Student
Media Reaction Paper
Jeannette Ledesma
SOC/315
October 17, 2012
Dafna Gauthier
Media Reaction Paper
When thinking of diversities, differences from one person to the next, there are certain aspects that are mainly focused on. The physical differences that a person has, or even the ethnic ones, can be used by some to either look down upon you or to elevate you above themselves. An evident diversity that is not always overlooked, but can often be undermined, is youth. Youth is an important diversity that has many preconceived notions attached to it.
Even though many believe that youth is a time of wonder and joy that is not always true for everyone. In a recently televised show it was ascertained that not only are kids sometimes mistreated and made to grow up faster than should be. Sometimes, they feel so scared, angry, unwanted, or unloved that they resort to the most heinous of actions…murder.
Across the United States there have been numerous cases of children doing the unthinkable. Many of them do it out of a sense of self-preservation. However, some do it for no other reason than they had nothing to do. This is not a thought that should go through anyone’s head, least of all a child’s.
Media coverage of such incidents tends to follow a certain criteria. Dependent upon who was killed there are certain stigmas and stereotypes that the media and the world tend to jump on before evidence is really processed.
However, once it is identified who the murderer is and that it is a child, people don’t really know what to think or do. The first act seems to be, though, to try to find out what happened in the child’s life to make them do such a thing. The show recently played on cable’s channel E! Too Young to Kill: 15 Shocking Crimes showed that in some instances the child murdered because of fear or freedom.
For the most part the fear was substantiated by previous actions of the ones that were killed. This is true in the case of the many school shootings by
Jeannette Ledesma
SOC/315
October 17, 2012
Dafna Gauthier
Media Reaction Paper
When thinking of diversities, differences from one person to the next, there are certain aspects that are mainly focused on. The physical differences that a person has, or even the ethnic ones, can be used by some to either look down upon you or to elevate you above themselves. An evident diversity that is not always overlooked, but can often be undermined, is youth. Youth is an important diversity that has many preconceived notions attached to it.
Even though many believe that youth is a time of wonder and joy that is not always true for everyone. In a recently televised show it was ascertained that not only are kids sometimes mistreated and made to grow up faster than should be. Sometimes, they feel so scared, angry, unwanted, or unloved that they resort to the most heinous of actions…murder.
Across the United States there have been numerous cases of children doing the unthinkable. Many of them do it out of a sense of self-preservation. However, some do it for no other reason than they had nothing to do. This is not a thought that should go through anyone’s head, least of all a child’s.
Media coverage of such incidents tends to follow a certain criteria. Dependent upon who was killed there are certain stigmas and stereotypes that the media and the world tend to jump on before evidence is really processed.
However, once it is identified who the murderer is and that it is a child, people don’t really know what to think or do. The first act seems to be, though, to try to find out what happened in the child’s life to make them do such a thing. The show recently played on cable’s channel E! Too Young to Kill: 15 Shocking Crimes showed that in some instances the child murdered because of fear or freedom.
For the most part the fear was substantiated by previous actions of the ones that were killed. This is true in the case of the many school shootings by
References: , (Writer), & , (Director). (2010). Too Young to Kill: 15 Shocking Crimes [Television series episode]. In (Executive producer), Documentary. , : E! Entertainment Television.