Media scene

A French channel known as France 2 had a presenter named Pascal Sevran, he was asked about an excerpt from his book which translated as “The c**k of the Blacks is responsible for famine in Africa”. He justified this comment with “it’s the truth! - Africa bursts of all the children who are born to it without parents have the means of nourishing them…It would be necessary to sterilise half the planet!” he then followed this up with “having a Black Child is a crime against Humanity”. This racist comment did not get Sevran penalized or fired from his job, but African nation Niger decided to sue him. This racist viewpoint from the media is also reflected in the scene with the media in La Haine.

The scene starts with a quick dissolve in order to show that time has passed and that they have nothing to do, they lack any opportunities. The trio are sitting in a space that resembles a bear pit or a zoo enclosure; the news crew first drives away before coming back. The news crew ask if they had been involved in the riots, this assumes that because they are from the projects they were somehow involved. This reinforces a negative stereotype about the projects and has negative ramifications later on, as we in an art gallery a man shrugs off the trios behaviour by merely saying ‘they are from the projects, what do you expect?’ The arrival of the TV crew is to show that they are merely there to instigate aggression; this can be clearly seen, as the trio are calm and doing nothing until the crew arrive to cause trouble.

 The shot changes to a P.O.V from the camera zooming in on Vinz as he appears to be getting annoyed with the new crew, this is done to show that the only thing that the news crew recorded was Vinz and his violent behaviour which will be shown to the people of Paris. This will reinforce negative stereotypes and further