Champie 1

Zane Champie
HELA 10
Ms. Wilson
25 February, 2015
Medias Biased Proclamations
Media action heavily impacts todays society, especially the youth. What one sees on
television, reads on social media websites, and hears on the radio influences their perception of
the world around them. Information from a variety of media sources is extremely influential in
the present day and can give biased views concerning race and gender a large audience.
One of the factors that gives the media such a large audience is its easy accessibility to
the masses. Contrary to popular belief, the young are not the only people increasing their use of
social media. According to a study conducted in the year 2010, "Social networking use among
Internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled- from 22% to 42% over the past year."
(Madden). This fact demonstrates that the world has reached a point where individuals must keep
up with the latest information so as to not fall behind the rest of the population intellectually.
With the click of a button, one can access thousands of different articles and documents
concerning any topic in the world. A consensus as to whether this easy access is positive or
negative does not exist, however. Some individuals, such as notable journalist Imtiaz Ali, believe
that the ability of the modern media to connect the world outweighs the flippant aspects of
sometimes irresponsible and false information from sources. Yet, many individuals stand divided
on the issue, even stating that, "the media isn't inherently positive or negative" (Mokeyane).
People promoting this positive or impartial view usually back it with the notion that the fast
communication of the modern world allows nations to become much more socially and logically

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advanced, but this opinion does not go uncontested. Bias lies at the root of many news stations
and at the heart of many social media posts, sometimes even disguised in a cryptic manner,
which can subconsciously affect public views.
A substantial sum of the medias biased remarks can be connected to racism and racist
attitudes. Racist behavior is not a new concept in the United States, although these tendencies
have evolved significantly since the age of slavery and the onset of the Civil Rights Movement.
Social media contains a large amount of racial bias in the present day, although news stations
have a tendency to cover stories concerning race with a certain keen interest. For example, in the
aftermath of Barack Obama's re election to presidency in the United States, a stream of tweets
targeting the race of the candidate was posted (Golding). This is just one instance of the intense
battle being waged every day over social media relating to racial bias and racism in general. With
the proper research, one can see that racist posts to social media are very common in certain
areas of the United States, although the phenomenon is not prominent in all locations (Refer to
Appendix A). However, even though it appears that this racism is contained to certain areas of
the nation, the internet allows for racist social media posts to be viewed all across the world.
While the authors of these posts to social media and articles in the news may be written with
facetious intentions, their use of inappropriate language and themes is irreverent to African
Americans. In the modern day, many strive to promote racial equality, but slander of minorities
on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter thrust the ideas of social progress and
equality back to a primitive state. Unfortunately, this bias against and slander of certain races in
the media are not the only flaws in social media and news of today.
Many media sources also contain within them extreme stereotypes and bias concerning
gender roles. According to Mary Beth Oliver and Chad Mahood, "In addition to the frequency of

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representation, numerous studies have pointed out that the manner in which males and females
are portrayed is often stereotypical." This attests to the theory that many advertisements and
news reports make subtle attempts to indoctrinate the populations of the modern world into
believing that individuals should act a certain way based on their sex. In these ever-changing
times, this assumption simply is not true, and those who believe in these stereotypes typically
contribute to the sexism and misogyny that is increasing on popular social media websites
(Gedye). These concepts that are often forced upon the mentalities of the youth of nations are
beginning to give people misconceptions of how they should behave, and could cause serious
issues with gender identity and the overall well-being of society in the near future. For example,
Kevin Thompson and Leslie Heinberg state in the Journal of Social Issues, However,
sociocultural factors, in particular the role of the media, have recently received perhaps the most
attention as a possible contributor to body image disturbance and eating dysfunctions. Other
such issues that also have been exacerbated by inflammatory media coverage include concepts
like homophobia and confusion within gender identity and behavior.
In the modern world, the media influences many beliefs of the population. Because of
this, biased sources and individuals wishing to push their views on others have a much larger
audience than they typically would. In order to avoid dangerous ideals in the future, the youth of
today must learn to decipher between biased sources and ones that carry fair and balanced facts,
and popular media sources must be held accountable for the information presented in their
sources.
Appendix A

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Works Cited
Ali, Imtiaz. "Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society." TechBead. Web. 25
Feb. 2015.
<http://www.techbead.com/positive-and-negative-effects-of-social-media-on-society/>.
Garber, Megan. "Where America's Racist Tweets Come From." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media
Company, 9 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/where-americas-racist-tweets-c
ome-from/265006/>.
Gedye, Grace. "Guest: The Rise of Sexism and Misogyny in a Facebook Era." The Seattle Times.
16 Apr. 2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/guest-the-rise-of-sexism-and-misogyny-in-a-faceb
ook-era/>.
Golding, Shenequa. "Shameful! Racists Use Social Media To Spread Hate Over Obama Win."
News One RSS. 14 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
<http://newsone.com/2080464/social-media-racism/>.
Madden, Mary. "Older Adults and Social Media." Pew Research Centers Internet American Life
Project RSS. 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/08/27/older-adults-and-social-media/>.
Mokeyane. "Media's Positive & Negative Influence on Teenagers." Everyday Life. Web. 26 Feb.
2015.
<http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/medias-positive-negative-influence-teenagers-10506.
html>.
OLIVER, MARY BETH, and CHAD MAHOOD. "Gender and the Media." Encyclopedia

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of Communication and Information. Ed. Jorge Reina Schement. Vol. 2. New York:
Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. 353-357. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 25 Feb.
2015.
Thompson, J. Kevin, and Leslie J. Heinberg. "The Media's Influence On Body Image
Disturbance And Eating Disorders: We've Reviled Them, Now Can We Rehabilitate
Them?" Journal of Social Issues 55 (1999): 339-53. Print.