The mass medium I have chosen to critique is a new television show called This Is Us and it airs on the NBC channel. This Is Us is a show about a family with triplets and they show how they handle all the different parts of their lives. This particular mass medium addresses many of the different current issues going on in today’s society including; race, diversity, education, religion, and politics. This Is Us addresses diversity in today’s society and portrays many different types of people within this one television show. To prove that this mass medium portrays diversity I will look into how this show illustrates race, different social stances, and different educational backgrounds both positively and negatively. Also, to better the credibility …show more content…
I will first be critiquing how this particular medium positively portrays race in a diverse society. The family in This Is Us consists of Jack and Rebecca Pearson (the mom and dad) and their triples Kevin, Kate, and Randall. The twist with this family is that they are white but Randall is African American, this has occurred because the day that Rebecca gives birth to her triples one of them was killed during child birth and a baby boy was left at the hospital. The Pearson’s took this as a sign that this baby was meant to be with them despite the fact that the baby not their same race, which sows a very positive portrayal of diversity in society. “I love its obvious respect for authenticity, its radically inclusive and body positive casting” states a reporter from CNN …show more content…
I will first observe the positive aspects of these educational backgrounds and their effects. In the show This Is Us all of the characters are effected by their educational backgrounds in some way. Although there aren’t a lot of characters that have a large amount of education, they all still find a way to be successful and find something that brings them joy in life. Randall is the only one with a college education, which lead him to a career in weather trading and he benefits from this by being able to provide for his family. Kevin and Kate both chose to stop their education after high school, yet they still find what they are passionate about in life and find a way to pursue that
The portrayal of minorities on television is especially less than ideal. Broadcasting channels are not promoting stories to the public with concern for the population as a whole but instead with the intent to gain greater ratings. Therefore the objectives of a network are to cater to a specific audience. This results in stories that are geared towards the majority. The majority in the United States are White American males although females have a higher population within the country. Majority of us may not encounter a specific minority group in our daily lives but the media aids with an introduction to these people. This then leads our culture to inherent racism that has been found to exist in newscasts across the country.
The media in our lives has the strongest impact on our everyday conversations, actions, judgments and perception on society as a whole. Without our modern day technology the world would result to judgments based on their own personal beliefs, not being so easily persuaded by others. The contemporary media portrays Black and Hispanic Americans in numerous positive ways, but more so in a negative light. The stereotypes that these minorities have been given not only affect the community as a whole, but the personal lives of each individual. Although the media can be used for good, the captivating movies, news stories, and documentaries seem to have a negative outcome. The medias focus on Black and Hispanic Americans has not always been bad, but the stereotypes that have developed over the decades shed a negative light on these two racial and ethnic groups.
The United States of America is a perfect example of cultural diversity. Starting with the Mayflower landing in Massachusetts Bay in 1620, to the Great Migration from 1915 to 1930, to the continual immigration into our country today this country has seen its culture grow and reshape itself over the years. The culture of the United States is diverse but understanding and appreciating various cultures does not always exist within today’s classroom or in today’s society. Understanding or even defining cultural diversity , identifying the challenges cultural diversity brings, or how to face cultural diversity are all issues educators face in today’s classroom.
As society continues to advance, it is evident that technology is vital to the facilitation of everyday living. In today’s media, minorities are constantly being represented in a negative light. Those who fall victim to this tend to be Latinos and African Americans. In the news, there are many aired reports of acts of violence that are portrayed as being committed either by an African American or a Latino. Entertainment media also does its part in showing minorities through negative stereotypes and are underrepresented in important leading roles. Both tend to be seen as antagonist characters or minor characters, while others, such as Anglos usually play leading protagonist roles. Mass media has an influence on how society sees Latinos and African Americans because these perceptions of minorities are constantly shown. Sociological studies on the content analysis of mass media have confirmed that negative portrayal of minorities helps to perpetuate radical prejudices and sustain their low status. Furthermore, it is important for Latinos and African Americans to be given equal opportunities to be positively portrayed.
The idea that "diversity" is one of the country's great strengths is now so firmly rooted that virtually anyone can evoke it, praise it, and wallow in it without fear of contradiction. It has become one of the great unassailably American ideas, like democracy, patriotism, the family, or Martin Luther King.
