Marginalisation of Ethnic Minorities in Contemporary Media In the last decade there has been an enormous change in the nature of the media and the ways people interact with it. For example, cable, terrestrial and satellite television channels plus widespread cheap access to the Internet and digital technology have spread rapidly from the USA to many other parts of the world. In addition audiences are now able to interact with the media to some extent, so they are able to exercise some control over the form and sometimes the content of the message they receive. For representation to be meaningful to audiences, there needs to be a shared recognition of people, situations and ideas. It is very difficult to generalise about representations of ethnicity in the media. The main reason for this is that some sub-sections of broadcast, print and film media are oriented to and sensitive towards questions of ethnicity. For example programmes and even satellite channels are dedicated to Asian issues, magazines are made for those with Caribbean roots. These types of media represent minority ethnic groups in appropriate ways. There is much research evidence to suggest that the modern media in particular tend to stereotype the cultural values and norms of behaviours of some minority groups. New stories are often cast in terms of the threat posed by minority ethnic groups: by their increasing numbers, criminality or in some other way. A classic example of this is a 27-year-old Algerian asylum seeker whose application had been refused. This refugee stabbed a police officer named Stephen Oake. "The Guardian" reported this incident on Thursday ... ... middle of paper ... ... same media. No matter how old or challenging to contemporary views, many programmes are continuously recycled by cable and satellite companies. This diversity makes generalising about media representations of social groups both difficult and hazardous because with time attitudes change. After researching several mediums within the media, such as newspapers, television and advertising I have found that ethnic minorities are portrayed fairer than they have been in previous decades but are still not portrayed as fairly as they should be in contemporary media. Therefore ethnic minorities are still marginalized. Sources of Information ====================== The Sun ------- The Guardian Cnn.com Pride magazine New Nation Media and Meaning: an introduction Colin Stewart et al.
The usage of media is huge in nowadays. People rely on different kinds of media to receive information in their everyday life because they are thirsty for the diverse and informative content. However, inaccurate portrayals of people from different races always appear in the media and audience will exaggerate those portrayals by their inflexible beliefs and expectations about the characteristics or behaviors of the portrayals’ cultural groups without considering individual variation (Ting-Toomey and Chung, 2012); in fact, it is also called as stereotypes. According to a study by the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University (Stein, 2012), racial stereotyping continues to occur in media and the mainstream media's coverage of different cultural groups is full of biased reporting, offensive terminology and old stereotypes of American society. It specifically emphasizes that majority of the stereotyped characters in media will only bring out the dark side of their cultural groups which many of them might not be true, especially for the portrayals of black community: African American.
Whether they were on Broadway or in Hollywood, being a Hispanic actor meant you were put into this stereotyped box that was and is hard to break through. How many times has there been a Hispanic or Latino in the role of a hero, wealthy man/woman, or doctor in film or television? The following quote from Lin Manuel Miranda is to explain the struggles of a male Hispanic actor aspiring to be on Broadway. “I couldn’t see a way for me [a Latino man] to have a career in musical theater based on the musicals that already existed. I don’t dance well enough to play Bernardo [of ‘West Side Story’], or Paul in ‘A Chorus Line.’ And I don’t have an operatic voice enough to play the ‘Man of La Mancha.’ And if you’re a Latino man, that’s all you get… I
Some American Media outlets prove to be biased; the information they mediate through discourse pictures and videos are often slanted. In order to be able to recognize the impartial from the one-sided opinion, and in order to learn how language, images and videos work to create meaning, one should rely on the science of semiotics. This paper will apply a semiotic approach in analyzing the attacks directed to Arabs by some biased American Media outlets. The first part will deal with discourse and will explain some properties in language; the second part will be devoted to images and to their Machiavelli use in achieving meaning; in the third part, it will attempt to decipher the hidden information in videos.
In the modern world, all kinds of oppressions involve a dominant cultural psychology that causes different communities to be suppressed on diverse social, racial grounds. There is usually a hierarchy of oppression in which some communities are perceived to be less valuable than others. However, stereotypes are usually utilized to rationalize this domination and to label individuals on certain type while marginalization is the social process of being demoted to the lower social standing. On the other hand, oppression is any form can be visible at the personal or social level in the media as media reaches several individuals regularly and has the power to influence at all the levels of society and contributing significantly to stereotyping, marginalization and oppression of different communities around the world. The paper aims to critically analyze that in what way media impacts psychology of people by portraying particular communities in the diverse society in such a way that the depiction leads to stereotyping, marginalization and oppression of racial groups. For this purpose, two key resources are used in this paper. One is a web article by Sarah Senghas, named “Racial Stereotypes in the Media” published in 2006, and the second one is an empirical research paper by Elizabeth Monk-Turner, Mary Heiserman, Crystle Johnson,Vanity Cotton, and Manny Jackson, “The Portrayal of Racial Minorities on Prime Time Television: A Replication of the Mastro and Greenberg Study a Decade Later” published in 2010.
