Gangs

Since the 1980s, the media has become increasingly interested in urban street gangs, both in the entertainment industry, such as in records, movies, and television shows, and as a newsworthy matter in journalistic media. In both cases, media tend to portray gangs in an exceptionally stereotypical fashion. Ironically, however, the images presented in the news media and in the entertainment industry are seemingly mirror opposites. In the entertainment industry, gang life is glorified in movies and music, such as gangsta rap, in which gang members appears as iconoclastic heroes that are fighting to retain their individualistic way of doing things in the face of a world that has done nothing but try to crush them. Indeed, in many ways, this stereotype is identical to the image of the romantic hero. The news media, on the other hand, tends to demonize and villify gang members in its portrayals. Typically it...
[ View Full Essay]