In What Way Does The Media Contribute To The Spreading Of Stereotypes And How Do These Stereotypes Affect People Who Fall Victim Of Them.
According to the Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, USA, stereotypes are generalizations, or assumptions, that people make about the characteristics of all members of a group, based on an image (often wrong) about what people in that group are like. The term “stereotype” tends to be synonymous with “cliché” in many people’s minds. They see stereotypes as a norm of society that helps to get people to carry responsibilities and or blame for an action or event that took place or is taking place. However, many of these stereotypes have long overstepped the boundaries of the open mindedness of society. On the contrary, many of those who have been victims of these stereotypes for ages have been and are being treated negatively by society. For the truth is that people do not care to analyze whether or not what they are hearing or seeing is real or is just something that was made up by someone based on their opinions. This essay, then, carefully explains and explores the reasons why stereotypes are spread and how negatively they affect people who fall victim will show that stereotyping is not and was never what our society should and are to be lead to believe as true. In the 20th century, African-Americans were trying to get a portion of what they believed that they deserve in the American society. In trying to do so they ended up becoming a target of the media, while some of the media thought they were helping them, the media didn’t know that they were actually causing these African-Americans to lose the love that they had for themselves as individuals. Eventually African Americans started to appreciate lighter skin tones over their own brown skin. As the leaders of the country tried their very best to get the people to believe that they could protect them in terms of crisis, the leaders needed to show them something to get the people to fear in order to turn to them for help. They targeted a specific group and that is Muslims, using the media, they labeled people of this religion as terrorists. In competing for more views and money, the media continues spread stereotypes and unless people begin to pay attention to the content of the information the media presents them, people of some cultures, races, and religions would continue to be affected negatively by these stereotypes.
The media spreads stereotypes about groups of people destroying their images and livelihoods without care for the consequences of these stereotypes. Abby E. Brisbon explores how people of color were made to feel insignificant in their own skin. She pointed out in her book “Good Hair, Bad Hair: African American Hair Relation in the Twentieth Century.” that “At the same time, part of the contradiction between ideology and reality is also reflected in the struggles of African American newspapers. In a way, these choices between advocating for a celebration of African heritage and pushing European features as the standard of beauty were the same kinds of decisions black-owned newspapers themselves had been making since the mid-1800s: should they be accommodating, passively reporting on their (lack of) civil rights as dictated by white America, or should they serve as an advocacy tool, fighting aggressively for rights and likely angering whites in the process?”(9) While people of color wanted to be treated as equals to everyone else most especially white people, they knew that they did not have the power to do so and pushing to get equal rights would only cause the majority of white people to be angry and these white People might kill and abuse them. The safest method that these people of color thought to obtain the rights that they deserved was through getting white collared jobs. The media also promoted this stereotype that the only way to be successful was to secure these jobs and also to have lighter peachlike skin tone and sometimes in trying to obtain what is best for ourselves, we tend to do things without thinking about the consequences of our actions. The media reports things based on what they believe will sell and disregard the impact it will have on viewers. Likewise, in the twentieth century, the black newspapers thought that they were helping their fellow black people secure a standing in society but ended up creating this stereotype that to have a darker skin tone is ugly and unpresentable causing the people of color to lose the little self esteem and self love that they had for themselves. The media cares only for their profit and not about how the information they present affect people’s lives.
Similarly, Judith O. Cofer states in her article “The Myth of the Latin Women: I just met a girl named Maria.” that “the big and the little screens have presented us with the picture of the funny Hispanic maid, mispronouncing words and cooking up a spicy storm in a shiny California kitchen.”(206) In this article she was illustrates how the media perceive Latino girls as girls who “mature early” rather than girls who are free to dress the way they want because they have brothers cousins and families in general who would protect them whenever and wherever they find themselves in complicated situations. As the media spreads the stereotype that Latino women are women who belong to the kitchen and all that they are capable of is being good wives, the media however, didn’t consider what or how the public in general would perceive these people. When a person walks into a store and needs assistance they look around and most of the time, the Latino woman present is automatically seen as someone who works there instead of another regular customer . When it comes to the topic of stereotyping most people will readily disagree that it is actually happening simply because they do not experience it for themselves. Where this disagreement usually ends; however, is on the question of why people are so quick to judge others based on what they see or hear on the mass media without verifying the authenticity of the information. Whereas some are convinced that they are superior over others and others cannot have and or be in the same positions as themselves in society, others maintain that everyone deserves equal chances toward achieving success in whatever they set their minds to.
