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Media’s influence in constructing views on Racism
Social Media greatly impacts growing mutual ties and breaking the boundaries of nations and cultural diversity. Social Media not only Lowers the cost of the meeting and influencing one another but also makes things easier for everyone to create an impact on one’s life and create memories. But by breaking boundaries, groups of people with social boundations are creating bad influence and causing distress and mental impact on each other lives.
The topic of Media’s influence on racism in our society is significant in research it targets media bias, so it is wise to explore how the media contributes to racism differently. During the beginning stages of film and media, many so-called lower class people and other groups like Afro-American/Lower caste/Women could not raise their voices using media. They were shut by organizations that thought of themselves as superior beings or above other communities.
Like the fourth pillar of any democratic nation, this media is supposed to create impact and give unbiased news irrespective of a person or group of people being in power or any higher authority. The media is supposed to bring down the walls and act as the voice of citizens to help them raise their voices and put influence so that their voices can be heard beyond the walls of racism.
But with a recent study in the USA, The usage of the word “black,” “Asians,” and “Brown” becomes a racial action that negatively targets a marginalized person or group because it can condition the mind to associate the word with a negative connotation. Patterns of criminalization and justification are exposed.
Black men are often criminalized and represented as violent in the media. While White men are seen as more supportive and require less investigation. In contrast, in the event of a White officer as the shooter of a Black man, the officer’s actions are justified or supported regardless of the criminality of the officer’s actions.
In consideration of how race is presented in the media. This was seen in the recent black lives matter controversy where the cruelty of white male officers over black men was seen, and the lives of black men were seen as enslaved people back in colonial periods. Racism can be found across the globe due to the older era of enslaved people and Male dominance over other nations or tribes. The colonial periods painted a picture where White males or male supremacy could still be smelled across the hall.
“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent
Malcom X
guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of
the masses.”
This research examines, studies, and tries to find a theoretical answer to the impacts of the media on racism and considers. More specifically, the media influences the majority of the population around the globe. With the advancement of technology, the impact of mass media is highly intense. Intermediaries blindly believe anything given out by mass media as they follow some groups or organizations.
Most people utilize some form of media in their everyday lives ranging from newspapers to social media. Mass Media changes our beliefs and facts with false information or the information given several times. These can change ideologies and even experiences.
Media can brainwash and act as a speaker or the voice of powerful groups to put an impact on any other group of people. a relationship between the prior exposure to information, or a piece of information which was fed at an early age or during teenage as during these ages a person doesn’t have much idea about world and politics so they tend to make assumptions given by some high profile news stand or some big influencer and follow them blindly which can cause racial discriminations and also leads to violence.
Often related to the strength of attitude on the subject and the degree to which the information impacted beliefs and opinions. The more one certain topic is thrown at a person, the more he starts believing them blindly. Those who had been least exposed to either subject were most open to adjusting their views, and conversely, those who arrived in the groups with the most exposure were least likely to have their opinions changed by the new information.
Even if the facts and information are twisted or even changed, the impact of media is compelling on the human mind, and it can turn a fully functional person with high thinking capacity to change their views.
Media holds significant influence in our daily lives and infiltrates our perceptions and understanding with continuous messages that impact our beliefs and value systems. The ideas and beliefs given out or projected in fast-moving pictures tend to become an arrow that penetrates deep into our minds, and we start believing the lies. It becomes important to examine whether the media also impacts race and racism in our society.
Race and ethnic relationships in our society continue to be the most challenging issues of the 21st century. The ethnic cleansing we usually see done by other nations is high because of their racist, narrow-minded behavior towards the group of people. From the ongoing ethnic conflicts on every continent of the globe, we are trying to find ways to improve the differences within our society. Being the most diverse and ethnic nation, we call ourselves a Secular nation. But Diversity and Parochialism are two sides of a coin– we can’t forget the fact that even when we try to become secular, the more difference in opinion, whether religious or cultural, the more diverse we become and lesser secular we become.
