Springs Eternal

84% of Iraqis feel safe in their neighborhoods, double from a year ago.

64% of Iraqis believe in democracy for Iraq.

-BBC/ABC poll

Hopeful, no?

But how much Iraq has actually changed for the better, and if the media's perception and propagation of these results has been skewed by the simple fact that some of only positive things to come out of years of coverage. Further, reciprocally, has the high polling numbers been influenced by the whatever media coverage they have encountered there, in Iraq.

(Look, at least Iraq excels in something. Not that we're terribly far behind.)


(Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn)

Often, in NY, people can be irrationally dramatic, even paranoid about certain neighborhoods or parts of the city.

They've lived here for a long time (like myself), or even their whole lives, and still they have prejudiced (based not just race or ethnicity, but, perhaps more importantly, class), specious and simply outdated opinions about the relative safety throughout NYC. Usually, these people are speaking of places they have never been to. Then what informs these beliefs?

Perceptions of a city's criminal topography (where crime affects both criminal and non-criminal victims) can be fomented in myriad ways: personal or second-hand experience, TV, music, and, at least here maybe, the movies (this is NY after all). But in general, it's probably the news that has most affect on how the safety of place is interpreted.

News media have a defined set of aesthetics--crucially, a fixation on all things dramatic and/or criminal--and carry the weight of an authoritative voice; so that, public opinion is formed within, or bounded by, the confines of available media outlets.

This is the standard media studies outlook. If the case, it only remains to draw a line from the nightly local newscast to how a neighborhood is perceived, both within and outside its borders.