ColorOfChange partnered with Media Matters for America to study how accurately local news stations are covering the role of Black people in crime. The result is an outrageous level of distortion: news stations report that Black people are involved in murder, assault and theft an average of 75% of the time in New York City, which exceeds the actual NYPD arrest rates for those crimes by 24 percentage points.
Three Bay area organizations, Retro Poll, the Youth Media Council (YMC), and If Americans Knew have been using monitoring tactics to challenge mainstream media’s reporting patterns. Their efforts take media criticism a step beyond analysis and are beginning to turn frustration at the lack of unbiased information in the mass media into productive steps towards media democracy and public access to balanced news. “We’ve found the media is failing to deliver honest, accurate, and full coverage, hence creating a misinformed American public,” claims Scott Campbell, coordinator for If Americans Knew an organization dedicated to providing accurate information on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.The organization focuses on this issue because according to Campbell, “ Americans have a vested interest in the region and must be accurately and adequately informed about the issue.” Through their monitoring, If Americans Knew has found that the media highlight Israeli deaths while barely reporting on Palestinian deaths. The organization hopes that making these findings available will move the America public to “act in accordance with morality, justice and the best interests of their nation and of the world.” Continue reading BAY AREA GROUPS MONITOR MAINSTREAM, by Samantha Calamari.
