I want to use sociology textbooks such as “(Name Of A Sociology Textbook Needed Here)” to help me find relative information on whether the media does portray ethnic minorities in a negative way, by looking in sociology text books I will be able to find out if anyone else has tried to prove a similar hypothesis to mine and if they have I can use their data to support my hypothesis. The disadvantage of this method is that some people may not have tried to prove a similar hypothesis to mine.
This is a simple questionnaire to find out how ethnic minorities are treated, this questionnaire is not aiming to offend anyone, please take a few minutes to complete this questionnaire. All information will remain confidential.
What gender are you?
Male Female
What age range do you belong to?
0-12 13-19 20-34 35-49 50+
What is your ethnic origin?
Asian Black Chinese Mixed White
Other:
What types of media do you come across on a daily bases?
TV Internet Radio Newspaper Video Games
Other:
Which form of media do you think is the most important? Why?
If you have ticked; TV/Video games, what ethnicity is more likely to be a positive character?
Asian Black Chinese Mixed White
Other:
What about a negative character?
Asian Black Chinese Mixed White
Other:
What about the news; what ethnicity is more likely to be a suspect of a crime?
Asian Black Chinese Mixed White
Other:
Have you been a victim of a crime?
Yes No
If yes; what ethnicity was the person who committed the crime?
Asian Black Chinese Mixed White
Other:
Do you think the public takes ethnic minorities to be criminals who will hurt others around them (Please state your reason why)?
Do You Think Ethnic Minorities are responsible for the way they are portrayed by people? Explain your answer
Do you think that the media/or public portray ethnic minorities in a negative way?
Yes No
Why?
If YES, do you think it’s due to behaviour in society that ethnic minorities are portrayed in a negative way? (Please specify why you think this?)
Whilst watching TV; what ethnicity is more likely to be presenting any type of programme?
Asian Black Chinese Mixed White
Other:
If you are an Ethnic Minority have you faced any type of negative behaviour towards you by someone of a different ethnicity?
(Please state what it was and what ethnicity the person was)
Thank you for your time
This is an image taken from a violent video game ‘Grand Theft Auto’ these images are showing ethnic minority as negative characters in the game, I know these are negative characters because these character are holding gun in his hands.
(Image was taken from the following website
I found it by searching on Google)
Here is a murder case which was committed June last year but the trial still continues, but the crime committer is a ethnic minority, and because of cases like this where someone has been murdered and the murderer is shown the public get more and more worried when they come across ethnic minorities because they have a fear in their minds that they will get killed to.
This supports my hypothesis to some extent because the news shouldn’t be showing the public who committed the crime especially when it’s ethnic minorities because people then have a fear in their mind.
I finally carried out my questionnaire and here are the results (I believe by looking at the results I have received all the information I need to prove my hypothesis);
What gender are you?
What age group do you belong to?
Although I had aimed to give my questionnaire to various people of different age groups, by looking at the results which I got back 70% of the people were between the ages of 13-19 yrs, I believe this is not fair on my research because I had more views from one particular age group and not many from the others. I now know that in future I would hand out more questionnaires and make sure I don’t end up aiming for one particular age group.
What is your ethnic origin?
Similar problem again this time but instead with the ethnicity, I think this time the problem may have been caused because I am an Asian and I would have decided to go to Asian people as they are the same ethnicity as me, this might have been biased because I had more of one particular ethnicity filling in my questionnaires, In future as I mentioned I would aim to hand out more questionnaires, and to loads and loads of different people.
What types of media do you come across on a daily bases?
I had asked this question to find out what types of media do people come across on a daily basis because I wanted to know what type of media is the main cause of portraying ethnic minorities in a negative way, and the results I got back showed me that it was the TV and Internet just as I thought before giving out the questionnaires.
Which form of media do you think is the most important? Why?
90% of the people said that TV was the most important type media because on the TV you can view visual things in much more detail, because you could access the news more easily, it also influences a large audience because it’s visual, also because its everywhere and is something you can watch, also because the TV has regular updates with pictures ect, and it’s a way to keep people in the UK update about the rest of the world.
10% people said that The Newspaper was the most important type of media because everyone can access to the newspaper and it’s easy and cheap.
To me this does suggest that the newspaper is also very important because it’s cheap and easy to access, yes this also does support my hypothesis because the newspaper does have daily stories on what is happening in the world, and with that I could see which ethnicity is mention/targeted the most so I would know if my hypothesis can be proven.
