Introduction

This blog is aimed to reveal the problem of the so-called ‘modern racism’ in the media and shows its impact in the modern society. Portrayals of racial minorities have always brought up controversial and debatable questions to discuss. Especially, nowadays it is a sensational topic, for example, considering the fact that world is entering new era of electing first black president in U.S. It can be noticed that over time medium have changed and became less severe in racial profiling, however problems with ethnic minorities still exist and continue to leave powerful messages. Moreover, media can distort reality by persuading people that it overcame racism, when in reality messages tended to be less ‘shouty’ but more effective in forming social opinion. This blog will determine the issues of racial profiling in the media, observing concrete examples that can be defined as essential real world problems. Nowadays racial discrimination in media consists of many significant issues, as it can be seen this wrong portrayal causes prejudicial beliefs that consequently turn into serious communication problems in society. The articles and posts in the blog are provided as examples and facts to construct clear understanding of this topic.

Can Media Remove Racial Barriers?

“Modern racism” is a new term for the “muted racial hostility in the media (Henry). It can be assumed that media have already softened rules for ethnic minorities by allowing them having shows, channels, web-sites and so on. Of course, it is an undeniable fact that groups of races will always have the problem of discrimination, but still media are the first sources that create stereotypes and therefore media can somehow prevent problem of racism by stabilizing equality between all races and moreover not exaggerating their real image. However, the problem is far more complicated; media can prevent racism but do media care about this problem and moreover is it a problem for media? As usually our wishes and abilities do not go well together. So that people by themselves should decide which side of reality to choose. They should be encouraged to expand their knowledge by taking into account alternative information concerning racial divisions, even if it differs from the mainstream one, rather than to believe in unrealistic image of ethnic minorities portrayed by media. Issues of ethnic under representation result in problems with communication between different races and religions. Sometimes this misunderstanding can cause phobias, for instance, Muslim phobia that nowadays gains more and more popularity since the tragedy of 9/11. The problem conceals in the aspect that media do not educate people the real world, but most of the time breed useless awareness. As an example, if media defined the difference between ‘sunni’ and ‘shia’ Muslims, then people would not grow useless fears. They would bear in mind the fact that 90% of Muslims are ‘sunni’ and they are as friendly as Christians, the rest are ‘shia’ Muslims that are, on the contrary, act as an aggressors, so that it can raise belief that not all Muslims are terrorists and phobia can be fought. It can be interpreted as the proof of the fact that knowledge is one of the components to break stereotypes. Yet, it is still not clear if media care or not about racial minorities. Since 1960s the great progress has been noticed concerning racial minorities- allowance of black journalists, but according to the FCC research in America, majority- whites were dissatisfied with the circumstances, as they didn’t identify themselves with offered representation, so media had no choice but to play by rules that are dictated by mass-audience (Lloyd). Also should be mentioned the situation with the Section 275 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, where the section required FCC “to remove the barriers to participation by minorities in the communication industry” (Lloyd). However, the Section 257 was not passed, this action demonstrated FCC’s opinion about the problem; in addition, it is better to say that they didn’t define it as a problem at all, as they just ignored it. This by all means shows that media passed a long way to build the barriers for minorities, it would be nearly impossible to remove them. Until society with the habitual regulations is divided to minority and majority groups, there is always place for media that is aimed on majority, when non-majority stays in a shade of unrealistic portrayal (“Ethnic and Visible Minorities”). What media do is giving people opportunity to decide whether to choose mainstream media or alternative one. Furthermore, media do steps forward changes, but they still leave the truth about ethnic minority groups invisible. It should be taken into account that it depends on viewer/listener/reader’s right to select factual information over bias.


