Race-Related Stereotypes: Ethnic Diversity In Newspapers

The author, Natalie Zmuda, oversees the Chief Marketing Officer Strategy section (COM.com) and is responsible for identifying and analyzing the latest trends impacting chief marketers. Zmuda also covers the retail and non-alcoholic beverage categories. She joined Advertising Age in 2008, following five years covering the retail and fashion industries for Conde Nast Publications. The article examines multiculturalism in advertising in the U.S. 2014 television commercials for Chevrolet and Cheerios featuring a gay couple and interracial family, respectively; which are cited as examples of a trend in which major advertisers of brand name products with mass markets are more willing to portray social diversity in their advertising. The tendency

During the process of producing a television series, the demand for the producers to introduce their characters with only their highlighted traits make it impossible for viewers to gain a deep understanding of the community that the characters represent. One of the stereotypic traits that is usually seen on movies and television shows is societal difference that each race is placed into. Michael Omi in his article In Living Color: Race and American Culture stated that “in contemporary television and film, there is a tendency to present and equate racial minority groups and individuals with specific social problems” (546). There are many films and television shows found today that ground racial minorities into a specific social problems that are related to the color of their skin. It can be inferred from the current popular culture that this stereotype still persists.

Have you ever noticed the recurring stereotypes of black women that is portrayed on reality television? Everyday you can look on television and tune into any network and see the madness that goes on. Whether it be Love and Hip Hop, Bad Girls Club, or The Real Housewives of Atlanta, you  can see the exaggerated confrontations and animated expressions given off by these women. Media stereotypes of the angry black women have become more persuasive in recent years than ever before. If we as a whole stop these television networks from promoting dangerous stigmas on black women, we can increase the amount of positive representation of women of color drastically in television, advertising, and social media.

The article refers to how commercials that reintegrate the usage of the typical black woman misrepresentation or stereotype becomes offensive when it involves consumer

The Effects of Media on African American Community Modern media as a whole, has taken over the opinions of our society including our views on different races and ethnicities. Many minority groups are underrepresented or misrepresented in today's modern media, particularly African Americans. The African American community, is one with a unique history. The misrepresentation and underrepresentation of these people, can be linked back directly to the historical representation of African Americans shaping negative stereotypes. Out of all minority groups, a 2000 study from the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience found that African Americans were more negatively portrayed “than any other ethnicity in prime-time television.”

The way entertainment in the media portrays us has greatly affected how others identify us. Movies and shows like; Madea’s family Reunion, Bringing down the House, Love and Hip Hop, and Basketball Wives all portray us in a degrading way. People sometimes find it comical of course, but the fact that it is comical does not justify it being debasing. This image of us has evolved from things in the media, and its’ power to shape people’s idea of us. We as a race must stop living up to our stereotypes. As soon as we take action in not succumbing to our own stereotype, people will not think we are “Ghetto” or any other undignified term they think of us; therefore in the media we won’t be perceived in that way. As Colin Powell once said, “Fit no stereotypes. Don't chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team's mission.” Although African American stereotyping is prevalent in the media now because of its’ entertaining quality; it perpetuates a cycle of harmful stereotypes. As long as this cycle continues, our culture will always be illustrated negatively.

Why the Medias Role in Issues of Race and Ethnicity Should be in the Spotlight by Dana Mastro explores the effects of portrayal of race in the media. It highlights the issue of misrepresentation of the media on race; which in turn affects real life interactions between people based on preconceived assumptions that the media creates. This journal supports the point of stereotypes in the media enforcing social inequalities in the forms of prejudice and racialization.

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” said Malcolm X (Kulaszewics Pg 4). The representation of African Americans in media has been a major concern in American culture. One problem we see today in the media is equality. Research has found that African Americans in media have been frequently portrayed in stereotypical occupational roles with negative personality characteristics.

