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Stereotypes in Media

 


The media today try to be inclusive, while if we look back just 40 years there was not much representation of minorities. You only got representation if you were white. It is good that the media has tried to include different demographics. There is a better way of doing it. If and when there is representation in a show of a minority there is always a stereotype that follows that character or the whole personality of that character is based off of stereotypes. Take a look at the show The Sopranos. Even though they were based on a white Italian American family it still suffered from having stereotypes. This show highlighted an Italian American family from New Jersey that also had mob connections. This show just furthered the stereotype that Italians are somehow connected to the mafia. Now, I ask how or who does that narrative if Italian benefit.  I will answer it, it does not benefit anyone all it does is hurt the Italian community. 


We have seen in research that if we show positive rhetoric of minorities and not just display the stereotypes that are hurtful that people have responded well. In this study the focus was on children in specifically. Back in 1976 (Gorn and colleagues 1976, as cited in Scharrer, E. and Ramasubramanian, S. 2015) There was an experiment where there was a group of Canadian children who watched multiracial inserts from Sesame Street. Then there were children who did not watch the same multiracial inserts. The kids that watched the multiracial inserts showed a greater willingness in wanting to play with non-white children. 


Some might ask well who cares at least they are getting representing, the stereotypes are funny thats why they are jokes. To that I ask you how would you feel if someone were to say that your cooking was bad or taste less because white people tend to not use seasonings and they have never even tried your food but they are making that assumption about you because of a joke that they have kept on hearing. That would upset you. Now imagine you are watching a TV show and there are no white people on that show so you can not really relate because you are not seeing yourself on tv. They finally introduce a white character and all they do is make jokes about the character that are not even true. That is what is going on in the media with minorities.

The solution to this problem is to have writers who are of the groups that the TV is wanting to represent in order to get an accurate representation.


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