Media Frames and Hip Hop Culture

The media has an increasing presence in solely of our lives, and in that location has been a lot of research conducted on the various sorts that it affects the really ideas that push d admit into our heads, the impressions we formulate of other stopping points and euphonyal literary genres, on foreign policy and the matters that we buy. Its obvious that the media is playing a role in our insouciant lives, alone to what extent is it affecting the way informed joint joint skim medical specialty and the acculturation itself be understood by the modal(a) citizen, specifically children?Via the radio, the newspapers, magazines and most commonly, the television receiver and internet, is it possible to see just how these substantially available media argon influencing young plenty and those of an older age bracket and notice what casts of frames the media ar victimisation with regards to articulatio coxae skitter? This paper go out take a take in at the available literature addresss on the subject of media messaging and hip hops conclusion and review the established theories, as well as use household aspects to examine just how ofttimes exposure children in the States actually put on to mass media.Media framing is the process by which the media chooses its context for a news story and portrays it with a certain sales talk common framing is done with a conservative viewpoint or a liberal one, and often as pertains to the hip hop finishing the frame is that of a violent, consumerist culture (Robinson 20). Media framing is a technique by which journalists and reporters give basic context to their stories, and framing cannister tend to upraise a particular political or affable agenda or because of a fundamental lack of knowledge on the subject. Ramsey (pp 22-40) thinks that it is a incident of the latter, since researchers and sociologists tend to regard hip hop cultures in American as being quite separate from the rest of the popu lation to begin with.This isolation, to some(prenominal) compass point it is actually ap set up in these subcultures, is visualized by the media and whence understood by all viewers and listeners as the truth. Americans who are not a part of the hip hop culture are easily made to notice themes in hip hop harmony that allude to violent gang mentality and blatant consumerism that sees younger dismal people showing off expensive clothes, jewelry and cars. Mukherjee calls this media frame the ghetto fabulous and explains how what was in the beginning an isolated feature of the hip hop culture has receive general due to media attentions. This primary isolation is one of the major frames used by the media to portray a specific picture of hip hop culture, and these depictions are undoubtedly helping to shape the hip hop scene in the mind of the average television viewer and magazine reader.Saunders describes the generalized var. of hip hop culture as a chemical group of thieve s, graffito artists, vandals, drugdealers, sex-obsessed men, objectified women and joyriders (37-134), and unfortunately although this is a part of the underground culture of both the hip hop artist and the people listening to the medicine, the author accepts that there is more to it than this perception. Although it has been correctly noted that these themes are recurrent in rap unison, an somebody listener could easily fail to notice these same themes or every other recurrent themes, for that matter inherent in other types of music or even literature and film.The media has honed in on the negative themes in rap and hip hop music, however, and uses such sensationalist aspects of the culture and music to deliver a message of negativity, and create fear. The attentions un disturbd groups of people shake up tried to intervene and have such songs and music videos censored. This has not chiefly had a positive effect on hip hop lyrics, and in fact has actually helped to raise the favoriteity of such music and the culture meet it (Davidson 74).Where once hip hop was purely restricted to the groups of black Americans forming their own subculture, now media attentions (both positive and negative) have brought hip hop and rap music to larger numbers of people who wouldnt have originally had advance to it. With the widespread hip hop scene, people of other ethnic origins and social situations are discovering the music and starting to participate in the culture, and this can be attri anded in a large part to the success of the Motown Corporation (Neal).Some of the aspects feature in hip hop music, like graffiti, can be facial gestureed at as holding a specific role within the culture itself. Graffiti, for example, can be viewed as a microcosm of how people communicate, participate, and learn within a community (Rahn 137), specifically within the hip hop communities of urban America. Although it seems unlikely that media bodies realize exactly what they are po rtraying to viewers and readers of popular magazines, stories ab bug bulge out graffiti artists bear on in the hip hop lifestyle are being framed in such a exculpated as to high crystallize the rebellious qualities of the subculture.Graffiti is portrayed in a contradictory way negative in that it defaces public and private property and can be used to mark gang territory, but also softly positive in that it is obviously an artistic outlet. The artistic aspect has a negative side as well, however, since the media can only seem to intent at graffiti art in a good way if it is an expressive emotional outpouring from an impoverished neighborhood (Rahn).Basically, hip hop artists are only getting attention from the media for negative qualities in their music and lifestyles, at least as perceived by the media itself and the majority of average citizens watching the news and reading the magazines and newspapers. People see rappers on TV when they are involved in gang related crimes an d gun fierceness, or when their lyrics have come under scrutiny for what is deemed unsuitable message. Although every genre of music has questionable lyrics, hip hop artists are the primary suspects when it comes to bringing out the censors.The media frames hip hop and rap artists in an unfavorable light the vast majority of the time, citing them in one all encompassing socio-economic class that is violent, untrustworthy and obsessed with material possessions. Unless a someone is directly involved in the hip hop scene, they are very unlikely to learn about positive things going on within the culture. The media on the totally simply reports on negativity within the hip hop world, something that more artists are understandably frustrated with.What this media framing is proving to the hip hop culture is merely an ignorance on behalf of media and the general viewing audience towards black American society. With very few years relatively speaking of freedom and comparability b etween black people as a minority group in America and the majority whites, black Americans have found themselves sort out together in poor areas still facing huge difficulties in achieving