The Role Of Black Women In The Media

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The lack of diversity inclusion in the media and entertainment has become a major discussion in popular culture over recent years, specifically with the rise of trends such as #OscarsSoWhite. Although Hollywood has come a long way from the days of minstrel shows and having white actors use blackface to portray characters of color, it still has far to go before present-day media becomes truly representative of the diversity of America and the rest of the world we live in. For many years, actors of colors have struggled to find roles in Hollywood that were multidimensional, challenging, and impactful in the overall piece that they are performing in. Black women specifically are often confined to stereotypes such as the hypersexual jezebel, …show more content…

I’m interested in these three shows in particular because I would like to look more critically into the most prevalent representations of black women in the media today and I would like to examine the ways in which they reinforce or challenge certain stereotypes about black women in power. My research question is have the current representations of black women in the media succeed in breaking away completely away from negative stereotypes of black women or do they continue to reinforce …show more content…

The series follows Keating as she teaches a course at Middletown University law school in Philadelphia and the chaos that ensues when she and a group of students get caught up in a murder case of their own. The executive producers for the series include Shonda Rhimes, Betsey Beers, and Peter Novalk. As stated earlier, the show airs on Thursday nights on ABC as part of Shondaland’s network television triple threat and has received both extreme praise and harsh criticism. In terms of ratings, according to an article on Decider.com titled “Why Did ‘How To Get Away with Murder’s’ Rating Drop?” the show was “undoubtedly one of the strongest freshman network dramas of the 2014 and 2015 season” (Cobb). During its first season the show averaged a 2.6 on the Nielsen ratings scale with 9.76 million viewers only falling second to the ABC hit Modern Family. However during season two ratings fell to just over 6.2 million viewers with a 1.87 on the Nielsen ratings scale. With season 3 underway, many are questioning if the show will ever reach the same level of success as its debut seeing as ratings for the season 3 premiere episode topped at about 5.11 million viewers. Like most television programs, How To Get Away With Murder is filmed in various locations throughout Southern California, specifically Los Angeles. A unique part of

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