Minorities In Media

The portrayal of minorities on television is especially less than ideal. Broadcasting channels are not promoting stories to the public with concern for the population as a whole but instead with the intent to gain greater ratings. Therefore the objectives of a network are to cater to a specific audience. This results in stories that are geared towards the majority. The majority in the United States are White American males although females have a higher population within the country. Majority of us may not encounter a specific minority group in our daily lives but the media aids with an introduction to these people. This then leads our culture to inherent racism that has been found to exist in newscasts across the country.

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.

Popular culture is defined as “a composite of all the values, ideas, symbols, material goods, processes, and understandings that arise from mass media” (Atkins 131). It is well-known to the public and reinforces the way people see they world, including aspects such as race, ethnicity, and gender. According to Omi, popular culture “deals with the symbolic realm of social life, the images which it creates, represents, and disseminates contribute to the overall racial climate” (540). The individuals or groups belong to a specific race can be perceived based on their behavior portrayed by the mass media, instead of being recognized for who they truly are. Such effect created by the popular culture contributes to what is known as “racial stereotype”, which is “beliefs about differences in behavior associated with racial differences” (Jones 982).

In the year 1968, Poindexter, Smith, and Heider believed that minorities were at the bottom of the Broadcast Journalism field, “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” (Poindexter, Smith, Heider, 1968, P. 525).

Another problem is these television shows may be the only interaction an audience may have with a particular race or ethnic group. This primarily affects children. Young children are extremely easy to influence and spend hours in front of the television. When children are exposed to only one race, they develop prejudices and bias towards other ethnicities. This misrepresentation of races of television shows may cause children to become close minded and prejudiced.

This is also the case for many different races, such as, Asian, Hispanic, African-American and more. Many feel that they are being negatively perpetrated by the media and find that these social stereotypes are racist towards their race.

The representation of race has been fabricated through media can be seen throughout history that has come to encourage the idea of white supremacy and justification of inequality. This representation of race is used to make others as inferior used as an objective in defending the negative treatment of blacks and protection whiteness as the ideal.

With the media having such a large affect on America's perception of people, it is important how people are depicted in news, ads and in the media. Media has a negative portrayal of minority groups and depicts Caucasians in a more positive way than all other races. Minorities are generally misrepresented in the media due to popular stereotypes amongst society. Stereotypes are general misunderstandings of people or ideas held by a large group of people. Media plays a huge role in showing how certain races interact with each other.

As Christopher Dodd once said, “Every American deserves to live in freedom, to have his or her privacy respected and a chance to go as far as their ability and effort will take them - regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic circumstances.” The media plays a big role in how audiences view other ethnicities from what they see on television shows. Crime shows for instance, show a wide variety of different ethnicities. I decided to focus on a quantitative research and count each ethnicity in a crime-drama episode and look at what the person’s job was.

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.

Muslims do not seem to have achieved social acceptance in the society as compared to other ethnic or racial minority groups. Although deviant behavior by Muslims or Muslim organizations can in no way be considered acceptable let alone be tolerable, denouncing an entire community of people of the same religion, color or ethnicity etc. as terrorists or evil or with any other form of bigotry cannot be acceptable either. However, the mainstream media today tries to foster hate and intolerance among people towards minority groups. The shift in journalism from providing public with information to providing personal opinions and views is one of the major flaws in the media today and is a vital aspect of media bias. The fact that journalists, media celebrities and activists try to convince the viewers into believing their own opinions and views and are told what to think instead of just providing them with information is what is wrong with the media today. According to an American broadcast journalist, news corporations are on a quest to increase profits and television rating point which has led to partisanship. Moreover he claims that in achieving this it has “supported the rise of hyper-opinionated news personalities, and encouraged the embrace of their biased approach to news gathering” (“Introduction” 4). It is common to come across activists and other media personalities making bold statements and declaration against the Muslim community. An astonishing example of the media

Heather Doan, in her research essay “Effects of Racial Stereotypes on Television,” argues that racial stereotypes of different ethnic groups such as African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Middle Easterners on television programs must come to an end because of their negative influences on the affected groups and viewers. First, stereotypes describe how individuals classify their beliefs about different social and ethnic groups. Television programs promote stereotypes of different groups by representing African-Americans as violent criminals instead of victims and Latinos as illegal immigrants instead of working citizens. At the same time the programs promote Asians as coward nerds and Middle Easterners as possible terrorists. The repeated

For some people in society, the only time they get to see another race is from the images portrayed through the media. America is populated with many different cultures and races, often considered as the world's largest melting pot. Learned ignorance with a combination of limited exposure and negative images being the only depiction seen in different areas of the media lead to stereotyping of an entire race. Since the infancy of television and newspaper, exposure of African Americans has been scarce or even non-existent. In the early times black culture in television and film were limited to demeaning and cruel depictions of black people as being submissive, docile, and unintelligent. Many black actors were only assigned to domestic roles, portrayed as savages, and other images that added to the stereotypes of black people in that time in history. Blacks were rarely seen in news shows, newspapers, but it seemed to only be shown if they were committing crimes. The negative stereotypes of blacks in the media were a result of the lack of African

Racial Diversity is a sensitive topic, especially with all of the current controversy about race. One specific issue pertaining to this is the portrayal and representation of Asian people in media (i.e. television, movies, magazines, etc.). I hope to bring awareness to this controversial matter in a respectful and peaceful manner through in depth research. As an Asian-American woman, I am extremely passionate about this issue because it hits home. I live in a society where there is not a lot of representation or people I can directly relate to in media. While watching TV shows and movies, I have noticed that all of the actors and actresses are predominantly Caucasian and when an Asian actor or actress is casted, he/she is cast as the supporting character or a villain. Growing up in an Asian household where you are taught to be proud of your heritage and watching these shows and movies was not something that made me want to have pride in my ancestry. It left me without a strong Asian American role model in my childhood; someone I could aspire to be.

Media has been an important part of society since the beginning of published written communication. Before the 1920s, mass media were strictly relegated to newspapers, due to technical limitations. Over the last 100 years, media has expanded to include radio, television, motion pictures, and magazines. Regardless of the form, at least in the United States, the content of said media is reflective of society as a whole, while including the views of the owners and influencers of the companies that produce media. These views include stereotypes and perceptions the owners have about different people, which spans across all races. The stereotypes and perceptions expressed through the media all affect different races in different ways, some more negatively than others. The effects of media on different races can be best explained through the stereotypes and perceptions they enforce through news reports, entertainment, and print media.