Mass Media vs Alternative Media

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Introduction
Hate crimes have been one of the national concerns making both mass media and alternative media also to focus on the issue. The mass media and alternative media both have played certain roles in response to the spike in hate crimes witnessed after Trump won the recent election in America. The paper will draw comparisons and contrasts between mass media, taking the case of performance of CNN from 10/01/2016 to 11/21/2016 and sources of alternative media in order to establish whether or not the spike in hate crimes have been censored or propagandized on CNN. Mass media is the primary means of reaching or communicating to the vast majority of people. In the United States just like any other country, the general public relies on the mass media as well as alternative media to get information concerning political issues, entertainment as well as social issues. Alternative media on the other hand normally have outlets that tend to be smaller, and in several occasions are polarized toward liberal and conservative perspectives. Considering the political temperatures in the U.S. since the beginning of this year (2016) and Trump’s winning, the mass media has greatly censored the spike of hate crimes on CNN.
Background Information about the Case Study
Ten days after the recent election in U.S., nearly to 900 cases of intimidation and harassment have been documented at the “Southern Poverty Law Centre.” The spike in hate crimes mostly against people of color, immigrants, LGBT people and women erupts after Donald Trump promised to put a wall along the border of U.

S. and Mexico during his campaign. Anti-immigrants incidents accounted for 280 cases of the total number and incidents of anti-blacks amounted to 187 according to (Holly Yan, Sgueglia, and Walker n.p.). There were several reports on the widespread use of n-word to refer to slavery and a hanging black doll in an elevator by a noose at a certain College in New York. Students have also experienced harassment as received threatening texts from unknown people. Congregants at mosques, synagogues as well as churches have reported being targeted as they leave their worship places by individuals shouting racial slurs. The center also documented close to 100 sematic reports, 95 incidences of LGBT and 49 incidents against Muslims.
It is critical to note that many of these harassers were invoking the name of the president-elect during the assaults. This made it clear that the eruption of the hate crimes erupted mainly from his success in the election. After exposing the 2005 video of the president-elect claiming that he had rights of grabbing females by the genitals, there has been a significant rise in anti-women street harassment. In Arlington, a woman was walking on the street when some two men yelled, “You better be ready because, with Trump, we can grab you by the genitals even if you don’t want it” (Holly Yan, Sgueglia, and Walker n.p.). There were also other 23 anti-Trump incidents reported, including a person wearing Trump hat. The man was grabbed by the neck as he was riding on a subway in New York.
The places of worship, as well as people’s homes, emerged to be the frequent targets. Several letters of hate were found in at least one most in Georgia and five mosques in California. These letters were sent by a certain group named itself “Americans for a Better Way.” The letter advocated for genocide while addressing the Muslims as “vile and filthy people” as stated by (Holloway 2-10). Just one week prior to the election, in a church found in Greenville whose congregants are mainly blacks was set on flames. The walls of the church were sprayed with the phrase “vote for Trump.” The incidents that are election-related have been followed by a year of discriminating attacks against Muslims Americans. According to Loretta Lynch, the U.S. Attorney General, hate crimes against Muslim Americans, LGBT and African-Americans have been on the rise based on the statistics from the FBI. The statistics reported a spike by 6% since 2015 (Holly Yan, Sgueglia, and Walker n.p.). He added that the figure could be higher since several incidents are never reported
Despite people of color, immigrants, LGBT people, and women are the ones seen as the major victims of hate crimes perpetrated by supporters of Trump, some of those supporters have also experienced injustices inform of violence or intimidation. The police claimed that a young supporter of Trump was physically assaulted by students who were carrying out anti-Trump protests in Rockville. Kathy Silverstein who was a witness to the incident told CNN that the young man came upon the protest, exchanging words with some protesters before the occurrence of the alleged assault. Cases of paintings on the wall bearing phrases such as “make America white again” have been witnessed in the New York (North n.p.). Such phrases amount to hate crimes since they send a message that the people of color have no place in the United States. However, the president-elect in his interview on CBS after his election said that he was surprised at hearing the hate crimes (Bailey n.p.). He looked into the cameras and asked the perpetrators to stop the hate crime.