better standards of living. These societal factors have had a huge impact on the subculture of blacks themselves, resulting in part in hip hop music as both a rebellious act and a validation of black survival in an often hostile larger environment.Mollyanne Brodie used her bulk Kids and Media in America Patterns of Use at the Millenium to discover just how much of an impact media images such as these portrayals of hip hop culture are affecting young children throughout the country. The results of these surveys are instrumental in instinct the role of media framing in American children with regards to hip hop music and culture. She noted that although there are ways of discerning how long a television set is on during the day in the average household, there is no real way of knowing which progr ams or advertisements are seen by which members of the family.With specialized surveys distributed to households in the United States, Brodie collected answers from members of different families to work out just how much time children were spending watching which kinds of shows on the TV during the day. The in-home sample consisted of 1,090 young children, ages 2 through 7 years, and relied on parent responses to questionnaires (Brodie 18). Keeping in mind that children can lack vital breeding about the programs they are watching and other related questions, it was up to parents to treat the viewing habits of their children and this data was collected to get a firm, solid look at the American child and media influences.The conclusions were that todays young person in the United States spends more time with media sources than any other forego generation, and that this is likely to increase in the near future. With the television, computers, the internet and advanced quick technol ogies, kids have access to more schooling than ever before and the media thus has access to the kids as well. For this reason, the media has taken on a more compelling role than ever before in human history.The findings of these surveys were conclusive in revealing the simple fact that kids can go about their daily lives without fully realizing how they are being affected by the barrage of media images, and when it comes to the hip hop culture this is no different. Negative comments, news stories and lyrical debates are at the forefront of a young persons mind, since survey statistics have proven that music is the most important aspect of a childs life, especially in the teenage years. Hip hop has infiltrated the routine of the average young due to censorship issues, gang reports and all kinds of negative imaging, however it is with this younger generation that the truth behind the hip hop culture is beginning to be truly appreciated.The average youth experiences difficulties tha t are thematically similar to that of the oppressed and underprivileged black American who is a part of the hip hop culture, and kids are able to act upon this connection when they take a look at the music advent out of such groups. water faucet and hip hop were born out of frustration and the need for freedom of expression, which is just what the average teenager is smell for as well. With this fundamental likeness, youths turn to hip hop music as a way to bond with each other and feel formalise in their opinions and feelings of loneliness and desperation.Lyrics about gang violence can form the need to fit into a group, while songs featuring bling and ownership can incorporate the ultimate triumph over adversity. Kids can really relate to this kind of music despite media imagery that portrays it as negative, because they are used to having themselves portrayed in a negative way by their parents, schoolteachers and other business office figures.Media framing of the hip hop c ulture might not be affecting the youth of America in a straightforward way, but it is affecting them nevertheless. The older generations are reacting in the expected manner, however, when they tend to hook onto the negative side of hip hop and work to eradicate it from the American music scene. Parents are becoming concerned about their children participating in what they consider a different culture of music and behavior, and the media is merely percentage to continue this sort of thinking.When people see rap music videos, they have years of pre-conceived notions in their minds, placed there by the media, and so it becomes very difficult to differentiate between real opinion and actual negativity. A person tends to consider issues such as this based on the information they already have, and then value that information on the source that it came from. If the source is trusted, a person will tend to follow that train of prospect if not, they might look further into the issue to f ind features of it they can relate to themselves.It is this characteristic of each individual person that leads them to a certain degree of media influence. Where an adult who trusts major news sources and hears that rap music is synonymous with violence and crime might believe it with few questions, a teenager who has become wary of any older authority figure who hears the same thing will probably not accept this as the complete truth.Brodies surveys helped to prove what most of us already thought to be dead on target the media is playing a huge role in our perception of the world, especially with the younger generations. A typical 11- to 14-year-old gives more than 6 hours per day to media, and because he or she often uses several media simultaneously, encounters almost 8 hours per day of media content (Brodie 190). These conclusions do go to support secondary sources like the essays The Ghetto mythic aesthetical in Contemporary Black Culture and Sold Out on Soul The Corporate Annexation of Popular Black euphony.Both papers solidify the notion that the media has a great impact on hip hop portrayal throughout America in every aspect, particularly in music and consumerism. Researchers are in agreement with statistical evidence that proves children in America are incredibly susceptible to media influence, although it is clear that there are other factors that determine just how a young person will react to the same media frames in hip hop.Works CitedBrodie, Mollyanne, Ulla Foehr, Donald Roberts and Victoria Rideout. Kids and Media in America Patterns of Use at the Millennium. New York, NY Cambridge University Press, 2003.Davidson, Sandra. Bleep Censoring Rock and Rap Music. Westport, CT Greenwood Press, 1999.Rahn, Janice. Painting without Permission Hip-Hop Graffiti Subculture. Westport, CT Bergin and Garvey, 2002.Mukherjee, Roojali. The Ghetto Fabulous Aesthetic in Contemporary Black Culture.Neil, Mark. Sold Out on Soul The Corporate Annexation of Black Po pular Music.Ramsey, Guthrie. Race Music Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop. Berkeley, CA University of California Press, 2003.Robinson, Piers. The CNN Effect The Myth of News, impertinent Policy, and Intervention. London Routledge, 2002.Sanders, Bill. Youth Crime and Youth Culture in the versed City. New York, NY Routledge, 2005.