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The Importance Of Stereotyping In The Mass Media

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Diversity means variety and when it comes to the mass media, the word seems to be un-understandable. The media may be one of the places that lack the most diversity and with that comes stereotypes. Stereotypes are oversimplified views on a group of people with common characteristics. Stereotyping is an action long practiced in society to the point where it has become part of human nature. Stereotyping almost always comes with its negative connotations including, but not limited to; being blatantly incorrect, being emotionally scarring, and being the source of many prejudices and racism. The media, because of how it portrays people and events, can be attributed to spreading most of the stereotypes seen today. And due to it being a major platform, it spreads stereotypes fast. This is especially true for minorities; negative stereotypes of minorities are reinforced because of how the media portrays, underrepresents and stigmatizes them. During an episode of $25,000 Pyramid in 1968 (a game show where two pairs of contestants compete and a series of words appear on a screen in front of one contestant, who gives clues to try to get the partner to identify the correct word), the word gangs' came up on the cluer's screen (Cort). And the first thing the cluer shouted out was “They have lots of these in East L.A.” (referring to the heavy Mexican-American population there), responding directly after, their partner guessed it right (Cort). This situation is an example of negative

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