Women and Minorities in the Television
White men mostly dominate the media industry, in particular television and radio. White men were the pioneers of, and known as the essential players in, the growth of television and radio as a medium for mass communication over the years. However, women and minorities were, and still are, involved in the growth of these communication mediums. There is not enough attention paid to these two groups. These heads have taken it upon themselves to show the American public what things should and should not be like, as well as, how we should view different people in our society. Although not according to the public, I do consider myself a minority, and therefore, feel I have a right to research and discuss this topic. I am a minority because I am a part of “a group differing ethnic background than the majority of the population.” (Webster’s, 1996) I have been subject to the stereotypical portrayals of Italians, as well as, witnessed the distorted representati!on of other minorities and females on television. The discrimination towards women and minorities occurred often in front of the camera, in view of the entertainment aspect of the industry, where stereotypical views of these two groups overtook whatever s
Authors resort to stereotypes when writing for television to save time, both their own and that of the medium: I, in the past, have been guilty of laughing at the stereotypes that I see on television. In recent years, and especially after this paper, I have grown to see how wrong it was to laugh and realized that at the time I didn’t know any better. As long as people continue to watch shows that present generalities about different types of people, and to a certain extent believe that the representation that they are seeing is true, we will never be really able to break down the cultural barriers that separate out nation. We should protest these shows by petitioning these programs, and write to our local politicians and asking them to help remove shows that classify people in ways that are far from the truth. APA. 1992. “APA Task Force Explores Television’s Positive and Negative Influences on Society.” News Release. American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C. The Cosby Show portrayed two successful, Black professionals, one a doctor and the other a lawyer, as parents of intelligent, well-educated children living in a cozy, middle-class neighborhood. This was utterly shocking to American viewers, especially since up until the 1970’s when you had shows like Good Times portraying a poor, Black family living in the Projects struggling to get by. Ellen was one of the more recent groundbreakers of stereotypes for the American homosexual population by revealing that she was gay on television, as well as, having a lesbian kiss on her show. One of the shows that got the most public and political attention in the early 1990’s was Murphy Brown. Even for the nineties, the portrayal of a lead female character as an unmarried, middle-aged, professional woman becoming pregnant and deciding to be a single parent was shocking. The topic became even more talked about when the Vice President at the time, Dan Quayle, criticized the te! Stereotypical images on television clearly help perpetuate those same images in the minds of viewers. As the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights put it, ‘To the extent that viewers’ beliefs, attitudes, and behavior are affected by television, relations between races and the sexes may be affected by television’s limited and of
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Approximate Word count = 1574
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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