TV has become perhaps the primary vehicle that society receives its information and presents its values and expectations. One of the most important roles television plays is its presentation of news and information. What a station chooses to present as newsworthy can play a strong role in how people view their society and the world around them. Often, television news sources have followed a philosophy of "if it bleeds, it leads", focusing on violence in urban en

Print media is another important vehicle in which social problems are developed. As in television media there can be a large discrepancy in the types of coverage paid to issues of race, class, and gender. Newspapers, when formulating their reports and coverage, have focused heavily on the problems of gangs in inner-city minority neighborhoods. Reporters have been found to have devoted tremendous time both gang activity as well as community response to such activity. As a result, the print media has created an environment of great concern about gangs and gang crime in the inner-city. The gang problem becomes a constructed image with great power in public discourse. The fight against gangs can be used to initiate social control- even in areas where gangs are not a significant issue:

Closely linked to race becomes issues of class. As those in minority areas are portrayed and viewed negatively a flight of capital and economic activity develops in conjunction with the stereotypes. Those with capital, typically white, avoid neighborhoods seen as violent or dangerous, and money is not spent or invested in these communities. Once this happens, "the catastrophe of the inner-city increasingly becomes one of economic isolation more than simply of race". Jobs quickly disappear, and welfare reforms are doomed to failure without hope of potential employment. Once the welfare system fails the "United States will further divide into two societies: one multiracial and reasonably prosperous; the other, disadvantaged and often dark skinned, living in semi-permanent poverty". As the inner-city minority neighborhoods become increasingly poor vis-a-vis society as a whole, it becomes increasingly likely that the members of the television news media will not come from this area of society and continue to promote the fixed images they have developed of these neighborhoods, perhaps ignoring other methods to present the problems of the inner-city. Thus, the two concepts of race and class are closely related and act to reinforce one another.

Ironically, conformist juveniles are those most often affected by such control strategies, which take the form of curfews, dress codes, and rules of participation. Thus, the symbolic power of the gang metaphor lies in its successful application in settings where the gangs are relatively unimportant or inconsequential. Whether it is used to justify or forbid a particular style of dress, defend skateboarding, or enhance a politician's prospects on election day, the gang metaphor is a powerful tool for conjuring up an image that can be exploited by a host of social actors in the quest for po

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1779
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)