We want our nation to be secular according to Gandhian Philosophy which is thoughts and ideas about how our nation should be according to the Father Of Nation. Still, with more diversity, we face high racism and differences between different communities, religions, caste, creeds, and gender. Media, the fourth pillar of our democracy, acts as a Check and balance tool within our society and the nation’s voice where we should be relied on and fully support the freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The recently released 2020 WPFI has ranked India at 142, down two places from 2019, and has been a subject of much discussion and debate amongst media persons, political parties, Governments, bureaucrats, and social media.
But media is divided among Left and Right wings and within many smaller parties or organizations, and it’s hard to follow which news media or source of information should be. Nowadays, without cross-checking, we can not blindly follow any media; one controversial step can be raised into mass multimedia drama and act as gas in the spark. Acting as a mediator within the groups and bringing out the problem faced by oppressed communities should be the major role.
Listening to other media with an unbiased attitude can bring beautiful changes rather than focusing only on TRP and staying above all other news media. Many other formulations can be seen, like whether media is being biassed in one state trying to defame the other or is it truly bringing out the problem faced within the federal society Literature Review Social Media acting as Medium of Interaction and Racism.
Social Media acting as Medium of Interaction and Racism
Across the digital landscape, the interplay of humans and technology continuously transforms sociality. In this regard, social media companies play a particularly central role, as a handful of mainly US and Chinese corporations have grown into near-found everywhere giants. While companies such as Facebook present themselves as democratizing forces, increased attention has in recent years been given to their role in mediating and amplifying old and new forms of abuse, hate, and discrimination.
In a review and critique of research on race and racism in the digital realm, Jessie Daniels (2013) identified social media platforms—specifically social network sites (SNSs)—as spaces “where race and racism play out in interesting, sometimes disturbing, ways.” Since then, social media research has become a salient academic with its journal, conference, and numerous edited collections. To understand this, discrimination has worldwide increased with the boon of the internet and the advancement of social media.
In parallel, scholars have grown increasingly concerned with racism and hate speech online, not least due to the rise of far-right or far-left leaders in countries like the US, Brazil, India, and the UK and the weaponization of digital platforms by white supremacists. As social media dominate socio-political landscapes in almost every corner of the world, new and old racist practices increasingly take place on these platforms.
Many government social media handles are using hate speech to provoke groups to create a havoc situation. Racist speech thrives on social media, including covert tactics such as the weaponization of memes and the use of fake identities to incite racist hatred. Reddit gives rise to toxic subcultures, YouTube, and a network of reactionary right racist influencers.
The comedy has done to entertain the people turn into far-right or left hate speech to either support the government or defame them. During this, a certain group is targeted to gain attention and coordinated harassment on Twitter. Users also produce racism through practices, such as emojis, GIFs, and stickers. Social media contributes to reshaping “racist dynamics through their affordances, policies, algorithms and corporate decisions.” Microaggressions (Sue 2010) and overt discrimination can be found in platform governance and designs.
Snapchat and Instagram have come under fire for releasing filters that encourage white people to perform “digital blackface” and automatically lighten the skin of non-whites. Many skins and filters people are obsessed with are white dominance and started dividing the group of people. In 2016, Snapchat commented that Snapchat is for richer and smart people, not for Indians, and late on, they faced backlash. By tracking user activity, Facebook enabled marketers to exclude users with what they called an African American or Hispanic “ethnic affinity.”
And TikTok had faced criticism when it suspended a viral video raising awareness of China’s persecution of Uighurs Muslims; we can see a pattern of many social networking applications or website following the government which are in power or the powerful opposing parties; this tends to suppress of truth and to portrait better image of government even on the cost of making a discriminating comment. This shows that digital technologies not only “render oppression digital” but also reshape structural oppression based on race, gender, and sexuality and their intersectional relationship.
Social media platforms’ policies and processes around content moderation play a significant role in this regard. Companies like Facebook and Twitter have been criticized for providing vast anonymity for harassers (Farkas et al. 2018) and for being permissive with racist content disguised in humour because it triggers engagement.
Racist discourses and practices on social media represent a vital yet challenging area of research. With race and racism increasingly being reshaped within proprietary platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, and YouTube, it is time to review publications on the subject to discuss the state of this field, particularly given the growth in scholarly attention.
