Assignment One-Framing

Framing in the media and the biased effect it has on certain groups of people, the example from Hurricane Katrina helps me to understand this concept. Framing is the media presents a certain type of person and how they as the media tell the public to think of them, basically defined as the media saying how to think about an issue or a person. Framing in the media leads to unfair and bias thoughts about a person or group of people which could be negative or positive. They use this concept in an attempt to get the public to believe a certain view about a person issue or group of people. Professor Straubhaar touched on an example that I think shows the positive and negative effect that results from framing in the media very well. I would like to expand on that topic and show how this concept works.

On Monday morning of August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit a Category 3 storm as it ran all over South East Louisiana destroying everything unfortunate enough to be in its raging path. The media used this event as a playground for their own needs using a concept called framing to show the world how they perceived different groups of people and making them into the kind of people they wanted to show. In Jed Morey’s Blog in titled “White Men Can’t Jump…or Loot” Jed shows two pictures with small captain one of a white woman and man, and the other of a young black man both who are wading through chest deep water and appear to be carrying food. In the caption under the white woman and man read “ Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area of New Orleans, Louisiana.” Jed highlighted words like FINDING. Where the second picture looks almost identical to the only difference being a young black man instead of a white man and woman, this caption read, “A young man walks through chest flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday August 30, 2005. Again Jed highlighted words like LOOTING. http://jedmorey.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/white-men-cant-jump-or-loot/ here is the link to Jed’s Blog.

What was the difference between the two? Simply how the media wanted each race to appear to the public, the white man and woman were said to have “found” the food implying that they were helping their families and making the best of this horrible tragedy. Painting a positive biased for the two. Where the media painted a negative biased on the young black man simply because he was black saying that he “looted” the store. The media used the concept of framing to make us as the public believe that the white were the victim and the blacks were taking advantage of a horrible situation. When in reality this was not entirely true, it was just put on the blacks. This example clearly states the concept of framing and helps us to understand the concept.

Here is video that touches on framing the narrator took images and tries to get the public to view it a certain way by the words he uses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIVmjP8nmzY