Minorities In The Media Essay

Television sitcoms are accessible to millions of viewers with extremely diverse backgrounds and beliefs; therefore, it is important to depict the public in just and fair ways. However, scholars have agreed on the negative portrayal of minorities in the media. (Corea 1993, Dines 1994, Fife 1974, Omi and Winant) Media is an influential tool with the power to create common depictions people have of one another. Michael Omi and Howard Winant write about this influence in Racial Formations. Omi and Winant eloquently write, “The power in the media lies not only in their ability to reflect the dominant racial ideology, but in their capacity to shape that ideology in the first place” (Omi and Winant 17). Omi and Winant explain that media has the ability to determine the image people think about each other before actually …show more content…
Dines believes the media depicts African American women as women unfit and incapable of being motherly. The common example that comes to mind that disproves this negative portrayal of African American women is The Cosby Show. However, in Racism and the American way of Media, Ash Corea believes The Cosby Show is contradictory to what is a more commonplace portrayal of African Americans in the media, “This black family is not depicted as dysfunctional, stereotypical, violent, drug addicted, or a problem to the rest of society, the usual media fare” (Corea 359). Corea believes African Americans are usually described as problematic misfits in society. This type of degradation towards African Americans prompts the question as to why African Americans are depicted as such low achieving