This article presents a systematic literature review and critique of academic articles on racism and hates speech on social media from 2014 to 2019. Fig. Percentage of studies examining different social media platforms. Racism is a kind of hatred exhibited in written, verbal or physical form against the ethnicity, physical appearance, or gender differences of a group or an individual. Around the world, problematic behavioural incidents occur, and in India, media often interpret it as towards people of colour or blacks.
There was a lot of discussion about these incidents, both online and offline. Some groups consider India is not free from racism and others view it as misinformation processing.
The power of being or staying hidden from the internet has allowed racist stereotypes and inaccurate information to spread online, and many create fake accounts to spread hatred. At the onset of the pandemic, traffic to hate sites and specific posts against Asians grew by 200% in the US. In India and Sri Lanka, social media groups and messaging platforms were used to call for social and economic boycotts of religious minorities; amid false information accusing them of spreading the virus, many North-eastern citizens faced discrimination more than ever during a pandemic.
Calling out the Chinese virus, Asian virus, and Indian virus became a racist and hatred towards groups. Structural forms of discrimination, including discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority and everyday indignities, remain widespread. Using new technologies and artificial intelligence in security raises the spectre of ‘advanced racism,’ as facial recognition programs can misidentify and target racialized communities.
Prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory acts aggravate existing inequalities in societies, whether subtle or overt. A study published by The Lancet drew attention to the social dimension of the Covid19 pandemic and the greater vulnerability of ethnic minorities, who have been disproportionately affected. Many media houses, private and non-profitable, are highly dominated by either right-wing or left-wing.
Due to this, many groups, according to their agendas, are targeted whether they are discriminated against for their gender, caste, religion, etc. Nowadays, after the striking down of Article 377– Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman, or animal, shall be punished with [imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
The Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment on September 6, 2018, unanimously struck down part of Section 377 that may have given a chance to the LGBTQ community to come out and talk, but the racism caused by the media, whether social media or any source has also brought down the confidence. Indian Media houses started a trend of LGBTQ according to their Benefits and for TRP, which has boosted confidence in many communities. The media can act as the voice of any community irrespective of their oppression.
The ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests gained momentum in the United States and the world. People and many governments across different countries came forth against the prevalence of racial discrimination worldwide. Every year on March 21, a global movement gathers to fight prejudice and intolerance by marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This provides an opportunity to explore the nuanced causes and consequences of modern racism and renew an important commitment to combat discrimination.
Beyond being a breach of human rights, racial discrimination has harmful effects on human health and well-being and risks wider disruptions to social cohesion. Racism is a reality, and it is being practised and blatantly bloated in all societies across the geopolitical spectrum in the World Wide Web of equality, liberty, and fraternity.
Constitutional Provision against Racism in India
The Constitution of India is a document of high endowments that bequests civil liberties and human freedoms to all Indians to lead their lives in peace and harmony. Articles 14 and 15 are the most important guarantees ever envisaged by the Constitution of India where under the Right to Equality which addresses the issues of discrimination and provides equal protection of laws in India. Article 14 further confers the Right to Equality before the law and equal protection of laws throughout the territory of India.
Article 15 prohibits discrimination based on religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. However, the biggest irony against the menace of racism is that these rights are available to the citizens of India but only against the Indian state and not against the discrimination practised and committed by private individuals. Our constitution has higher power against any racist comment, and our right to equality has given everyone a chance without discrimination to live together in peace and brotherhood. Every citizen has the right to live and call themselves Indians.
But still, the Old behaviour of slavery and the caste system has projected an image of Untouchability and racism against many groups. The scars of the colonial period have still impacted our lives to any extent. We still behave as white supremacy over any other complex. Indian Media ads show skin color and white supremacy in beauty products like Fair and Love.
Bollywood has a dominant color complexion where an actress with fair skin tends to be seen as successful and independent while having a darker complexion is seen as being in a lower section or being in a lower economic condition.
