Minorities in Mass Media

Maddie Butler
Sep 5, 2018 · 8 min read

The film industry is a “straight, white, boys’ club.” Situations like these are happening around the world and all over the media. Whether at the Oscars, in the news, or in a movie, misrepresentation of minorities has been a recurring issue for the past few decades. With an escalating amount of attention to this issue, an increase in diversity portrayal has come along with it. Although progress has been made in minority representation in the media, the industry still needs a lot of improvement in giving minorities a voice. It will take time to fully include minorities in our media, but eventually they will be recognized in the positive ways they deserve.

One way the minorities are misrepresented is through media and this is unfair because they are looked down upon because of it. Even journalists who are in minorities are an outcast by Cort stating, “Minority journalists often face the dilemma of balancing their social commitment to provide better coverage of minority communities against their fears of being “ghettoized” to the “minority beat” and thereby having their professional careers restricted” (Cort). Their job as journalists is to recognize the positive and negative events going on in the world and it shouldn’t matter if they are part of a minority; they all have opinions. These minority journalists are scared to express their opinions because they are going to be judged and fear that people will not believe what they are saying. Minorities were being looked down upon because of the negative stories representing them. Geo explained, “The negative stuff is what usually gets highlighted, like drugs or the recent cock-fighting ring bust” (Geo). This explains to why minorities are looked down upon in society and leads back to them not being recognized as important and successful. Negative events happen all the time, but with minorities the negative stuff is talked about more often than their positive events. Minorities were tired of being misrepresented so they set up their own media to represent themselves in a positive way. Geo explained what they were represented by, “They have established their own newspapers and magazines, set up their own radio and television stations, created their own film production companies, and formed their own advertising agencies, often specializing in helping companies reach a “minority market” (Geo). Since minorities were not getting recognized enough for their good accomplishments, they decided to step up and create their own newspapers, magazines, and television stations to show they can influence the world in a positive way and deserve to be recognized. Without their own media stations and newspapers, they would be seen as bad and they would not be recognized for their good deeds. Minorities are discriminated and looked down upon often on the news, but also can be discriminated with their gender roles and stereotypes.

Gender has been the basis on the level of judgement of how are society is being treated. As the author begins to interpret the meaning of gender she proposes,“They claimed, that there should be no distinction between typical masculine and feminine occupations, and that traits of character should not be ascribed once and for all to one gender. Although females and males are still not equal, the differences between gender are not so vast anymore” (wolska). Generally, the correct interpretation of genders says that males are more dominant than females, but no matter how many rights or abilities women are given this type of situation does not spring into action. While men are “stronger” or have better qualities, the realization is that many do not care or strive to admit that women can perform equal tasks that of men. One gender is talked upon more than the other which harms the state of mind to better understand that both genders can perform the same duties. While “Nowadays a family model is based rather on a partnership than on patriarchy and women have more rights and possibilities on the labor market. Feminist environment had a significant impact on the change in this situation. Women’s liberation movement fought for the rights of women and for redefining traditional gender roles” (wolska). Today many are striving to include women in all parts of our nation , such as holding strikes marches and more to better included into everything. Traditional gender roles are being proven wrong with women across the country changing the movement to be more of women participation. “The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, are the tipping point in the way Muslims were portrayed in the media. Before the terrorist attacks, Muslims and Islam were not perceived as a threat to society, but after the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York, the cultural beliefs, practices and traditions of Muslims were constantly questioned”. For Muslims, it is true that men are judged in combat because of their history and this affects the way of life for them. While Muslims are portrayed as violent and dangerous, this example clearly shows how Muslim men are perceived as a threat to society. While genders are influencing media, minorities are beginning to give the media the chance to be watched.

Many people believe that minorities have enough representation in media and that the industry should focus on entertaining the public. When discussing the TV industry, it is said that “[p]eople of color are at the center, driving the narrative”(Levin). The media, specifically the TV industry, has done a good job at highlighting the different experiences and cultures of all types of people. However, if colored people are truly “driving” the shows that viewers watch on television, more people would feel that everyone is equally represented. Because of the extreme controversy that is so common in society, this is not true. Although the TV industry does frequently hire colored people for characters and producers, the film industry still struggles to represent and celebrate the different minorities. One of the biggest causes for unequal representation in the media stems from the institutions itself because, “we have an overwhelming majority of the media producers at these companies as white males, leading the audience to continue to see the world from only their perspective, leading many minorities voiceless”(Hill). Because white men are the ones holding all the power behind the camera, those in front of it are a majority white; therefore, no one can accurately portray the minorities. Instead, the majority of white actors mistakenly misrepresent minorities and stereotype them — not truly capturing the variety of cultures among Americans. If minorities were added to the institutions in the media, the world would become more aware of racial issues as well as being able to celebrate all the differences among Americans, rather than dismiss them. As time progresses, society sees more of this celebration within films and media. When Mary Claire asked black teenagers about what the new film Black Panther meant to them, Deijhah answered, “‘I am so proud to have movies like Black Panther for children of color to look up to and relate to’”Claire). Not only does the media need to represent minorities for the entirety of society, but for the races and minorities themselves; they need to feel a part of society and to know they have a place of value in this country. As minorities continue to be more represented in media each year, there is a greater hope for the younger generations to succeed in this world. These children can know that their color or race does not hinder their abilities, and they can achieve their greatest dreams. The difference of minority media representation between the TV and film industry is very large; however if Hollywood employs more diverse actors and producers, all of society can look to the future with optimism.

The media has fallen short in many different areas, but we can not deny that conditions are improving. Jeremiah J. Garretson states in his article that “television viewers have similar or higher levels of social tolerance compared with non-viewers when recurring portrayals [of women and racial minorities] become more frequent.”(Garretson). Not only has TV become more diverse in all aspects, but it has proven to show effects that are beneficial to viewers around the nation. If women and racial minorities are more prevalent on television, then as a society, we will be able to grow and improve together at a healthy and constant rate. If you look back at the 1970’s for example, conditions were far from perfect and most everything you saw on the screen was white and male. Garretson has collected data that has proven that since then, there has been a dramatic difference and improvement in diversity specifically in television. He explains, “The studies revealed that representation of these groups generally went up during this time period”(Garretson). Although we have come from a place of hardly any diversity whatsoever, the media has been constantly improving slowly over time. We cannot expect an instant change over night from television programs and channels all over the world, but with constant and increasing representation, our world will become a better one with each passing day. Dave McNary reports to the UCLA stating, “There is still a long way to go before women or people of color reach proportionate representation among the actors in film and television, but at least the trend lines for both groups point in the right direction,”(Source C). Not only has TV been improving, but all aspects of the media have slowly caught on to create an incline in minority representation among all people. It is unlikely that anything will stop this trend of constant growth because of the pressure from social media pushing for an increasingly diverse population representation. Although the media is not perfect and does not completely represent our population accurately, there is evidence that the media is increasingly varied among gender, race, and culture.

Despite progression in the representation of minorities in the news, television, and film industries, greater improvement needs to be made to eliminate the stereotypes and reach a place where everyone is equally represented and celebrated within society through the media. If the industry simply hired more minorities as producers, the different races and genders would be accurately represented in front of screens across America. We still have a long way to go, but improvements have been made and we are headed in the right direction. The key to constant improvement is slow and steady inclination toward more diverse casting and representation.

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