Minority Stereotypes In The News Media

Too often in mainstream culture are minority groups portrayed in oversimplified ways. It is easy to dismiss these portrayals as easily discernable lies done with intentions to be funny, but, upon closer inspection, these “harmless” stereotypes have real consequences. In her essay, Judith Ortiz Cofer argues that the preconceived ideas of certain races that the media frequently perpetrates are not harmless at all; they are damaging.

Dixon, Travis L. "Network News And Racial Beliefs: Exploring The Connection Between National Television News Exposure And Stereotypical Perceptions Of African Americans." Journal Of Communication 58.2 (2008): 321-337. Academic

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).

It is a public misconception that there are more minorities incarcerated because they perpetrate more illegalities due to their economic conditions. In reality, a racially biased judicial system is the basis for America’s distinct number of minority inmates. Minorities are automatically associated with criminality and racial assessments manipulate punitive policies making our judicial system racially biased.

In today’s society judging races and ethnic groups have left stereotypical images on them. Stereotypical images are seen all over, even in contemporary media. Hispanic Americans and Black Americans are two ethnic groups that I’ve recognized on having that stereotypical image in the contemporary media. Hispanic Americans and Black Americans are left with harm because of these stereotypes that have been shown in the contemporary media, for example in the television shows George Lopez and Everybody Hates Chris. It seems to be that stereotypes are being less focused on or just being allowed because of the humor they bring out in those television shows.

Harmeen Jones, a former Fox Technician, was fired after filing a complaint to Human Resources of the unfair treatment he was receiving by his colleagues at Fox for being African-American. Jones claims ‘he was subjected to a steady stream of "racist, sexist, and extremely offensive comments,’ against blacks, Muslims, Jews, women and Hispanics” (Shifrel). Unfortunately, not only does the network available to 87 million households make flippant remarks in it’s work environment, but it also promotes racist stereotypes on air. During an episode of The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly made an insulting remark when telling an African-American guest, “Say you 're a cocaine dealer—and you kind of look like one a little bit” (Hall). Stereotyping minority races has existed since the creation of the United States, and continues to be a problem. The privileged social group in society often oppresses minorities, and advertises false statements of the other races. Media, a big contributor to the spread of racial stereotyping that occurs in the United States, often provides viewers with stereotypes that continue to promote racism, and the discouragement of success in a minority group. The media portrays the dominant race in a positive way, while minority groups are depicted in ways that provide people with an invalid reason to feel hatred toward minority groups.

The issue of media bias is not recent and echoes the racial inequalities and ordeals that have plagued the United States’ history since its inception.

Omi argues that media alludes to racist stereotypes about minorities, which is reinforced by Buck when he asserts that “inferential racism” in institutions is what led to racist stereotypes in the media.

The media portrays a negative bias towards African-Americans and Muslims which can disproportionately influence those who consume the media. This study aims to identify if college students – or young adults – will stereotype an individual if they are promised anonymity. Some participants received a stimuli that was aimed at identifying African-American prejudice and the others received a stimuli aimed at identifying Muslim prejudice. It was hypothesized that the type of article given would not affect the participants’ responses but anonymity will. The results revealed that none of the conditions had an effect on how the participants answered revealing that stereotyping amongst college students is not as extreme as it may

Studying the trends in regards to portrayals of minorities in media, in television and programming in relation to the impact portrayals have on viewers ' attitudes and beliefs, serves two main purposes: (1) it is important to understand the degree of how minorities are depicted so that changes, if needed, can occur; and (2) there is a need to determine if the portrayals of minorities on television exacerbate racial stereotypes (Mastro, 2000).

Everyday people like you or me are affected by media in ways most people are oblivious to. Media shows what they want to show moreover the public is none the wiser. This subconsciously convinces the viewer that what is shown is real and/or the norm. When racial stereotypes are brought into the equation, it can be harmful for one’s self image. With the many forms of media minorities have to face certain stereotypes depending on the circumstance.

“Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.”

The interviews yielded very different responses on the subjects’ belief on the way which the media represents Black women. AR a 22-year-old African-American woman did feel like the mainstream media does negatively portray Black women; she also believed that the way in which the media portrays and depicts Black women ends up affecting the way that others in society (especially others who do not have contact with the African-American community) perceive Black women. However, for NK a 27-year-old man who identifies as Black or biracial the story was different: NK did not believe that most people put much value in the way that people are represented in mainstream media. NK claims that the media stereotypes all racial and ethnic

Our team choose newspaper called “The globe and mail” and the article is about “I’m worried about the health risk; that’s my top worry”.

Majority of Americans sit down at night after a long day and watch or read the news to catch up on information they may have missed during their day. They trust that the news they are watching is going to be honest in what they are reporting and have the best coverage and information. However, with the growing popularity of internet news there is a lot of misinformation that circles the news sphere. Many people are unaware of this and still accept what they read as facts. This is the case when it comes to minorities in the news media. Whiteness and white supremacy which are both rooted so deeply in our society influence the way that news is presented to us in regards to minorities in America. White supremacy and whiteness are so embedded into our everyday culture and news media and is further perpetuated by racial stereotypes and misrepresentation of minorities in news media.