This is a research paper that requires you to incorporate the other two parts (which i would upload) in order to finish the final research.
RESEARCH PROJECT QUESTION
Your final research report will present a more detailed outline of your research project and revised hypothesis, research questions and methodology. This is based on your research proposal but should indicate a revision and refinement process has taken place from the first stage of your project. Moreover, your project report will present all the findings that have resulted from your research, the analysis of these findings and the conclusions you have drawn from it. You are also asked to link the analysis and the conclusions to the literature you have discussed in part 2 of this project.
THE REPRESENTATION OF RACIAL STEROTYPES(AFRICAN-AMERICANS) IN THE MEDIA.
Introduction
Media has been controlled by white people, which is why the issue of racism in media and film is often addressed. The media has an immense amount of influence over the society and could potentially build a bias in the minds of the viewers. Over the years as technology advanced, media has been able to reach an astounding distance, allowing some outlets to take advantage of that and report news in a racist manner. Media plays a major role in impacting beliefs, opinions and public ideology and as such is hazardous when being used to report wrongly. Happer and Philo (2013, p. 323) stated, “News may appear as a sometimes chaotic flow of information in debate but it is also underpinned by key assumptions about relationships and how they are to be understood”. There are various definitions of racism but according to Day (2009) who wrote the sixth edition of A New History of Social Welfare, defines racism as ” prejudice with power against people of colour: African-American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native Americans”. This research will explore the means in which certain outlets represent race-related news, identifying the language which they use and other factors which may determine the narrative.
Research topic/Problem
According to Pan and Kosicki (1996), “The news media have been accused of perpetuating Whites’ aversive racial attitudes by associating Blacks with a variety of social problems ranging from urban decay and unrest to violent crime and costly social welfare systems” (p.148). This is justifiable because the role the media has played in influencing racism has led members of the society to act negatively towards one another. The relevance of stereotypes in this research is based mainly on the fact that stereotypes contain a sort of bigotry on the part of media producers. Entman (1992, p. 345) suggests that although journalists don’t outwardly support modern racism, “journalistic practices yield visuals and sound bite audience stereotypes”. The above supports the theory that If certain outlets do not endorse stereotypes through their representation, then the chances of racism in the society would reduce.
Research Questions
To further explore this topic, the key research questions that would be applied include the following:
1. Why are racial stereotypes endorsed by some outlets of the media?
2. How does the representation of races in the media affect the society and public ideology?
3. Why is the reported crime news more African-American sided, than White?
Methodology
With the mixed methods approach to research, researchers incorporate methods of collecting or analysing data from the quantitative and qualitative research approaches in a single research study (Creswell, 2003; Johnson & Onwuegbuzie; Tashakkori & Teddlie). This means, other than the collection of numeric data and statistics as required by quantitative research, the researcher also gathers narrative date, which is the normative method employed when questions need answering. The goal for researchers using the mixed methods approach to research is to draw from the strengths and minimize the weaknesses of the quantitative and qualitative research approaches (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie). Being able to structure research that combines data collection and analysis methods from both quantitative and qualitative research, the researcher is able to build and test theories, while employing a deductive and inductive analysis in the same theory. Making use of this method, researchers are able to structure a research that not only answers the questions regarding the situation, seen from the participant’s point of view but also its relationship to measureable variables; i.e. the participants point of view on racism in the media, in relation to the media’s representation of racism. Making use of an audience based data gathering technique, students of the university of Hertfordshire, students outside the university and professionals inside and outside the media industry that have opinions on the topic will be interviewed.
Conclusion
This proposals main aim is to identify the main objectives and research questions with a methodology on which the initial research will follow.
References
Creswell, J. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Day, Phyllis. (2009). A New History of Social Welfare (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Entman, R. M. (1992). Blacks in the news: Television, modern racism and cultural change. Journalism Quarterly, 69(2), 341-361.
Happer, C., & Philo, G. (2013). The Role of the Media in the Construction of Public Belief and Social Change. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 1(1), 321-336.
Pan, Z., and Kosicki, G. M. (1996). Assessing News Media Influences on the Formation of Whites’ Racial Policy Preferences. Communication Research, 23(2), 147-178.
