how dangerous African Americans were, that they even started to believe it. The way the media would show them doing “bad” stuff and getting arrested really got to their heads. In the documentary it had a man talking about how your grandma thinks her grandsons are so sweet and innocent, but on the streets they are causing problems. So this started to make some parents turn their kids in. There were also many cases that were mediated, about 5 teenagers under the age of 18, raped a white lady. This was called the Central Park Jogger Case and on this case Donald Trump at the time said to the media that he wanted the death penalty on these 5. But after DNA testing they were innocent. They were going to be killed for something they didn’t even do.

            What the media can portray is so powerful. We almost believe everything we see on television, social media, or anything we hear on the news. So still to this day we have problems with how the media cultivates people. Not very long ago we had the “I can’t breathe” campaign, which was Eric Garners last words as a he was being arrested by the police for selling untaxed cigarettes. But at the same time for how the media showed that, now people are trying to make a change by showing the support of that campaign on social media. A lot of famous people, especially professional athletes at the time joined this rally. Because if someone that people look up to is doing something, most likely others will follow. I think the way they are trying to reverse the media and show people their side on how they support the campaign can really change a lot of minds. In the end it comes to show how powerful what media can do to cultures.

Source:

            Warren, John T., and Deanna L. Bassett. Communication: A Critical/cultural Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2011. Print.