The Central Park Five
Background
The documentary, The Central Park Five, explores The Central Park jogger case in depth. Directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, the film was actually released in November of 2012, over twenty years after the incident. The movie follows the lives of the five boys who were wrongly accused of rape and how the media had such a profound effect on the public’s perception, resulting in a false conviction.
Thesis
This source has altered my views of the power media can have on the general public’s perception. I had first only believed that the impact ended at just the preconceived notions it created among people, however, after viewing this documentary it is clear that the attitudes it created could lead to life altering circumstances. How deeply can racist media portrayal affect someone’s life? The documentary confirms that it’s not the quantity of representation, but rather the quality.
Media Coverage
Within the first few days of being accused, the group of boys had already been persecuted by the public due to the negative perception created by the media. Many popular and well respected news and media outlets that covered the story, like the New York Post, used headlines such as, “Female jogger near death after savage attack by roving gang”, “Park Marauders call it: ‘WILDING’”, and even 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump went as far as to paying for four front page news ads titled, “Bring Back The Death Penalty”. All of this negative coverage beginning even before the trial began. This, of course, heavily influenced public opinion of the boys, causing not only regular citizens, but government officials like the mayor and governor to berate them. It was particularly this that appalled me because it’s unlike prominent figures to make such drastic statements to the public without first letting the evidence speak for itself. Everyone’s lack of proper judgement was surprising.
Racism
The presence of racism is also heavily noted in the film. Media outlets emphasizing terms like ‘wilding’, ‘marauders’, and ‘gang’, are all racial implications. ‘Wilding’, a slang term commonly used among African American people was perverted to mean something similar to the other word used, ‘marauding’. ‘Gang’, is a common racially coded term as well that is regularly used to discriminate against black people. It’s also pointed out that the victim being a white woman and the suspects being black men caused a heavy bias within many outlets. Evidence of this is that there was another rape that took place during the same time, in the same area, but was almost completely disregarded in comparison because the victim and suspects were of the same ethnic background. Although none of the evidence added up, the DNA found on the victim did not match any of the suspects, however due to the extreme involvement of the media and its negative representation of the boys, the trial proceeded and ended with a guilty verdict. This documentary provided much needed insight on how the racism in media can go so far as to ruin the lives of five young, innocent, boys. Even before the trial began, it had been concluded that they were guilty. This incident demonstrates that additional representation of black people may not be the solution. However, improved quality of the representation could offer a better result.
