Throughout the 21st Century, minority groups have made dramatic strides towards equality and autonomy in American society. In this case, minority groups include racial minority and ethnic minority. The achievement made by these minority groups has been helped by the media. The media has developed a feeling of inclusiveness or being part of society. As much as minority groups have made these advances through media, it seems that they have not fully penetrated the entire American society because some of the political power and rights obtained by minority groups are being reversed by racists’ belief and supremacist ideologies.
Nowadays, the blatant practices that were being upheld by the law and celebrated by hangings and beatings do not exist but instead subtle practices in the media, film, and entertainment industries are being practiced. Even if Americans might not see any signs that relegate colored individuals to separate facilities or confederate flags flying in parks, they see minority groups being cast as leeches and criminals to the white upper-class Americans (Nelson, 2014). NBC’s, Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios have been noted to be among the propagators of the negative stereotype as well as inescapable stigmas that numerous people thought were abandoned at the time shackles of segregation was broken. As a result, they have made these negative portrayals of minority groups that were abandoned to resurface again in the big screen movies, newscasts, and sitcoms.
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Even though the portrayal of minority groups are currently less than ideal in television and movies, minority groups seem to be the victim of an industry that depends on an old appeal to the majority at the expense of unnoticed minorities (Cantor, 2018). This blame cannot only be placed on white males in the industry but also to a small number of black entertainers that perpetuate this kind of stereotype. As much as these black entertainers defend their actions as an insider’s look into the lives of minority groups, they are guilty of offenses that their opponents have portrayed in the film and entertainment industries.
As Americans, it is imperative to break the vicious cycle evident in the unconscious racism of the film, media and entertainment industries and develop a new industry that represents the reality of the current American society. This paper seeks to elaborate on how the portrayal of minorities, particularly racial minorities, have transformed in the media by use of different literature reviews and a social experiment carried out on students from a certain university in America. It will also discuss how the portrayals of minority groups have changed in the media industry from time to time.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis of this experiment is to determine the extent to which the media has changed in the portrayal of minority groups in America.
Research questions
To what extent has the media changed in the portrayal of the minority groups in America?
Who are mostly affected by the media portrayal of minority groups?
What are the different ways the media is initiating the change?
Literature review
It is important to explore media portrayals of minority groups because it speaks volumes about what is crucial in society. Additionally, it sets the tone for the values, images, and morals of different cultures. For instance, many individuals that have never come across black people believe that the degrading stereotypes about blacks portrayed on media are real and not based on fiction. In this case, everything they believe is about blacks is determined by what they see on television. Exploring how minority groups are portrayed in media is valuable because it helps in documenting how minority groups are depicted on media and how such portrayals have transformed over the years.
In the article “The Perceived Realism of African American Portrayals on Television”, Punyanut-Carter (2008) has examined specific perceptions of African American portrayals on television. In this article, it has been found that African Americans are frequently portrayed with stereotypically negative personality characteristics. Some of the negative personality characteristics that African Americans are commonly depicted in this article include stupid, immoral, dishonest, violent and greedy individuals. The findings of this study suggest that the portrayals of African American on television have made a significant influence on the perceptions of viewers about African American.
As indicated by Punyanut-Carter (2008), the negative portrayals of African Americans have to lead to the progression of African American stereotypes. The high perceived reality for occupational roles as well as the negative personality characteristics of African American on television indicates that the preconceived notions of viewers of the negative personality and occupational roles are similar to those viewed on television. Based on this study, it is important to monitor the existing and future portrayals of African Americans on television to become knowledgeable about the possible influence on viewer’s social reality as well as the development of positive stereotypes regarding African Americans.
As opined by IRA and Mt (2011), indeed, media can positively or negatively change the portrayal of certain minority groups in the society. This article discusses how media has perpetuated racism in American society. During the initial stages of the film and media, African Americans struggled to represent their own opinions, beliefs, and identities because many of the entertainment industry was controlled by white people. As much as some notable changes have been observed, bias, discrimination, and disempowerment of minorities concerning longstanding issues in mainstream media such as entertainment, television news, and advertising still exist. The frequent targets of the said bias are African America males. Even though members of the entire African American are at risk of media bias, this research demonstrates that African American male received most of this negative media attention.
As reported by IRA and Mt (2011), most white Americans learned about African Americans not through personal relationships with them but images shown by media. To add on, IRA and Mt further depict that media was biased in the representation of minority groups. Journalists, as well as media entities, selected the issues they wanted to address. They chose to represent stories that involve African Americans and crimes such as shootings at a more frequent rate as compared to how they represented these incidences in whites. This reinforced the belief that blacks are involved in shootings at a higher rate as compared to whites.
However, this kind of portrayal has started to take a neutral stand in terms of content. Nowadays, the media content created by producers has started to be explained in a more disseminating fashion as compared to the previous reporting. From this study, it is important to note that bias, discrimination, and disempowerment in media is a reflection of some significant marks that were left in society from social traumas. Therefore, it is important to confront ignorance and prejudice with the knowledge to defeat this kind of media portrayals of minority groups.
