"Reality"

One of the biggest problems with the way that the media portrays “reality” is that, essentially, every reporter, every journalist, is a writer at heart. As Mark Bowden discusses in his article, The Angriest Man on Television, the reporter risks having his or her story ruined by too many facts. Someone like David Simon is able to take the stories that he saw as a reporter for the Sun and tell them in a way that fits neatly into the narrative he has created. A reporter in the real world has to keep going back to the story, to keep investigating and suffer the likelihood that his story is not going to be neat and tidy. There is the very real possibility that this will lead to lazy reporting. It’s easier to report the story that reflects the “reality” created by media than to do the diligence required for a story that doesn’t fit into the narrative created by media.

As shown in the report, Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public, the crime stories most often reported on are violent crimes. Of those, the ethnicity of the suspect is most likely to be mentioned when that person is African-American. Through a preponderance of these kinds of stories the media creates a “reality” where African-Americans generally commit violent crimes. The media afraid to break away from the pack reinforces this circular logic. Afraid to tell the story that doesn’t fit neatly into the narrative media has created for themselves, the same types of stories are told over and over until it becomes accepted as “reality.” Add to this the fact that minority reporters predominantly report on the majority of minority stories, in this case, crime stories, and a further level of reinforcement of the false reality is created.

Where does this leave the viewing public? Where are they to turn to in order to gain an accurate view of crime? The local media is going to go with the stories that sell, “If it bleeds, it leads.” The reporter is going to be tempted to report on the stories that fit into the easy mold, the white reporter is going to be hesitant to report on the minority issues that they are unfamiliar with. Hard work is hard. It’s easier to report on the same things that everyone else reports on, it’s easier to report on crime in the minority community than it is to report on issues that affect that community.

When we see someone like David Simon creating a fictional show that has more credibility than reality, we have to question that reality.