Whether it manifests itself in microaggressive images a la the recent Dove and Pepsi commercials that caused a stir on social media causing the brands to apologize for their lack of sensitivity or in crude portrayals of marginalized groups seen in old Disney animations that elicit feelings ranging from shock and anger to nostalgia racism is undoubtedly visible in the media. Although media has seen drastic changes over the years as a result of changes in culture racist stereotypes are unfortunately still present. People of color in America have become all too familiar with negative imagery that only serves to put them in a subordinate and inferior role or in some cases leave them out completely. As of late both young people of color and white

Diversity is now, more than ever before, at the forefront of the American conversation. Black people have been slowly but surely making gains in today’s society and in ways that were not possible before. African Americans are more educated and more affluent, and more important as consumers than ever before. By 2017, they are expected to have a spending power of 1.3 trillion dollars (Resilient, 2013). Young, influential, and brand loyal, this group should be the target of many companies. Interestingly enough, there has not been much of an effort on the part of marketers to appeal to this growing group. Additionally, the lack of diversity as well as the alienation of black people in the media is not doing much to allow a wider range of companies to reach them. Black Americans are a powerful group, and smart marketers will put a focus on investing in them to increase their market share.

It is common knowledge that the topic of race is being examined all over the world. Frequently, more efforts are made through formation of policies, enactment of laws, and abolition of practices to obliterate racial discrimination. The pace of success of this endeavor is being delayed by the media because the media constantly portrays race in an inappropriate and derogatory manner. A race as described by Yolanda. T. Moses is a group of people who share similar and unique characteristics, while racial stereotypes are automatic and mental pictures held about all members of a particular social group. When people are stereotyped racially, they do not take into account individual differences .The media’s poor understanding of the true meaning of race has been communicated to the general public, making people think race is a biological phenomenon whereas it is socially and culturally constructed (Moses 735) and this has caused the increase in racial stereotypes by media’s continuous portrayal of negative stereotypes of different races all over the world.

Advertising has come a long way in terms of advancement with the enlightenment of the new technological age we live in now. In James Twitchell’s essay “What We Are to Advertisers,” the author explains that mass production means mass marketing, and mass marketing means the creation of mass stereotypes. Generally, the use of stereotypical profiling in our society not only exists in regards to race, social class, personality type, and gender but also holds a special meaning in advertising circles as well. To advertisers, stereotyping has become an effective means to pitch their products according to the personality profiles they have concocted for us and are most times eerily accurate. For instance, according to advertisers, the daytime

Race is a way to categorise and understand the differences in a people and culture based on physical traits. In the words of Downing (2005:2) “Race has become a social fact: a self evident characteristics of human identity and character. Consequently, it is therefore essential to register explicitly the non scientific basis of race as a social category.” The way race has been represented in the media has had an influence on the interpretation people create on race and the stereotypes that are associated with them. These stereotypes create a sense of who belongs to what race; whether the stereotype is negative or positive. Media has the power to showcase these ideologies to mass audiences, constructing a way of thinking and interpretations on the other. These ideologies of race are important in understanding how racial relations and differences are shown to a mass audience, and how the media can create and emphasis attributes on a race. A critical analysis will be discussed on how racial differences and racial relations are represented and has it changed over time in the media, focusing on one specific medium.

From TV commercials and product placement to billboards and posters, thousands of advertisements bombard the average American every day. To be effective, an ad must attract the consumer’s attention, maintain the public’s interest, create or stimulate desire, and create a call for action. These advertisements can be small enough to fit on a three-inch screen or large enough to cover the side of a building. But no matter what the size, in this world of ever-shrinking attention spans and patience levels, ads have to be efficient in portraying their ideas. In order to successfully depict certain ideas, advertisements rely on shortcuts. These shortcuts usually involve stereotypes. In the media, stereotypes are inevitable because the audience

Most white characters held the speaking roles in the commercial as the African-Americans characters were the ones in the restaurant in the background (Henderson and Baldasty 2003: 102). In the Henderson and Baldasty article it states that the ads that whites and people of color relates back to the cost or view of the product being advertised. People of color who are in the primary roles of an advertisement are often related back to products that are less expensive like fast food advertisement. Whites in the other hand with primary roles tend are most likely advertising products most associated with most upscale products like cooking at home or expensive cars (Henderson and Baldasty 2003). The media similarly tends to stereotype the people of color in ads such as athletic shoes commercial that relates to basketball which consist mostly of colored men. The Henderson and Baldasty