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Influence of media on society
Is television racist essay
Influence of media on society
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Influence of media on society
Is television racist essay
Influence of media on society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The television program I chose to watch was the American sitcom that started in 1974 named Good Times. I watched episode 10 from season 1 that was titled Springtime in the Ghetto. In under a minute I noticed two stereotypes. The first was Florida Evans, the main female lead, sitting at a sewing machine making sofa covers for her sofas. Esther was having a conversation with her husband James Evans, the main male lead, where I saw the second stereotype.
Boyz N the Hood (1991) is an American film that presents the coming of age of three African American boys in South Central Los Angeles during the 1980s through the 1990s that provides important messages on community problems, racial tensions, and societal issues. In a historical context, this film took place during the peak of gang violence, racial tensions, and drug abuse in Los Angeles. The Rodney King incident had just been presented to the public displaying the reality of racial inequality and police brutality. Real events like this would spark a fire in the Hip-Hop culture creating many media outlets that would reflect what was going on in America. The target audience was initially African Americans so they could have a film to relate
I have chosen to focus on the issue of racial stereotypes and biases, particularly regarding the movie "Boyz n the Hood. " The movie is an interesting crime drama film released in 1991 and directed by John Singleton. It mostly follows the lives of African-American youths growing up in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of South-Central Los Angeles, especially the Crenshaw neighborhood. Analyzing this film is essential in understanding various assumptions and preconceived notions different audience members may bring and whether the movie reinforces or challenges those expectations. One of the assumptions and biases audience members may have in relation to the film is racial stereotypes.
People tend to base characteristics of people pretty quickly; likewise, their personalities. Most people base their opinions on stereotypes. Reginald Rose and his play “12 Angry Men” demonstrate how people are quick to judge other people based on looks. In the movie all twelve jurors must decide if a young boy is guilty or innocent. At the beginning of the movie/play-write, only one juror, juror eight, decides the boy is innocent.
Unfortunately, the context is which the jokes are consumed isn’t always the same. Where the actual problem and racism comes from is when the audience watching laughs because they agree with the characters. They are no longer laughing at Christmas Eve because she personifies stereotypes, but because they believe in those stereotypes. The humor shifts from being humorous because of a character to being humorous because of race. Here is where the problem lies, not in the show itself, but in the way it is
In the sixties, segregation and racism dominated in most social settings. In the seventies, most minorities were trying to deter from old beliefs of prejudicial ideas. In modern times, minorities have equal rights and respect to their white counterparts. Four sitcoms, Amos ’n’ Andy, Julia, Sanford and Son, and The Cosby Show depict how the role of minorities changed throughout different time periods. First of all, in the 1950’s, African Americans had few roles in television sitcoms, but when they were offered parts, it consisted of stereotypical portrayals of characters being lazy, simple, or holding domestic servant roles.
Stereotypes in media have been around since the earliest cartoons were drawn. The media gives supposedly identifying traits with images of the stingy Jewish man, the single Hispanic woman cleaning homes to raise her three children, and the “butch” lesbian falling for the beautiful blonde who just happens to glance at her every day in the hallway. These portrayals make up general knowledge about minorities for a lot of people, but their accuracy is questionable at best. While production companies have been making strides towards the better, insufficient representation in the media tends to portray minorities as their negative stereotypes rather than as people.
The year is 2016 and American society is open-minded to so many issues, except televised stereotypes. Racial and gender stereotypes are continually reinforced by social media and television, it has played a major role in the way society views one another. Enabling stereotypes that have been associated with a person of specific race or gender in the media promotes prejudice. Meaning society expects that person to act a certain way based on what they have witnessed on television or social media. . A perfect example of how television shows incorporate stereotypes based on ethnicity is the tv show “Everybody Hates Chris “which is about a working class African-American family that lives in a poor urban neighborhood in New York.
The strong insistence by these two writer that media just look on and examine people’s looks without considering their dignities, helps readers visualize how similarly Staples and Cofer view society. For both authors, a myth of the media stating that stereotypes are developing and persisting. In “Black Men and Public Space”, Ben Staples describes how he looks like when he is enough to frighten a young white women on the street late at night. He is a man with “six feet two inches height, and a beard and billowing hair”. Black men wearing a bulky jacket, to the public, are all fatal and threatening.
Every human being belongs to a specific type of race or possibly multiple races depending on his/her background. As a population, society views their fellow citizens according to their certain race. For some, culture and traditions of their own race means everything to them and these people are proud of who they are and where they come from. However, for some races their background and pride carries burdens.
Not only is this stereotype and exclusion prevalent in primetime television, but, much more seriously, in our newspapers and television newscasts as well. Authors Steinhorn and Diggs – Brown state that “Even though most violent crimes are committed by people the same race as their victims, one 1994 study of local TV newscasts in Chicago found that the majority of perpetrators portrayed in the news were black or persons of color, while the majority of victims shown were white.” (154). This leads one to maybe see a causal effect of the wide-spread panic about black males being criminals that need to be feared and bewared whenever they are come into contact with. They also sited a different study that “found that the percentage of blacks
It is apparent that public spaces can be frightening for women, as they face fears of sexual harassment and attack by men. In fact, research on fear of crime and public space usually examine the experiences given by women. Though there are many accounts exploring and emphasizing women’s vulnerability and fears, there are few which take into consideration the apprehension that males have about public spaces. In particular, anxieties that Black men are plagued with. In North America, black men have historically been depicted as aggressive, hypersexual and violent – to be controlled, exploited and tamed (Hackman, “‘It’s like we’re seen as animals’: black men on their vulnerability and resilience”).
“Ex boyfriends are just like off limits to friends. I mean that’s just like the rule of feminism” (15:15). This famous saying said by Gretchen Wieners from Mean girls is widely known and most of the time ridiculed by people. Mean Girls is a movie that portrays the stereotypical American high school life. The movie has a main focus on the girls of high school, rather then on the boys.
I can also pull out an example for stereotypes from The Longest Yard. In The Longest Yard, the movie takes place in a prison and the inmates in this prison are majority Mexican and African American. This is a stereotype that a lot of people use or believe in. It’s that Mexicans an African Americans are bad people who commit a lot of crimes. This isn’t true.