Responsibility of the Media

When reading Campbell's rationale for why the 'Bra burning' narrative persisted for so long, he suggests that the media did this to label this women's liberation movement as "trivial and primitive". The word primitive always brings about the worst of connotations (including Joseph Conrad's famously racist Heart of Darkness.) With media perception already in mind, this reminded me of how black families were described in Hurricane Katrina. In the midst of the chaos, many families of all races took actions deemed necessary to survive. However, the media perpetuated the tired 'primitive black criminal' narrative while allowing white families the 'survivor' narrative. This was especially brought to light in Kanye West's comment on Hurricane Katrina during a Hurricane Relief telecast. In this, he alludes to the very real implications of media gatekeeping. This includes the Danziger Bridge Shooting and Algers Point shooting. Through reading Campbell, we know that the media is significantly less powerful than our society thinks they are. However, can we shift this blame off of media completely?