The consequences of stereotypes are constantly being ignored by the society and the media. The black man is viewed as abusive, a criminal and even in more extreme cases they refer to the black man as a murderer. Brent Staples reported in his article “Black men in public spaces.” that “ One day, rushing into the office of a magazine I was writing for with a deadline story in hand, I was mistaken as a burglar.”(Staples 2) People immediately form an image in their mind about other people even before they get to know them. Why is this so though I ask. The media keeps presenting certain groups of people in a way that might not necessarily be the way they are. They say that the way that food looks determines how the food tastes. However, judging people based on how the media presents them is just wrong. Just like Brent, who was there to work but was immediately seen as a burglar, a lot of black men are seen in negative images whenever they are in public areas and mostly when they walk into stores and boutiques. Most store owners would not think that the man of color is there to simply buy something for himself or a loved one but would think that they are there to steal something and or commit a crime. Why can’t a man of color be seen as a working individual and not someone who want to hurt or cheat others. The media’s perception of the Black Man in movies and other entertainment shows have become how our society today view the black man.
Furthermore, people need to start paying attention to the content of the information the media present in order to help minimize the effects of stereotypes in our societies. In an article by the Nation tittled “Patriarchy: A Primer for Men”, they reported “More subtle social symptoms of patriarchy include descriptions of sex. Common ways of referring to sex include, “hit it,” kill it,” “smash,” and/or “beat it up.” All these popular terms for sex involve men inflicting physical injury on women in the name sexual pleasure. Patriarchy teaches men and women to think that the metaphoric destruction of the female body is the goal of good sex.” (“The Nation” 2007) These teachings and ideologies would have nowhere to go without the interventions of the mass media. The media serves as a tool that people use for both good and evil practices. Our young people wake up everyday to see that on the television they are portrayed as fearless, strong, expression, and emotionless making them think that is the way that society has to be and is. The stereotype that men are dominant and women are just tools is been hurting families and tearing homes apart. A lot of men grow up thinking that whatever the situation is they need to have the last say and control their women. This manner and stereotypical way of thinking is as a result of the media. They make superheroes such as Superman and Batman amongst others as leaders and gods in masculine form where they are strong, show no emotions and are always acting on impulse and instincts. With our boys being exposed to such stereotypical ideologies there is no way that they would not follow suit.
The effect that stereotyping of the media has on our communities is at death’s door and unless we do something about these stereotypes, we would see no change in the situations we find ourselves in today. Bell Hooks a National bestselling author of “All About Love” and “Rock My Soul” in 2004 wrote in her book “Being aboy: chapter 4” that “Although therapist tell us that mass media images of male violence and dominance teach boys that violence is alluring and satisfying, when individual boys are violent, especially when they murder randomly, pundits tend to behave as though it were a mystery why boys are so violent.”(43) Where people begin to get caught up in a disagreement is when it comes to choosing between the idea that the communities that boys grow up in or the things that they are exposed to on the media leads to them becoming violent and strong headed. Although the communities might be contributing factors towards the behaviors of boys, the media serves as the primary and most powerful source of spreading stereotypes. When the media especially the movie industry have male characters take violent actions without any retributions, our young men start to think and believe that it is okay for them to commit same crimes and behave the same way as these characters. What these young men fail to comprehend is that these movies themselves are based on social stereotypes. So they grow up thinking that what they have learnt from their childhood is the way that society operates and so they become men who do not show love to their spouses and do not show enough care to their families causing then, divorces mostly in our black homes. These divorces do not leave their negative impacts at the courthouse but rather spreads them to the households and those who are affected are out young boys. With no man in the house to teach them to be boys and eventually men, the young men turn their ever curious minds to the media and all that the media teach them is stereotypes. They mostly grow to be like their fathers and the cycle continues.
