The Concept Of Moral Panics

The Concept Of Moral Panics Societies generally appear to be the subject of moral panic now and then. Moral panic is a condition where there is a concern over the behaviour of certain group or a particular category and is a threat to the societal values and interests.(Cohen 1973). In the past it has been the drug culture of the fifties and sixties, or the disruptive behaviour of the Mods and Rockers, today we face panics over children who kill other children and also the threat to our health from outbreaks of BSE and E.coli food poisoning, teenagers gripped by a new and threatening drug epidemic, paedophile is one of the most prominent moral panic now a days( Watson 1989). To get a clear view on moral panic the essay focuses on the case study of moral panic created by the recent Paedophilia case as Craig Sweeney, 24, was jailed for life at Cardiff crown court for the kidnapping and sexual assault of a three-year-old girl in 2006. Firstly the essay discusses about how the media handles moral panic in good terms and would also explore on advantages of moral panic and the results of it. Secondly the essay expounds on the criticism of moral panic and the role of media in causing moral panic and as well as controlling it . Lastly the essay explains about the internet and in context to moral panic. Firstly the essay explains about the media handling moral panic and the advantages of moral panic. Modern moral panics are unthinkable without the media as the best way to understand the moral panics is through the media. The media used the case of a three year old girl getting sexually assaulted by Sweeney who was 24 years who was known to the girls family in 2006. The article was published in Guardian newspaper and the media issued a moral message for the nation to take on and poses that its a evil world so the nation needs strict rules. The media highlights and presents many issues and concerns to society and the public to gain awareness about the societal issues. The media played an specific role in expressing and activating hostility towards the paedophiles. Cohen ( 1973) states that the understanding the role of media becomes central . Most of the people are dependant on the media in knowing about the causes of deviance and their social reaction depends upon the information ava ilable. The media also informs about right and wrong and the boundaries beyond one shouldnt venture. Thus the media becomes central during moral panics. Furthermore, moral panics cause society to believe that the crime is worse. The path of the panic, that is in response to the growing concern and panic over child sex offences has more serious and lasting implications such as incorporation into legislation and social policy, that is the National Sex Offenders Register (Paedophile Register) in the late 1990s, However, according to Thompson(1998) there is a chance of the moral panic to either quickly die out and the intents and purpose is forgotten and also it might be that the public and media are searching for some new news. There has been criticism of moral panic and the media in the recent years. In fact according to Ben- Yehuda (1985), Moral panics serve as a mechanism for simultaneously strengthening and redrawing societys moral boundaries. The moral panic of the particular paedophilia case did not focus only on that three year old but also focused on the increasing rate of the paedophilia cases in the UK. Having looked at the g ood term of moral panic further the essay criticises moral panic. According to Watney( 1988) moral panic is criticised for implying that the state as a monolithic entity which initiates or exploits moral panics. Secondly the criticism of moral panic is in relation to the media. As mentioned above in the essay that the media is central during moral panic, However the media has been criticised in many ways. Cohen (1972) argued that the characterized press coverage of the events as exaggerated attention, exaggerated events, distortion, and stereotyping. It basically explains that the media tends to exaggerates the news and creates a greater amount of panic in the beginning of the moral panics. Thus the case of the three year old sexually getting assaulted, the media not only were the events over-reported but the coverage awarded them far outweighed their importance. Due to distorted and repeated false stories of the media seemed that the order of the day with little time or interest being given to what actually happened in fact generally the coverage of the press was seen to follow a stereotypical pattern and is a firm indicator of a moral panic taking place . For instance the case paedophilia, the media tend to cover the same stories in which the public might loose interest. The public on the other hand must show the potential to react to a particular issue in order for a media campaign to be built. For as Goode and Ben-Yehuda explain, that the media may well be infused with hysteria about a particular issue or condition but if this does not generate public concern then there is no moral panic (Goode Ben-Yehuda 1994: 26). However according to Fishman and Davis (1980) the repeated or the prolonged moral panics about the specific issues like the paedophilia cases which are a rise in UK give rise to the development of the dynamic characteristics of the social problem. On the other hand Rocheron and Linne(1989) explains that the moral panic is still criticised because it tends to attribute to the mass media which has the power to manipulate the public opinion and also fails to differentiate between what the public thinks as well as what the paper say. The