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Essay On The Effects Of Media On African Americans

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African Americans and Media:
The Effects of African American portrayals on Television
Ashley Amargos
Miami Dade College

The powerful media is considered a leading influence in our society both directly and indirectly. Media is available and readily accessible today more easily than ever. Printed materials, television, sound recordings, internet, and radio all fall under the umbrella of Media. Television is significantly affecting the self-esteem of black youths and African Americans as whole. Self-esteem refers to the relationship you have with yourself, the degree to which you regard yourself in a positive or negative light (Juan R. Abascal, Laurel Brucato, Patricia Stephenson, & Dominic Brucato (2006) Essential Elements for Effectiveness United States of America: Pearson Custom Publishing). The excessive use of media exposure causes lack of confidence in African Americans youths attributable to the infrequent amount of African Americans on television, occupational roles, and the false accusations or stereotypes.
To start with, African Americans are scarcely viewed on television. …show more content…

Definitively, black youths have begun to doubt their personal power due to media, especially TV, which over and over portrays black bodies as people of low value with jobs of lesser value. African Americans are also not provided with equal roles or characters in the media industry, inclining the black adolescents to believe they are not capable or valuable enough to carry a leading role like a white person commonly would. Beyond just disarraying blacks youths and giving them negative internal messages, the media is also impacting the non-black people. Media along with inaccurate stereotypes has established a prejudiced society where blacks are depicted as unschooled and of lesser equivalence further leading to a decline of self- esteem in the black

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