America is a melting pot made up of people from many different races and ethnic backgrounds, so why are the American news broadcasters predominantly white men in their late forties? News represents the American society so therefore American broadcasters should reflect society as a whole. In addition, many people consider news anchors role models and it is important to see themselves represented and trust their news source. The lack of diversity among newscasters impacts the audience’s reception of the news. People are more likely to trust news sources that they relate to and identify with. Many people do not even notice the lack of diversity or understand the impact it has on society. There needs to be more of an effort to reflect diversity among our newscasters to correct the history of discrimination, to accurately reflect the audience and to provide role models and promote positive images.
The United States is called a “melting pot ” because the the varied groups of people that live in the country and interact every day, but the country also has an ugly history or discrimination against women and minorities. The broadcasting industry has been guilty of this discrimination. There has been blatant discrimination against women newscasters. “Women journalists initially had difficulty breaking into the broadcast news field and did not begin to make real strides towards equality until the 1960s and 1970s” ( Irvin) . This is very discouraging to young women interested in this
Chao and Felix Gutierrez are both well recognized professors in the University of California. Felix Gutierrez is well known for his expertise in journalism and changing the news industry (on race and ethnicity) over the past few years. Lena M. Chano is known for her academic work that has been in several journals over the united states. This particular book looks at how racial and ethnic inclusiveness has grown to be more important as our society has become increasingly diverse. Racism, Sexism, and the Media: The Rise of Class Communication in Multicultural America examines how people of color fit into the fabric of America and how the media tell them and others how they fit. Authors Clint C. Wilson, Félix Gutiérrez, and Lena M. Chao perceive the rise of class communication as a result of the convergence of new media technologies and continued demographic segmentation of audiences as people of color grow as targets of and markets for the media. This book goes in depth and solidifies the stance point on how much the media plays a part in all of this. This books Gives you an idea on exactly the way the media
Television and film is a huge part of American culture. As the “face” of America changes, it is expected for our media to reflect it. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Since the beginning of film, minorities have been misrepresented and underrepresented. While there has been a significant increase in minority actors since the beginning of film, there is still a huge underrepresentation present in American television and film. Our media needs to reflect out diverse country. This topic is always important and relevant because race, gender, and sexuality, in general, have been issues throughout the growth of television and film. Even today, minorities are subject to
African American Women in Television has been a rising issue in the media industry for years now. Being that television is mainly dominated by white men, African American women emerging into television has had a positive and negative effect in the media industry. There are many different aspects of African American Women in television. They are actresses, producers, directors, personalities, news anchors and reports and so much more. Through all the major success African American women have had within in television thus far it has not always been easy. This topic is very relevant because it specifically affects African American women in television. The issue of controversy with African American women being in the media industry through the television sparks major concerns from consumers, co-workers, and people in the entertainment industry. This issue impacting how the world view all African American women in
Known to many as the ‘melting pot,’ the United States consists of a variety of cultures and peoples. Immigrants from near and far traveled and continue to do so for economic opportunities or to escape persecution. One particular group of people who immigrated to the United States were the Filipinos or Pinoys, as some like to call themselves. Due to its 400-year colonization by Spain and the United States, the Filipino American populace increased after the Philippines became a territory under U.S. control. The last Asiatic group to migrate to the United States, the Filipinos have contributed to the American society through a variety of occupations, such as sailors or nannies. Moreover, the U.S. colonization of the Philippines from
In today’s culture, people are constantly being influenced by media, whether it is subconsciously through advertisements or consciously through news media or any form of entertainment. Society, young and old, comes to understand the world through the media they consume and that means that the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of nonwhites is a problem that more and more people are starting to notice. Studies are being conducted to analyze different aspects of the lack of representation in the media. However, few have proposed practical, if any, solutions to this growing problem. The solution starts with addressing who is responsible for the lack of representation. The white-dominated executive positions that are behind the problem also
It is not hard to notice that there is a disproportionately low amount of African American women participating in the media today. Whether it be on paper or on screen, the amount of spotlight given to these women fails to change. Since the 1880’s, African American subject matter has changed indefinitely in size and shape. Hence the tailoring of subject matter- politics, sports, or entertainment- continues to be one of the major contributors to the low inclusion rates of African American women in the media. As noted in Sachsman’s book Media, “[The coverage of minorities] all comes down to the people who run that media”
In his article “A Long Way to Go: Minorities and the Media”, Carlos Cort discusses the misrepresentation of minorities in the media. Carlos goes on to state that Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians are all represented with false stereotypes within the media. Carlos brings up an example about how East L.A is negatively identified with gangs and blames the mass media for the popular stereotype that has resonated with the public. Cort also adds that part of the problem with misrepresentation is that minorities have had marginal influence within the mainstream media. Since the beginning of television many roles such as news broadcaster, actor, or sports commentator, have been predominately performed by white individuals, with little influence
The United States of America is considered a melting pot of heritages and nationalities from all around the world. There is no official language, and no one culture all citizens abide by. Despite the fact that everyone in this country is different from one another, there is still a constant uniform citizen that has a more favorable position. This citizen is white, English-speaking, and somehow always in the front of the public sphere. In the recent years, there has been an increasingly dominant Latino presence in America. Their strength in numbers challenges there being a poster American citizen, and that that citizen will remain white. When working to assimilate to America’s “culture,” Lations seem to believe that there is one America, within which people speak a singular language and experience one culture. The pressure to assimilate stems from the white citizens of the country feeling threatened when there is a new culture and language, which they do not understand. As a result they feel personally threatened by the people who can speak both Spanish and English, and their response response involves marginalization and the obvious exclusion of Latino groups in the United States. There is a phenomenon, cultural citizenship, where Latinos perform their cultural practices to stretch their identity into the states, and practice their right to be authentic members of their community.