new media also plays an important role in the case of moral panic. The real truth about paedophiles and the cases about paedophilia is not new to the public. What is suggested, however, is that there is now far more known about the prevalence of paedophilia. According to Curen J(1991)The news in internet are well reported, and newspapers can be browsed online on the internet which have done their bit to expose paedophile rings. Thus the public, when asked about their panic and violent fury toward paedophiles, quite understandably often point to the figures they are presented with (often by the press), figures which tell them child abuse is everywhere. However, Jenkins (1992) the internet can be the cause of moral panic, as due to the easy access now a days and the youth are exposed to the crime through the videos online and also pornography can be a reason for the increasing rate of the paedophile cases in UK. Thus the new media like the internet might be one of the causes for th e increase rate in such cases. To sum up the view of moral panic, the essay critically discussed about the concept of moral panic referring to the case of paedophilia where by a three year old girl was sexually assaulted by a 24 year old man. The essay critically analysed the concept of moral panic as it expounds on both sides of the coins that is the criticism of moral panic as well as the advantages of it. Firstly the essay discussed about the reaction of the media in context to moral panics in good terms and further more it also looks upon the advantages of moral panic like in creating awareness to the public. The essay also explains about the results of the paedophilia cases in the UK. Secondly as the essay is critically analysing the concept of moral panic, looks upon the criticism of moral panic and the reaction of the media. As the essay explains about the exaggeration of the moral panic with in the media and also states that the repeated news does not have an impact on the public. Finally the essay explain s about the new media that is the internet in context to the rise of the paedophile cases. As explained before due to the easy access to the World wide web it is possible that the youth are prone to watch pornography which might be a concern in the rise of the paedophile cases. Thus the moral panic is critically analysed. Pages: 4 Word count: 1475

Effective Team and Performance Management Essay

Effective Team and Performance Management Introduction            This is a report on the case study on team performance management of Electric Company. The report will borrow on theory and practice of both leadership and team management in order to explain the need for organisations to employ the use of employee teams which is a strategy designed to improve the performance of the employees. The report will begin with an introduction of the organisation in the case study and then proceed to the aims and objectives of the report. This will be followed by a discussion of the theories that have been used to describe team performance as well as the substitution of leaders by the teams. In this section, an empirical review on these theories will also be carried out. Finally, the conclusions and recommendations will be presented.            Electron, is a small manufacturing company that deals with the manufacture of telecommunications components. The company was established in 1997 and its headquarters is in the North of England. It should be noted that 90 out of 150 employees working at the headquarters work in the manufacturing department. The company operates using the traditional organisation structure divided into various departments such as manufacturing, finance, human resource, sales and marketing and engineering departments. The management of the company decided to group the employees in the manufacturing department into 8 teams each consisting of 10 employees in order to increase their efficiency in terms of the quality and the quantity of work done. The management of the company wanted to establish whether the teams would perform better as compared to when employees were working individually. This report therefore aims to evaluate the performance of the selected teams borrowing heavily on theory and empirical evidence to determine the appropriateness of dividing employees into teams. the report will also rely heavily on the relevant work of other researchers and academicians. The report will also make conclusions on the performance of teams as well as make recommendations on what the best practices are on employee team performance (Mueller, Procter & Buchanan, 2000).            Team PerformanceIn today’s organisations, employees are increasingly being allocated to work groups as part of the strategy to increase their efficiency and output. This is also being done in order to ensure that employees work together in a more effective way and are able to exploit their potential to grow and develop in an optimal way. These work groups are normally designed such that the employees are working together on some common activities in manner that is co-ordinated and in most occasions, these activities cannot be carried out successfully through individual effort alone. In such a case where employees are working together in group for a common goal, this is normally referred to as team work and the groups are normally referred to as teams. It should be noted that in an organisation setting, managers or supervisors can form employee teams on a temporary or permanent basis and the compositions of these teams varies with the purpose for which the te am is created in the first place. This means that there are teams that will constitute of employees from the same department while there are teams which will be made up of employees from across the various departments of the organisation. There are various attributes that will determine whether a team is successful in its activities; however, of a lot of importance is the support from senior management, training and development as well as the devotion and dedication of team members in the execution of their duties (Parker, 1990).            