Ethnicity Should Be In The Spotlight By Dana Mastro: Article Analysis

Ethnicity and Race: The Media’s Role The article, “Why the Media’s Role in Issues of Race and Ethnicity Should be in the Spotlight”, written by Dana Mastro, claims that the mass media has a negative role on domestic racial and ethnic relations between people in society today. After researching the issue, Mastro stated, “However, what research does indicate is that these groups are commonly seen in roles tied to longstanding stereotypes” (Mastro, 4). Stereotypes are a word with a negative connotation in society, and rightfully so, as it is a widely held, overly simplified opinion of a group of people. Majority of the times, stereotypes tend not to be true and spread falsifications about the groups of people they target. When talking about the …show more content…
Mastro gave me confirmation of a suspicion that majority of our racist tendencies and stereotyping is derived from the mass media. On top of this, I found it interesting that the two people most likely to stereotype and generalize are both people who conform and people who deviate. I would of assumed people who conformed would conform to the thought processes of the everyday person, where race doesn’t matter. However, after further thought I realized that conformity is about those who are around you, not necessarily the global society. This means that if you are at something such as a Trump Rally, where he is being racist and misogynistic as per usual, then you might conform to that because everyone else is going to. I found it very relatable and think this could be an explanation for many of his supporters. Questions that go unanswered would be questions relating around time, place, or background. For instance, are you more or less likely to be racially and ethnically biased at different times of the year, if you are living in an atypical or peculiar place, if you are from a lower or higher social class, etc. These are all more factors I think need to be