Hate Speech: Just how Much Power Does the Media Hold?

 Countless crimes of racist and prejudice passion have occurred over the years in the United States. It has become evident that they most come from nowhere and seem to vanish just as quickly after some time. There is no true way to track these heinous acts, mostly because no outlet knows where to start. While there are no true right or wrong ways to handle tracking these events and writing about the groups who commit these crimes.

No matter what side journalists look at, there is a certain etiquette and poise they must go about with addressing sensational headlines such as racist attacks and radical groups. There is a certain language that the media holds that is revered by readers and is taken as gospel. The authority of the media can make or break charged situations and potentially make it better or worse. The readers also deserve to have the most non bias language as to not turn the public one way or another without the full story. Once an article is released, there is an opportunity to retract certain statements, but it is usually downplayed if it is retracted. This leaves the original statements of the article left in readers' minds. In an article from Poynter, it lays out certain language do's and don't's as well as how to handle images, videos, and other critical points how to handle hate speech. Some of the points made included not including charged language when describing an event or incident. Other points mentioned include to use context when referencing a photo or video and to avoid slang or short hand terms.

All of this comes into play when covering events such as the most recent election, any terror attacks, and any topic that is radically left leaning or right leaning. The divide of the population that can happen when the media divides can be detrimental for the future of conversations. In an article from Politico, it shows how detrimental the split of the media has become to conversations of actual topics that need to be addressed in the United States. The article shows how the event of in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12 was poorly reported and was sensationalized on both left and right side Twitter. 

Image: Politico
 

Another article that is important to the conversation is an article from Propublica. This article reveals how hate crimes are poorly reported or not reported at all. It touches on the fact that many hate crimes do not get reported to the FBI, and therefore the numbers are skewed. In the article it says the FBI counts roughly 6,000 hate crimes, but the BJS estimates roughly 250,000 due to lack of reporting from state and local officers. These gross misrepresentation of numbers has revealed how necessary change is in the crime and punishment systems.