Teams and leadershipTeams are today required to take care of a lot of the duties that were previously assigned to supervisors and therefore various scholars and academicians have made suggestions that teams have come to be substitutes of leadership in organisations of the 21st century. They also argue that as a result of this change, supervisors on the other hand have also evolved from being foremen to mere facilitators of the activities of the team members (Huusko, 2006). In practice therefore, in a situation where the organisation employees are divided into teams, the number of supervisors greatly reduce since the hierarchical structure of the organisation is lowered and the organisation adopts a more flat organisation structure. This therefore means that the role of leadership in the organisation is faced with a new challenging situation where they no longer have a clearly laid down way of operating as their duties have been taken over by the new teams.            There are various theories that have attempted to explain the idea of the substitution of leadership and an example of such is the idea that deals with the idea of moderators that are known to influence the actions of leaders and leaders’ substitutes in different ways. The idea suggests that most of the current arrangements evident in organisations today such as teams, management from a distance and others have various effects on the roles of leaders in the organisation and can either support them or substitute them and even reduce the impact that leaders have on the employees of the organisation. This can occur in a case where the management and the employees are separated by a long distance and may therefore not understand the instructions given to them by their supervisors if proper communication channels have not been established. Researchers on leadership substitutes have also brought a legal angle into the discussion where they argue that employees may receive the needed guidance or instructions from their supervisors but take it for granted that the information comes from the supervisors as they are the primary suppliers of such information in the organisational structure (Howell et al., 1990).            In the case of Electric Company, it is evident that the older team members were given the responsibility of ensuring that the new team members understood the norms of the team and that they obeyed the rules of the team as well as ensure that they were fully and successfully integrated into the value based social order. This therefore means that the role of supervisors and other leadership persons in the organisation was taken over by the older members of the teams indicating that there was a substitution of leadership roles by the teams. This has been clearly supported by both the theories above and the empirical evidence.            Another theory that explains the substitution of leadership by team members is the theory of functional leadership. Researchers have used this leadership perspective to argue that effective team leaders are normally able to follow the activities of their team members and also normally take over any leadership roles in the team at any time when there is need for such an action (Zaccaro, Rittman, & Marks, 2001). This means that a team leader’s primary responsibility in the organisation is to plan the activities of the team and to continuously follow the activities of the team members as well as to determine the functions that are not being carried out in the right way and those that are missing in order to either perform the duties themselves or ensure that team members are made aware of them and directed to carry them out. The functional leadership theory is based on the premise that certain team circumstances normally drive the actions of the team members as well as the team leaders and they therefore call for some leadership activities to be adopted by the team leaders. This means that once the team leaders adopt these jobs then the leaders are left with no duties and therefore become useless in the organisational structure (Zaccaro, 2002).            In most organisations therefore, this theory suggests that leadership behaviours become irrelevant and ineffective in guiding the actions of the teams and therefore the success of teams does not require the involvement of leaders but the guidance of the team leaders and the dedication of the team members. The argument by this theory is therefore in line with the contingency theories of leadership which suggest that leadership effectiveness is normally influenced by the context of leadership, the situation facing the leader at a particular time as well as the organisational conditions at specific times (House, 1971). This means that the characteristics and behaviours of the team members and the team leaders are able to take the place of leadership processes thereby substituting the role of leadership in the organisation. This moves the focus of leadership functions from the person or individual leader to the functions of leadership and extends the idea that leadersh ip functions can be found from other sources other than the organisational leaders themselves.            