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The Diversity Of The Media

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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

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