If you have ticked; TV/Video games, what ethnicity is more likely to be a positive character?
I decided to ask this question because I wanted to know how the media portrays certain characters through the media i.e. positive and negative characters. I asked this question to see if I was correct about what I thought and through my findings I was correct because ethnic minorities aren’t portrayed as positive characters but instead white people are, showing to me that ethnic minorities are portrayed in a negative way.
What about a negative character?
I decided to ask this question because I wanted to know how the media portrays certain characters through the media i.e. positive and negative characters. I asked this question to see if I was correct about what I thought and through my findings I was proven correct because through my findings I found out that ethnic minorities are shown as negative characters through the media, my results show 64% people said black people are shown as negative characters and 36% said Asian, this obviously shows to me that the media is showing ethnic minorities more as negative characters than any other ethnicity.
What about the news; what ethnicity is more likely to be a suspect of a crime?
I wanted to ask this question because the news is also a type of media and the news is the main place where the public can get the latest news on crime, so I thought I would ask this question so I could find out what ethnicity is more likely to suspected, and if the media is purposely accusing ethnic minorities. When I got my results back I found out that the media does tend to accuse ethnic minorities because my results show that 82% people said black people are more likely to be suspected and 18% said Asians, these results show that the media does accuse ethnic minorities of all the bad things that happen and to me this shows that ethnic minorities are portrayed in a negative way by the media.
Have you been a victim of a crime?
I decided to ask this question because I wanted to know how many people actually had been a victim of a crime, and I wanted to find out which ethnicity was the person who committed the crime, according to my findings I found that 60% people said yes they had been a victim of a crime and 40% people said no they hadn’t.
If yes; what ethnicity was the person who committed the crime?
I asked this question because in the previous question I asked if they had been a victim of a crime, and if they had they were to answer this question, and I wanted to know that what ethnicity committed the crime so I would have an idea of which ethnicity is more likely to commit crimes, and from the results I got back black people are more likely as the results I got back show. This would help me because I would know which ethnicity is more likely to commit crimes and are they the reason why the media decides to portray ethnic minorities in a negative way.
Do you think the public takes ethnic minorities to be criminals who will hurt others around them (Please state your reason why)?
Reason Why;
Everyone who filled in my questionnaire agreed that the public does take ethnic minorities to be criminals who will hurt them and the reasons for this are; the stereotypes that have been around, a lot of the ethnic minorities are the ones who commit the most crimes, also because of the way ethnic minorities behave in public i.e. their dress sense, walking and talking style, also because of the younger generation too this makes people around them feel afraid, it’s also the fear of the unknown, and because they are from different cultures people don’t know what they are like, and its also because of previous crimes which make other people think other ethnic minorities are the same.
To me this suggest that the media is responsible for what other people think of ethnic minorities, and most ethnic minorities are not to be blamed about what the media writes/ mentions/shows about them, it’s the media who is to be blamed. This helps me to prove my hypothesis as it complete blames the media for whatever is written.
Do You Think Ethnic Minorities are responsible for the way they are portrayed by people?
55% Said Yes ethnic minorities are responsible for the way they are portrayed by people/media because some of them show a negative image of themselves to other people which makes them responsible for being portrayed negatively by people/media, and because of the way they dress i.e. wearing hoods so people cant recognise them and they may commit a crime without anyone knowing.
45% Said No ethnic minorities are not responsible for the way they are portrayed by people/media because of some ethnic minorities from the same race who commit crimes which makes other people portray all of them negatively.
Too me this suggest that if one person is responsible for one thing, everybody shouldn’t be blamed for it, like the media is doing, and this does support my hypothesis because to me it shows that the media is portraying ethnic minorities in a negative way.
Do you think that the media/or public portray ethnic minorities in a negative way?
Everyone said yes the media/public does portray ethnic minorities in a negative way and the reasons for this are; because of stereo, some of them are criminals or terrorists, also because some people are scared of people who may have different views then them, because of the way ethnic minorities behave, sometimes the media make it up that ethnic minorities are negative people so they can make a major issue out of it, and sometimes seen as a good story as well, also because UK was originally a white country so most other races are taken to be negative people, and because of this the media tend to say that all the ethnic minorities are bad people they are hear to hurt everyone and take everything away, so they make-up stories through the media, show them as negative characters so people will think that ethnic minorities are actually really bad people and end up hating them.