Works Cited

“Ethnic and Visible Minorities in the News.” Media-Awareness. Dec. 28, 2008.
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/ethnics_and_minorities/minorities_news.cfm

Henry, Sylvia. “Racial Profiling in the Media: Investigated Trough a Ritualistic Lens.” Colorado Uni. Fall, 2007. University of Colorado at Boulder. Dec. 29, 2008.
http://www.colorado.edu/Communication/meta-discourses/Papers/App_Papers/Henry.htm

Lloyd, Mark. “Remove the Barriers to Minorities in Media.” American Progress. Center for American Progress. Aug. 10, 2005. Dec. 28, 2008.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2005/08/b959321.html

Are racial barriers broken?

Presidential campaign of Barack Obama was one of the most discussed topics of the year 2008. Articles with the questions like “Are Americans Ready for a Black President?” “Is Obama Black Enough?” still cannot stop appearing in mass media. Even though, almost everyone in the world knows the answer that he is ‘black enough’; taking into account one of the most popular and well known fact about him that his father is black from Kenya and mother is white from Kansas. His biography is one of the most frequently viewed in the world wide web, according to the data provided by google, and still even after his victory in elections, racially hostile articles have not stopped accruing in media. Racial hatred against African-Americans seemed to lower, however in fact it grew up, as stated by The Times magazine, around 70 percent of blacks experienced hostility against their race, and this rate seemingly increased in comparison to the statistics of the year 2000, when there were 62 percent. Negative social attitude towards African-Americans cannot be ignored, when more than half of their population went through discrimination in time that promises to soften racial hatred. Another good example connected with presidential elections is McCain’s ‘anti advertisement’ for Obama, when the second one was depicted as an Arab and therefore person that is dangerous for the U.S that can be somehow connected with terrorism, due to the fact that his full name is Barack Hussein Obama. This example proves the fact that racial discrimination is still there and there is no censorship, when promoting ‘white’ over ‘black’, therefore this game excludes any rules which makes it turn into a very dangerous aspect in creation of a wrong reality. Answer to the question ready Americans or not for a black president still has no concrete answer. Due to the fact that Obama eventually won, Americans are ready but nevertheless there are still fields in the media that need urgent help.

Negative image of Middle East

Recent issue connected to the situation discussed above when Barack Hussein Obama was depicted as Arab, due to the fact that his full name sounded somehow similar to Saddam Hussein. Yet Arabs have the most unpleasant and offensive image among racial minorities. The most popular stereotypical opinion about this group is accusing them in almost all terroristic actions; this thought became more popular and realistically taken since tragedy of September 11th. Better to say that portrayal of whole Middle East defined with word terrorism. Of course, existence of terroristic acts cannot be denied, but do media show us all the real image of religious sects that propagate mass suicides or killed kidnapped children as victims for the Satanic Church. The answer is simple, majority consists of white people that are just not interested in ‘white killers’, they don’t want to see themselves as murderers, so that it seems much pleasant to see negative sides of minority group. Moreover, nowadays media more and more abuse its power in depiction of this particular minority group and construct strong racial hostility against it. Another significant issue is religion. Considering the well-known fact that official Arabic religion is Islam, many people started to define Islam as a violent religion that carries an idea of war. It can be seen that social hostility turns into religious discrimination against all Muslims. For instance, after American dramatic event in September, world news were full of the information pointing out on race and religion of the extremists. It caused shock all around the world as it started to create false beliefs and attitudes that developed into idea to be aware of all Muslims or Arabs, and blame everyone the same race and religion. On my own experience I was witness of religious antagonism connected to inaccurately interpreted messages sent by media after 9/11. My non-Muslim classmates were pointing on Muslims saying that Islam propagates blood and started to associate Muslims with terrorists. Even though, I was studying in Kazakhstan at that time and majority of people are Muslims, media strongly affected those people from minority that were non-Muslims, so that they became absolutely disoriented. Another serious point not to be forgotten is that portrayal of whole Middle East defined with word terrorism. Of course, existence of terroristic acts cannot be denied, but do media show us all the real image of religious sects that propagate mass suicides or killed kidnapped children as victims for the Satanic Church.