Stereotypes are generalizations or assumptions about people in a group, based on a perceived image or idea. There are many ways in which people stereotype, including racial, gender-based, ethnicity, and even occupation. Stereotyping can take place anywhere; school, work, newspaper, and even television. The television show “The Big Bang Theory” is a perfect example of a show that portrays a lot of stereotyping.
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 detrimental to the white consumers, who base what they know about blacks by what is represented in television, but also the black consumers, who grow up with a false sense of identity.
(1995) The 'Secondary' Retrieved December 9, 2004 from http://www.cd http://www.aafla.org/9arr/ResearchReports/ResearchReport4.htm Restrictive portrayals of Asians in the media and how to balance them. a. The adage of the a Retrieved December 9, 2004 from http://www.cd
“The media serve as a tool that people use to define, measure, and understand American society” (Deo et al., 149). Thinking of the media as a tool for the American people also extends into the realm of race and ethnicity. The United States has had a long and difficult history pertaining to the racial and ethnic identities of the many different people that reside within and outside of it’s borders. That history is still being created and this country still struggles with many of the same problems that have plagued this area since before the founding of the U.S. As stated above, the popular media has a large impact on the way that race and ethnicity are understood by people, especially when considering the prevalence of segregation in the U.S.
For decades now, popular culture has been tainted by the perpetual use of racial stereotypes that come to us through music, television, and film. These reactionary stereotypes are often unaddressed and often permeate the minds of those too young to understand what a stereotype is. Therefore the effects of these conventionalized ideas continue to prevail throughout our society as they are repeatedly swept under the rug. However, although seemingly less common, there are also forms of media with goals of bringing attention to toxic stereotypes while still entertaining their audiences. African-Americans, Arabs, and Latin@’s are three of the most prevalent minority groups represented in the media and by analyzing the films Aladdin, Django Unchained, and the television show Devious Maids, one can become much more aware of the racial stereotypes that they are calling attention to.
39 Wilson, Clint and Felix Gutierrez. Race, Multiculturalism, and the Media: From Mass to Class Communication. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1995: 45.
The use of media has always been very tactical and representative of a statement or purpose. The issue of race has always been a topic of immaculate exploration through different forms of media. Mediated topics such as race, gender, and class have always been topics represented in the media as a form of oppression. The widely use of media surrounds the globe extensively as the public is bombarded with media daily. There are many different types of media that circulates the public making it widely available to anyone. Media can hold an immense amount of power as it can distort the manner in which people understand the world. In our society the media creates the dominant ideology that is to be followed for centuries in the classifications of race, gender, and class. Media can be a powerful tool to use to display a message which, is how “…the media also resorts to sensationalism whereby it invents new forms of menace” (Welch, Price and Yankey 36). Media makers and contributors take advantage of the high power that it possesses and begin to display messages of ideologies that represent only one dominant race or gender. It became to be known as the “dominant ideology of white supremacy” for many and all (Hazell and Clarke 6).
Zheng’s research only further supports this suspicion of media’s role in raising public awareness of racism, or racially motivated violence. As Zheng notes, “...instances of everyday racism are only reported on if famous people are involved...The public has become...jaded with cases like these and the repeated media coverage of only high profile cases neither mitigates the everyday realities of racial profiling nor makes a difference in our society’s views on these issues (Zheng, Racial Profiling and the Media, berkley.edu).” Of course, the effective result of this is that the widespread influence of racism on American society, in its most common, every day occurences, goes unaddressed. Racism and the challenges of addressing it in the average American’s
One of the greatest exports of American culture is American media. American media is one of the most widely distributed and consumed cultural forms from the United States. This means that not only do Americans consume large quantities of their own media, but many other countries in the world consume American media, too. People in other countries will not interpret or understand the media in precisely the same ways that Americans will and do, nonetheless, many aspects of American culture and American reality are communicated to numerous viewers as part of the content in the media. The media is an important tool in the discussion of race, class, and gender in America. It takes a savvy viewer to discriminate between and understand what media accurately represents reality, what media does not, or which aspects of experience are fictionalized, and which elements ...
Stereotyping has to be one of the main ethical problems in media. Both advertising and entertainment media make substantial use of stereotypes. Stereotypes in most cases negatively affect people's perceptions of themselves or promote socially unwanted behavior. The stereotypical affluence of ethnic groups is one of the main examples of major area of debate especially on African Americans in the United States. One stereotype is that, Black people Abuse the Welfare System. According to Blackenterprise.com “On September 11, 2011, a non-black woman named Amanda Clayton won $1 million in the Michigan State Lottery. Before receiving her winnings, the 24-year-old mother of two brought in $200 per month in food stamps. After receiving her seven-figure-check, Amanda continued to receive her monthly food stamps because she remained unemployed.” Because she wasn’t black the media chose not to partake into advertising it as much as they would have if it was an African American woman, but because she was white the media looked upon her and the situation as it being a recession and she needed government assistance.