Media is stuck in a loop and to diversify it needs to try something new. The end goal of most media, regardless of the form, is to produce revenue. Therefore methods that have proven to work in the past will be repeated until shown to be unsuccessful. A recent article in Feminist Magazine discussed an annual report released by the Women’s Media Center on gender bias in major US media creation. The report discussed some reasons as to why media creation is still geared towards males. The main cause dealt with how marketers utilize media to target the group of people that have the most disposable income, white males 18 – 49 (Mandanas, 2014). This mentality was been the status quo for years and does not take in consideration other groups or combined marketing
America has always been labelled as a melting pot due to the diversity in our population. People from all over the world have traveled here to have a chance at the “American Dream”. Many people have varied reasons for coming to our country but some must leave their home country to find work, or because they have such awful living conditions. In recent years, it has become an impossible feat to obtain full citizenship in our nation, which can be good and very discouraging to immigrants trying to better their lives. There are roughly forty-three million immigrants, legal or illegal, in our nation and that makes up almost 13.5% of our total population. About eleven million of those immigrants are undocumented. Citizens of this country have
The United States of America is one of the most diverse countries, and the most media obsessed yet we still lack a vast amount of diversity in that media. Our media delivers a lot of the same narratives and perspectives and although we have in recent times seen progress in the medias display of diversity we are still being presented with a disproportionate amount of the same points of view. There is no aspect in our media currently that proficiently displays diversity. Diversity becomes especially important when representing women. Though we as a culture have made great strides in gender equality women but especially women of color are an oppressed and underrepresented group. What representation of women of color there has been in our media is often subject to stereotyping and
It is obvious that America can be referred as ‘melting-pot’ due to the historical facts and its different settled ethnies. But, from my point of view, it cannot be a ‘truly’ melting-pot because of the great immigration intolerance that exists. Racism cannot be understood in such an ethnic country, because it is made of the different cultures since long time ago, so it does not make sense. Donald Trump says that “a nation without a border is not a nation”, so he is claiming that America has to be apart from other countries, such as Mexico, in order to eradicate illegal immigration (and supposed criminality and rapes). Mr. Christie has the same politics as Trump, to eradicate illegal immigration by tracking the immigrants to know their whereabouts,
The concept of gender and race representation in media has reminded me that the representation of people of color is not visible. The push for people of color to act on certain stereotypes shows that the media wants them to be portrayed in a certain way. The media pushes white people into positive leading roles that make it difficult for people of color to gain opportunity. Media uses its power to dissociate themselves on their reasoning on why they do not cast people of color for roles. In their article, “Gender, Race, and Media Representation”, Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hebert states, “Western industrialized societies are stratified by hierarchies of race, gender, and class that structure our social experience” (Brooks & Hebert 298) This hierarchy provides the placement of where people will be casted into media. The representation of gender and race in media has clarified that the hierarchy they have created, has
America is known for being a melting pot of cultures throughout the world that came together in our society in a quest for freedoms that may not have existed in other countries of the world. Migration into America has occurred throughout its existence as a country, but movements from specific parts of the world have come in waves over time. As those groups came into America, they have brought their own ideas, religions, social customs and way of living with them. As America has become more multicultural, the views on the use of certain stereotypes, racial language and references to characteristics of a certain group of people have changed. This raises interesting discussion points that people should have so that we can understand each
The United States is commonly know as a melting pot of nations, in which people from around the world have emigrated to form a homogeneous yet varied culture. Although we come from different ethnic groups, we are usually bound together through our common English language. This becomes an issue, however, when immigrants are not familiar with English and American culture, and instead attempt to keep their own heritage alive. They are often torn between identities through language, the one they speak at home which they are familiar with, and the one they must adhere to in public. This often leads to struggle and conflict on both sides, dealing with different cultures and how people react when assimilation occurs. Because of this, living in the United States often requires us to completely accept only one identity, even though hints of the other may spill over at times.