Northeast India faces racism in its own country
North East India is a land of scenic beauty formed by high mountains, beautiful waterfalls and fast-flowing streams, and exotic wildlife. It comprises eight states – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura. The media always find bad news about this beautiful place, like a bomb blast, kidnapping, etc., but they never talk about the beauty and kind-hearted people there. The main issue is that these people face racism in their own country. In most places, these people are not treated well.
Let’s talk about some cases. On January 29, 2014, a young guy named Nido Taniam was beaten to death in the Lajpat Nagar area of Delhi because he looked simply different. In 2016 two young guys from Mizoram were beaten in Bangalore for not speaking their local language. Two students from Nagaland were brutally tortured for hours by local men in Goregaon to teach them a lesson that you don’t belong here.
They said, “if you Northeast people come here we will kill you.” Some hotels refused entry just because they didn’t look Indian enough. There are too many cases in which people from the Northeast are harsh just because they don’t look Indian enough.
They are told to prove their nationality. These people are not given jobs or houses based on ethnicity or race. Media can bring out the beauty and diversity of the 7 Sisters and can showcase whole nation what they are discriminating against media rather than showing various celebrities’ functions, can give some time to these areas and tell how beautiful and exotic our North-Eastern India is and is a neverending part of India. We all should have faith and be proud of the History of the Ahom Dynasty to various cultures in North-Eastern.
Television host Raghav Juyal has attracted widespread criticism for his alleged racist comments directed towards an Assamese child contestant on a dance reality show. Leading the condemnation, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called the comments “totally unacceptable” even as Juyal sought to defend himself, saying a specific section had been taken “out of context.”
Mass Media and its Influence on Racism
The mass media, especially the news media, have an important position in society regarding establishing and Spreading common cultural references. The mass media influence people’s attitudes and our common knowledge, but not always in the expected and desired ways. Several factors can influence the active democratic role of the mass media in society.
The way the mass media represent, focus, and give voice to different actors and incidents in society could unintentionally result in strengthening a racist discourse instead of fighting against it.
Mass media reporting is compassionate regarding ethnic, cultural, and religious relations in our society. The mass media organizations in the Member States take different initiatives to promote cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity, such as developing codes of conduct, recruiting broadcasters from the migrant and minority communities, and training personnel from multi-ethnic societies.
Mass media can bring out the story of racism faced by different ethnic groups of people and can help them fight for justice and bring a change in their lives. The current times are impaired or different by clashes, and conflict war has increased racist behavior. It seems like, with every passing day, a new calamity dominates the headlines. Rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine have reached a precipice, with Russian forces invading Ukraine.
As global news outlets provide the public with hour-by-hour updates about the conflict, many media outlets and journalists are being called out for racialized language in how stories are being reported. Using racist comments in journalism can impact lives and trigger certain groups to get more viewerships.
There are not just innumerable examples of racism in how news is reported. When examining the stories deemed as “worthy” of being covered, we see how pervasive racism is. More reports must highlight how African migrants were being turned away while fleeing from Ukraine, but stories like this don’t initially gain as much coverage or traction.
After spending 48 hours in bunkers and shelter homes amidst continued shelling in Kyiv, on February 26, over 400 Indian medical students traveled in buses. They made their way towards the Siret border crossing near Romania. This was not highly reported by European Media Houses as these were not ‘Worthy’ of being reported. In mass media, which includes Television and entertainment like OTT platforms, we tend to have seen various documentaries or shows where racism is highly prominent in the name of comedy or well aware racism.
For example, any Homosexual scenes are very much banned and criticized by many platforms or nations as these can cause problems and hurt the sentiments of other people. Even when analyzing what we deem worthy entertainment, the white and Eurocentric lens prevails. A new Netflix documentary called The Tinder Swindler has topped Netflix’s most-watched lists in recent weeks. The documentary centers on the story of a man called Simon Leviev.
He made his living tricking women into thinking he was a billionaire while getting them to give him excessive money. Viewers may feel sympathy for the women featured, who share their stories of being lied to and conned. One can’t help but wonder whether this story would get told if it featured Black women experiencing harm while engaging in online dating.