As much as some dramatic changes have been seen in the portrayals of minority groups in media, notable negative portrayals of minority groups are still evident. In crime reporting, the media is reluctant in providing balanced perspectives of African American population (Monk-Turner et al 2010). This has worsened cultural division among individuals making judges hand out harsher sentences, police shooting indiscriminately as well as companies denying jobs to minority groups. Since media is aware of its vast power to shape people’s idea, they should be cognizant of their role as a way of initiating social change.
One of the notable incidences that perpetuated media portrayal of minority groups is that incidence in the cover art of Bloomberg Business Magazine. The magazine illustrated a story about the rebounding of United States housing using a cartoon drawing of individuals with overt ethnic and racial features swimming in a cash-filled house. The cover drew almost immediate and negative reactions from people forcing the magazine editor to apologize. The insulting part of Bloomberg Business Magazine cover is not just a demeaning and cartoonish illustration of ethnic and racial minority groups but it is an insinuation that homeowners that are people of color are profiting as the housing sector recovers (Monk-Turner et al 2010). From this study, it is therefore important for the media to select images, words as well as news angles that can give a complete, more narrative of minority groups as well as the history, culture and the lives in America as a whole.
Social experiment
Apart from the different kinds of literature, a survey was conducted on 500 students from a large public university enrolled in an education course. Out of 500 participants, 200 (40 percent) were male, 250 (50 percent) were female and 50 (10 percent) did not indicate their gender. Forty-five were ages 18 years and below (9 percent), 300 were between 19 and 24 years (60 percent), 95 were between the age of 25 and 30 years (19 percent) and remaining 50 were above 30 years (10 percent). Additionally, 150 (30 percent) were Caucasian, 125 (25 percent) African American and the rest were from different ethnic groups. The majority of the participants either watched at least 30 to 1hour of television a day. A quarter of the participants reported that they enjoyed watching African American television programs.
Methodology
In this study, questionnaires were administered in a mass testing format to all participants. They were used to collect information from the participants. Afterward, the participants received credit for their participation and assured that their responses would remain confidential. Apart from questionnaires, this research also depended on different literature reviews from the previous studies. The literature review was used to give the background of how media has changed in the portrayal of minority groups.
Results and findings
In general, the findings in the various studies suggest that the portrayals of the minorities on the media have a significant influence on the viewers and their perceptions about minority groups. As indicated by Punyanut-Carter (2008), negative portrayals of minority groups can contribute to the continuation of minority groups’ stereotypes. Apart from influencing the perceptions of viewers, the changing media has also started to present its content in a more disseminating fashion as compared to the previous reporting. However, bias, disempowerment, and discrimination are still portrayed by the media.
The frequent target of this bias among racial minority groups is males who receive negative attention that involves police shootings, employment denial as well as harsh sentences. As suggested by Monk-Turner et al (2010), people need to confront media ignorance and prejudice with the knowledge to defeat this kind of media portrayals that affect minority groups. From these studies, it has also been found that the negative portrayal of minority groups still exists. In crime reporting, media has been adamant in providing a balanced perspective of the African American population. Due to the awareness of the media, they need to start shaping people’s idea to initiate social change.
Weaknesses of the research
The study was not able to determine the cause and effect of how the media has changed the portrayal of minority groups. In addition to difficulties in determining the cause and effect of media portrays of minority groups, the reactivity of this study was also affected. This is because some participants seem to change in behavior when they realized that they are being observed. Similarly, most participants seemed to provide responses that they only considered desirable to their social norms.
Conclusion
In the United States, the portrayal of minority groups is gradually taking shape. Concerning crime reporting, the media has started to take a balanced perspective of the minority groups’ population. The media has begun to present its content in a more disseminating fashion. The media has also started to change the negative perception of viewers about minority groups. As much as gradual changes are evident in media, bias, discrimination, and disempowerment still exist in media. Therefore, the media ought to choose appropriate images, words as well news angle that gives a succinct, comprehensive narrative of minority groups and the history, culture and the lives of Americans as a whole.
References
Cantor, M. G. (2018).Feminism and the media. Society , 25 (5), 76-81.
IRA, A., & Mt, R. (2011).Representing minorities: Canadian media and minority identities. Canadian EthnicStudies/Etudes Ethniques au Canada , 33 (3).
Monk-Turner, E., Heiserman, M., Johnson, C., Cotton, V., & Jackson, M. (2010). The portrayal of racial minorities on prime time television: A replication of the Mastro and Greenberg study a decade later. Studies in Popular Culture , 32 (2), 101-114.
Nelson, J. A. (2014). Broken images: Portrayals of those with disabilities in American media. The disabled, the media, and the information age , 1-17.
Punyanunt-Carter, N. M. (2008). The perceived realism of African American portrayals on television. The Howard Journal of Communications , 19 (3), 241-257.