If YES, do you think it’s due to behaviour in society that ethnic minorities are portrayed in a negative way? (Please specify why you think this?)
30% said no it’s no because of the behaviour ethnic minorities are portrayed in a negative way reasons for this are; sometimes its just because of their culture people/media think they are different to them that’s why they think they are criminals of some sort, and again it’s not all of them just some of them who behave like this.
70% said yes it is because of the way ethnic minorities behave that is why they’re portrayed negatively reasons for this are; they do bad things but then again we’re all humans so why do we get portrayed negatively if we do something wrong, also it’s because of the young generation, the way they behave on the streets and in public i.e. have no respect for adults, steal, vandalise property act, another reason is because of the young generation going around in racial gangs, and people and the media blame these racial gangs for crimes because of their behaviour. But young youths are going around in racial gangs and commenting crimes but it is not only ethnic minorities it is other ethnicities as well not just Asian and black, there are white young youths who are going around commenting crimes as well, but the media tend to only focus on the ethnic minorities and not the white people. So many people may say it is because of behaviour but it’s not just the ethnic minorities who walk around in racial groups, it’s all the ethnicities.
This statement supports my hypothesis because it shows that everyone goes around in racial gangs not just the ethnic minorities but it’s the media who’s making a big deal out of the ethnic minorities and isn’t mentioning anything about the other racial gangs/
Whilst watching TV; what ethnicity is more likely to be presenting any type of programme?
If you are an Ethnic Minority have you faced any type of negative behaviour towards you by someone of a different ethnicity?
What ethnicity was the person who committed the crime?
(Only 2 people said yes)
The aim of my research was to find out whether or not I could actually prove my hypothesis which was to see whether the media portrays ethnic minorities in a negative way. I used a primary research method and a secondary research method to help me to prove my hypothesis.
By carrying out my primary research; a simple questionnaire, I have found out that a lot of people did actually agree with the fact that the media does portray ethnic minorities in a negative way, one of the questions was “If you have ticked; TV/Video games, what ethnicity is more likely to be a positive character?” 80% of the people said that white people are more likely to be shown as positive character and another question which I asked was “What about a negative character?” everyone who filled in my questionnaire said that either Black/Asian were more likely to be a negative character, and my secondary research did help to support this because in the video game there was more black/Asian people as a negative character. By them asking this questionnaire and the answers I received it showed me that by carrying out my primary research, I managed to prove my hypothesis that the media does portray ethnic minorities in a negative way because my primary research showed the media portrays ethnic minorities in a negative way in this case negative characters are more likely to be ethnic minorities.
The secondary research (the news, TV, videogames and the internet), that I carried out also help me to prove my hypothesis because I decided to analyse video games and TV programmes to see which characters are shown as positive and negative characters, I watched a family member play a violent video game “Grand Theft Auto” I decided to analyse the game and found that most of the negative characters were ethnic minorities and the innocent positive characters were mostly white people, this definitely helped me with proving my hypothesis. But one piece of information I found that during my secondary research was that in a cartoon “The Simpson’s” I found that in the cartoon the didn’t actually show ethnic minorities in a negative way instead they had white people who were negative characters and they had ethnic minorities as positive characters i.e. police officer, but this couldn’t disprove my hypothesis because this was only from one cartoon.
This backs up my primary research because I asked people which ethnicity was more likely to be a negative character and all of them said ethnic minorities, and my secondary research has shown me that the answers I got were true and not made-up.
A lot of people agreed that ethnic minorities are responsible for the way they are portrayed by the media because of their behaviour on the streets and literally everywhere, the crimes they commit, people become more aware that ethnic minorities are committing more crimes as its shown on the news, so they choose to show ethnic minorities as negative characters in video games or in TV programmes i.e. daily soap’s or cartoons.
Overall I believe my researches have helped me too prove my hypothesis and in result “The media does portray ethnic minorities in a negative way”
My hypothesis was “Does the media portray ethnic minorities in a negative way” has been proven and I reached to this conclusion because of my primary and secondary research; my primary research was using a questionnaire to find out what the public thinks and my secondary research was to go through different types of media and see how ethnic minorities are portrayed, i.e. through video games, news papers, TV etc.