The fact that many still stay affected by the effects of racial discrimination is no secret. Racism towards many groups today in many nations is still a major problem in our society. From neverending biased news reports might be toward young black men to the racist views that are widely known on social media pages.
Misinformation is out there, stamped intentionally to set out discrimination against some sections of societies like black, brown, and LGBTQ; gender discrimination is a highly demanding issue that we must speak about and ask for. This study will examine how the media’s positive and negative portrayals related to racism impact the viewer’s thinking capacity.
It is stated that exposure to misinformation will have a major and powerful impact on participants. Citizens exposed to misinformation are hypothesized to report higher levels of racism compared to those not exposed to misinformation.
Theoretical Perspective
The History of racism, goes to the 80s, but the majority can be seen during many wars and colonial periods. This concept of racism is based on three levels, cultural, institutional, and individual. Cultural racism is racism that is towards a specific culture or society and is spread across the land or nation. We can see many examples of racism spread like fire. In the USA, black people were culturally oppressed as we can see different places for them to live.
Having different food treatments, slavery was a great example as only one specific group was targeted. Certain cant enter without permission. At institutional also a very systematic level of racism where the racism is in the law and regulations of society. We can say criminal injustice to specific groups having different health care and education etc.
At the individual level, racism is also very much intentional but is specific to one or small group where they are being targeted to bring their morale down. These all levels are seen in the people having lower socioeconomic levels and having lower education over morality. Each level of racism is highly problematic and starts a chain of the cycle where one racism leads to another and over the fact where culturally white and male dominance is seen brutally turning into riots and violence or even terrorism. It goes from cultural then systematic to individual-level
Systematic Racism Is A Continuous Problem
Systematic racism is something we can not ignore. This causes differences in judicial and governmental levels as limited cases are made, and minorities are not taken seriously. The theory of systematic racism stays in a system of racist practices where inequality is present, and the favouring of Male political power is put on Top power, Male Directors in Large Groups of Companies.
Or racism based on color. Again in our criminal justice system, many get promotions based on their preferences of religious dominance or because of their inclination towards certain culture. In the USA, police officers use more power or officers to tackle black individuals who are sometimes interrogated without permits.
African Americans are portrayed as gangsters in mass media and social media, and many cartoons prevail over the dominance of the white male. According to the report, more reports are filed against a black individual than against a white individual for the same crime. African Americans found they were more likely to give harsher sentences to Africans, and judges are biased toward white criminals and end up giving more punishment to black individuals.
Misinformation through mass media
Fake news has prevailed since the internet boom. Misinformation or “fake news” is changed or twisted information filled with half news and half-lies or completely fake. Misinformation givers have either motivation to change the narrative or view or to change the individual level of information by feeding fake information. The use of information has increased in the last couple of years as we are more connected. We are prone to misinformation if we follow the wrong pages. With the ever-connected universe, society lives in today, social media companies face the issue of controlling misinformation.
Facebook has been convicted of changing the news and hiding the information frequently. When we study the data, socioeconomic, livelihood, age, and education play an important role. Older people tend to be more discriminatory toward minorities, especially girls In Indian Society. Individuals with low socioeconomic status are more likely to be influenced by misinformation spread and strike their brain and effects and more likely to exhibit racial and preconceived notions about that false information given to them.
In 2011, college students can be more vulnerable to misinformation since their knowledge of political and world views was less established than someone older. The use of misinformation in the media can drastically affect the attitudes and beliefs of an individual. false information spreads like fire over social media than any factual truth. Individuals exposed to social media posts or news stories are less likely to change their ideal mindset as having preconceived notions. Individuals have pre-existing beliefs that often dictate whether they choose to process information as real or misguided information. This cause Riots, mass murders, mass death threats, communal disharmony, etc., within some section of society.
Recent examples of Far Right and Far-left political parties have created a narrative towards Indian Society that Indians were nothing without Britishers. Somehow, we still see foreigners as elite and more advanced. But Not with ture and better information availability, we can see the facts India Existed beyond the colonial period and was more advanced and cultured than any Western nation. Since the day Right-Wing Influence has Increased in India, many communal disharmonies are seen due to Mass Media Reporting misinformation and only focusing on riots and harmful things, which has made an image of India that India is deeply divided into many sections is now out of hands and can never live peacefully.
