NCJ Number
191705
Journal
Howard Journal of Communications Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Dated: 2000 Pages: 229-246
Date Published
2000
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This paper used a Gramscian perspective to examine the production of local television news stories about Mexican-American youth gangs in Austin, TX.
Abstract
The analysis also critiqued different theoretical models that tried to explain the representation of the news media’s reporting of the Mexican-American youth gang. The discussion noted that Gramsci’s 1971 work in critical theory focused on how ideology and institutions contributed to society’s stability and how elites maintained their rule or power without resorting to physical violence except in extreme cases. The study used data from interviews conducted between April 1993 and January 1995 with 27 news workers, police officers, social service providers, community leaders, and young Mexican Americans. Results revealed that a small number of persons were responsible for the stories, that almost all stories depicted Mexican-American youth gangs as problem people, and that parental apathy was a recurring theme. Those involved in the construction of these stories sometimes disagreed with each other. Nevertheless, most accepted and promoted the concept of the youth gang as a real and negative phenomenon in the Austin Mexican-American community. The analysis argued that the production of the news stories was the result of a social process and therefore was socially constructed within a context in which power was used to influence the discourse about Mexican-American youths and to a large extent the discourses about the greater Mexican-American community. The analysis concluded that recognizing the social, economic, and cultural influences and how they interact may lead to strategies for changing and eventually retiring the Mexican-American youth gang news story and the stereotypical portrayals that define it. 33 references (Author abstract modified)