“Mass media performance analysis of the case study”
CNN has been in the forefront in addressing the issue of hate crimes that is continuing to paralyze the peaceful co-existence between people from different, religious, racial as well as ethnic backgrounds. Various issues concerning the national problem have been brought into the limelight for the various stakeholders to take appropriate measures to curb the crimes from wide-spreading. Various critics have accused the president-elect of fostering Islamophobia and xenophobia during his presidential campaign that emerged to be divisive (“U.S. Hate Crimes Against Muslims At Peak Since 9/11 Aftermath” n.p). As a result of the efforts and concerns of the mass media on the subject matter, the president-elect was able to express his views on the issue. The critics claimed that the hate crimes were majorly fueled by his supporters hence his post-election interview on the issue was aimed at stopping his supporters from engaging in the hate crimes against minorities. To help in condemning the issue, Trump said that “If it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it” (Evans n.p.). CNN has also played a role in stopping hate crimes by bringing to limelight various relevant authorities who are responsible for investigating such hate crimes in order to help curb it. In other words, the mass media has played the role of a watchdog with regards to concerns raised in the increasing incidents of hate crimes fueled by Trump winning the presidential election (Sands n.p.).
There are other concerns that the mass media has been giving more weight to the hate crimes committed by the Trump supporters while ignoring the hate crimes against the Trump supporters. There have been claims that CNN has been putting biased messages concerning hate crimes by dismissing the various assaults on white people, categorizing the as “other attacks.” The concerns here is that the mass media reports are implicating Donald Trump and his followers to be responsible for the hate crimes. For instance, “Fears of heightened bigotry and hate crimes have turned into reality for some Americans after Donald Trump’s presidential win.” It is critical to note that CNN relied majorly on reports of hate crimes documented at the “Southern Poverty Law Centre” as stated by (Stoltzfoos 1-2).
“Alternative media performance analysis of the case study”
Alternative media has also done its part as far as censoring hate crimes are concerned. Various alternative media sources have played a big role through several publications to address the issue. For instance, various media sources have published stories in their websites in attempts to quell the widespread of hate crimes in the United States (Sullivan n.p.). Such stories have been shared on different social media platforms hence enabling a huge number of people to read the stories. In that way, the alternative media has managed to play a critical role by providing the people with the definition of who they are, reinforcing the people’s values and norms and giving the people examples of what happens to the people who transgress the norms. By covering various stories of hate crimes, the alternative media has been able to present the citizens of America with the risk of a lawless society where commotion and chaos could reign. Alternative media has portrayed the citizens who are law abiding to have an equal say hence the conflict arising from the hate crimes may be solved at the discourse level, through words or even through the socially sanctioned path that can be the judicial system.
Comparison of mass media to alternative media performances of the case study
As far as mass media and alternative media are concerned, both have done a great job in addressing the issue of hate crimes witnessed after Donald Trump winning the recent presidential election. Both have played a role in stopping hate crimes by bringing to limelight various relevant stakeholders as well as authorities who are responsible for investigating such hate crimes in order to help curb it. Both have managed to warn on the risk of having a lawless society by covering different stories of hate crimes. In both cases, the spike in hate crimes has been linked to Donald Trump winning the recent presidential election. CNN managed to reach a huge number of people to address the spike in hate crimes witnessed after Trump winning since it commands a huge audience. Other alternative sources have also not been left out since the stories on the hate crimes from different alternative sources on hate crimes have been shared to various social media platforms, reaching many people (TRNN n.p.). In other words, both CNN and alternative media sources have scored highly in censoring the spike in hate crimes.
