Latino beyond Reel
Latinos beyond Reel documentary film presented how US news and entertainment media portray Latinos. Latino American is an ethnic minority group of whom origin was from Latin America or Iberian Peninsula. Latino American is the fastest growing population in the United States. However, media has had negative effects for the Latino community. News media and entertainment had strongly influenced the perception of non-Latino about Latinos. These media portrayal of Latinos had implications for real world perceptions of Latinos.
Media shape the perception of our society and have a different of framing in choosing the story for our society. Media framing had effect on how the stereotype perception of Latino in the reality. The information had differentially distributed and affects the non-Latino in how information being processed. Society will most likely to believe that Latinos reflect the images, characters, and stories exposed in news and entertainment media.
As showed in the film, Latino American often misrepresented and underrepresented both in front of and under the camera. American Hispanic often portrayed as lazy, unintelligent, greasy and criminal. Hispanic women often pictured comfortable sexuality as prostitution in film production; while Hispanic actors limit to criminal characters such as drug dealers, gangster, and provide the power for the white American. Audiences have less interaction with Latino in their real world might be easily framed by media images regarding the race and ethnicity. The lack of Hispanic history and culture understanding allows these media portrayals to change and form unfavorable behavior and attitude against Latino communities.
Latin lovers, banditos, and gangbangers are the negative roles that have been filmed in Hollywood production have diminished over a long period. Bandito is dirty with unshaven face and they are dishonest, irrational and emotional to violence. Media had portrayed racist imagery on Banditos featured inability in English speaking and their accents is a racial marker.
White Latino labeled to someone who is white with Latin American or heritage; while in contrast, dark Latino appears to have darker skins. Darker Hispanic does not get much opportunity as the white Latino.
The Chicano Movement was a time that pressed forth for the equal opportunity of the Latino community and proved to America that Mexican Americans were a force to be reckoned with. In the documentary Latino Americans – Episode 5: Prejudice and Pride, it centralizes on the success of the oppressed community through significant leaders in that period. Union activists César Chavez, along with Dolores Huerta, playwright Luis Valdez, teacher Sal Castro, US Congressman Herman Ballido, and political activist José Ángel Gutiérrez all contributed to egalitarianism of Latinos across the nation. This documentary reflects on the importance of equal prospects within the workplace, the academic setting, and the social and political features in society.
The television show, George Lopez, is a series in which Latinos make up the entire cast of the family. It takes place in the present day Los Angeles and focuses on a family and their daily lifestyle. This is one of two television shows that are directed to the English speaking population that has the Latino minority as the main ethnicity of the cast.
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
Latinos have struggled to discover their place inside of a white America for too many years. Past stereotypes and across racism they have fought to belong. Still America is unwilling to open her arms to them. Instead she demands assimilation. With her pot full of stew she asks, "What flavor will you add to this brew?" Some question, some rebel, and others climb in. I argue that it is not the Latino who willingly agreed to partake in this stew. It is America who forced her ideals upon them through mass media and stale history. However her effort has failed, for they have refused to melt.
Abstract My research focused on the coverage of Asian Americans in contemporary mass media. The following types of media were researched. Music Television Films Magazines I gave several examples where Asian Americans used to play very simple characters. These roles were defined by stereotypes that exist in America.
Just like every individual in the U.S., the desire to provide a better life for their families is a driving force for the Latino population. The Latino immigrants not only face discrimination upon their arrival, but also deal with the emotions of being away from their home country, the security of their families, friends, culture, and traditions. The reception that they experience on arrival is far from welcoming. “The negativity towards immigration, be it warranted or not, is not good for our country. It fuels segregation, racism, prejudice, and discrimination” (Lopez, 2010). Illegal immigration has become such a hot topic for many that even when immigrants arrive legally they are still met with suspicion. I think one of the most offensive titles given to a group of people is illegal “aliens”. These individuals are not aliens; they are human beings with dreams of a better life just like everyone else. Today, Latinos are proud of their culture and heritage and even though they attempt to assimilate into the American culture, through pluralism they are retaining their own, as well. They continue to converse in their native languages within their families, listen to music and watch Spanish television programs. Where in the past the melting pot theory led many to discard their native language and culture in order to fit in, today many are embracing these ideals, which may be a contributing factor in the continued discrimination (Lopez, 2010).
Many groups of ethnicity are portrayed in media in either in a bad way or a good way. Hispanics are groups that are mostly portrayed in a negative way in all types of media. Many Hispanics are judged on just what they wear, where they come from, and just because they are Hispanic. In my examples that I have chosen show Hispanics that are judged just because they are Hispanic, Hispanic that is judged because he looks like a Hispanic gangster, Hispanic teens that are judged because where they lived, the stereotype that all Hispanics are immigrants, and my last example shows that not Hispanics are not showed in a negative way in media. Even though I am Hispanic myself I have never been in a situation just because I’m Hispanic.