Throughout the world social problems such as illiterate, elderly, handicapped, minority groups, and poverty have been the biggest part in our society for many years. Some of our social problems had died off, meanwhile, they’re still many problem that we are still facing as a society. One of the major social problem we face is people being illiterate. Being illiterate is meaning a person can not read nor write, and it can also mean that a person is grammatically incorrect. There is as much as 23% of the adult population that are ignorant to basic skills of the 4th grade level. In the U.S. the ethnic group that is most affected by not being able to read or write is
To begin my personal informative essay on diversity in the United States, I would like to point out what information has had the most influence on how I better understand and relate to others different from how I did in the past. I do not feel as though this class taught me any more than I already know about other races and ethnicities, in terms of, how their ancestors came to America, or what hardships particular racial or ethnical groups have grown through in the group’s history in the United States. What I do feel like this class has done for me is, put into prospective of how often and frequent prejudice and
The presence of Latinos in the United States challenges the notion of there being only one specific type of American citizen, an English-speaking person who lives only in relation to an "Anglo" heritage. Alongside other minority groups, Latinos tend to believe in the notion that the United States must be made up of one bounded territory, within which people speak a singular language and experience one culture. So, when the Anglo groups are faced with Spanish speaking people who are in touch with their Latino heritage, they feel threatened by the people who can speak both Spanish and English. The response to this sense of threat involves marginalization and the obvious exclusion of Latino groups in the United States. At the
"As a Texan, I have known many immigrant's families, mainly from Mexico, and I've seen what they add to our country. They bring to America the values of faith in God, love of family, hard work, and self-reliance; the values that made us a great nation to begin with (Ortiz)". One of our great president, George W. Bush, said these enhancing words and it now concerns me in this day of time. That now the world wants to imprison the Hispanic culture all for varies stereotypes. With President Trump theory of the wall this will cause many more issues not only with Hispanic immigrates but within America itself. Without the construction of the wall, America wouldn’t be wasting money, it will keep generating diversity and wall wouldn’t go against our founding father's rules and regulations.
I agree completely with Monika’s claim that lack of representation, whitewashing, and stereotypes are the issues in American media. I think the media don’t understand the importance of diversity and how it positively impact society. In fact the author’s stated that absence of minorities in shows where set in cities that have high present of minorities population which means that there are a race better than others and that’s what is going in the media displaying white race as more intelligent, affection and other races can’t survive without the white race .In the article the one the issues with whitewashing was replacing minority roles to white actors. However, The media argues that representing the minorities as mine characters may lead to
The United States population continues to increase in racial and ethnic diversity, therefore, it is pertinent that mental health professionals tailor their services to the needs of various cultural populations (Constantine, Kindaichi, Arorash, Donnelly, & Jung, 2002). The awareness that ethnic minorities experience negative consequences from being oppressed, resulted in the multicultural competence pedagogy and has helped counselors identify effective strategies to generate social change (Hage, 2003; Vera & Speight, 2003). Social norms that cause these injustices are identified, allowing for ethnic minorities to constitute and embrace empowerment. Moreover, this consciousness helps prevent therapists own bias’ from playing
According to Wood (2004), diversity is America's newest cultural ideal. Furthermore, the author argued that diversity sprawls across politics, law, education, business, entertainment, personal aspiration, religion, and the arts, as an encompassing claim about human identity. Under these conditions, 21st Century organizations are shifting their recruitment and hiring policy to create a diverse workforce. Likewise, universities are instituting new admissions rules to establish a diverse student body. The importance of diversity has many roles and effects. For example, diversity can improve productivity, create innovation, enhance robustness, produce collective knowledge, and perhaps most important, sustain further diversity (Page, 2011,
Media influences the minds of those who consume it. Portrayals in media quickly become the norm as the consumers believe the strangest of headlines. Representations in media, specifically television, are subconsciously analyzed and placed into the mindset of the viewer. Racial depictions in television and the lack thereof, for example, influence the perspective of the consumer and portray a false reality. Although the future for more racial diversity in the American television industry looked promising, this white-dominated industry has proven that not much has changed in regards to hiring, including, and depicting more ethnic groups and people of color in entertainment. People of color are given stereotypical roles that presents the race in a negative manner; its depiction on television gives additional credibility to the stereotypes. “””Tokenistic representation hinders the nation's ability to see the reality of diversity in the world by limiting the numbers and types of people that are seen through the
A writer named Jacqueline Woodson once said that; “Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together.” This means that diversity is all about differences, because no two people are exactly the same. This includes, races, ethnicities, gender, religions, beliefs, favorites, opinions, style, learning style and anything else that makes someone who they are as a person. This definition of diversity coincides almost identically with inclusive ideas in regards to disabilities. The question I have, however, is whether or not Inclusive Theories can be used when there are no children with disabilities present in the classroom. In an attempt to come up with an answer I interviewed a second grade teacher, Ms. Smith* at a Quaker school.
JL MC 477 has influenced my thoughts and perspectives of how the media represents diverse cultures, ethnicities, social classes, and even gender. This course has helped me clarify how and why the media identifies each group with their own stereotype or portrayal. Before the course, I had a general idea of what the media portrayed specific groups as, but now I am able to understand deeper because this course enhanced my thinking and analysis of each one. I have become aware that many of the portrayals of these groups from the media reflect reality.