Does Media Discourse Reproduce Social Inequality - Essay Example

Does Media Discourse Reproduce Social Inequality Name Course Institution First is to understand what the concept of discourse entails and how it operates. The concept of discourse shows some form of communication either written or spoken that is associated to a particular field that requires some intellectuality and example of this is the media discourse. The discourse is, therefore, meant for different purposes depending on the discipline that it is involved in order to articulate a particular subject. The concept of discourse can also be explained by the fact that it uses a form of language that is unified, purposive and meaningful. Since the media discourse, mostly is concerned with the use of language both in the form of written and spoken in order to explain a particular social context then it can serve the wrong purpose thus leading to inequality in the society. The media at times is to blame for dividing people based on their social class in the society, for example, widening the gap between the rich and the poor thus the media discourse reproduces the social inequality. The media does a commendable job in ensuring that information is available to most parts of the world though at times it is to blame for the widespread inequality that is experienced in the world today (Johnson, 2010: 15). Through the media discourse then some parts of the world are viewed in the wrong picture, the international media shows Africa as a violent and dark continent. The damaging effect of this image portrayed causes more harm than good since it leads to some form of discrimination in the form of racism. Racism is a form of social inequality since people are judged depending on certain traits such as the skin color and the place of origin (Merino, 2009: 13). The practice is bad since it entails the viewing of some people as being inferior to others based on certain characteristics despite them being permanent such as the color of the skin. Sarcastic remarks are, therefore, made concerning Africans and this is usually annoying and is ill motivated since they are abusive and they cause more harm than good towards the emotions and the self-esteem of the people concerned. The remarks are made based on the image portrayed by the media that Africa is a dark continent thus signifying that it is behind times since it is not developed. The media should avoid such remarks since maybe on their part they did not mean to create an ill motive rather they did it in order to create some humor on the part of the audience. The media may be humorous when making such remarks, but, on the other hand, it is discriminative to some people thus it should avoid such remarks if equality is to be achieved (Johnson, 2010: 19). People are, therefore, judged based on their skin color and this is not right since you should not judge a book by its cover and the cover in this case is so vital that it can’t be changed. The skin color issue is beyond peoples’ understanding and should be left as it is since it is a complex issue and should not be the basis of our differences. Racism is an issue that is highly devastating since it makes people suffer despite the fact that it is a vice that is highly avoidable (Merino, 2009: 18). The media discourse should be subjected to through scrutiny since it may be the source of the enormous inequality that is experienced in the society today and the racism issue has been one of the biggest contributors of social inequality. The problem of racism is heavily rooted since it does not only happen in public places but also in the employment sector (Merino, 2009: 24). An employer might not employ a successful applicant based on their names, for example if a particular name is from the Arabic origin because such an individual may be a terrorist. Unemployment may, therefore, face such people because they are discriminated against given the fact that they belong to certain communities. On the part of the media discourse then it should be subjected to passing information that shows equality since this is a big problem in the society today. To promote equality then the media should portray, for example, Africa as being a continent that is undergoing a huge transformation in terms of development and evidence of this are countries such as Nigeria and South Africa that have recorded huge economic growth. As a result of racism that the media has played a role in accelerating negative effects, different sectors have been affected. An example of this is what happened in the sporting sector in the game of football and this happened recently despite the prowess of players discriminated against in their sporting activities. It occurred in Spain whereby Xavi Hernandez who plays for Barcelona Football Club had a banana thrown at him as they were playing against another club by the name Villarreal. The banana was thrown at him as a result of his skin color and the message that was being driven that he was a monkey and that he belonged in the banana world. The act was very inhuman since it could have adverse effects such as lowering the self-esteem of the player and making his confidence go down. An action such as this ought to be discouraged and the fan from the Villarreal Club who performed this act was banned from the club and these are some of the measures that should be undertaken in order to ensure that such situations do not occur again. It is, therefore, a challenge on the part of the media discourse in order to ensure that ethnicity and racism are not encouraged and this will be achieved if the media does not portray remarks that will lead to these situations. The media discourse has also promoted inequality based on various religions that are in existence today. The media has adversely linked Islam to terrorism. Terrorism has continued to cause much grieve and pain in the world today (Kane, 2007: 9). The acts of terrorism such as the detonation of bombs have, therefore, continued to hurt people through the killing of innocent people and subjecting others to lifetime injuries and deformities. Terrorism as an act is an ill motive and the media has done a good task in condemning it though it has failed by creating an image that all those people who believe in Islam are terrorists. Muslims who belong to the Islam religion are, therefore, discriminated against and this results to social inequality. The facts behind this are that those people who engage in terrorism activities have beliefs that they are fighting a holy war known as Jihad (Kane, 2007: 14). They have, therefore, continued to cause much havoc in the society that people are living in today (Johnson, 2010: 25). An example of a terrorist attack that astonished people happened on September 11th, 2001 where multiple attacks happened in the United States whereby terrorists linked to the terror group Al-Qaeda hijacked different airplanes and crashed them on several buildings. The terror attack was severe and it led to the death of more than three thousand people and this was a disastrous occurrence. The media should, therefore, fight terrorism since it is apparent from the above example that terrorism traits lead to the death of very many innocent people. The media, however, drags and links the acts of terrorism to a certain religious group Islam and this has adverse effects to the people