Media

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Information = Citation: Johnjaymedia. " Media Race & Capital Punishment - Influence of Media ." //YouTube//. N.p., 2010. Web. 14 May 2011. < [] >. = Author’s credentials: While the author is unknown the recording comes from a discussion on the influence of media on perceptions of justice, held at John Jay College. The first woman to speak, Andrea Lyon, is an Associate Clinical Professor at the DePaul University of Law and a director at DePaul Center of Death Penalty Cases. Errol Louis is a columnist for New York Daily News and William Sothern is Deputy Director of Capital Appeals project. Margaret Kovera is a Professor in the department of psychology at John Jay College. Scope and purpose of the work: This work is a discussion on the influence of media on perceptions of justice. It is an informational report, which gives the views of different people. Intended audience: The intended audience of this article is those who have some knowledge on capital punishment and experts in the field to see other expert’s opinions on the impact of race on capital punishment. __Summary__ Identify the author’s thesis: The author’s thesis deals with how a person is judged before they even walk into a court room by the color of their skin. What are the main arguments?: The main arguments include before a word has been spoken there is a presumption of guilt and evilness of an African American who is assumed to be the one who committed the crime. Media tells these one dimensional stories that those who hear the media do not see those on death row as actual people. __Evidence?__ Evidence includes that when Oprah talked to those on death row, she was surprised to find out they are actually people and not just think of them as the acts they committed. A professor at Stanford is studying how racial bias influences the criminal justice process. One study about people committed of capital crimes in Philadelphia who were sentenced to death or life without parole. The professor looked to see if the appearance of the people could help you predict which were sentenced to death. She had people rate how African American they looked by people who did not know what the professor was studying/researching. Thos who looked the most African American were those who received the death penalty and the others were just sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. __Evaluation__ Evaluation of research: This work is logical, clear, and well-researched. The speakers each have their time to speak and provide evidence to back up their main points. Evaluation of scope: This topic has been adequately addressed. The speakers are all experts in some field related to capital punishment and they relay their thoughts in a organized and easy to understand way. Evaluation of author bias: The speakers in this video are biased toward race being a major problem in capital punishment. Race to them is a major factor in whether one is sentenced to death or not. __Reflection__ This video is really helpful to my research. Not only does it give information on how race impact the sentencing of death, but also gives information on how much an impact media has on the opinions of those committed and therefore impacts those sentenced to death. The speakers backed up their thoughts with evidence. The last speaker who talked about the professor’s study was especially helpful by showing how the defendants who were African American were sentenced to death over those who were not African Americans, when they all committed a capital crime.