Media and Minorities

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, although the media has come a long way during the past few decades, there is still inequity among television programming and ethnic stereotyping within the media in general; ethnic women, in particular, are feeling the effects as concerns employment and other opportunities in the media. The author points out that, although there are 38 million African-Americans and 41 million Hispanics in the United States, there are only one Black channel and two major Spanish-language networks. The paper relates that research shows that the portrayal of African-Americans in television drama, news and sports coverage has been based on negative stereotypes that do not objectively or accurately portray reality; moreover, many of the stereotypes encountered in early television, such as lazy, comical and inferior, have been replaced by new, more subtle representations, such as "pushing too hard and moving too fast" to achieve equal rights.

From the Paper:

"In June 2004, MTV Networks and the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association jointly hosted the second annual media and entertainment panel discussion, and among the issues highlighted were diversity and the portrayal of people of color on cable. The panel attempted to understand how cable was better or less than able handling the issue of stereotypical portrayals of people of color, and how those images had an impact upon the broader society. According to one panelist, "quite lately, there's been a narrow sieve through which the images of people of color have flowed, and so some of the same stereotypes that we find in other areas of society tend to show up on television there.""

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