Racial Hostility within the Media in the US - Dissertation Example

It is in this particular context that the researcher looked into the experiences of Michelle Obama during her husband’s presidential campaign in 2008. During the said campaign, Michelle Obama faced racist comments from the press upon discovery of her undergraduate thesis. Apparently, her reference to the “Black Power” served as the main reason by which she was attacked due to her lack of patriotism. It was also in her thesis that Michelle Obama expressed her disappointment with fellow African-Americans for their failure to unite to “battle against a white oppressor” Generally, the racist comments were caused by the fact that Americans are not used to the fact that a Black Woman would take her place as the country’s first lady. Respondents in this particular study noted that the country is yet to be accustomed to such fact, thus they were not willing to accept Michelle Obama, thus the racist comments.
The media is known to be a very powerful institution that has been established within a democratic community. It aims to transmit and communicate cultural ideas, images, myths, and sequences of events (Nairn, Pega, McCreanor, Rankine, and Barnes 2006). Media discourse remains to be a significant means of reproducing shared beliefs and fundamental values of society. Hence, the media plays a relevant role in exchanging opinions, knowledge, and information. The media, per se, have become a major instrument with which countries can establish and publicize their ideals as they are expected to express a wide range of viewpoints, remain as objective and neutral as possible, and provide access to various groups, regardless of gender, racial background, religion, social class, and sexual orientation, to name a few (Wetherell and Potter 1992). Print and electronic media have made a significant impact on the daily lives of communities and its members as the television, radio, and print media, among other types of media, present the components out of which individuals can establish identities and make sense of themselves (e.g. the meaning of one’s own gender, ethnicity, and national identity). Moreover, it enables society to differentiate and understanding what it means to be “us” and “them” (McQuail 2000).