NPR television critic Eric Deggans discussed the issue of racial stereotypes and prejudices of modern media at The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Must See Monday event on Sept. 15.
After a brief introduction by Senior Associate Dean Marianne Barrett, Deggans, also author of “Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation,” began his presentation, titled “Decoding the Race-Baiting of Modern Media.”
“We’re trying to create this country where diversity is our strength,” Deggans said. “I get really upset when I see the media trying to keep us apart.”
His presentation brought up recent race-based incidents such as the racial comments made on NBC’s Big Brother, the murder of Trayvon Martin and the violence in Ferguson, Missouri.
Deggans also shared some of his personal experiences with the audience.
He shared a story about a trip to Japan during which he observed that many Japanese citizens had preconceived notions about African Americans from American movies.
“We’re exporting our prejudice when we allow it to seep into our news coverage,” Deggans said.
About halfway through the presentation, Deggans gave a racial images “quiz” in order to refute the perceptions about people of color. For instance, one slide revealed that only 12 percent of drug users are Black while 70 percent are white.
Deggans then guided the conversation to racial bias in the news.
“[Fox News] talks about race from the perspective of an older, conservative, white male,” Deggans said.
Not to exclude liberals, Deggans also criticized news anchor Al Sharpton for raising money for Trayvon Martin’s family and then immediately reporting on it. Deggans said he views this as a conflict of interest because Sharpton dedicated much of his time to helping the Martin family.
From there, Deggans launched into an explanation of “Dog Whistle Politics” in which “coded messages on race are used to convince middle-class and working class voters to support policies hurting them and helping the wealthy.”
To clarify, Deggans said he associates certain words such as “thug” to “the n-word” and “taxpayer” to a “middle class white person.”
Deggans wrapped up his presentation with questions from the audience and shared another personal experience with racism.
Deggans said he nearly became involved in a physical altercation with a white man simply because the man didn’t like the color of his skin. Additionally, when he was a pop music critic, Deggans often got looks of surprise when sources found out he was not reporting on rap music.
In the final news clip, Deggans showed a short segment from “The O’Reilly Factor”, in which he was criticized.
In the clip, Bill O’Reilly said, “Deggans takes delight in branding people racist. Senator Joe McCarthy would love this guy.”
Freshman journalism student Ava Montoya said Deggans’s presentation got her thinking about how the media targets its audiences.
“I know that media is obviously trying to target a certain audience, but sometimes I don’t realize how blatantly obvious [it is] like the examples from Fox News,” Montoya said. “It’s very obvious they’re not even trying to hide it. And I guess that’s something you don’t realize since you’re constantly consumed by media.”
Johnny Soto, a junior journalism student, said Deggans’ presentation exposed him to how the news portrayed people of different ethnicities.
“It really opened my eyes because I never really paid attention to the news, how they expose white people versus people of color. It was an eye opener for me,” Soto said.
Contact the reporter at syaghsez@asu.edu.