belonging to this religious group. The evidence of this occurred at the Columbia University whereby Dr. Prabhjot Singh an assistant professor was physically abused. He was approached and accosted by a certain group of bikers who called his sorts of names which ranged from Osama and terrorist. He even suffered a fractured jaw as a result of the incidence that transpired. He had to be taken to the Mount Sinai Hospital and he was terribly shaken and an evidence of this is from his statement where he stated that the people in the United States should realize that Sikhs are not Islamic extremists. In order for the media discourse not to be in jeopardy then the information portrayed should be scrutinized in order to ensure that it is meant for a good course so as to prevent instances that could lead to social inequality. For example, the media can create an image depicting terrorism as an act that goes against the Islamic rulings so that the society can understand that the Islamic religion does not encourage terrorism rather it condemns these acts. The media discourse in Australia has been blamed for labelling Muslims as others and this has led to social inequality in Australia. An example of this took place in the form of Cronulla riots where hostility was staged towards the Muslims and those who had an Arabic origin and the word Islamophobia was used to label them and this was a very inhumane act (Gale, 2006: 23). The term used was, therefore, discriminative to the Muslims and what made things worse was the media by stating that the Muslims were others in society. The media would have been instrumental in condemning the act but instead it did the opposite through the discourse that it took which was an ill motive that led to further discrimination. The act, therefore, depicted the media in a negative image and this led to lowering the public confidence in the media (Talbot, 2007: 22). The media discourse has also led to the marginalization of people in Australia and evidence of this is the case of the refugees and the asylum seekers. The media depicts these people as being a significant and a deviant problem to the Australian populace and this has not always been the case (Keeffe, 2006: 17). The media has, therefore, led to social inequality because of this discourse since the asylum seekers and the refugees are viewed as being problematic and they should not exist in the first place. It is, therefore, evident that because of the media discourse pertaining this subject that negative remarks have been and this has further worsened the situation in Australia. The people in the category of refugees and asylum seekers have, therefore, been adversely affected since the media incited the citizens to deny them further a chance and this has led to the alarming cases of discrimination. The problem of male chauvinism has also been instigated by the media discourse since it creates social inequality in terms of the gender that a person belongs. The media has created the idea that the men are superior to women in many ways and this has led to negative effects. There has been discrimination of women in the workplaces since they are seen as inferior, therefore, they cannot deliver good results as compared to their male counterparts. Male chauvinism has led to negative vices such as domestic violence and in most cases the women have been abused both physically and emotionally. The vice has also led to sexual violence such as rape and this has become problematic to the society though some of these vices can be avoided. The media should, therefore, promote equality through the advocacy that people are all equal irrespective of the gender that someone belongs and this would be achieved through the idea of discouraging male chauvinism to prevail in the society. There has been social inequality because of media discourse based on the social class that someone belongs to and people are often judged based on these characteristics. The main aspect that is used to determine the social class of a person is the income level and the neighborhood that such a person lives and the media has led to this idea. The media has portrayed some areas as being dangerous to live in or that people should not think of visiting them since they are high risk areas. People in those areas are, therefore, labelled as criminals and this may not always be the case since some people are genuine and all they are doing is trying to make ends meet. The media has also created the idea that the wealth in the society belongs to particular communities, therefore if you are not from that community and you are wealthy then the most probability is that you are a criminal. An example of this happened in the United States whereby Robert Brown an American actor and played a role in the series the Treme was accused of fraud. The fraud in which he was accused involved his credit card whereby the NYPD were called upon and this all transpired after he bought a watch worth one thousand dollars he was, however, released with no charges. The actor was annoyed with this act, therefore, he filed a lawsuit against both the NYPD and Macy’s since they had both violated his constitutional rights. The fact behind this was that despite him providing identification to show that he was the rightful owner of the credit card the law enforcers dismissed it. The lawyer who was representing brown went ahead and made the remarks that Brown was victimized since “he was shopping while black.” The above shown that the rich belonged to a certain community such as the whites, therefore, if you belonged to a certain community then you were poor. If certain people show characteristics that they are wealthy and they belong to particular communities and neighborhoods then your traits are questionable. The point that the law enforcers and Macy’s were making was that certain people from certain backgrounds do not have money to enable them make huge purchases that require much money. The action was an ill motive since it involved discrimination on the basis of the economic status of a person. Money should, therefore, not be used to discriminate people since you should not judge people based on this. The media should, therefore, be careful not to marginalize people based on their economic status or the communities that they belong since the facts are not always true and Brown’s case is evident that the authority got it wrong. It is, therefore, evident that the media discourse may lead to some negative effects such as social inequality. All people should be viewed as being equal and the media can be instrumental in advocating for this idea and by so doing then part of the public confidence that had been lost concerning the media can be restored. The media heavily relies on the public and if their confidence is restored then this will be advantageous to the media since their discourse will be meant for a positive impact on society. References Johnson, S. A. (2010). Language ideologies and media discourse texts, practices, politics. London: Continuum. Kane, R. H. (2007). Terrorism. Harlow: Pearson Longman. Keeffe, A. (2006). Investigating media discourse. London: Routledge. Merino, N. (2009). Racism. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. Talbot, M. (2007). Media discourse: representation and interaction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Read More