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 effects of stereotypes, Mastro declares, “Because media messages offer little in the way of comprehensive explanations for portrayals of race and ethnicity, and instead merely link groups with both desirable and undesirable characterizations, exposure can do more than simply define racial/ethnic groups but also exacerbate racial tensions in society” (Mastro, 7). Racial tensions being heightened by media is pretty topical at the moment with groups like “Black Lives Matter” being out in the world. Mastro thinks that research suggests mass media offers characterizations that you would want or not want. This means that not all portrayals of race and ethnicity in the media would be bad, or at the very least unwanted. Generally, mass media has a negative effect on society through giving improper representations of racial and ethnic groups through the use of stereotypes and generalizations. Dana Mastro’s research on this topic comes mostly from other people’s work. She claims, “The research presented in this issue represents a diverse set of methodological approaches and incorporates a wide variety of literatures from fields ranging from communication to psychology to linguistics to political science” (Mastro, 12). Mastro used research from various sources, over 60 individual sources from 44 different authors. Most of the research done was through rigorous application and a broad school of thought through a variety of people to keep fresh perspectives. The studied population was the U.S. public, who consume mass media almost non-stop throughout a normal day. From their research on …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