Content analysis OUTLINE: Introduction Methodology News analysis Conclusion References INTRODUCTION Media outlets play a vital role in informing, educating and entertaining people in any given society. Media industry has been marked as fourth pillar of states, which is in frontline in bringing news hence making people knowledgeable of what is going on around them. Media industry, since world wars has been valuable in informing the world what is going on, the trend which today has been vital to our society. The importance of the media industry has been reflected in various areas in the world, especially during the independence struggle in various countries. Media helped in unveiling what had been going in some parts of the world which needed attention, thus got help. Apart from informing the world, media industry has managed in connecting the world due to the news coverage in various aspects like social issues, environmental and politics. Disaster and conflicts reporting has made people all over the world to know which parts of the world have been affected hence rushing for the help being medical or humanitarian help.
But this could not have been possible without the help of media coverage. Taking Tsunami disaster in December 2004 in Asia, its coverage led international communities to provide aid to the victims and made relatives in other countries to know the welfare of their beloved ones who were taking their holidays in Asia. Entertaining people also is another important factor that media has contributed much in it. If you happen to see the news coverage of showbiz in United States of America (USA) and other countries around the world you will see how important role the media plays. Through the media people all over the world knows who Brad Pitt is or Julie Roberts is. More discoveries have been promoted through the media, in medical researches, social issues like human right activities, education, and politics to mention a few. Media played essential role in making people aware of what have been discovered, which lead to more improvements.
The Essay on Media Communication Pop Industry part 1
Media Communication - Pop Industry The music industry and young people An understanding of young people and popular music requires some understanding of the nature of the music industry itself and how the industry functions within the mass media. The music industry is part of several inter-related industries which between them generate large amounts of money and which either directly or indirectly ...
Apart from informing the mass, media also has played its role effectively in educating people through educative media outlets. Media industry with its modernity and improvements through modern technology has made the world to become one global village. Despite the fact that media industry has done a lot in informing, educating and entertaining the world, it has its side effects too. There is a say: A journalist pen is mightier than a gun. This can be very true depending on how that pen is being used by journalists. media coverage has to be objectively focusing on the issues need to be reported. Ethically media outlets have to adhere to the reporting standards like not being bias, balancing stories and reporting accurately without inciting the public.
This can be fatal especially to the multi-cultural societies. Neutrality is essential in news reporting which has to be in the best interest of all people concerned. Due to this aspect, my research paper is focusing on news reportage on Hispanic -Americans from of New York Times printed on October 02, 2006 to November 12, 2006. The objective of the research mainly is assessing the news coverage portraying negative or positive side of Hispanic Americans. As it is common knowledge that media outlets concentrates on negative side of reportage, I feel that Hispanic Americans have been reported in a manner that depicts them as criminals or illegal. News reportage has to cover both positive things Hispanic Americans do and not concentrating on the negative side much.
The Essay on The Impact Of The Electronic Mass Media On The Modern Society
The impact of the electronic mass media on the modern society. Nowadays our people have very doubtful view on the impact of electronic mass media on our society. They doubt about the real advantage of it. Some of them even consider it to be harmful for peoples mentality. Lets analyze this problem, try to compare different points of view in order to make our own conclusion. Leslie Baugles, the ...
It is common phenomenon in the media industry that negative side of news sell more than news reported in positive aspects. The trend has made most media outlets concentrating on the negative side hence giving minimum attention to the positive side on what Latin Americans are doing. Media outlets can promote a society through positive coverage, but on the other hand can tarnish that society image through negative publicity. What we have to ask ourselves here is has the media coverage of Hispanic American fair? Has New York Times and other media outlets done a fair job in reporting the Spanish society especially during the Brazil elections? Has the media painted good pictures of Spanish Americans society to the American populations? News articles always leave gaps for follow up or sometimes are exhaustive work, but have we looked closely on the Spanish Americans coverage to see which side is more portrayed? Is it negative side or positive side? Spanish Americans society being part of American society touches every aspect of American lives, though trying to preserve its culture and its way of living which is somehow different from others but is it represented in neutral way? All these are questions plus the negativity in media coverage led to this research. Although there are media outlets that are trying to balance their coverage, the number interested in covering in negative aspect sometimes outnumbers the positive side thus creating an image that Hispanic Americans are hostile and criminal to stay away from them. The image which is portrayed by the media is powerful as the public trust media with their coverage, taking their work unquestionably. But sometimes media can be useful tool in destroying peoples image among the societies. METHODOLOGY United Sates of America has a lot of media outlets which include print media and electronic together with online publications.
