It is up to us as consumers to recognize that these issues exist and to react accordingly. We have to advocate for independent media and demand a healthy balance from television and radio networks. It is the norm for T.V. movies and radio to glorify drug dealing, recklessness, promiscuity, pimps… even white people are portrayed as white trash, party animal sex crazed Jack ASSES. That’s not even the half of it… allow me to elaborate.
The lack of diversity seen in radio and television is very telling, and quite sickening if you ask me. On the media content side, the black youth are often portrayed as criminal and violent rather than law abiding constructive members of society. It is also argued that Hispanic, Arabic and Asian people are subject to “type-casting” which further perpetuates negative ethnic stereotypes. Also, minorities are highly underrepresented as journalists in mainstream media news broadcasting. It is hard to draw a conclusion about the possible incentive for media owners to release this type of content, the most plausible one is that the ratings reflect the publics inclination to watch or listen to content that is degrading, violent or misogynistic. If, in fact, political regulation is behind such content, it may be argued that by emphasizing the differences among citizens, it will be easier to use fear of community dilution as a reason to support a particular candidate.
Pre-programmed radio itinerary and nationally syndicated broadcasting have left local access and small radio stations to battle with the major conglomerates for airtime and audience. This leads to a lack of diversity of content and a greater risk of price gouging. Another issue that arises when we think of media ownership, is the misrepresentation and marginalization of minorities. From the ownership side, there is a relatively low number of minority owned stations and this is because of lack of advertisement dollars for “urban” formatted media, the lack of investment capital and the fact that most minority owned stations (which make up less than 4% in the market) are “single stationed operator” that are most likely to be bought out by larger media conglomerates.
I know it seems hopeless, but media conglomerates are losing their tight grip as technology and internet use become more prevalent. Also, independent media networks like LINK TV are changing the game by broadcasting opinions and facts that major networks would NOT dare broadcast. These independent networks have NO commercials, meaning no need to censor the truth for fear of losing advertisement dollars. FREE MEDIA, FREE EXPRESSION… demand it.- Genesis Be
