The Reality of Racial Injustices

Racial profiling and how the media distributes it to the public can be sometimes conflicting. In a world full of media, it is imperative that the information being presented is 1) true and 2) credible in its nature. The topic I choose to explore is how media sometimes can facilitate inaccuracies. Despite media being the main source of how we retrieve and get our daily news, recent stories have come back with all-inclusive evidence pertaining African Americans. The society, in which we live, is consumed through media and most importantly with different media outlets. Journalist, writers, and publishers write and make their stories based off the fact for being the primary respondents to media occurrence. These individuals are first to distribute and either 1) excite people or 2) disappoint people to a state of irritation. Media has a way of putting out irrelevant information and in the case of race; it has seemingly overwhelmed people into a lingering state of disbelief.

     
     Racial profiling is consumed with statistical beliefs about crime rates in general and how they relate to certain races. As receivers of the information, we have a tendency to believe what we hear first initially. This particular aspect of media is heavily affiliated with racial profiling and leaves people in question as to whether or not the information being put out is true. A good example of this would be in the case of Kenneka Jenkins. Kenneka Jenkins was pronounced dead, in a freezer, downtown at the Chicago O’Hare Crowne Plaza. Shortly after investigations of her death, new evidence of her actions that night resurfaced, leaving many including her parents in question. Initially, the media disbursed the news as a murder but then the controversy came. Police made a public statement saying Kenneka Jenkins was killed unintentionally; however, the media and the news had several questions to ponder. How did she die? What was the cause of her death? Was it planned? And most importantly why? In an article by author J. Zaragoza he states, “What we get is a lot of shaming of the person who has been killed and a lot of silence or protection, protective quotes of the police officers involved,” she said. (Zaragoza, J)

Surveillance later surfaced from the hotel and was released publicly shortly after the incident. This left many in question from a public standpoint, and raised questions as to how Kenneka Jenkins really died. The surveillance shows clips of Kenneka staggering in the hotel in places authorized solely for hotel personnel. One location of the clip happened to be in the Kitchen, which is located in the basement of the hotel. Media then, quickly retracted several statements of what they put out to the public, and have since investigated further. Uncertain of who exactly murdered Kenneka, the news has since changed the perception of her death to the public and have dug further into her mysterious death. In the earlier events of the night, Kenneka Jenkins an African American female was assumed to be at a party. Evidence released to the public did mention that Kenneka did have one cup. Shortly after, some friends accompanying her at the party spoke publicly explaining that one cup didn’t the 19 yr. old female in that state. Questions then surfaced, what was the party? Who was at the party? Was she forced? What ethnicity was primarily responsible for hosting him party? All of these questions remained unanswered as the police continue to investigate, yet the media has labeled her case murder and have since close the case.

 Below is some of the new evidence footage. (Take a look) ↓

Furthermore, in relations to this particular situation. The media have supposedly labeled the killers in this case as African American individuals. The case was left with the authorities of the Rosemont police, but the FBI is also still further investigating. As mentioned in our readings, the fallacies, evidence, and new information have left society in question. Who did it? The medium of the television initially contributed in efforts of rectifying the situation, but intern have worsened the outlook of the news. Several relevant news outlets to include the Chicago Tribune, CNN, and the Washington Post have all gained access to the breaking news. The media convergence particularly and appearance of the information was displayed public immediately, however it has since affected the overall message of the sub urban Chicago community. In typical fashion, the news media gave us shorthand visual cues with the videos, placing ideas in our head that misrepresent the accuracy of her death. As it stands now, the ethnicity nor race of the killer(s) have yet to be identified.

Continuing further, race and how race is put out through the television medium can sometimes be good and bad. This has led to many different perceptions of news broadcast, headlines, and outlets. As a very large population, the information we receive from the news is true in our eyes. In traditional fashion, we assume it is true, because we do not see exactly where the news is being collected. What we do not hear about often times is the complete truth. Authorities, news broadcasters, and even journalist construe information to the public, making it harder to believe. When investigations are conducted, they are conducted solely to find out more information in regards to the situation if the crime scene is ruled unjustifiable. News has to disburse the information as they get it and report it as the progressions of the crime scene develops. Keeping into consideration, the goal of journalist is to find a story that has not yet been told. This can be effective at times, but also ineffective and conflicting to the public. (Bitter, M).

       In the case of Kenneka Jenkins, the information disbursed to the public was not accurate, or completely true in its nature. Investigations are still pending to determine who killed her, what was the motive behind the murder, and why. Portrayed by the media, the potential killers were instantly affiliated as African Americans via surveillance. However, Kenneka Jenkins affiliation at the earlier party, leads authorities to believe so. As mentioned, the case has recently closed and further investigation is pending. Information lacked in the development of the story and sparked online conspiracy theories.

 

Work Cited

Bitter, Mary C. “Journalists: Here's How the Media Should Cover Racial Inequality.” The Aspen Institute, 6 Mar. 2017, www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/journalists-heres-how-the-media-should-cover-racial-inequality/.

Gilliam, Franklin D, and Shanto Iyengar. “Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public.” Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public, Midwest Political Science Association, 3 July 2000, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2669264?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Pratt, Gregory, et al. “Medical examiner: Kenneka Jenkins died from exposure, and her death was an accident.” Chicagotribune.com, 7 Oct. 2017, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-kenneka-jenkins-death-20171006-story.html.

J, Zaragoza. (2016, July 28). It's All Journalism: How to avoid bias in reporting stories of race and violence. Retrieved November 20, 2017, from http://aan.org/aan/journalism-avoid-bias-reporting-stories-race-violence/