As America grows as a nation, the media must grow with us; our country is encapsulated in sites such as Twitter and Facebook and we hold access to millions of channels on the television. My generation has the world at our fingertips and with that comes knowledge, discussion, and awareness. A common dispute among my peers is the lack of representation of different races and orientations in our white-washed heterosexual cisgender media. Thousands have spoken on this issue, taking different approaches and bringing different examples to discuss the need for diversity in the media. Diversity and representation is necessary in the media to eliminate unrealistic expectations, racism, and misunderstood cultural awareness. Modern racism, although …show more content…
Modern Family, a show broadcasted on ABC Network, is filled with these stereotypes. Gloria is a young, beautiful Latina woman with a heavy accent and sultry, yet stupid, personality. She is married to Jay, an old rich white man. She originally lived in a poor and crime-filled village and is evidently used to doing manual labor. Her husband mentions in the program that she had been wanted for many different misconducts and that she had been deported twice. Quite often, Gloria gets flustered and explodes on loud, emotional rants where she mixes Spanish, English, and an angry tone, used to play for laughs and incomprehensibility. A sample of students, after viewing a clip of Gloria on a rant, all replied that they “could not understand what [she] was saying” and that they feel this portrayal “makes people assume things and prejudge others”(Schrarrer, Ramasubramanian, pp. 181). This cultural profiling is inspiring “negative and narrow media depictions of social groups” making it seem as if all Latinas are illegal immigrants who must be blue collar workers that poorly speak English. Similarly to the effect brought from Dance Moms, young Latinas are rushed to believe they must have strong physical labor skills and they are most likely to get in trouble with the law.
Gloria and Nia’s situations both make the people watching feel like they must confine to a certain way of thinking or
In today’s culture, people are constantly being influenced by media, whether it is subconsciously through advertisements or consciously through news media or any form of entertainment. Society, young and old, comes to understand the world through the media they consume and that means that the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of nonwhites is a problem that more and more people are starting to notice. Studies are being conducted to analyze different aspects of the lack of representation in the media. However, few have proposed practical, if any, solutions to this growing problem. The solution starts with addressing who is responsible for the lack of representation. The white-dominated executive positions that are behind the problem also
The concept of gender and race representation in media has reminded me that the representation of people of color is not visible. The push for people of color to act on certain stereotypes shows that the media wants them to be portrayed in a certain way. The media pushes white people into positive leading roles that make it difficult for people of color to gain opportunity. Media uses its power to dissociate themselves on their reasoning on why they do not cast people of color for roles. In their article, “Gender, Race, and Media Representation”, Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hebert states, “Western industrialized societies are stratified by hierarchies of race, gender, and class that structure our social experience” (Brooks & Hebert 298) This hierarchy provides the placement of where people will be casted into media. The representation of gender and race in media has clarified that the hierarchy they have created, has
Common stereotypes about women in the Mexican-American culture include that women are uneducated, good housewives, and very fertile. Many parents still believe it’s the woman’s job to stay home and be the homemaker. The concept of gender, which is socially constructed, is reinforced since birth. (Sociology Lecture 08/24/2015) Ana was caught in the middle of gender politics. Her mother oppressed her daughter so she can become a grandmother. The film “Real Women Have Curves” deals with gender stereotypes and struggles of poor women living in East LA. Carmen was trying to have Ana chained to the notion of women being inferior to men. Carmen believed men to be superior, whereas Ana thought differently. However Ana strived to liberate herself from traditional cultural norms by pursuing her college education. Her mother’s negative influence only caused Ana to rebel.
Media as a whole has evolved alongside with the growth of technology, that give us new ways to interact with each other with social sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc… It also gives way for individual to get more information to get in touch with our culture. But often times, some of the information were given to us by media can be ignored and interpret it differently than the original meaning, especially the depiction of minorities in media. It is hard to watch any form of media in today's society without seeing some kind of injustice toward minorities or the representation portrayal of that particular minorities in the form of entertainment value without being analytical and invoke some kind of negative reaction toward that kind of representation.
Black men are underrepresented in the media. For example: As “talking heads” in the news, technology users in commercials, users of luxury items in ads, and well-developed characters in games and shows.