This is the situation that was experienced by the employees at Electron Company when new members were introduced into the teams. the old team members who were already aware of the values and norms of their teams naturally assumed leadership roles and guided the new members to understand and identify with these team values as they best as they could as this is what drove the dedication of team members in general as well as the performance of the team as compared to the other teams. The result was that the older team members were exerting control over the actions of the new team members and therefore the new team members saw the need to follow the laid down values of the team. This led to a situation where the new team members also started controlling themselves in terms of their actions and behaviour towards work and other team members (Kerr & Jermier, 1978). This therefore made it possible for the values and norms of the teams to be translated into simple rules and regulations that all new employees could understand easily and therefore fit into their assigned teams with ease. The assumption of the responsibility of guiding the new team members by the old team members therefore substituted the need for leadership in the management of the company.            The new way of carrying out duties amongst the team members resulted in a situation where the common values and norms of the team members were gradually turned into properly laid down rules and regulation and it was the responsibility of each team member to follow them in order to effectively contribute to the success of the organisation at large. This therefore means that team members were no longer acting on the instructions of the team leaders but their actions were being guided by the rules and regulations that they had set up themselves. Team members found it easy to follow these rules and regulations as they had played a part in their making and therefore felt more comfortable following hem unlike in a case where these rules had been established by the management of the company without their involvement in any way. Team members found it hard not to follow the rules because of the peer pressure that they experienced from other team members and due to the fact that the rules were such that failure to follow them would lead to punitive actions against the team member. Employee effectiveness was therefore ensured through peer pressure and the fact that older members were very keen to avoid a situation where they could be seen as being too harsh to the new employees. They therefore ensured that they carried out their duties according to the laid down procedures and therefore the new team members were left with no option but to adapt to the situation and follow the actions of the older ones. This situation effectively removed the need for leadership individuals in the structure as the team members were able to control them and ensure that all employees worked for the greater good of the company (Kerr & Jermier, 1978).            Determinants of team performanceResearchers have argued that although most employee groups can be referred to as teams, it should be noted that there are several major differences that distinguish groups and teams and these are very important for anyone to understand in order not to make the mistake of confusing the two. In most cases, groups are normally made up of people who meet through the fact that they share a common interest such as past time activity or sport while a team on the other hand can still be made up of people who share a common interest but the major reason for their being in the same team is the fact that they have complimentary abilities or qualities. This means that for a team to succeed in what they do, they have to work together and combine their efforts and skills otherwise they will just be working as individuals. The main advantage of teams is that they have the energy and the power needed to complete particular tasks and activities which would have been impossible if there was no team in the first place and an individual was carrying out the task by their own. It has been argued that although each member of the team has some unique abilities or skills, they cannot be able to use them and succeed in the execution of the task if they are working alone and therefore they must be in the team for their efforts to count in the execution of the task or activity (Guzzo & Dickson, 1996).            Researchers have also argued that one of the important factors that determine the way people conduct themselves when they are in a team is self-awareness. In today’s business setting, most organisations, through the use of human resource development professionals as well as consultants, have developed various tests that are designed to help employees more self-aware thereby improving their understanding of themselves and what motivates them to act in particular ways. Researchers have however noted that the results of the assessments normally rely on the individual employee’s self-reporting and therefore the outcome of the tests may not be objective in nature and in most cases they are always positive as it is human nature not to say anything negative about oneself. The reason for this is that human beings are known to agree with their personal thoughts. Researchers therefore suggests that employees may fake their personal abilities and they may also b e unrealistic in the way they view themselves and therefore the opinion of others about our abilities or attributes may be disregarded when assuming team roles. This means that the performance of the team may be adversely affected if only an individual’s opinion is considered when assigning team roles (Belbin, 1981).            