Furthermore, the media continues to spread stereotypes from male superiority down to stereotypes about religions creating antagonistic atmospheres in the communities towards innocent people. Krista McQueeney a professor in Criminal Justice department at Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI. elaborated in her article “Disrupting Islamophobia: Teaching the Social Construction of Terrorism in the Mass Media” how most people have been brainwashed by politicians and the media to believe in stereotypes. She stated “With respect to Islamophobia and terrorism, media literacy has been found to reduce students’ anxiety about the portrayal of terrorism on television news (Comer, Furr, Beidas, Weiner, & Kendall, 2008). Evidence also suggests that it inhibits the activation of racial/ethnic stereotypes (Ramasubramanian, 2007). The critical media literacy approach discussed here challenges students to consider the sources of their knowledge about terrorism, whose interests these media sources promote, and the evidence upon which these knowledge-claims are based.”(299)After the 9/11 attacks Muslim have been the main target of the media as well as politicians when it comes to labeling as terrorists and acts of terror committed. What surprises me is the fact that many Americans do not bother to take into consideration what the many murders and mass killings in the country is caused by. Certainly in every group there are people who do not conform to the teachings and beliefs of the group, however, the media is never seen attacking or labeling an entire group based on the actions of the few. This boils down to the inquiry of why Muslims are always mentioned in any discussion about the acts of terror. Why does the media not listen to the analysis made by the over fifteen thousand architects and engineers who believe that the World Trade Center could not have come down as it did without the use of some kind of explosives and that the plane crashing into the building would have never been able to bring down the steel built tower. The politicians are using the media to feed people with stereotypes and create fear in them so that they can control the people. Islam is not hogwarts and Muslims are not wizards and terrorism is an act condemned by Islam, one of the actors that a person can commit and is considered a ticket to the hell fire is to kill an innocent person. As a Muslim living in the United States, I hear my friends saying that sometimes they are scared to go out in some areas simply because they are afraid of being harmed by unintelligent people who refuse to read and know. Muslim young women, constantly report that when they wear their hijab to certain places they see how people look at me differently, they might be thinking that these women have been forced to cover, that they are unintelligent and are oppressed. They fail to see beyond what these women are wearing because the community is filled with stereotypes about them and people like themselves ( Muslim women). If only they would sit to research and know then they would definitely come to know and understand that the Muslim woman is very liberated.
Moreover, the people in power contribute to spreading stereotypes. As mentioned in the above, Mrs McQueeney further explores how the motivation of political agendas make politicians do whatever that they can to get to their ultimate goals. She further explores that “By painting the Middle East as a land of barbarism and tyranny, and by routinely casting Arabs and Muslims as terrorists, the mass media bolsters oppositions between the civilized and the uncivilized and fosters fear of the Arab Other (Hirchi, 2007). As such, media misrepresentations can be an instrument for advancing political agendas, including war and the restriction of civil liberties.” (299) When the topic of how the media is used as a tool for promoting political agendas is brought up, people become conflicted on whether or not this is true because they have constantly been lead to believe that the media is a credible source of information. What they fail to take into consideration is the fact that about 90% of the United States media is controlled by five major corporations. Most of the time the message that the media presents is opinionated and biased. They send information across that only benefits those in power and help those in power to control the manner in which society is structured and the direction which it’s lead. They support whichever candidate they want and similarly the spread stereotypes about whoever is in their way to take them out. In 2003 when the United States wanted to attack Iraq they sent out false information about them to the people blinding them to believe that Iraq really had explosives and only after the attack on the country was it found that Iraq had no weapons of the kind. After the 9/11 attack the janitor, William Rodriguez who was known as the last man out after the attack, said that he was in the basement one and heard explosions below him before the aircrafts arrived. But surprisingly his claim was disregarded and he as an individual was used to promote political agendas (getting vote) by the then president, George Bush. With these stereotypes going around those who are put in danger the Muslims in the country who have become the target of hate crimes from the people. Even in the most of people going through difficulties and mourning the politicians where busy focusing on who to blame for what has happened and not focus on investigating the true cause.
Those in power continuously use the media everyday to their benefit. Lisa Delpit explains in her article “The silenced dialogue: power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children” how those in power set up the system so that it favors themselves and their offsprings alone. She indicated in the article that “The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power.”(282) Those who work at the media cannot report anything without getting approval from those in power. When they spread the stereotypes it is because they have been approved to do so. The people in power put the school systems in the annex that they prefer and they do so because they know that the only people who are benefiting from it is their children alone. They do not want to leave the power that they have or in fact have others join them in the culture so they put obstacles and challenges in the way and one can only join them and obtain power if they overlook the stereotypes that society is been made to believe. Stereotypes are just false information that the people in power allow to be spread that they know are not true and or accurate. The poor continues to believe in them and remain poor and the rich knowing the truth continue to thrive and become richer.
