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Critical Media Analysis

The Night Of is a short HBO series that illustrates the life of a young Muslim boy who was arrested for the brutal murder of a young white female. This series illustrates the numerous racial stereotypes that exist in the media in relation to crime. “Media have been shown to have the potential to promote or to call into question stereotypical views of social groups, including those defined by race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity” (Scharrer and Ramasubramanian, 2015). The media is definitely at fault for promoting stereotypical views amongst various groups of individuals. In terms of race, minority individuals are continually negatively represented when it comes to crime. In this mini-series, this young man was assumed to be the murderer because he was last seen with this girl. Although it is unclear whether or not he was truly the murderer, his community and many others believed he was at fault because of his race. The news and media in the show also made it very clear that, because he was not white, he would have had more motive to commit the murder. “Manning Marable ( 1992) has also defined racism as "a system of ignorance, exploitation, and power used to oppress African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Americans, American Indians and other people on the basis of ethnicity, culture, mannerisms, and color” (Solorzano, 1997). This definition of racism is evident within this show, as it represents the ignorance that the community members had by assuming he was guilty simply because he was a Muslim. His family was mistreated while he was in prison because they assumed they were terrorists. The most ironic part of this was after all of the torture and assumptions towards this boy and his family, it turned out he was not the killer. Rather, the murderer was actually a white male that no one suspected. It is clear that in numerous shows and movies, certain races are negatively portrayed in association with crime. “We are therefore quite confident in concluding that, for many whites, crime policy attitudes are fuelled by their racial beliefs” (Hurwitz and Peffley, 1997). These racial stereotypes cause audiences to foster racial beliefs that they bring to the real world. These negative perceptions develop racist thoughts and beliefs among privileged and dominant groups of individuals. In order to challenge these misrepresentations relating to race, we as adults and educators must work to remove these negative stereotypes in order to change the way others view individuals of diverse races. “Critical media education engages educators in a search (with their students) for pedagogical strategies aimed at promoting the democratizing of interpretation as well as the production of media” (Stack and Kelly, 2006). Through critical media education, we can promote inclusivity and work to eliminate these negative representations that minority individuals face due to the stereotypical portrayals in media.

References:

Hurwitz, J. and Peffley, M. (1997). Public Perceptions of Race and Crime: The Role of Racial Stereotypes. American Journal of Political Science, 41(2), p. 375.

Scharrer, E. and Ramasubramanian, S. (2015). Intervening in the Media’s Influence on Stereotypes of Race and Ethnicity: The Role of Media Literacy Education. Journal of Social Issues. 71(1), pp. 171-185.

Soloarzano, D. (1997). Images and Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, Racial Stereotyping, and Teacher Education. Teacher Education Quarterly, 24(3), pp. 5-19.

Stack, M. and Kelly, D. (2006). Popular Media, Education, and Resistance, Canadian Journal of Education, 29(1), pp. 5-26.


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