“Is Logan fairly represented in the media, or does the media disadvantage people of the community through prejudice and reinforced stereotypes?”

Members of Logan are divided on the issue of Logan

City

’s

representation

in the media through prejudice and reinforced stereotypes. The

City

of Logan is located between Queensland’s capital

city

of Brisbane, and the diverse localities; Gold Coast, Redlands, Ipswich and the Scenic Rim. Logan has a population of 334,358 people, comprising 217 nationalities and cultures, with approximately 50% of residents aged 30 or younger (Logan

city

Council, 2019).

However

, Logan was represented as a lack of security location with a high profile of violent crimes (G. Zappia, 2014). It was

also

portrayed as "Brazen youth gangs terrorising Brisbane” through NewsComAu website in 2018

,

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and was ranked as Brisbane’s top suburbs for

car

and home theft insurance claims in 2020 which was published by M. Dennien. Yet, the members of Logan have reputations of shit-faced and intergenerational welfare dependency (N. Brown, 2020). As media outlets

such

as ‘Ahuri’, ‘NewsComAu’, ‘Brisbane Times’, and ‘The Chronicle’ had represented the negative images and perceptions of the Logan

community

. Many media outlets had unfairly represented the

city

and had disadvantaged the members of Logan based on unreliable and inaccurate sources and certain people. The media had disadvantaged people of the Logan

community

as many media outlets tend to focus on a particular

group

of people. In 2014 the ‘Ahuri’ media outlet published an

article

titled ‘Addressing concentrations of

disadvantage

Logan Central/Logan

City

case study report’ stated, “But most acknowledged that perceptions of

community

safety in the area are low, and

this

is supported by a recent council survey, Logan Listens (Iris Research 2013), which reports that fear of crime is a primary concern…”. The report shows facts since it was a survey, but it was acknowledged by most participants who interviewed in the survey. It indicates that the media primarily focused on a certain

group

of people and put the

city

as a

disadvantage

. The reason is that it did not allow the

city

to be correctly represented because it did not fairly portray a true

representation

of Logan. The media has only described and reinforced on the negative Logan’s perception of

community

safety and crimes, but no other positive perceptions. In 2018 an

article

titled ‘Brazen youth gangs terrorising Brisbane’ published in ‘NewsComAu’ media website contains a picture of teens displayed money on the floor in letters ‘4114*’ Logan area postcode. It clearly demonstrates that the media mainly focused on a specific

group

of people and had disadvantaged the members of Logan. Reason being, the title is unfairly represented Logan’s image because It only conveyed the audiences to picture and prejudge Logan teens as a gangster who destroyed the Brisbane

City

but not a true

representation

of young people of the

community

.

Therefore

, many media outlets had disadvantaged the members of Logan.

However

, the media

also

had disadvantaged them as it represented the

city

with unreliable and inaccurate information.

Additionally

, the media had disadvantaged people of Logan as many media platforms provided unreliable and inaccurate information about the

city

. On the 21st of January 2020, ‘Brisbane Times’ media platform represented Logan as a

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insurance claims of “22.67%” in Queensland in an

article

titled ‘Brisbane’s top suburbs for

car

and home theft claims revealed’. The percentage,

however

, was ranked by the number of claims in each region that did not calculate as a percentage of claims to the total number of

car

and house in each region has.

For example

, the number Logan

City

claimed for

car

and home insurance was 1,243 cases but has a population of 334,358 in 2019. Whereas, Ipswich claimed of 7.28% and has a population of 219,890 in the same year.

This

shows that the media had used inaccurate data which put the Logan

city

as a

disadvantage

. Reason being, it did not portray the

city

fairly because it did not correctly represent Logan. The media had only reinforced on stereotypes of Logan image; lacks security and high profile of crimes, but did not provide both negative and positive statistics about the

city

. As N. Brown

also

indicated in an

article

titled ‘Australia’s ‘worst’ towns revealed’ published in January 2020, the Logan’ common hobbies were known for “sh*t-faced” and “intergenerational welfare dependency” according to “the pair wrote in a review of the

city

”.

This

evidence shows that the media provided an unreliable and inaccurate source of the claim as it was personal opinions expressed in the review, and

thus

disadvantaged the members of Logan. Considering, it did not allow the

city

to be truthfully portrayed because it unfairly represented an untrue

representation

of the

city

. The media had only prejudiced people of the

community

but did not provide facts about the people of the

city

itself but unreliable and invalid evidence to support the claim.

Therefore

, people of the

community

had faced the issue which media had put the

city

as

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isadvantage. Generally, it would appear reasonable to conclude that for many years the members of Logan

City

have been dealing with negative images that many media platforms had put the

city

as

d

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isadvantage. As the weight of evidence suggests that the ‘Ahuri’, ‘NewsComAu’, ‘Brisbane Times’, and ‘The Chronicle’ media platforms did not allow the

city

to be fairly represented because it only primarily centred on the certain

group

of people, and inaccurately provided the information about the

city

. The media had only portrayed

this

city

to be a dangerous place with deficiency security and high criminal offences –violent, young terrorism, and robber – and that the people of the

community

are not independent but always associated with drugs. Some claim,

however

, shows that the

community

worked hard on the reinventing the Logan

City

over the

last

decade to become a proud and successful suburb reflected in the media. The portrayal of cities and the perception of people are critical in modern society, as they can be marginalised and distorted by the media through bias and strengthened stereotypes.