Various researchers such as Salas, Cooke, & Rosen, (2008) and Cohen & Bailey (1997) have empirically examined the issue of team performance. Traditionally, the effectiveness of a team has been measured by researchers and academicians either through the use of unidimensional models of effectiveness such as real productivity of the team and the objective measurement of team performance or through the use of multidimensional models which normally adopt a wider spectrum of measures other than productivity. These other measures could be the attitude of the members of the team, their behaviour and their levels of job satisfaction (Pina, Martinez, & Martinez, 2008). Empirical research has also revealed that there are three most common measurements that are used to measure team effectiveness and these are performance effectiveness measured in terms of the quality and quantity of the team output, the attitude of the team members measured in terms of level of trust and level of job satisfaction and finally the behavioural outcomes of team members measure in terms of employee turnover and the level of absenteeism among the team members. Researchers however point out that the three measures are used in varying degrees in each team and the degree of usage in a specific team will be influenced by the type of activities that the team engages in (Pina et al., 2008).            ConclusionsThe evaluation of the theories and empirical literature carried out above regarding substitution of leadership functions by the use of teams in organisations shows that it is clear that the future of organisations is towards the establishment of employee teams in the quest for much more concentrated efforts in delivering efficient services and in ensuring that employees are able to maximise their growth and development potential within the organisations. It is clear that using teams in organisations leads to a situation where team members tend to come up with their own norms and values that guide their actions and behaviours and these values and norms finally end up being translated into laws and regulations that all employees in the team can clearly understand and are expected to follow without being reminded by the leaders in the organisation (Mullen, et al., 1994). The emergence of these rules laid down by the team members themselves lead to a situati on where all members of the team know their exact duties and roles in the team and therefore carry out their duties without the need for supervision. This situation has effectively reduced the need for leaders in the organisation as their roles have been slowly eroded by the activities of these teams. This is exactly what happened in the case of Electric Company where the rules that were established by team members took the place of supervisors in guiding the actions of employees. These teams also influence the performance of individual employees and it has been established that individuals in teams tend to perform much better than if they were working individually.            RecommendationsFollowing the discussion above and the conclusions that have been made regarding the role of teams in the organisations and how their performance can be measured and improved, there are various recommendations to the management of companies that will lead to the better performance of teams and the organisations in general. The management of Electric Company should develop a human resource development program aimed at training the team leaders on the formal decision making process and other managerial roles in order to ensure that they are more effective in guiding their team members to better performance. The management of the company should also ensure that selection and assignment of employees to different teams should take into account the individual skills and abilities of the employees in order to ensure that they contribute to the well-being of the organisation through improved performance. Finally, employees themselves should ensure that they follow the laid down team rules and regulations and therefore ensure that they carry out their team roles without being reminded as their individual actions are what will lead to the success of the entire team. It is therefore important for organisations to consider developing various teams among their employees as this will lead to better performance and may also lead to lower costs incurred to maintain supervisors and other leaders in the organisation. References Belbin R. M. (1981) Management Teams: Why they succeed or fail. London, Butterworth-Heinemann.Guzzo, R. A., & Dickson, M. W. (1996). Teams in organizations: Recent research on performance and effectiveness. Annual Review of Psychology, 47, 307–338. House, R. J. (1971). A path-goal theory of leader effectiveness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 15, 321–338. Howell, J.P., Bowen, D.E., Dorfman, P.W., Kerr, S. & Podsakoff, P.M. (1990), Substitutes for leadership: effective alternatives to ineffective leadership, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 20-38. Huusko, L. (2006), The lack of skills: an obstacle in teamwork, Team Performance Management: An International Journal, Vol. 12 Nos 1/2, pp. 5-16. Kerr, S., & Jermier, J. M. (1978). Substitutes for leadership: Their meaning and measurement, Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance, vol. 22 no.3, pp. 375–403. Mueller, F., Procter, S. & Buchanan, D. (2000), Teamworking in its context(s): antecedents, nature and dimensions, Human Relations, Vol. 53 No. 11, pp. 1387-424. Parker, G. M. (1990). Team Players and Teamwork: The New Competitive Business Strategy. Oxford: Jossey-Bass Zaccaro, S. J. (2002). Organizational leadership and social intelligence. In R. E. Riggio, S. E. Murphy, & F. J. Pirozzolo (Eds.), Multiple intelligences and leadership (pp. 29–54). