Ethnic Stereotypes Essay

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WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN CREATING AND MAINTAINING ETHNIC STEREOTYPES? Introduction Media refers to “the main means of mass communication (television, radio, and newspapers) regarded collectively.” (Anon., n.d.). Ethnic stereotypes “is a system of beliefs about typical characteristics of members of a given ethnic group or nationality, their status, society and cultural norms.” (Anon., n.d.). Ethnic Stereotypes have existed since ancient history but ever since the creation of different forms of media such as newspaper, radio, television, etc. these stereotypes have escalated and strengthened. People call the modern age the age of freedom of thought but even now many ideas and misconceptions are the result of Ethnic Stereotypes for a majority ethnicities especially due to misuse of media in manipulating the thoughts of today’s societies. Many claim that with time we have learned from our mistakes and such mind sets have diminished but looking at world history, rather than change, it is repeating itself. When considering Stereotypes we also consider the different varieties and categories that fall in it. The following are some of the main stereotypes that exist in the modern world: Ethnic Humor …show more content…

Ethnic humor first began in the form of theater shows and literature. Looking at the plays of Shakespeare it can be seen that even in his plays the character of a Jew was portrayed as an evil minded, stingy person. Example of it can be seen in the Merchant of Venice in the stereotype portrayed by Shylock. Misiura (Misiura, 2007) supports it by stating that this was due to the expulsion of Jews from English society of which Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare wanted to capitalize the moment through their plays incorporating the ethnic stereotypes at that