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Essay about Portrayal of Different Ethnic Groups in the Media

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Portrayal of Different Ethnic Groups in the Media

During the course of looking at education, and ethnicity issues I became interested in how ethnic groups were portrayed in the media. Although I haven’t studied this before, I wanted to do something different, but still apply the fundamental theories which I have studied.

I have noticed how there seems to be a trend with all areas involving ethnicity, and personally feel there is racism and under-representation of ethnic groups on television, and definitely inequalities in the press. The media has a huge effect on our perception of life and self-concepts, and reinforce stereotypical ideals, and it seems that ethnic minorities tend to be …show more content…

The results were promising inasmuch as the public suggested there was improvement. However, there is apparently, still a lingering feeling that Britain has ‘a long way to go’ before its multiculturalism is represented properly and effectively in the media.

This is relevant to the point of research since it discusses how society is responding to what the media is involving, and if it is improving or not. Since there is such a dynamic response, it suggests that stereotypes do exist, and that there has been negative representation of ethnic groups. It also gives evidence to suggest that this representation has caused a problem – it has effected audience perception of sub-cultures in society. We come to expect certain behaviour or values without looking at the bigger picture, through which the media tends to overlook.

The third concept is racism. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others is racism.

The contextual research included in this is; ‘Racism and the press’ by Van Dijk in 1991.

Here he analyses the reporting of ethnic issues in 1985 & 1989, in which the press,

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