Crime - 'The media portrays ethnic minorities in negative ways', Discuss.

Authors Avatar

NAME: FATIMA ADHARA

SCHOOL: BRAMPTON MANOR SCHOOL

CANDIDATE NUMBER: 5001


                                                    AIM

1. I aim to find out whether the media does actually portray ethnic minorities in a negative way and if so how.

2. I aim to investigate what reasons arise when ethnic minorities are portrayed in a negative way.

3. I will use primary research to find out other peoples opinions and to see if people do agree with my hypothesis.

4. I will use secondary research to define key concepts and to support my primary research.

5. I will prove my hypothesis.


INTRODUCTION

I wish to research this particular topic ‘The media portrays ethnic minorities in a negative way’ because of personal experiences that I have had which relates back to the topic. I am a young Asian teenager and I have faced many problems when I’m on the streets with friends, i.e. I crossed the road when I saw a group of young black youths because I had seen and herd about crimes which been committed by young black youths on the news and when I did they crossed over and attacked me and my sister by throwing food at us, I only crossed the road because of what I had herd and by them attacking me and my sister it had been proven to me that whatever is written/shown in the media its based on true facts and because of ethnic minorities and their behaviour the media does show them in a negative way and they are responsible for it, and this is a reason why I want to prove that although the media does portray ethnic minorities in a negative way ethnic minorities are responsible for it because they behave in such a way that the media decides to portray ethnic minorities in a negative way. Also further more I want to find out whether the public does agree with me, which would help to prove my hypothesis.

I believe this is a sociological topic because where there is ethnicity and gender discrimination; peoples work chances and life chances would get affected because they will have no source of income and they will become ill and die. When ethnic minorities would try to get a job, people would discriminate against them and think of them in a negative way so then they wouldn’t be able to get a job, and not having a job would lessen down their life chances. The reason for discrimination against ethnic minorities is that ethnic minorities may not be educated that much to get a job, and not having a job means no source of income, so some may turn to crime (but not all), and when the media come to know about this they start to create a big issue about it and actually start to portray all ethnic minorities in a negative way, and then non-ethnic minorities tend to believe its true that they act differently towards ethnic minorities because of what they have herd/seen on the media.

Also these issues are important in Britain today because some innocent ethnic minorities are discriminated by employers just because of their and this is affecting the amount of unemployed people in Britain today, and because of discrimination towards ethnic minorities it is raising the amount of unemployed people in Britain today.

METHODOLOGY

Primary Research

For my primary research I will carry out a simple questionnaire to help me get a view on what the public think about ethnic minorities when it comes to crime, although this is not linking to my hypothesis, but finding out what the public think will help me to see why they think this and is it the media which is causing. I feel that creating a questionnaire will help me to see whether or not the public does agree with what I am aiming to find out; whether the media actually does show ethnic minorities in a negative way and why.

The advantages for this kind of method is that it will give me both sides of the argument and this will give me some kind of understanding on what the public thinks, I believe this is important because if I don’t get both sides of the argument then I wouldn’t know if I proved my hypothesis, by having both sides of the arguments, also by having a one sided view will make me think that the public were being biased and giving false data, and this would affect my results. Also using the questionnaire method is a quick, cheap and easy way to find out information from the public, and some people may want to remain anonymous so it is a good way and it will help me to get more answers and the public won’t have to worry about there information being passed on because some people may ask for names and may ask personal questions, and some people may be too shy/worried to give out such information. Whereas in my case some people may be too afraid to tell what ethnicity they think may harm them when they’re outside by themselves, because they don’t want other people to know who they’re more worried about and who not.

The disadvantages for this method is that some people may be biased and not answer the questions honestly, also that people might treat it as a joke and then again not answer the questions honestly, also some people may not understand the question and give anything for an answer and by doing this it will not be fair on my research because I would have false answers, making my results invalid and false, so I would be wrong to use them as they are made up and false and this would affect my coursework as I haven’t got valid results. I felt that if I did an interview some people may not tell the truth because it is based on crimes, and I may ask them questions which they may not want to give a personal view on, because they might be too afraid too share there views as they may think the person taking the interview might think of them in a different way and might also share the information given with other people. I will try to overcome these disadvantages by making all the questions clear and easy to read and understand, also not to include any information which I think is biased to make my research fair. I would select my sample by picking random people from all year groups plus teachers, also different ethnicities, I have decided to this because I then wouldn’t be aiming for anyone individual just anyone who I come across.

Secondary Research

For my secondary research I want to use a lot of different types of methods because it will give me to get various ideas; the internet, newspapers/news, textbooks and documentaries.

Join now!

I want to use sociology textbooks such as “(Name Of A Sociology Textbook Needed Here)” to help me find relative information on whether the media does portray ethnic minorities in a negative way, by looking in sociology text books I will be able to find out if anyone else has tried to prove a similar hypothesis to mine and if they have I can use their data to support my hypothesis. The disadvantage of this method is that some people may not have tried to prove a similar hypothesis to mine.


This is a simple ...

This is a preview of the whole essay