Over half of Americans, 63.8% to be exact, feel they are not equally represented in the media (Horton 1). Being a kid and not truly knowing what to believe in when everything portrayed on the media is confusing can lead to segregation, delusion, and low self-esteem. While it is the child’s job to tell people what to display, the media is everyone's tool and what is showed should reflect a large amount of the population. However, other countries do not have this problem, as they excel in the varied media world. In India especially, where a sizeable 94% feel represented throughout their media (Hackett 1), this is done by the overwhelming amount of multiple races in television shows. While the portrayal of cartoons for children in America is
In today’s world, the exchange of information between individuals is largely based on the media alone. Conversations are held through social media sites, the news channels become the deliverers of new waves of specifically chosen stories, and the rest of the media effects the subconscious of the society. Movies, television shows, and “general” knowledge contribute to the rest of the mass media that affects the minds of people. The subconscious of the people can form the characteristics of the young and solidify ideas within the older population. The problem of the current society is that the subconscious ideas transferred to the media is particularly in the favor of Caucasians. This excludes people of African descent, Latinos, Asians, and other recognizably new minorities such as transgender. The overall effect of this subconscious problem is not very measurably but it can have disastrous consequences within each respective culture. Among all the minorities listed, African Americans and people of African descent have a tendency to be the most often misrepresented.
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.
Racism and discrimination continue to be a prevalent problem in American society. Although minorities have made significant strides toward autonomy and equality, the images in media, specifically television, continue to misrepresent and manipulate the public opinion of blacks. It is no longer a blatant practice upheld by the law and celebrated with hangings and beatings, but instead it is a subtle practice that is perceived in the entertainment and media industries. Whether it’s appearing in disparaging roles or being negatively portrayed in newscasts, blacks continue to be the victims of an industry that relies on old ideas to appeal to the majority. The viscous cycle that is the unconscious racism of the media continues to not only be
This essay will cover the analysis between the New York Times article “Latinos Onscreen, Conspicuously Few” by Anna Bahr and the study it references, “The Latino Media Gap: A Report on the State of Latinos in U.S. Media.” The study, by lead researcher Frances Negrón-Muntaner, is an in-depth look at Latinos as media consumers and creators, the issue of stereotypes, and recommendations for closing the gap. Bahr’s article highlights the study to bring attention to the lack of Latino representation in the media. The article does an excellent job of representing the facts and purpose of the study.
The media has molded the way Latinos are expected to look, act, and speak, especially for Latinas. While a TV show or a movie could contain half-truths, many are just exaggerated. An example would be Sofia Vergara’s Gloria character on “Modern Family”. It may seem like there is no harm in portraying a Latina that way on television but it only triggers more the stereotype of “spicy Latinas” and on how the public perceives us. It is known that, “Repeated exposure to a particular portrayal of a group teaches that this cultural view is a relevant schema for processing members of that particular group” (Burgess et al., 2011).
Social media platforms, movies, tv shows, and other forms of entertainment media have only continued to grow in popularity. With this ever-increasing availability has also come a drastic variety of ways to see both ourselves and other people; whether in a positive light or a negative one depends on the representation itself. While the media often perpetuates negative stereotypes, diverse representation can dramatically improve the self-esteem of those represented.
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.
The media has always played a pivotal role in providing information regarding anything that’s happening around in the world. However, the Australian media seems to have lacked at various aspects when it comes to matters regarding the representation of the Indigenous Australia. The Australian media has always managed to focus on the amazing wilderness that surrounds Indigenous Australia but rarely has there been any detailed curiosity relating to their culture and history. Aboriginal History is being completely overshadowed by ‘the mainstream Australia’ and its landscape. Not only their history but their voices are not heard through media very often as well. Along with that, racial stereotype is another big problem resulting in poor media representation of Aborigines. With the population as low as 1%, many Australians may go through their entire life without knowing anything about Aboriginal Australians, let alone meeting one. So, their knowledge about Aboriginals completely depends upon the media representation. They still only get their information about the Indigenous Australia through the media. Therefore, it would be seemed best that the media show an honest picture of what is life for an Aboriginal Australian.
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.