Two Famillies, Media Journal
Buhendwa Nathalie
SOC 3251 W
Media Journal
Lat night I was watching the show: Two families on Without a Trace, TNT channel. It was a case of two missing teen ages; a black boy and a white girl. Jack Melon the main character is shown along with is colleague Vivian Johnson to have the hardest time because of the racial profiling of both cases. Despite that the two teen ages goes to the same school and disappeared the same day only the girl receive major television coverage. With assistance from FBI agents. The Media provide a showcase that every body is tuned to. The mother of the black boy could not do any thing but watch as her son’s case being given less attention and fewer agents to conduct the search.
Most of the people concern; the FBI agents and the white family feel uncomfortable to witness such a gap and discrimination but non do any thing to stop it, Jack Malone attempt to pressure the Media to ear the case of the black boy as well but his turned down. This case had many points that we covered in our class readings for instance: racial profiling, racial discrimination, gender bias and discrimination, class stereotyping, all of witch were supported and reinforced by both the Media coverage and the authority. The FBI agent choose to put more effort in finding the teen age girls than the boy because of the pressure he received from his superior to solve the case fast. The anchor guy just said it as it was: “a young rich white girl went missing; it is every one’s duty to find her�.
Question
- Any one knows what to do to stop this racial profiling both in the media as well as by the authorities?
- I you were faced with similar situation as Jack Malone what will you do?
Comments
I believe that this story shows how black people living in this society are discriminated against in both covert and overt ways in which there isn’t anything they can do about it. We live in a society which promotes equal opportunity/justice for all, but at the same time there isn’t any equality when it comes to cases such as this one. It’s sad to see this kind of cases/stories because the teens went to the same schools, and disappeared the same time. And when this type of thing happens one would assume that the teens would get the same media attention, but because of race one is looked at as important, and news worthy and the other is ignored. As a result, it means that power, wealth, and the privilege of a white individual can exceed of what any black individual in this society might have.
Posted by: Amal Mohamud | March 29, 2007 5:20 PM
I believe that this story shows how black people living in this society are discriminated against in both covert and overt ways in which there isn’t anything they can do about it. We live in a society which promotes equal opportunity/justice for all, but at the same time there isn’t any equality when it comes to cases such as this one. It’s sad to see this kind of cases/stories because the teens went to the same schools, and disappeared the same time. And when this type of thing happens one would assume that the teens would get the same media attention, but because of race one is looked at as important, and news worthy and the other is ignored. As a result, it means that power, wealth, and the privilege of a white individual can exceed of what any black individual in this society might have.
Posted by: Amal Mohamud | March 29, 2007 5:23 PM