Week 1 Jan 24, 2011

First class of the semester and I can already see this is going to be a very intersting class with a lot of different opinions and heavy discussions. After watching "Race and Local TV News" (on VHS)  and the YOUTUBE video of  the "Dodson attempted rape" news story there were a lot of things I realized. In the YOUTUBE video for example I thought about how I lost focus on the story at hand and focused on the character that was put in front of me because of his strong personality. Although I had seen this video numerous times before I always found myself waiting to see Antoine again so that I could laugh. And now thinking about it the reason I watch news is not to get a good laugh at someone else's expense, it is to stay informed about what is going on in the world. Should the news be bringing such stories to the air that loose focus of the real story?  In my opinion no, this story could have been done differently. This storied portrayed a stereotype of the African Americans that live in the projects and didn't focus enough on trying to help find the suspect that was accused of breaking into a home and attempting to rape a young black woman.  I have seen other stories that have been done about a rape victim or attempted rape victim and in those cases they were white and the seriousness of the story and the focus to find the perpetrator was more profound.  At times even when the reporter was talking with the victim they would blurr out their face to protect their identity. A sketch often followed (of the scary minority suspect) to warn people of what they looked like to try to get the word out.  Minorities are portrayed like the suspects in most news stories, but at the same time they are not the only ones that are committing crimes.  It is ultimately the decision of the producers of the news stations that decide what they want to allow the viewer to know about.