Stereotypes In Mass Media

Mass media play a very significant and determinant role in a contemporary world, by broadcasting and communicating information in fast pace and at the same time entertaining vast audiences. Mass media have a tremendous impact on the structure and history of our society due to the fact that they can influence and shape public opinion, determine political agendas, affect socialization and create a relationship between people and government. They consist of television, press, internet, radio and books and they became one of the main sources of popular culture in the modern capitalist society. Media’s role, however, is not only to offer news and entertainment but also to transfer and cultivate a variety of social stereotypes, beliefs and values

According to the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary stereotyping is defined as a fixed conventional notion or conception of an individual or group of people; A standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an over simplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment . A stereotype is an often unfair or untrue belief that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic and it can be negative or positive. The factors that contribute in the establishment of a stereotype are: Appearance, behavior and attitude: Appearance has to do with a way a person or a thing looks to other people (appearance includes physical characteristic, clothing, gender and the way a person talks). Behavior has to do with typical things that people in a particular group are assumed-expected to do and finally attitude that is very similar to behavior and is the way that people view something or tend to behave towards different situations. All the above characteristics are highly associated with gender, racial, sexual and cultural stereotyping. One of the more common stereotype examples is stereotypes surrounding race. For instance, saying that Black people are more likely to commit crimes is stereotype, because it’s grouping the race together and argues that all people who belong to the particular race are criminals. In addition, media, especially television had an immense

Stereotypes about gender are the most prolific pattern of stereotyping in media due to the fact that they are more widely accepted by the public opinion. Through the ages, men have been perceived as strong, independent, decision-makers, financial providers, the “backbone” of the family and women considered to be the ones who have diminished career aspirations and are responsible for raising the children and do all the housework. Media did portray some examples based on these exact stereotypes. In the televisions shows of 1950’s to the 1970’s (such as “I love Lucy” and “Leave it to Beaver”) women were typically portrayed as boring full-time housewives, dressed with high-heels and pearls that didn’t have real interests. The shows used to picture these women as unemployed people who take care of their children and were waiting their breadwinner husbands to return from job. In other words men’s roles were far more various, interesting and vital than women’s were. Another significant fact is the findings of several analysis studies, conducted by Gunter (1995) and Elasmar (1999), and counted the predominance of men and women in important TV speaking roles. The findings showed that in 1950’s, 1960’s and in 1970’s only 20-30% of characters