Media and Stereotype

from the last lesson i have learned how the media give a big impact to create a stereotype. I add my knowledge by reading some article, and i find that stereotypes can appear in the media because of the biases of writers, directors, producers, reporters and editors. But stereotypes can also be useful to the media because they provide a quick identity for a person or group that is easily recognized by an audience. When deadlines loom, it's sometimes faster and easier to use a stereotype to characterize a person or situation, than it is to provide a more complex explanation.
But stereotypes can be problematic. They can:

• reduce a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations
  
  
• transform assumptions about particular groups of people into "realities"
  
  
• be used to justify the position of those in power
  
  
• perpetuate social prejudice and inequality

More often than not, the groups being stereotyped have little to say about how they are represented.

My experience about this kind of stereotype happen when i saw news program in television about a fatal crash in Jakarta. A woman driving a black minivan, with her three friends as passengers, lost control of the vehicle and plowed into 12 pedestrians in front of the PLN office at Gambir, Central Jakarta, on Sunday, claiming the lives of eight people and injuring the other four, a police officer has said. The drivers name is Apriyani Susanti, The police say Apriyani was under the influence of drugs and alcohol when the multipurpose Daihatsu Xenia she was driving swerved off Jl. M.I. Ridwan Rais while travelling at high speed, and plowed into two groups of pedestrians. Seven people died at the scene, while two others died later in hospital. Three other people were injured and hospitalized. At first i felt really angry with her, and  the media continue to preach the negative things about her, but there are some media that tried to saw this incident from other side, they tried to looks Apriyani as usual people who can make an mistake.
From this writing i learn to be more wise...^_^