How gangs are portrayed in the media?

Gangs are portrayed on TV and in the movies as if they are totally evil, but in reality there are more positive aspects that are not shown. The media only shows gangs involved with drugs and the violence, and as a result the media has scared many people into believing that gangs will take over our cities if we do not stop them. The movie Colors and the TV show American Justice overwhelmingly portrays gangs as bad.

Colors Movie and America Justice

The movie Colors displays the bad things in gangs like how easy it could be to join a gang and to distribute the drugs for them.

This movie portrays the working of a gang in California.. The movie also showed how the older gang members got the younger members to go out and sell the drugs for them. The idea behind this was that if the younger person was to get caught there would be a lesser chance that they would rat on the main dealer and they would get a lesser punishment, as juveniles.

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In the movie they always show you the parts of the gangs running from the police or doing something bad like the drugs and violence. What the movie does not show you how the gangs contributed to the society or if they did where is it then. The movie was based on the fact that gangs are bad and that is how they showed it.

A TV program called America Justice, talks about the gangs negatively.

They just show the bad parts of being in gang. In an interview they had with a former gang member, and all they seem to ask him was questions on the illegal aspects of the gang. The person doing the interview asked him how his gang got the younger kids to sell the drugs for them and he said, 'all we need to provide was a free initiation to a gang, and we would get the younger kids to do our dirty work for us and make money at the same time.' The person doing the interview asked him if he or any one in the gang ever killed someone and he did not reply to the question making you think that he did or someone else did but he does not want to rat on himself or other gang members.

Good and Bad Sides of Gangs on TV

With these types of questions it makes you think that gangs are based on the bad stuff. People may think something different if they ask him questions on like what contributions has you brought to your society instead of all the drugs and violence. The question of what do you do for work would be more driven towards the positive aspects of the gang instead of questions on the illegal stuff. With them asking all negative questions makes you think that they are doing it to stress the bad parts.

TV shows usually show all the bad parts of belonging to a gang like the drugs, the violence, but do you ever see anything on the good parts of a gang. What about the 'Guardian Angels' wouldn't they be considered to be a positive helping gang? I have seen an article on Guardian Angels it talked about the aspects of them doing a fund raiser for the homeless and how they contributed to the people around them. This was all done without the drugs and violence unlike the other gangs we here about doing them.

How Media Influences Gang Activity

If the media would stop running to cover all the gang activity in this country, I am sure the number of gang related problems would be reduced and the crime rate would be on a slow but steady decline. By doing this there would be a less of an influence on the people, by showing just the bad stuff in gangs like the drugs and violence and make it less appealing to them. This country seems to love violence on TV. The big deal is that they affect our lives so drastically that they are a problem. The main fact is that the gangs where around for a long time and it is going to take a while to stop them.

My feelings toward the coverage of the gangs are as if the media is there to put thought in your mind making you think all gangs are bad. The sad fact is that not all gangs are bad, but the way movies and TV programs make them to be all evil. I feel that they should do less coverage of the gangs doing bad stuff and more on the good aspect of what they may do. The media is constantly focusing on the bad stuff giving you the idea that they are bad, but not in all cases.