Many of those who are in opposition to the idea of media stereotyping would probably object that the media only address and inform its viewers, listeners and readers of what is actually happening, without being bias or twisting the facts. Bradley W. Gorham in the article titled “Stereotypes in the Media: So What” states that “It is important to keep in mind that the media do not reflect the world in any empirical sense, but instead help construct and maintain it by re-presenting particular meanings and understandings of ‘‘reality.’’ The media are part of the larger social process that constructs and encourages some meanings ( generally those of dominant social groups) over others ( generally socially subordinate groups) , and it does this via discourse ( language that is infused with particular meanings [ and myths] and not others) .”(240) While Bradley may be right in saying that the media helps in constructing and maintaining the world by representing particular meanings and understanding of reality however such a claim and analysis is vague and doesn’t realize the harm that the media actually causes by representing in the so called “meaning” and “ understanding” of reality. Due to these representations people of certain religions, cultures and ethnic groups have to face the negative consequences of the stereotypes that the communities they live in have been made to believe. People have to live in fear and distress because of information that is not true and this causes one to question if all these consequences are worth the hustle. Are people’s peace, freedom and happiness worth sacrificing because of the belief that the information being spread is truth without been verified? Is this way our societies are going be channeled to? I believe that ultimately if the media verifies information that it is spreading, stop making generalizations and also stop making assumptions about people they would increase their ethos as well as the number of viewers. This is a better option than slandering a group of people for the media’s own benefit. After all what are benefits if they are at someone else’s loss.
Furthermore, people who do not agree to the claim that the media indeed contributes to the spreading of stereotypes about certain races will probably argue that the media spreads truths. Bradley W. Gorham further state in his article “Stereotypes in the Media: so what” that “Racial stereotypes in the media are important because they are a signicant contributor to the maintenance of racial myths by consistently and repeatedly offering associations between language ( in the forms of signs) and context ( myths) that are consistent with these myths.”(237) what he fails to understand and take into consideration is that although the myths that he is speaking of is the traditional stories that almost all cultures have, the media doesn’t spread these myths they rather spread the myth about the behavior of people of the race that is not true. Example is when it comes to people of color, the myth that goes is that the men are irresponsible and lazy and all that they know how to do is steal and shoot each other but these claims are not necessarily true. The myths that the media spreads are widely held but false beliefs or ideas. These stereotypes only degrade and limit the humanity of the people that fall victims of them. When it comes to Muslims the media continues to spread these stereotypes that have blinded people to think that the teachings of Islam is mainly based on terrorism and nothing else. A young Muslim student reported when having a conversation with her peers that her Christian teacher who is alway on the Muslims in class asked her whether she was a good Muslim or a “Jihad” muslim. She said“ She looked at him and said you know that there is no such a thing as jihad Muslim right? And you also know that jihad is an Arabic word that means struggle right?” She said that her teacher look at her confused and since it was clear that he had no idea what he has been talking about. She then had to explain to the teacher what it meant to be a Muslim. Now here we clearly see that the media does influence the way people think and view things and if these people are not corrected by those who know then it’ll literally be impossible for them to know what is a stereotype and what is true.
Our authorities in power have turned a blind eye on the doings of the media simply because they do not want to be seen as the bad guys and also want the media to report good things about them. This does not mean that the rest of us need to comply to what is considered the “norm” of out society. Imagine something that means so much to you being condemned and called what it is not at all. How would you feel? I guess everyone know that feeling even better than I do. However, have all of us sat to think how those who have to go on everyday having to feel sad and guilty for something that they know that they are not responsible for or something that they hold dear to their hearts being condemned? Let’s all take a step towards creating a change by expanding our knowledge and taking the initiative to understand and appreciate how other cultures are affected by media stereotypes and how they operate. It is time we stop letting the media decide for us what we learn and how we judge others for false rumors can hurt someone.
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. “The Myth of the Latin Woman:/ Just Met a Girl Named Maria.” Print.
