From the first three chapter in the book Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader, “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and the Media Culture”, “The State of Media Ownership and Media Markets” and “The Meaning of Memory”, readers are challenged to start to view the media with a critical eye. To look at the media with a critical eye should include searching and noting new sources’ biases, noting what was mentioned and what was omitted, and view various new sources. Without doing this, an individual’s knowledge can become highly misinformed and it will make it difficult to disguise authentic news from lies and propaganda. The concept of studying and critiquing the mass media and its messages may be fairly new in the world of academia, but has been around for several decades in the United States in nonmainstream media.
In his poem “The Revolution will not be Televised”, he expressed his opinions with how movements that go against the dominant ideologies are not always given any coverage, African American men being misrepresented especially on the news, and women’s abilities and potential power being underrepresented by male dominance. Below is a video that has audio of Scott-Heron reciting his poem put to images that help illustrate his words.
Gil Scott-Heron past away several days ago on May 27. To follow in his quest to analysis and question the validity of the media, I looked at four different news stations’ articles about his death and life: Fox News, ABC, NBC, and Aljazeera. There is a difference that can be noted in each one either with length, title or content. Fox News’ article was the shortest and provided the least amount of detail regarding his life, only pointing out his main achievements. The other three were about the same length, give or take. I think how an article is titled can help a reader assume how the author feels or thinks about the subject they are writing about. Aljazeera’s article was titled “US activist, poet and singer dies”. This in comparison holds significance because the word activist was not in any other title and that their article focused on particular aspects of his contributions to certain oppositions. In two of the four, Fox News and ABC, articles in the title called him “The Godfather of Rap”. I found this interesting because Scott-Heron did not like the given title. This was mentioned in the Aljazeera and in ABC’s articles. I can’t say I understand why if you know that if ABC Scott-Heron disliked being called “The Godfather of Rap” why they would put in it in the title of the article.
I hope that you can take a look at these articles and try to find similarities and differences in the articles and form your own critiques. Let me know your opinions and thoughts if you would like.
