This week’s presentation on archival materials in my ASTU 100 class made me think about the media’s role in representing marginalized voices. Particularly, the project detailing Chinese immigration through the Chung family reminded me of how big a role media can play in public perception of marginalized subjects. The group’s layout, with the dominant white narrative about Chinese immigration on one side, and the comparatively sparse accounts of Chinese immigrants themselves on the other side, stood out to me because it showed how much information being brought to the public was racist or just lacking of firsthand knowledge of immigrant experiences.
As Jiwani and Young point out in their analysis of the media coverage of missing and murdered women in Vancouver, this representation can have a “backlash” on the subjects being represented (901) and, in some cases, further oppress the marginalized. With media coverage focusing on certain aspects of events or spewing a certain kind of rhetoric, it’s likely public opinion will be influenced by what people see and hear every day. In the case of missing and murdered women, the idea that these women are somehow deserving of violence can normalize this violence and, as a result, allow it to continue happening (901). Similarly, racist rhetoric about Chinese immigrants would have been complicit in creating widespread anti-immigrant sentiments, as well as eliciting hate crimes.
The matter of media representation also applies to current race relations in the United States. As the Huffington Post Article “When The Media Treats White Suspects and Killers Better Than Black Victims” by Nick King points out, media coverage of white male perpetrators of crime have focused on the redeeming qualities of suspects and killers, portraying them as “brilliant” but troubled, misguided, or mentally ill. Meanwhile, black male victims of crime or violence, particularly police brutality, have been characterized by criminal records or drug use. Similar to Jiwani and Young’s sentiment, King writes that “the headlines seem to suggest that black victims are to blame for their own deaths,” because of past mistakes, but white perpetrators should be recognized for past accomplishments.
Is media representation of marginalized subjects suggesting that some lives matter more than others? And if so, what repercussions does this have?
Well, as this article about the Charleston shooting details, public outcry began when people felt that major media sources were not giving adequate coverage to the shooting because the victims were black and the perpetrator white, as opposed to the other way around. Jiwani and Young, too, mention how a “hierarchy of crime” (Meyers, qtd. in Jiwani and Young 900) exists in media suggesting that some crimes are subject to more media coverage than others (900).
If media coverage is only being given to a certain kind of victim, or if victims are seen as deserving of violence, this sort of violence can become normalized, just as racism was normalized with the Chines Head Tax and Japanese Internment in Canada. People are less likely to do anything about it, and thus the cycles of violence and oppression can continue. I would argue that media representation of marginalized voices can contribute and has contributed directly to oppression, and that a critical lens is needed when looking at the news, television, and radio that we are constantly exposed to so that we can see whom these stories do and do not benefit.
Works Cited
Jiwani, Yasmin, and Mary Lynn Young. “Missing and Murdered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse.” Canadian Journal of Communication 31.4 (2006): 895-917. ProQuest. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
Noman, Natasha. “14 #CharlestonShooting Tweets Show How the Media Covers White Terrorism.” News.Mic. Mic, 18 June 2015. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
Wing, Nick. “When The Media Treats White Suspects And Killers Better Than Black Victims.” Huffpost Black Voices. Huffington Post, 14 Aug. 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.