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Zaccaro, S. J., Rittman, A. L., & Marks, M. A. (2001). Team leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 12, 451–483. Cohen, S. G., & Bailey, D. E. (1997). What makes teams work: Group effectiveness research from the shop floor to the executive suite. Journal of Management, 23(3), 239–290. Salas, E., Cooke, N. J., & Rosen, M. A. (2008). On teams, teamwork, and team performance: Discoveries and development. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 50(3), 540–547. Pina, M. I. D., Martinez, A. M. R., & Martinez, L. G. (2008). Teams in organizations: A review on team effectiveness. Team Performance Management, 14(1/2), 7–21. Mullen, B., Anthony, T., Salas, E., & Driskell, J. E. (1994). Group cohesiveness and quality of decision making: An integration of tests of the groupthink hypothesis. Small Group Research, 25(2), 189–204. Source document

Ethnic Images in American Film and Television Essay

This literature review seeks to examine ways in which gender ethnic stereotypes in the media have been reviewed and the conclusions that have been observed regarding the negative continuance of gender ethnic stereotypes in the media. In addition, this paper includes research on the influence the media has to shape women’s attitudes through numerous resources of gender stereotyped images and language use. The term media in this research paper will be used very loosely, allowing me to cover areas in which gender ethnic stereotypes occur. The most common stereotypes are from film, television, internet and print media’s. With all the media outlets, viewers are noticeable to portrayal of what and how people of certain ethnicities act. The cultures I decided to focus on are African- Americans, European Americans and Hispanics. These ethnic groups tend to be in the lime-light for numerous accounts whether it’s positive recognition or backlash. Most often in film African- Americans characters are stereotyped as being the slaves â€Å"Djanjo and 12 Years a slave†, or being a Brash woman. European Americans on television tend to be inferior, and have leading roles, money, guns and the hot men. Lastly, Hispanics are stereotyped as Spanish speakers, and are typically the ones cleaning houses in the movies. Stereotyping occurs any time there is a need to generalize a particular group of people order to make an otherwise complex environment easy to understand (Lester, P., M., and Susan D. R., p12). A particular trait is used as the basis for stereotyping. In essence, society stereotypes humanity by race or gender. Some groups are associated with some unique traits that the society uses to generally define it. It does not matter that individuals in that group are unique and do not subscribe to the label given to them. When it comes to stereotyping, every individual in that particular group is made equal. From the ethnicity point of view, some ethnic groups are given so much value whereas others are devalued (Lester, P., M., and Susan D. R., p22). This is because of the hierarchy that the society creates to define races and ethnic groups. Stereotyping can be positive or negative. When it is positive, the stereotyped group feels good. When it is negative, the stereotyped group feels offended and may even go to an extent of retaliating. It is also important to note that repetition in the stereotyping leads to normalization of the same, because when stereotypes are repeated, they become perpetuated and ultimately validated. Stereotypes are taken to be truths because they have a connotation of some truth about the members of that particular group in general. The most dangerous form of stereotyping is negative racial stereotyping. It leads to strife and war. Gender stereotyping is also very explicit. Media has not been left behind in propagating stereotype. The media use stereotypes to define people from different backgrounds. It generalizes the complex nature of people to a one general bracket so that it is easy to understand that particular group of people. It also has helped propagate gender stereotyping. Given the cove rage of the media in the society, it can be said that stereotyping has taken another level where every person is aware of it unlike in the past. Various illustrations of how the media influences gender and ethnic stereotyping                      Television has become the key propagator of ethnic stereotyping. According to Srividya R. and Saunders, M. S., (p1), African-Americans and Latino-Americans are always undermined; underrepresented, demeaned and marginalized when it comes to the mainstream media. All this happens in the lines of stereotyping. For instance, African-Americans are portrayed in such a manner that demeans them completely. They are represented as big, mean and big-mouthed. In addition, they are portrayed as lazy and unreliable. They assume the roles that demonstrate ruthlessness to stereotype them as so. Moreover, they are represented as unintelligent and loyal slaves who submit stupidly. With regard to the Latino-Americans, the media as portrayed them with derision. They are portrayed as lazy people who are unintelligent. In addition, they are taken to be oversexed and extremely promiscuous. They are stereotyped to be very violent and always being associated with criminal activities. They assume the