Today, the Hispanic population has grown tremendously over the years. We have watched the Hispanics community growth rate grow faster than any other racial and ethnic group in the nation. The Hispanic culture and community has populated all around the United States, introducing new traditions and customs. I was traveling to different to city in the States, I notice the wide spread growth of Hispanic communities, For Instance in Miami the Cuban and El Salvadoran culture is heavy populate in the area. In New York the Puerto Rican culture is dominating through out the several boroughs. I have come around town and Hispanics are known for their good food, which tends to have more diverse people try new cultural customs. Hispanic or Latino Americans are a group of people made up of distinct characteristics. Hispanics or Latinos are defined as a people of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish speaking cultures.
Hollywood’s diversity problem is well-known; however, the extent might be surprising to most Americans. According to a 2014 report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television, Film & New Media, found that females comprised only 30% of all speaking characters among the top grossing films of 2013. (Lauzen, 2014) However, minority women faired far worse than their Caucasian counterparts. As a matter of fact, if one looks at the numbers even female characters from other world’s were as better represented in film than some minority women; the numbers are as follow for women: Caucasian (73%), African American (14%), Latina (5%), Asian and other world tied (3%). (Lauzen, 2014) If the lack of representation were not enough consider a 2009 study which found that when minority groups are portrayed on television the portrayal tends to be negative. (Alexandrin, 2009) A study by Busselle and Crandall (2009) found that the manner in which African-Americans are portrayed, often as unemployed criminals, tends to have an influence on the way the public perceives African-American’s lack of economic success. Furthermore, the news media does an equally poor job in the ways that African-American’s are presented; according to the same study while 27% of Americans were considered “poor” in 1996 the images of America’s “poor” being presented by news media was heavily Black (63%). (Busselle & Crandall, 2002) Today, this can be seen in the way that African-American victims of police brutality are depicted in the media. Even when African-Americans are murdered at the hands of police for minor and non-violent offenses (e.g. Mike Brown, Eric Gardner, and Tamir Rice) they are often portrayed as thugs, criminals, and vandals. What’s more, seve...
“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.
appearance is to distort the cultural diversity of the community. Aside from the obvious facial differences, there are also significant linguistic and historical differences in the Latino community. The community is so heterogeneous that the idea that government agents can detect a Latino appearance is highly problematic on its face. Even the terms Latino and Hispanic are problematic as they refer to an ethnic and not a racial group. Latinos are conceptualized as a distinct race when they are more of an ethnic group. However, the Brignoni-Ponce line of cases is treating Latinos as if they were a distinct racial group with a specific facial appearance....
Latinos face a lot of discrimination when they come to the united stated or they try to assimilate to the American culture. Most immigrants have to deal with the police investigating them because they think they are all drug dealers or are in some type of illegal organization. They also have to deal with people calling them names because of their skin color. Americans also accuse Hispanics of stealing their jobs (Ramos, 53). They also face seeing racist graffiti on homes or wall of a building and they have to face hate crimes (Plunkett, 15). They sometimes get excluded from white communities (Plunkett, 39). Latinos are also blamed for serious problems the country faces (Ramos, 195). There are reasons for Americans to discriminate Latinos and reasons why they shouldn’t discriminate them.
Media bias is any stereotype set forth by the media that portrays individuals to society in a certain way. Media bias doesn?t even have to be a negative portrayal, but more of an inaccurate portrayal of people that helps aid to the ignorance of individuals in society. In the following paper, I will give specific instances where media biases have occurred as well as show that it is a common occurrence that we may not realize. I will also show you why individuals believe that media bias is not a problem because if you can?t blatantly recognize it, how can it be there. I will also show how stereotypes set forth by the media sometimes mirror stereotypes that are set forth by society, and they only exist to help form the belief and value system of society. I will also offer possible solutions to such problems. Media bias is a large problem, in that its? existence is not blatant nor is it one that many people feel threatened by.
The media does not stand in isolation from the separation in society when they report. It is a group wonder, which translates into everyday reality through the actions of individuals. But it is not confined to individuals. It is present in the institutional and cultural matrix of a society. According to Jennifer Pierce, stories about discrimination against people of color and the problems the economy posed for them receive little attention in the news media, while accounts of “reverse discrimination,” “angry white males,” and “white male victims” took center stage—narratives that helped turns the majority of California voters against affirmative action. For example the media have separated the working class and stereotyping class young African-American and Hispanics as gangsters or drug dealers. The media has crushed the younger generation for future education, employment, and other advancements. The media has focused more on the negative aspects of the Hispanic and black than the