Perceptions of how racial issues are discussed in the news vary. Some institutions like The Guardian report that minority media representation is important while others, such as Breitbart, report that minorities are over-represented. The portrayals of minorities become increasingly important as the population diversifies, and perceptions of the subject vary among college students from the Detroit area.
Some believe that the portrayals of minorities have been fair and balanced while others believe the opposite. All three interviewees had different thoughts regarding the subject.
"What's more important: specialization or normalization? I think it covers a lot of the wrong things sometimes, but I also find it to be excessive at times yet understandable," Said Bobby Askew of Saginaw Valley State University.
His belief is that there is a balance between portrayals in the media, and often, the media varies when it comes to minorities.
This statement differs from the thoughts of another. DeAngelo Hudson of Eastern Michigan University had a different view entirely.
"I think the way it should be covered is that there should be a positive and negative view for any race," Hudson said. "As of right now the media doesn't cover race fairly. The leftist media tends to paint white people from a bad point of view."
Hudson feels that white people get unfairly represented in the media compared to minorities.
Lastly, Christophe Brown of Wayne State University had an opposing view to that idea. He felt that minorities were not getting any fair portrayals at all.
"I honestly don't think it's covered fairly at all. It almost seems like no matter what topic, black people always have to be the ones to explain ourselves, or take someone else's side, when the media is rarely on our side for the morally right reason," Brown said. "I don't think anything will change until we have our own leverage, in the form of our own big media outlets."
The opinions of all three students show how diverse the issue really is. The issues surrounding media portrayals and diversity are issues for journalists in the future. The Washington Post did an article on a study that showed African Americans are over-represented in a negative light.
The future surrounding this issue in uncertain.
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