The Sopranos

http://ezinearticles.com/?American-Italians---The-Media-and-the-Mafia&id=1217083

The Sopranos is one of the most popular shows since 2000. It has woken up new wave of associating Italian-Americans with mafia. This show caused a lot of discussions and negative reaction among Italians. For about 70years, 40% of movies depicted Italian-Americans as gangsters, moreover legendary movies like Godfather, Godfellas, Donnie Brasco and The Sopranos are the ones that leave immortal conclusions for the majority of people. Consequently, this majority forms public opinion about minority “damaging their real image”. Existence of Italian mafia cannot be denied, however, according to the data, out of 25mln American-Italians only 25,000 are mafia members. This rate shows existence of the mafia and proves the fact that media do not lie; nevertheless it exaggerates reality, by avoiding some facts. From the very beginning of American history, Italians were the first immigrant that came to U.S, and due to the reason that time already passed and there is already fourth and even fifth generation tends to be absolutely Americanized; that are the reasons why nowadays prejudices about them became more offensive than ever.

Alternative or Mainstream Media?

http://mirnamohammed.podbean.com/

Fox News, BBC, CNN are they 100% reliable? It depends on information i.e. concrete countries show their own vision of reality, most of the time they just hide reality. Firstly, these channels can be defined as a mainstream media. According to the given characteristics for the mainstream media, it should be “profit generating, commercially driven by advertising, conservative political agenda, reflects mainstream culture and broadcast to lunge audience”. Now what is alternative media? Alternative media are not aimed to influence people, they are not profit generating and mostly these medium send messages that “mainstream media and the general population afraid to say”, they are voice of minority. The channels that can be aimed as alternative media are Al-Jazeera and Al-Manar. For the clear understanding difference between alternative and mainstream will be illustrated on examples of conflicts in the Middle East, as it is one of the top news nowadays. Portrayal of ethnic minorities will be shown on critical analysis of Fox News, BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera and Al-Manar. When taking into account War in Iraq, absolute difference in their interpretations can be seen. Due to the reason that, for instance, Fox News is republican channel, it is highly propagating ideas of Bush Administration, showing Americans as the ones who gave freedom and removed dictatorship in Iraq. Of course, there is truth in the news, however most of the time this truth is exaggerated. As about Pro-Arab channels, they display the other side of reality. In comparison to Fox News that doesn’t show violence and cruelty against Iraqi people, nonetheless doesn’t tell about the death rates of Iraqis; Pro- Arab channels, on the contrary, shows the scary cruel reality. In my opinion, this web site mostly distinguishes difference between these two media and shows two different realities. Now it is only up to us which source to choose, what to believe and whom to trust.

Recommended Websites

Medialiteracy

Article on this website covers the vast range of media minorities, especially ethnic minorities. It analyzes many well-known shows such as Friends, The Cosby’s Show as examples of how media under represent concrete racial groups. Moreover, the article has investigation of cause and effect of the media strategies. It really helps clearly to understand history of racial discrimination in the media.

http://medialiteracy.suite101.com/article.cfm/minority_media_representations

International Human Rights Funders Group

I really recommend this site, as it includes many useful posts from different news connected to the problem of ethnic minorities, including discrimination in every day life. There are many reliable sources and a huge archive, also I liked that it doesn’t provide any analysis of the news so that you will not be pushed to make any conclusions, it just gives ideas to think about, to understand that social discrimination is a problem of a whole world.

http://www.hrfunders.org/resources/index.php?op=list&maxitems=15&rights=8388608&type=1&start=5

Ethnic=Race+Religion

This article covers another field of ethnic discrimination that turning into another significant and yet not unsolved problem. Stereotypes about religions have always been the main topic to discuss and until now it’s a debatable question. This web site describes difference between religions and set connection among them. Generally, thus site is aimed to show reality of Islam, as it the most stereotyped religion, and remove prejudicial barriers.

http://www.metimes.com/Opinion/2008/06/17/arab_culture_and_muslim_stereotypes/5948/