A stereotype categorises a person in order to separate them from other people by distinguishing their main features. Stereotypes allow us to identify with the person being stereotyped, to give us a larger insight into what they may be like. These thoughts or beliefs may or may not accurately reflect the reality of what the person is truly like. Stereotypes can often be extremely broad and offensive, especially if a person isn’t categorized into a particularly positive group. ‘emos’, ‘goths’ and ‘geeks’ are all examples of stereotypes used by media producers.
In spite of this diversity, the media still misrepresents different races in many ways. One common way is through the use of racial stereotypes. Another way is the amounts of news coverage different stories receive. These are just two ways misrepresentation in the media occurs and there are several others. I believe as a democratic country it is important that the rights of minority groups are upheld.
Media exposure magnifies events, campaigns, and causes, and both terrorists and governments attempt to manipulate reports so that they are portrayed in a favorable light. In the second, the media plays a major role in creating all social definition of terrorism. It can globalize a local event or personalize a global event on a local level. In the third, the World Wide Web has become conduit for propaganda and communication. In any form, terrorism sends a message.
The media have a tremendous power in setting cultural guidelines and in shaping political discourse. Some biases come across subtly and some come across very bluntly. I'm going to show you how to detect bias in the media. Some of the things to consider is how does the journalist/host present arguments? Are they mostly one sided, or are there alternative points of view?
Discrimination is defined as “the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 61). Discrimination is throghout the United States. It results itself by prejudice and stereotypes by individuals (Schaefer, 2012). Prejudice is the attitude an individual has towards a group or groups of people and stereotyping is unreliable generalizations of a group of people (Schaefer, 2012). Prejudices and stereotyping are the ideas and thoughts people have about other groups of personss without regard to individual differences.
In the absence of detail, stereotyping in many situations allow us to arrive at a general conclusion of these groups. Although we may innocently generate and be responsible for stereotypes, it can, and does, often lead to unfair inequity and discrimination when the stereotype is inauspicious. By stereotyping, we take for granted that a person or group has some definite distinctiveness. Television, books, comic strips, music, and theater are all copious starting places of stereotyped characters. Stereotypes also progress out of trepidation of persons from minority groups.
Jhally points out, “we are so immersed in our image-based culture, that it is sometimes difficult to see how it shapes and influences our values and assumptions”, we see this in this advertisement because Popchips tries to pass off the image of the 4 characters as the norms of their culture when really they are just feeding to society to be racist and portray the image and values of people because of what they see in the media. The representation of the orient is the first thing we see. The skin color of Ashton was darkened to that of “brown face” and he was dressed in a silk robe. Ashton spoke with a terrible portrayal of an Oriental accent and everything he said portrayed that character as stupid. The Oriental character (Raj) is portrayed as the odd one out because he is the only character that is not white, “For people of color, these images emphasize that their experiences and their presence in the US is marginal and somehow not normal” (Notes), which the advertisement has gone so far as to just make fun of that race by emphasizing the stereotypical portrayals seen through media.
Subliminal messages are believed to brainwash the minds of the music listeners when the music is played often. They may influence the thinking of the music listeners and make them accept Occultic or satanic beliefs. Most of the advertising experts, psychiatrists, and Psychologists believe that subliminal messages are not influential because they mostly go unnoticed. As a result, there are not federal laws set governing subliminal messages use. However, there are regulatory policies preventing its use in theaters, on radio or on television.
This is mainly due to the fact that, in some stories the truth is just not entertaining towards the viewers. The television series Frontline shows this aspect of the media through each episode, in particular the episode ‘Playing the Ego Card’. This episode uses satirical techniques such as caricature, juxtaposition and contrast to manipulate the truth in a verisimilitude way. Within this episode, the Front Line team breaches ‘the code of ethics’ (set of rules and regulations the media have to follow) in a humorous, satirical way, which reflects just how people should not believe everything the media broadcasts. Through manipulating the truth the media are able to create something fictional in order for them to gain something, and most of the time this is to increase ratings.
Societal Impact of Stereotyping in Advertisements Based on how a person views a specific group’s characteristics, qualities, and personality traits are prime examples of stereotyping. In today’s society, stereotyping has become a very sensitive subject. Author Yuki Fujioka defined stereotyping as “cognitive structures that contain the perceiver’s knowledge, beliefs, and expectancies about some human group” (53). Stereotypes are based on a person’s continuous experience with a specific group, place or culture. While an experience with one person may not be the same with another, the affects of stereotyping has cause many people to be unfortunately associated with others based on their actions.