When news media made the conversion to radio from print only, a new era was born in America. The birth of television pushed the mass media to an even more omnipresent place in our society. Today it is impossible to avoid the news media without reverting to a completely hermetic and reclusive state. Newspapers, radio broadcasts, television, and the Internet all stream information into our homes and businesses, information on which people rely to understand world events and local news. However, if the information presented to society is inaccurate, the majority of the public will still believe it to be fact. Subtle messages can easily be entwined with the news to present whatever image the media would like to convey. Additionally, even entertainment in the media has become so closely related to the actual news that it is impossible to separate the two when analyzing the effect of the news media. Reality Television and "Inspired by True Events" shows like Law and Order leave real impressions on the public that will be interpreted subconsciously as if they were factual reports, and news broadcasts present themselves in a fanfare manner to attract viewers for the sake of entertainment. Ideally, the news would be presented in a clear, factual, unbiased manner. Unfortunately, our society is far from ideal, and the media is riddled with prejudicial language and implications. The prejudicial nature of race in the media can be seen in the history of radio and television, the way the general media handles race and ethnicity, and specifically the way local news broadcasts handle this subject.

             Long before Americans huddled around the television set or computer screen to get their media fix, the radio broadcasted entertainment and news into the home. Since the 1920s, radio has been shaping and defining American culture and way of thinking. "Radio is arguably the most important electronic invention of the century.