Transgenders and their encompassing news stories.

Being that it's considerably less common than race, it tends to be exotic enough to be highlighted by the media. They'll do anything for a sensational story. For the record, they still do point out race in the news on occasion.

 

This.

The media right now is mostly in the business to sell stories so they have to come up with shocking titles for people to stop for 5 mins and read their article. It serves no other purpose than trying to sell more stories. As much as it sucks, that's just simply how it is right now.

What I do find funny is that many people also get mad when a story that is positive about a person doesn't mention their race, sexuality or gender identity. People call it discrimination and demand that it is mentioned.

At the end, we sometimes just have to learn how to brush certain things off and not care what people say one way or another. Harder than it sounds, but worth it.

 

I'm currently in a media writing class at my university. (I'm an electronic media sports production major.) The thing with any news (television, print or radio) is that is has to catch your attention. It's not everyday that you see transgender people in the news. So the news this fact in order to hook the viewer of the content.

And... Now I will take a minute and go off topic. I read a column recently that talked about news values and how they have become corrupt. "Journalists" (I put this in quotes because they really are not since they make up the facts) are making up parts of stories just to "hook" viewers to their stories. This is talking about columns... but I think that this will show the "shock value" that these writers strive for.

The news columns are no place for a fling with literary license: Ted Diadiun | cleveland.com

I don't think that that was as off topic as I thought that it would be... You see, these people want "shock value". And sadly our culture still thinks that being transgender is "shocking".

 

Or the fact that they almost always get the pronouns wrong. Often I read a headline that says "Transgender Man Did This Bad Thing." After reading it, I find out that this isn't a story about a FTM but a MTF. The headline says man, but it's about a woman. They'll get all the other pronouns right, but the one in the title is the barer of the dagger. This tongue-in-cheek approach to news kinda irritates me.

 

The pronouns thing is what I find insulting. Journalists have always had rediculous headlines and unfortunately trans people are a MINORITY the world over and have been descriminated against for pretty much all of human history. Not something that is easy to change.