Lack Of Diversity As A Form Of Discrimination In The Media

Our modern society surrounds itself today with the media. One may think the media only broadcasts through the television, but there are many sources such as the newspaper, social medias, apps, cell phones etc. Technology is the way of the world now, and how we as humans rely on getting our most up to date information. The media has a vast influence on the ways minorities are viewed by our culture. The media sets the tone for the morals, values, and images for society. Minority groups are defined as “a subordinate group whose members have significantly less control or power over their own lives than do the members of a dominant or majority group”(Schaefer, 2008, p. 7).

Racism throughout time has had a powerful negative force in society. There have been many efforts made to relieve racism. Racism is still present in America, although many people are doing their best to put a stop to racism and its somewhat devastating effects on young black males in society. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” (Lee) The negative stereotypes and racial profiling that Americans hand down from generation to generation are damaging not only to the minorities but to those perpetuating them as well. The behaviors that are kept alive because of these negative stereotypes and the behaviors associated with them, create an emotional and social struggle as well as presenting obstacles when receiving an education and employment opportunities.

The media in our lives has the strongest impact on our everyday conversations, actions, judgments and perception on society as a whole. Without our modern day technology the world would result to judgments based on their own personal beliefs, not being so easily persuaded by others. The contemporary media portrays Black and Hispanic Americans in numerous positive ways, but more so in a negative light. The stereotypes that these minorities have been given not only affect the community as a whole, but the personal lives of each individual. Although the media can be used for good, the captivating movies, news stories, and documentaries seem to have a negative outcome. The medias focus on Black and Hispanic Americans has not always been bad, but the stereotypes that have developed over the decades shed a negative light on these two racial and ethnic groups.

Race in the media is a very sensitive issue now a days. When it comes to minorities we can still see that the media portrays us in a bad light. The image of blacks in the American media has changed over the past two decades with the civil rights movement, changes in attitudes towards minority groups, and increased sensitivity on the part of those who and project these images. An examination of the image of Blacks in the articles and advertisements to show attitudes subtly represented, and these attitudes can be linked to historical and social realities of the time.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” Barack Obama. The question is always asked does the media reflect the reality of society, or does society try and imitate the reality shown by the media? There are a number of stereotypes associated with African Americans in our society such as African American men are athletes, rappers, criminals, deviant, streetwise, uneducated, and unemployed just to name a few. African Americans in the media have changed through the years. The history of African Americans on TV or minorities in general is hampered by the racial conflicts and segregation that are embedded in American society. Historically, black actors have been grouped stereotypically and assigned to comedy. This has often been traced to the genre of black minstrelsy that was popular in the early 20th century.

Racial bias is a prevalent trend in today’s media, and white people are favored in comparison to any other race. Seemingly every aspect of mass media is soaked in bias. Oftentimes, this leaves out minorities

People can be influenced by the media in many ways. When you turn on the news, most likely a shocking crime is flashing across the screen. These crimes can be identified as a “black male” or Caucasian female”. The news can put a figure onto someone’s mind that a certain type of person whether their race, gender or religion is bad or dangerous.

Televised on all broadcast are shows and movies that are based on the past and some of the horrible things that have taken place. Slavery around the world, the AIDS epidemic, Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Hitler and the Nazis, and even the events that occurred on September 11th, 2001. Students learn about these events in their classes during middle and high school. One thing that the students do not seem to realize is that these events occurred due to a little thing called racism. Racism is everything but little, though. Racism still exist in our contemporary times. There are several examples to prove racism still exist, but one that is very transparent to see is from the last three presidential elections. In 2008,

For years the media has been criticized for their representation of African Americans on television. African Americans have always been treated as second class citizens since the inception of this country. African American men and women have always been stereotyped and they still are till this day.The media presents an image that is skewed and changes how the society is today and how black men and women are being treated in their social and work aspect of life.

One of the main reasons the media industries need to become more diversified is positive representation. Growing up watching shows and films, I don’t feel like I had adequate representation and positive role models to look up to. Even now, when I look at the images of Black women in media, I don’t find many of them to be positive – however, the positivity is growing thanks to the presence of people like Shonda Rhimes and Ava DuVernay. The problem with the lack of diversity in the media industries, particularly behind the scenes, is the fact that when it comes to creating content that targets and includes marginalized groups, a lot of it is derived from stereotyped stigmas that the White majority perpetuates via their predominate role. This

While women have impressively built their presence in radio and TV newsrooms, blacks and other minorities have been exiting more often than entering. (P.293)”. I find it inacceptable that minorities have been underrepresented for too long. Poindexter, Smith, and Heider also believe that minorities are at the bottom of the Broadcast Journalism field, they state “Since 1968, there has been little significant change in the news media coverage of people of color. Scholars who study race ad television news have found that people of color are often neglected, misrepresented or stereotyped” (P.525). In the year 1998, whites were on top of the hierarchy triangle, "Neither women nor minorities have broken into the top ranks of the TV network evening news anchors," said S. Robert Lichter, CMPA president. "For three years running, the top five most visible anchors in 1998 were white males, as were 15 of the 20 most visible reporters on the network evening news" (P.3). By 2002, the number of journalists decreased, “On balance, then, we estimate nearly 6,000 fewer full-time journalists working for traditional mainstream U.S. news media in 2002 as compared with 1992” (Klein & Naccarato

The definition of race is often based on physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture and eye shape. Race is both a set of genetically defined biological characteristics and culturally defined characteristics. One influence on culture is the media and the media have a huge influence on the way different races are viewed by society. The media consists of communication devices and some media forms include television, newspapers, magazines, film and radio. Misrepresent can be defined as to give a false or misleading representation with an intent to deceive or be unfair.

Diversity in media has been a topic of concerns for years now. The diversity across all areas of media has seen significant change from that of the 50’s and 60’s. Comparatively, media representation has seen somewhat of a golden age in regards to diversity. Unfortunately, despite the progress we have made as a nation, we still have a ways to go in regards to properly diversifying our various forms of media. There are a few ways in which we can begin to diversify the how media is produced and well as how it is viewed. The media will need to get away from the status quo, media needs to portray a collective view and finally proper education and insight into the mindset of the target audience will help diversify the media.

Pursuing a degree in Communication with a concentration in Journalism is my first step into becoming an executive for my future news and entertainment firm, A. Nicole’s Network. A. Nicole’s Network will host TV dramas and international news. With this network, I hope to bring all audiences to an outlet that broadcasts unbiased news and provides quality television for the nation’s young adults and children. Growing up, I’ve always admired black faces on television, broadcasting daily global talks and executing light-hearted punchlines. What began as a past-time hobby of making and editing videos, blogging about events of my school day, and mimicking Friday night reporters, prospered into a dire passion to communicate anything and everything

Society and communication hold a cooperative agreement which functions primarily as an avenue for the spread of cultural ideals to the general public. In this sense, communication is essential to cultural expression, serving to expand and diversify culture within a society. Yet throughout the past year, this relationship was distorted, analyzed, and questioned extensively amidst a surge of alleged media bias, and cries of “fake news.” This perceived bias references the tendency of news outlets to pick and choose what viewers ought to be thinking about, a process known as agenda-setting, which leads to an abundance of diversity in how different news outlets cover the same story. A distinctive example of this variance is found in the coverage of the NFL protest this past Sunday. Players from almost every team kneeled and locked arms during the national anthem, and on Monday, (9/25/17) after the protesting was finished, the story was covered globally. The media channels of CNN, The Independent, and VICE are ideal sources to showcase diversity in news due to the pronounced differences in their coverage of this story. Such differences include which aspects of the story are highlighted, what context is established for the report.