The media has played a major role in shaping society in the 21st century. As the technological age advances, media is available in all forms. They have adapted and advanced with technological advancement, as the media is more readily available on cellphones, tablets, computers, laptops, billboards, televisions, magazines, social media and the radio. Media in the form of entertainment is largely successful, because the influence it has on people is astonishing. The clothes we decide to wear are decided for us, what is popular in the media is how we shape ourselves, we buy what is advertised by the media and so on. There is no limit to the power that these media outlets have over people, because they also shape the way we see other people and events that occur around the world. I will compare Danny Lafferiere’s The World is Moving Around Me life narrative with the media’s alteration of identity, perception and perspective.
In the chapter January 11 from The World is Moving Around Me, Danny Laferriere is interviewed by Journalist Chantal Guy and photographer Ivanoh Demers who wanted to see Haiti through his eyes, “[his] private Port-au-Prince” (Laferriere 131) in order for their editor-in-chief “to accept an idea he’d already dismissed out of hand” (Laferriere 131). In this passage the journalists were interviewing Danny Laferriere a day before the 2010 earthquake disaster. These few statements regard the media’s bias towards Haiti, because they wanted the story to be approved, but they were not capturing the quote on quote “real” Port-au-Prince, but they were trying to signify what Haiti was like through a successful Haitian-Canadian expat, who is a celebrated celebrity. This act is an example of the bias the media consists off, so they can sell the story they assume readers would want more. In this process the reader’s perception is altered as this is not the right perspective to approach Haiti if they wanted to capture its essence as its identity is essentially lost. The media in this particular story plays the role of the coaxers, because Laferriere is being interviewed on a topic he is reluctant to share as he is being forced to remember.
This kind of discrimination is highly prevalent in media: class differences are readily portrayed, while racial discrimination and the promotion of stereotypical views are highly prevalent through the acts of victim-shaming and discriminating against black people in the media. Victim-shaming is the act of blaming the violated, which in many cases when the victims are women or black men, they are questioned when they have so clearly been harmed. When two teenagers were convicted for raping a 16-year-old girl, the media focused on “how difficult and painful [the] event [had] been for the rapists” (I Am Not Your Wife, Sister or Daughter). In this event, the media openly discriminates against women as the girl who had been raped was not a big concern, because women are seen as objects. Her well-being only mattered if she was “loved or valued by a man” (I Am Not Your Wife, Sister or Daughter). In this scenario rape culture is being perpetuated because it is not helping to humanize the victim (I Am Not Your Wife, Sister or Daughter). Why are women objectified as possession even in the 21st century? This matter is very concerning as the years have progressed, but women are still discriminated against in the media as they are devalued as human beings (I Am Not Your Wife, Sister or Daughter). True identity is often lost in stories represented by the media through their support in common stereotypical or limited perspectives. Often perception is altered through what is a commonly perceived misconception, such as the representation of a white suspects and black victims. News headings when conveying these two types of individuals will set the white suspect as: “son in Staten Island murders was brilliant, athletic – but his demons were the death of parents” (Wing), while the black victim: “Montgomery’s latest homicide victim had history of narcotics abuse, tangles with law” (Wing). Notice the bolded words, racial discrimination, especially amongst whites and blacks is largely visible, while the black man was a victim he is portrayed unsympathetically and as a “thug” (Ramsey), and the white suspect convicted of a homicide was “brilliant” before his “demons” bested him. The black victim is being shamed, while the white suspect’s actions are excusable because he was struggling with mental illness (Wing). Why the media chooses to alter perceptions instead of relaying the true story without any alteration or bias is highly questionable.
Although the racial and gender discrimination is not the main topic in The World is Moving Around Me, but what they do share in common is discussing the media’s misrepresentation of true identity. One of the reasons Danny Laferriere wrote his life narrative about the 2010 Haitian earthquake, was because “he has subsequently been committed to correcting [the] misconceptions about Haiti and its history” (Busby). The media is a very powerful system, as they are a main source of information. What they convey plays a great role in how stories are perceived and the reactions that are intended towards it. Therefor their misrepresentation of many identities and perspectives is highly concerning.
Works Cited
Busby, Brian John. “Dany Laferrière.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 16 Nov. 2009. Web. 07 Nov. 2016. <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dany-laferriere/>.
“I Am Not Your Wife, Sister or Daughter.” The Belle Jar. N.p., 20 May 2014. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.
Laferrière, Dany, and David Homel. The World Is Moving around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print.
Ramsey, Franchesca. “He Shows How the News Talks about Black People by Talking about White People Instead.” Upworthy. N.p., 27 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 Nov. 2016. <http://www.upworthy.com/he-shows-how-the-news-talks-about-black-people-by-talking-about-white-people-instead?c=upw1&u=f20be5bd55357885a9ce18d77c969c0f0ee1bb3f>.
Wing, Nick. “When The Media Treats White Suspects And Killers Better Than Black Victims.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/media-black-victims_n_5673291.html%20>.
