When the media theorist Marshall McLuhan claimed that the expansion of media technologies would enable individuals to “see, hear, talk or write across greater distances and at greater speed than before” (Hodkinson, 2011, p.21) he was referring to electronic communication such as the telephone and television and before the invention and subsequent growth of the Internet. Nevertheless, McLuhan’s declaration that the world is now part of “a global village” (Hodkinson, 2011, p.21) is just as pertinent today because the Internet allows individuals to instantaneously communicate and share information with other people around the world. Understanding how individuals use this technology has implications for multicultural societies and the way that …show more content…
For example, the sociologist Stuart Hall has pointed out that racism has been sustained within British culture as a result of the way the media creates and perpetuates racist images of black people (Hall, 1990, pp.8-23). Hall has claimed that the media, in terms of the British media, has constructed images of black people through the use of archetypes such as the “the familiar slave-figure […] the ‘native’, [and] the ‘clown’ or ‘entertainer’” [emphasis in the original] (Hall, 1990, pp.15-16). Furthermore, the implicit racism within media texts has permeated into everyday social and cultural discourses. Teun van Dijk has referred to this type media racism as an example of a “‘new’ racism” (van Dijk, 2000, p.34). Van Dijk has pointed out that ‘new’ racism appears across a wide range of media such as films, television programmes, school text books and academic articles, as well as press reports by news organisations (van Dijk, 2000, p.34). Van Dijk has argued that ‘new’ racism has become implicit within normal and everyday discourses, unlike ‘old’ racism, which was explicit in terms of violence, perpetuated towards minority populations and forced segregation (van Dijk, 2000, p.34). This is clearly illustrated by news reports of the 1985 Tottenham riots in the UK, which was perceived as a distortion of events on the street, and an attempt by the media to construct a coherent narrative of the unrest, which ignored the underlying social issues in favour of promoting “irrational explosions” of violence (Gilroy, 1987, p.327). In this case, the British media constructed a representation of the riots as a system of sorting the events into mental representations of people and objects (Hall, 1997,
helping. Television is making the shows out to seem like one race is better than another. For
The Ugly Truth, a film which was released in 2009, displays many particular stereotypes and gender issues which we find within American society. Gender is made up of socially constructed ideas which are reinforced by society in regards to what it means to be masculine or feminine. We first learn gender from our parents; however they too had to first learn it from their families and society. Within the American society, the media takes on a large role in creating gender norms. The media is made up of films, magazines, television programs, and news papers. The Ugly Truth, although a funny film, perpetuates these stereotypes and ideas of gender provided by our society.
“Bringing Down the House” featuring Steve Martin and Queen Latifah is a clever comedy that creatively showcases the sociolinguistic phenomena covered in this course. The film is about a tax attorney named Peter, played by Martin, who stumbles into an online lawyer chat room and meets Charlene, played by Latifah. The two chat frequently, mostly about court cases, and eventually decide to meet in person. When the day finally comes, Peter is greeted at the door with who he thought would be a middle-aged Caucasian woman, but happened to be Charlene, a black woman who just escaped from prison. Thinking this was a mistake, Peter tries to kick out Charlene but is later convinced she is the one who he was speaking with in the chat room. Charlene was able to successfully impersonate a lawyer through speech, and along with a deceiving picture, able to convince Peter she was a petite blonde. During these chats, the two talked about court cases that happened to relate to Charlene’s predicament with the law. In attempt to clear her name from a crime she did not commit, Charlene researched the judicial system and similar court cases to hers while in prison. Now that she is out, she seeks personal assistance from Peter who has already through the internet, given her support. All throughout the movie the characters contrast in viewpoints, culture, and most importantly for our studies, language. Charlene and Peter represent different language backgrounds which we can analyze as the root of their character development and actions throughout the film.
This essay discusses censorship and the way in which social media and consumer products affect and model an appropriate societal ‘literacy’ or view in particular regards to gender and race, to young children. A summary of the stereotypes displayed in several videos viewed on YouTube, as well as student’s own identified stereotypes, both in regards to race and gender, are displayed below (Alexander, 2011; BrokenXLoner, 2012; Lac, 2013; Walt Disney Pictures, 1998, 1994, 1992, 1967, 1955, 1953, 1941):
Controversial author and Professor, Anthea Butler, strongly signalled in one of her very edgy pieces the obvious weight racial labelling and stereotypes have in mass media based on a string of mass shootings and similar crimes around the United States. Her piece explicitly uncovers the underlying racism in the media clearly proving the strong influence names and labels have inside a society affecting it in a positive or negative way whether it’s in fictional literature, or in real life events.
For many years, racial and ethnic stereotypes have been portrayed on multiple television programs. These stereotypes are still illustrated on a day-to-day basis even though times have changed. Racial or ethnic stereotypes should not be perpetuated on certain television programs. These stereotypes provide false information about groups, do not account for every person, allow older generations to influence younger generations, create tension between groups, and affect people in many ways.
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 on what is represented on television, but also the black consumers, who grow up with a false sense of identity.
On television today you will see stereyotypes of male and female roles in society. These stereyotyps are exemplified in many tv shows and even childrens cartoons. Some shows which stereyotype sex roles include, the flintstones, the jetsons, and almost every sitcom on television.
People today believe in racial stereotypes from the influence of various media, which ridicules someone of another race or gender by a one-dimensional point of view, including you. It is just upon that people will take action or overreact to the little things just because of what their minds think from what stereotype media promoted. Some people may ponder on themselves into running away from a stranger just because of their gender and by their race, making a decision whether they are unsafe to go close to. Some media have promoted stereotypes of others for entertainment and influencing people to believing in the misjudgment of certain races.
Almost 20 million Americans suffer from PTSD in some form or shape, and Willy Loman is no exception. William “Willy” Loman is a 63-year-old traveling salesman from Brooklyn. Willy has 34 years of experience, but he recently got a pay cut and was fired from his lifelong job. He has two sons, Happy and Biff. Biff is considered to be a failure in Willy’s eyes, this stems from when Biff failed math class as a senior.
The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.
Stereotypes In the Media Stereotypes play an important role in today's society and particularly in propaganda. According to the Webster's Dictionary, stereotyping is defined as a fixed conventional notion or conception of an individual or group of people, held by a number of people. Stereotypes can be basic or complex generalizations which people apply to individuals or groups based on their appearance, behaviour and beliefs. Stereotypes are found everywhere in the world. Though our world seems to be improving in many ways, it seems almost impossible to liberate it from stereotypes.
He spoke about how the media portrays individuals in a certain way. In the book Representations Hall discusses how the term “Britishness must always refer with whiteness” (Hall, 1997, p.235), he mentions how whiteness cannot be associated with anything else including Jamaican, American and Pakistani. Hall also speaks about how the mass media display images illustrating racial stereotypes dated from the period of the slavery during the late nineteenth century (Hall, 1997). Hall presents the difference between black and white, he emphasises on how black people were portrayed as slaves within the media. In the Hollywood Shuffle the scene about the Black Acting School shows black people being trained to act as slaves within the media industry by majority of the white (Hall, 2011).
The article concluded that “stereotypical media content shapes the perception of racial groups and social policy”.(Dixon, Williams, 3.) They also have a tendency to “over represent African Americans as criminals and overrepresented Whites as victims and officers. (Dixon, Williams, 24.) By constantly seeing these roles perpetuated in the media we began to believe and think it on a subconscious level. In the Media Studies: A Reader by Sue Thomham, chapter twenty-two Racist Ideologies And the Media, Thomham elaborates on the racist ideologies the media instills and the notions they create about social roles and
“Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.”