roles that pertain to breaking laws. The media portrays these minor groups in America so negatively. The audience is left with the impression that that is how every African-American or Latino-American. Furthermore, Srividya, R., and Saunders, M. S., (p1) explain how the news stories are covered in the America. They cut out groups ethnically against the backdrop of ethnic stereotyping. When watching news over the television, it is easy to observe how stories relating to social class are framed. The minority groups take blames for their assumed laziness and criminal activities. The Blacks and the Latinos are viewed as non-contributors in the nation economy. Television enter taining programs are also based on the stereotyping. The minority groups are used to represent the unwise characters in the name of entertaining the audience. Crime dramas also represent the Blacks and Latinos as law-breakers. The media has been so keen on recording and televising issues that pertain to the aspects of stereotyping when dealing with the African-Americans and Latino-Americans. According to Lee, M.J et al., (p4), journalists pay little attention on the problems that affect these people. They do not highlight their plight. Instead they run after them whenever issues that concern such things as drug abuse and criminal activities have been mentioned. They put keen interest to the conflicts that touch on the racial aspects as well as the surrounding controversies. They make these the breaking news and literally ignore the true nature of the lives of these people. The audience is left wondering who the Blacks and Latinos are. For the majority, the impression that they make about these minority group of people in America is that they are drug barons and criminals. The riots that happened in Los Angeles in 1992 give a vivid illustration of how the media tends to portray the Blacks and the Latinos (Lee, M.J., et al., p 5). While covering the story, the Black community was made to appear as the people responsible for the riots and the subsequent disturbances. Hispanics were also implicated at a greater degree. Most of those arrested came from the minority groups. This is a clear indication that due to failure of the media to give the true background of the conflicts, and hence generalizing the event, led to many Blacks and Hispanic arrests. The negative image painted about these people following that incident was demeaning. In addition, it is important to state here that whenever cases of riots erupt, the culprits are the Blacks, the Latinos and the Hispanics, thanks to the extensive level of media role in stereotyping. Another illustration is the films such as the â€Å"Boys in the Hood† and â€Å"Menace II Society†. These films have portrayed young blacks as criminals. As such, they have attracted a lot of audience and consequently, they have sold a lot in America (Saunders, M. S., and Sirvidya, R., p3). The audience has been tuned by the media to believe and like stories that demean the minority groups around America. Whenever a black-American is seen, he is seen as a threat to the security of the society. Considering the case of beating of Rodney King in 1991 (Miller, R.M., p32) the effects of this stereotyping is observed. During the trial, the defense team composed of four police officers said that they decided to beat Rodney because they feared that he could have been harmed. The fear in this sense signifies what every white person feels whenever they encounter a Black in America. The excuse given is the order of the day whenever the whites are defending themselves against the B lacks. In most movies, male characters have always dominated the female characters (Saunders, M. S. and Srividya, R., p35). This is an extension of gender stereotyping. The society already has a notion that a woman is subject to the man. When the media in the form of movies portray women as inferior to men, then they serve to reinforce that already existing belief. In addition, in most of the American movies where Black females appear as characters, most of the cases the women are made to use vulgar language (Jefferson, S. T., p 3). They are also portrayed as violent. Are the Black women always violent? Is it true that they use vulgar language most of the time? The clear answer is no. the reason they are portrayed as such is to serve the interests of the white audience. The society has been shaped to like stories that negatively impact the Black community at the advantage of their white counterparts. The white audience is happy when they learn that their women, for instance, are more intell igent and better than the Blacks, at least according to the movies and media in general. Moreover, the Blacks have been used in the movies and film industry to take the roles that pertain to servitude and slavery. For instance, in the movie â€Å"12 Years of Slavery† it is a Black young lady who takes the role of the slave (Jefferson, S. T., p6). She serves a white family that often mistreats her. This is not an isolated case. In most other movies, the roles that require a slave character, the directors of the movie will more often than not choose to use a black character than a white character. They back their reasoning by saying that a black person portrays the role well. Why? It is because the audience feels more satisfied by a black slave than a white slave. Even crime scenes in the movies are taken up by the black characters most of the times. The print media has also been implicated in the propagation of the stereotyping. According to Lester P.M and Susan D. R., (p65), in the advertising segment, the Blacks are portrayed as unintelligent