In this research, a criterion for sampling is based on the news coverage from October 02, 2006 to November 12, 2006. News articles appeared in New York Times and other media outlets like CNN, Wikipedia, Hispanic USA Resources Centre and Los Angeles Times to mention a few. News articles were selected according to the reportage and reflection of Hispanic American society. News articles from seven issues of New York Times have been selected in this research which will be analysed. These articles were categorised in coding system which refer to the date it appear, which section of the newspaper and which pages, headlines, did it fall in crime category, was it attributed positively or negatively, did the article mention illegality of Hispanic Americans? This category shows exactly the placement of the news articles and its significant it is and how it affect readers. Placement of articles also has impact to the readers and this was also put into consideration when analysing news content of the research. Apart from placement of news articles was the number of articles appeared per page and was it is given the attention it deserves or put as to fill the page. The content of the news articles is the crucial area that has been looked at carefully when researching for this paper and that is where the main focus of the research.
The Research paper on A Cultural Difference American Weddings Versus Hispanic Weddings
A Cultural Difference: American Weddings versus Hispanic Weddings It is very important to understand that each culture has the traditions of its own. While the Americans are individualists, the Hispanics belong to a collectivist culture. No wonder these differences find their reflection in cultural traditions of the nations, thus making the traditions between the two cultures so different. The ...
The stories were checked if news articles were balanced, unbiased, and neutral among few things. Another aspect that was checked in the content review was the headlines. Were the headlines written carrying the important message of the news article? Were the headlines written in catchy way but in distortion manner? Headlines are the door to the main stories and these should be written well to give summary of what have been written inside the stories, but they must be in accordance with the news articles. Some news articles are accompanied by an abstract or opening paragraph in introducing the news articles, this also has been taken into account when analysing the content of the articles. The emphasis which has been put in content of the news articles as to see which media outlet had more news articles which brought out the negativity of Hispanic Americans. The aim was to see if these news articles depict the bad image of the Spanish America society, to the American society itself and the world as whole. NEWS ANALYSIS Most of news articles present large percentage of negativity for Hispanic American society.
The Term Paper on The Role Of The Mass Media In American Politics Today
The mass media today play a vital role in American politics and possess a vast amount of power with reference to the political process. A role is defined as characteristic and expected social behaviour and the function, position or actions taken by a required person or group. (web reference 1) Politics as we know it is inconceivable without the mass media. They are the central forums of political ...
Placed in section A of the New York Times (NYT) since October 02, 2006 most stories were in negative aspect concerning Spanish American community both in USA and in South America. Most of news articles appeared on the NYT mainly focused of events happened in South America. Taking an example of Brazilian elections, whereas despite the grand victory President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva got, the opening paragraph mixed his victory as well his shortcomings in his party. This portrays mixed images to readers that despite the victory, Lula da Silva is still a corrupt leader. About more than 80 percent of the news coverage of NYT focusing on the Spanish America community have touched in various areas like social issues, politics and economy and related issues. Though Brazilian president got more coverage from other media outlets but its coverage portrays much on the negative side rather than positive side of winning the elections. Though most of the third world countries leaders are corrupt but why not writing positive side of the story on the elections if it was fair and how it was conducted peacefully.
Politics coverage took large part of the news coverage; politics has always provided juicy news stories due to its controversy. NYT also was not left behind in this trend as most of its coverage based on politics in the foreign department. Latin America coverage apart from other social issues, politics led in the coverage. With the politics coverage a lot are look at such as corruption, fraudulent, ballot cheating that is where negativity comes in. Another vivid example is the Venezuela presidential elections, whereby US government channelled large amount of money to opposition parties so as to overthrow the re-elected president Hugo Chaves. The president attacked the Bush administration for supporting organisations that are against its regime. The news article did not the US Ambassador to Venezuela for balancing the story so as to give readers the chance of answering the accusations thrown by the Venezuelan President, Chaves.
Another factor here is the how Spanish American are being corrupted by the US agencies and how can be very easily deceived. More negativity are exposed in the coverage especially news reported on October 10, 2006 on NYT whereas Panama government ordered the removal of some of medicines from the market due to its association with deaths of people administered. This revelation directly indicate the level of cheating even in the peoples health, though as one its responsibility of informing the public, the news coverage was based on speculation the government has. Although it has been legalised in various countries, homosexuality is still something not good to associate with. In November 10, 2006 NYT reported the legalisation of the gay civil organisations with similar benefits heterosexual married people get. The reportage of the story portrays how Mexican parliament succumbed to homosexuality notion.
The Term Paper on Hispanic americans Civil Rights Movement
Hispanic-Americans Civil Rights Movement America is facing the largest cultural shift in its history. Around the year 2050, whites will become a "minority." This is uncharted territory for this country, and this demographic change will affect everything. Alliances between the races are bound to shift. Political and social power will be re-apportioned. Our neighborhoods, our schools and workplaces, ...