Still, with facts from the grass-root level, we can see well-educated and better socioeconomic factors, and people live in harmony without external forces. Research shows motivation also influences how an individual reacts to misinformation. if someone already has some preconceived notion, he is likely to jump to a conclusion about the false information given to him. how quickly the misinformation is available to the person can also lead to acceptance of that information. When some visual information is given, the brain is likely to accept that even if the information is factually wrong.
If information is given repeatedly, acceptance becomes easier at the individual level. Today many journalists and news stations are fighting back to correct misinformation on the internet and social media platforms. Also, it takes time to correct the misinformation to be changed to correct as the spreading of misinformation has already been done, and now changing the mindset is difficult for them. The fact students are more likely to get affected the false information as they have a lesser sense of politics and the world thus can lead to a bigger problem like change in mentality and ideology.
Impact of Media on early age
Multimedia has had a massive impact on the early age of any child as nowadays early age children are more influenced by media like social media, network media, and various media platforms a child experiences are portrayed in their early ages like how they behave among the groups.
Any racist comments might influence a brain and can stay imprinted for longer. This can negatively affect their mind; they might lose confidence and become highly emotional. As children don’t have the filter to know what’s wrong and right, they might become a victim of racism or can become the culprit or a bully.
Its Parents and Individual significance should stay impacted on their minds, not Social Media. Parents should act as filters and see that whatever they are watching is correct for them, as after learning all that racist information, it might take years to undo all those traumas a child faces.
Minorities and Media Approach towards News
The mass media have long been considered a mirror of society. This can be seen in two different ways. On the one hand, we can say if media is showing the reality of the social life of a nation, then we can say media is acting as the plain mirror projection of the honest and true view to their viewers. On the other hand, if the mirror is distorted and does not show proper projection, then we can have misinformation about social life.
It can rise to hatred towards another group and cause racist behaviour in society. The studies showed that. While some viewership they might target is generally according to the need of the group they are supporting to create an image of hatred and cause social imbalance and social disharmony. Similarly, in the USA, More crime is reported for blacks than whites due to white dominance in media houses and the government sectors; using this methodology, media bias is observed in various ways.
First, it is a problem of unbalanced selection. Both US-based and European research found that criminality, ‘race’ riots, policing, and violence were some of the most covered subjects, while others were ignored. A Study shows black news reporting is done even if the crime rate is equally distributed among both White and Black.
Some national groups may receive special attention: in Germany, Turks have been covered as if they were representative of the whole category of ‘foreigners.’ Second, bias is seen as a matter of space reserved for minority opinions, which is always very little even when minority group members are the main actors in the news. Hence, foreigners cannot challenge the negative definitions in the press. In other words, minorities are mostly represented in the news as speechless actors involved in negative acts.
Conclusion
So basically, we can conclude from the above reports that Media houses, social media platforms, and multimedia project negative and biased views and can cause either starting or increasing hatred within the communities where they can have better coverage. A minority around the globe is always portrayed in a negative role where even if another group carries out the same crime, social media or any media source can brainwash or change the view of a general person with a lesser education and lower socioeconomic standard.
This can be highly problematic in a nation like India, where diversity is higher, and we all are divided among religious and cultural stigmas but still try our best to stay secular and act as one big strong nation filled with brotherhood and love. We have seen how early age can impact the brain and cause both effects. Either a child will become a dominant person or can grow as an oppressive person. Misinformation can lead to racism, hamper social harmony, and cause bigger problems like riots, crime, and everyday violence in any form, whether physical or verbal.
Social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram causes hatred and racism as there is no check and code of conduct, and a person can anonymously get out without any reporting. The solution for this is we all should always cross-check the source and try not to get the negative news in our heads and collect information from the grass-root level. Avoiding misinformation or half information as both can lead to certain levels of subconscious changes and some preconceived notion is generated.
Racism is a poison to mankind