as compared to the white counterparts. The Hispanics are used to represent comic characters in their role. The Latinos are used mostly in cases of promiscuity. The White Americans are used when referring to the wise community, and often associated with status of affluence. The minority groups are portrayed as people who are poor and uneducated. The newspapers also portray the Blacks, Hispanics and Latinos as criminals when covering acts of crime. The bias created goes a long way to victimizing innocent people on the grounds of false beliefs created by the stereotypes. The media has portrayed African-Americans, Latino-Americans and Hispanics very negatively. It is not that all African-Americans are criminals. In fact, most of them are law-abiding citizens in America. It is not true that all Blacks in America are uneducated. As a matter of fact, there are blacks in America who are highly educated compared to the white Americans. Also, contrary to the way media depicts Blacks as poor people, there are Blacks that live affluent lives with every luxury that a White person can wish for. The same truth applies to the Latinos and Hispanics as well. Therefore, the media does not give the true picture of the minority communities. In essence, the media highlights the aspects that they think will raise the eyebrows of the audience who are the whites. Since the media in America seeks to serve the white audience at the expense of other communities living in America, stereotyping forms a part in racism. The overall result is racial discrimination that has penetr ated even in the job markets so that members of the minority group are not getting employments. For the audience, it is important to realize that not all that is portrayed by the media about others is truth. References Jefferson, Shani  T. â€Å"Occupational role portrayals of African-American women on prime-time television.† Ethnicity in America 2.1  (2005): 1-7. Print. Lee, Moon  J., Shannon  L. Bichard, Meagan  S. Irey, Heather  M. Walt, and Alana  J. Carlson. â€Å"Television Viewing and Ethnic Stereotypes: Do College Students Form Stereotypical Perceptions of Ethnic Groups as a Result of Heavy Television Consumption?† Howard Journal of Communications 4.3  (2009): 3-6. Print. Lester, Paul M, and Susan D. Ross. Images That Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media. Westport, Conn: Praeger,  2003. Print. Miller, Randall M. Ethnic Images in American Film and Television. Philadelphia, U.S.A: Balch Institute,  1978. Print. Sanders, Meghan  S., and Srividya Ramasubramanian. â€Å"An Examination of African Americans’ Stereotyped Perceptions of Fictional Media Characters.† Howard Journal of Communications 6.3  (2012): 4-8. Print. Source document

Is Your Campus a Safe Place

Before diving into the college life, make sure to find out whether the potential campus is a safe place. The thing is that colleges and universities are required by the federal law to set standard protocols for all the safety concerns of the campus. The prospective students (as well as their parents) can check the annual security report of the university in order to see the crime statistics, safety policies and disciplinary actions. However, campus policies may vary, which means you need to research school deeper to find out whether it is comfortable enough for you. By getting through the following points, you will be able to learn more about the safety of the college you pick. What is the college administration doing in order to cultivate safeness? If the campus safety is your number one concern, make sure to find out whether the administration of the school takes measures in order to provide you with what you need. Discover in what way the representatives of the school communicate with the students in case of emergency. The point is that colleges may use various methods, such as display signs, e-mails, sirens or texts in order to contact and alert the students in an emergency. In general, the school must have a thoroughly developed plan that gives an opportunity to alert students even if they are out of the internet and cell phone zone. Is there a security team, police station or county police departments on the territory of the campus? You must know if the campus safety is properly monitored by professionals and in what way the security team representatives coordinate with the off-campus police. Whether the campus security is private or guaranteed by the police, it should be proper enough to support the fire department, to respond to disorder, to provide first aid as well as deal with unpredicted situations. Besides, students must be aware of how colleges handle various reports provided through the abuse hotlines or on the web. Are there procedures that guarantee 100% confidentiality of the victim? It is highly recommended to look for clear and reliable policies from the college as well as for clear statement on who to go for help and how to get in contact with that individual. And finally, make certain you know in what way the students will be protected during the natural disaster. Drug and alcohol abuse, as well as crime, are the obvious issues that the colleges deal with, but you also need to take into account the way schools are prepared for the natural disasters. First of all, the representatives of the college must explain how they collaborate with the local authorities, such as fire departments, what kind of evacuation plans they have and whether they are properly tested. The college of your preference must have properly organized, well-developed plans and the students should be aware of what steps they have to take in a case of emergency.