Pop Culture Analysis: Diversity Represented in Media

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Diversity Represented in Media Although we have taken monumental strides in the past fifty years towards racial equality and diversity, it is still commonly argued that popular culture lacks some sort of racial representation. In the United States, the people who live here are vastly diverse when it comes to race and culture, yet in the media people of color get marginalized everyday in film, music, etc. When popular culture fails to properly represent the population, people tend to take notice and make noise. In this paper, I will be talking about the HBO series “Girls,” and the lack of representation of the show but also the article, “Broadcasting a World of Whiteness,” in which they talk about television and media in general in terms of representation of race. In Jon Caramanica’s article, he calls out the HBO show “Girls,” in which he claims that the recurrence in the lack of realistic representation in the show highlights the “whiteness” of stereotypical roles that overshadows real life representation. Although I have never watched the show, from what the author claims is that the show does not try very hard to represent anyone, “beyond the wages of white privilege,” (Caramanica). He supports his claims by providing details about the show such as setting. The show portrays four young white women in New York who live everyday lives but yet come in contact with little variation of race outside characters with a handful of lines at best. The author proceeds to say that although the show “Girls,” is a poor example of representation of race, the show in itself cannot be held responsible for the whole problem of racial diversity of media and popular culture. He claims that the problem is that who isn’t shown on television is more of a problem than who isn’t shown on the show “Girls.” The realm of television can either completely hit or miss the mark when it
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