Just recent time ago published in the Daily Mail, a Truancy officer told a black pupil, 11, to work harder 'because he would struggle in life for not being WHITE'. This shows the racism toward black people and how they are represented. Additionally, whilst the numbers of black presenters have increased, this is merely ‘window dressing’ as the numbers of black producers, researchers and writers are disproportionally low with most black people ‘behind the scenes’ in the media working in the catering and cleaning departments.
In a survey conducted by the BBC in 2002, 75% of people questioned felt that Ethnic Minorities were often under-represented or negatively stereotyped by the media. In addition to this Van Dijk (1991) conducted a detailed content analysis of 5 national newspapers and found that often negative language and behaviour was often associated with ethnic minorities. Van Dijk also points out that the media ignores the positive influence of ethnic minorities and cultures into British society and instead overemphasises the negatives. This therefore means that there are positive influences of ethnic minorities; however, the media doesn’t want to consider them and make the ethnic groups look good.
In fact many sociologists have pointed out that it is a direct link between the negative stereotyping of ethnic minorities and the underachievement of afro-Caribbean students in education who are subsequently, the worst performing ethnic group within the education system. In particular a landmark study conducted by Gillborn and Youdell (2000) found that teachers had racialised expectations of black pupils, and saw their behaviour as threatening. This study was highly acclaimed and seems to suggest that teacher racism is one of the main factors affecting Afro-Caribbean student’s achievement in education. This would therefore seem to suggest that the negative media stereotyping reinforces the racialised expectations teachers have. Thus the poor achievement of black afro-Caribbean students could be directly linked with the negative media stereotyping.
The media has also caused ‘moral panics’ – a term first coined by Stan Cohen in 1973 – During the late 1970s, there was a moral panic on the ‘black mugger’. This moral panic caused widespread concern and fear amongst the white population, and thus would be a good example of how the mass media negatively stereotyped ethnic minorities in the past. Further evidence of the effects the media has on its audiences is shown in the study conducted by Hartman and Husband (1974). They found that children from high ethnic minority backgrounds often rejected the negative media stereotyping, as they had the experience of ethnic minority people, whereas children from low ethnic minority backgrounds simply accepted the negative media content as they had little or no experience. This would seem to show the sheer power and effect that the media has upon its audiences.
In addition to this, Marxists point out that audiences of the mass media are inactive and instead accept the views that are shown to them. This is similar to what the Glasgow University Media Group’s study in 1982, which found that the media negatively stereotyped the lower classes in order to keep them subdued and supporting the capitalist system. Marxists point out that the reason the media negatively stereotypes ethnic minorities is because news owners, editors and journalists are often white, middle aged and middle class and thus simply cannot relate to other ethnic cultures.
In fact a survey conducted in 1999 found that the amount of ethnic minorities shown in television programmes was significantly higher than the percentage of ethnic minorities living in the UK. The survey found that ethnic minorities accounted for a total of 7% of ethnic minorities in the UK whereas in the television media, 42% of characters on television programmes were of an ethnic minority. Thus Pluralists would argue that the media does not under-represent ethnic minorities and instead over-represents ethnic minorities. Moreover, Pluralists note that the media’s representation of ethnic minorities has improved in recent years.
It would be reasonable to conclude, that the media, is positive in today’s generation in its representation of ethnic minorities. In addition to this, many studies have pointed out that the media seems to also negatively stereotype people of particular genders, class’, disabilities and ages and therefore is not only specific to ethnic origin. Thus it does appear that the media has negatively stereotyped ethnic minorities. However, many of the landmark studies were conducted in the previous 40 years or so. There has been an enormous social change over the last 30 years with various legislations passed protecting minority ethnic people’s rights, and further changes will definitely take place in the future – making the media and the society more equal in its representations of minorities.
by
tanya20 (student)