Just as mentioned earlier, the general public normally relies on the mass media as well as alternative media to get information concerning political issues, entertainment as well as social issues. Alternative media on the other hand normally have outlets that tend to be smaller. It implies that unlike alternative media sources, mass media has been able to reach many people since it is easily accessible. In other words, CNN has been able to create a greater impact when it comes to censoring the spike in hate crimes since 10/01/2016 to 11/21/2016. However, there have been allegations that CNN has been putting more emphasis on the crimes committed against people of color, immigrants, LGBT people and women which is not the case with other alternative media sources. It is in correlation with Trumps winning. Hence CNN has been criticized for implicating Trump and his supporters directly to the hate crimes. Contrary to alternative media sources, CNN has majorly relied on reports documented at the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Centre). Such reports validate the information that the mass media has been airing to the general public.

“Application of the Propaganda Model”
Application of propaganda has been evident in efforts to address the hate crimes in the U.S. from both the mass media and also alternative media. The kinds of propaganda that have been evident include name calling propaganda and testimonial propaganda. Based on name calling propaganda, the mass media has constantly been linking the spike of hate crimes to Donald Trump winning following his campaign pledges such as U.S./Mexican wall among other pledges. The news headlines addressing the issue have been featuring the name of the president-elect. Testimonial propaganda has also been evident in mass media. It is the use of well-known people to endorse something. The media similarly called upon the president-elect to look into the camera to make an appeal to individuals fueling the hate crimes to stop. Black propaganda is only evident if that claims that CNN has been ignoring assaults on white people terming them as others are true then.
Conclusion
The mass media and alternative media both have played certain roles in censoring the spike of hate crimes witnessed after Trump won the recent election in the U.S. It has been established that mass media and alternative media has been able to address the spike in hate crimes differently. Both have made significant efforts aimed at censoring the issue. However, the Mass media, as well as alternative media, do not exist in isolation from the society or the country on which they report. They are actually an integral part of society and employ the same standard of knowledge that informs people’s lives. It implies that as much as significant efforts have been put to address various national concerns such as hate crime, some weaknesses still exist that vary from the mass media and alternative media.
For Future Consideration
Over the past years, the mass media has been able to have a very big audience since they are relatively easy to find. However, this continues to change considering the concerns that the mass media tend to ignore certain details or stories in the new. As a result of that, the alternative media sources are on the rise in terms of their audience since the audiences don’t trust the mass media. Therefore, some people prefer tuning into both mass media as well as alternative media to obtain a variety of perspective. If the concerns that mass media tends to give inaccurate information unlike alternative media that is claimed to be selling entertainment is true then in the near future we may witness many good alternative media that begin to mimic the mainstream in creating inaccurate but entertaining stories.
Work Cited
“U.S. Hate Crimes Against Muslims At Peak Since 9/11 Aftermath”. Democracy Now!. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.
Bailey, Chelsea. “Hundreds Of Reported Hate Crimes Since Election: SPLC”. NBC News. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.
Evans, Carter. “Hate, Harassment Incidents Spike Since Trump Election”. Cbsnews.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.
Holloway, Kali. “10 Hate Crimes Inspired By Donald Trump’s Hateful Rhetoric”. Alternet 1 (2016): 2-10. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.
Holly Yan, CNN, Kristina Sgueglia, and Kylie Walker. “‘Make America White Again’: Hate Speech and Crimes Post-Election”. CNN. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.
North, Anna. “A Wave of Harassment after Trump’s Victory”. Nytimes.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.
Sands, Geneva. “Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes Up 67 Percent, FBI Says”. ABC News. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.
Sullivan, Maureen. “Are There Really More Hate Crimes At Schools Following Donald Trump’s Election?”. Forbes.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.
TRNN,. “White Supremacist, Anti-Semitic, Islamophobe, Stephen Bannon as Trump’s Chief Strategist”. The Real News Network. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.
Stoltzfoos, Rachel. “In Story On Hate Crimes, CNN Excludes Assaults On White People As ‘Other Attacks”. The Daily Caller 1 (2016): 1-2. Web. 1 Dec. 2016.

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