Media As A Social Prolem

7 Pages 1776 Words

ly, the minority groups themselves can develop reactions that are turned inward and create a sense of hopelessness, despair, and self-doubt that can lead into even more sociological problems in the form of alcoholism, drug abuse, aggression, and crime. Thus, the images presented by television news help contribute to this vicious, self-reinforcing, cycle as the news they present help to continue and promote the problems and the stereotypes.
Closely linked to race becomes issues of class. As those in minority areas are portrayed and viewed negatively a flight of capital and economic activity develops in conjunction with the stereotypes. Those with capital, typically white, avoid neighborhoods seen as violent or dangerous, and money is not spent or invested in these communities. Once this happens, “the catastrophe of the inner-city increasingly becomes one of economic isolation more than simply of race”. Jobs quickly disappear, and welfare reforms are doomed to failure without hope of potential employment. Once the welfare system fails the “United States will further divide into two societies: one multiracial and reasonably prosperous; the other, disadvantaged and often dark skinned, living in semi-permanent poverty”. As the ...