What is media, I mean, who owns media and why they say what they do

Media is more influential today than it has ever been, even more so than the reports from the mid seventies on the cold war and the general hatred spread towards Russians. Canadians, the same as Americans, have always depended on the media to tell us what to think, how to think, and how to judge others. When I look at the media, I do not look so much at the message, but first and foremost, at whom the message is coming from. I am not talking about the picture of “whiteness” that is on the screen, but the people you do not see. The people who have the say in what is put out there, those with the deep pockets, those who have the privilege to tell society what is the norm.

Up until the election of Obama as the 44th president of the US, the only time (generally speaking) you would see a person of colour in the news was if he was gunned down by the police for threatening them not with a weapon but with a cell phone. Instead of reporting the MURDER as done by the police, the focus is on the previous records of the victim. This happens all too often. One of the big offenders of this portrayal of people of colour as violent is the show COPS. Do you ever see them following an officer in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut? Do these areas not have crime?

The portrayal in sitcoms is even worse than the news. The recent hiring of Adam Beach, a First Nations actor, to the cast of Law and Order was a big day for FN people everywhere. Finally a FN actor not being type cast. After only a season, the last scene he was in saw him getting hauled away in the back of a police car. What does this tell society? First Nations people have always had a rough go with the media, from the cartoon antics of Bugs Bunny, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, even up to current children (teen) cartoons like the Simpson (who have a license to attack everyone it seems) to children programming on YTV that portrays the “noble savage” otherwise known as the Hollywood Indian. These are shows, produced by the dominant society, for, get this, their children! If these negative stereotypes are a thing of past generations and if society continues to let the media dictate what the dominant society believes and holds true, then how far have we truly come, where did we really come from, and where are we heading next?