This feeling of negativity reportage done to the Spanish Americans is not new in the US and Spanish American communities. Even in late 1990s Latinos felt that they were given unfair reportage. Latinos think the stories focus on the worst aspects of their community and this unbalanced coverage just reinforces negative racial stereotypes. (Cynthia Linton, Robert LeBailly, Summer 1998, Volume 19, Number 1).
Cultural diversity has also contributed much to the difference in news coverage. Spanish communities are found in every state in US and for years Spanish surnames have been appearing in the media, being electronic or print. But Hispanic news tended to focus on Hispanic as problem people, although the slant on White stories was less favourable than that on Hispanic stories. (Yahya R.
Kamalipour & Theresa Carilli, 1980, pg 9) Though with time news reportage has been modernized, the element of stereotype in the coverage has not fade away as it was expected. The reporting is still marked with element of racism which shows that these minority communities are threatening, demanding and untrustworthy. The images that are portrayed in the mainstream media present a somber picture about lives of Hispanic living in US. Positive role models, leaders or examples are rarely presented in the media. This has consequences in the Hispanic and non-Hispanic communities by reinforcing the existing misconceptions. People across the US and other places that do not have contact with Latinos in their daily life rely heavily on what they see on media especially TV coverage for their knowledge of this minority group.
By watching and accepting distorted images of reality, people at large are influenced in their attitudes towards Latinos. (Maria de Lourdes Vicenty Heres, May 1, 2003, pg 3 & 10).
The Essay on Hispanic American Diversity
Hispanic American Diversity The aim of this paper is to examine four Hispanic groups (Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Brazilian, to identify their statuses, social, economic, religious, linguistic and familial convention and to find out the main differences and similarities among those groups. Mexican Americans Mexican Americans make up approximately 64% of Hispanic population of the ...
A lot of studies have been done on how Hispanic Americans are covered in the media and most of the news covered focus on the immigrations issues depicting Spanish Americans as illegal immigrants and policies related to illegal immigrations. This has made Hispanic Americans undeserving for governmental accommodations due to their status portrayed by the media. Though the media industry is powerful all over the world of shaping societies they are reporting about, the trend of reporting in US towards Hispanic American communities depict how the media is shaping the American communities. This shows how misrepresentation of Latinos through the media has contributed to negative attitude people from other communities have towards Latinos. Articles appeared in the long serving New York Times has most of the stories covering elections in Peru, Venezuela and Brazil and some of them focused on the environmental issues and social issues as well.
The number of Latinos is increasing nowadays in US; it has outnumbered the number of black community, which can be covered excessively. Despite the negative coverage done by some of the media outlets, Spanish American communities invented their own media outlets in covering the void left by some of English mainstream media. These resources centres represent the new outlook of the Hispanic Americans communities hence providing the required forum for this growing minority group. Hispanic Resources Centre has been working hard in covering the positive aspect of Hispanic Americans life. The centre is compiling news articles that are in favour of Spanish communities living in US. CONCLUSION Finally, this analysis has come to conclusion that Hispanic Americans communities are represented but in negative attitude. This kind of reporting has made Spanish communities considered as problematic in the US and regarded as threatening, demanding and untrustworthy to the society. Despite the fact that there are a few news articles focusing on positive side of the coverage, the high percentage of negativity in the news articles has managed to change Americans at large attitude towards Latinos.
They are regarded as criminals while there is only small number of people who are problematic while majority are trustworthy and can be even given top political positions. Conflicts and difficulties in their lives, Latinos have been hitting the negative side of media outlets which made other parts of the world take Latinos as problematic. There are Latino businessmen and leaders who have made difference or are trying hard in making difference in their communities for the benefit or Latinos, but very rarely reported in the media. NYT covered one story reporting how Nicaragua president Enrique Bolanos unveiled plans to build a bridge for allowing bigger ships to enter. That was positive story but how many have been reported but not targeting the positive impacts Latino leaders and other influential people have done for their communities? The analysis came to a point that US media either has little knowledge about the growing influence the Hispanic Americans communities has, or that the media like to report this group in stereotype, thus ignoring the considerable number of population that need to be covered positively. REFERENCES Maria de Lourdes Vicenty Heres, May 1, 2003, pg 3 & 10: Hispanic Faces in the Media Yahya R. Kamaliopur & Theresa Carilli, 1980, pg 9: Cultural Diversity and the US Media Cynthia Linton, Robert LeBailly, Summer 1998, Volume 19, Number 1: Minority Viewers Fault Negative TV News Coverage Questia, Online Encyclopedia Hispanic USA, Your Resource Firm, Online Version.