My primary research helped my get an idea of what the public thought and whether they agreed with what I thought, and the public did agree with me which made me think that I could prove my hypothesis, and my secondary research helped me to prove my hypothesis overall because I found many pieces of evidence which linked to my hypothesis and also helped me to prove it i.e. crime cases, video games and how the negative characters are always ethnic minorities etc.
I do not regret using a questionnaire for my primary research because I was comfortable handing out questionnaires to everyone, because it was easy and simple to do. This method was very helpful as it helped me to gain quick information, which saved a lot of time. In future if I were to do a questionnaire again I would hand out many questionnaires and decide to aim for a larger sample of people because I would get more views and a better idea.
With my secondary research I was comfortable with what I was doing but it was kind of hard looking through newspapers to find things to help prove my hypothesis, as it took a long time looking through various newspapers, and websites to find articles which would help me with proving my hypothesis, but in the end it was all worth it.
My research methods were successful because they helped me a lot with my research and also help me prove my hypothesis, i.e. my primary research; using a questionnaire help me to see that the public did also believe what I believed; that the media does portray ethnic minorities in a negative way, and my secondary research help to back up my hypothesis with proof that the media does tend to portray ethnic minorities in a negative way.
However I feel that the research methods could be improved. If I was to carry out my research project again and had more again I would hand out many questionnaires and decide to aim for a larger sample of people because I would get more views and a better idea. Also with my secondary research I could have looked more on the Internet, found more different types of crime cases, also analyse more different types of programmes such as crime watch and other crime based programmes and see what they had to say., although because of the lack of time I was unable to do more research, but in the time I had I did whatever I could and I did and t5he result for it is that I proved my hypothesis.
My hypothesis was proven but my research was limited because my research methods were weak in some areas, i.e. people would not have answered all the questions in my questionnaire properly, I know this because where there was detailed answered questions people would leave it and hand it back, but only some people done this but the majority didn’t, so at the moment I am okay with it but in future I would use less detailed questionnaires and make sure the questions are short and easy to answer. Because the research was limited and my research methods were weak in some area, in my secondary research I couldn’t find information which I needed i.e. trends, this would also cause a problem because I didn’t have enough information to back-up my hypothesis, and the reason for not finding trends was because there wasn’t much on there and I didn’t have enough time to look through so many websites to find some.
From carrying out my primary research I have learned about society. Moreover, I have learned about the difficulties of research. These included how people may not answer questions properly because they’re not that interested in taking part in answering the questions, and I did come across a couple of people who weren’t really interested in filling in the questionnaire i.e. students and teachers. I couldn’t do anything when I had given out the questionnaire because I had realised that afterwards that some teachers and students weren’t that interested, but in future I would ask people if they would be willing to answer every question, and if they’re then I would allow them to answer my questionnaire.
Also another thing which I came across was that some people would lie in their answers just too show off and make themselves look better at giving answers, this was also effecting my results because they weren’t accurate results. I could tell that’s some people were lying i.e. if they said they were an Asian person then why would they say that positive character are more likely to be Chinese; this obviously shows they are lying and trying to be funny.
In the future, I would improve my primary research by handing out my questionnaire to people who I know would give me sensible and reliable answers, also make the questions short and easy so people wouldn’t have to spend too long filling it in because that is another reason why people may tend to give biased answers.
Also for my secondary research I would try to leave myself spare time so I could find better results for my secondary research.
I managed to meet most of my aims; the 1st one “I aim to find out weather the media does actually does portray ethnic minorities in a negative way” I managed to meet this aim because this was my hypothesis and I actually did prove my hypothesis. 2nd aim was “I aim to investigate what reasons arise when ethnic minorities are portrayed in a negative way” I also met this aim because the reason which arise when ethnic minorities are portrayed in a negative way are that ethnic minorities are uneducated, they turn to crime because they have no money etc. 3rd aim was “I will use primary research to find out other peoples opinions and if people do agree with what I aim to find out” I also met this aim because thanks to my secondary research I got hope that my hypothesis can be proven, because of the results I got back. 4th aim was “I will use secondary research to help make my points stronger with strong proof to backup my points” I didn’t completely meet this aim although I did find some proof to backup my points but I believe I could have done more if I had time. 5th aim was “I will try my best to prove my hypothesis” I did try my best I done all I could to prove my hypothesis and I did prove my hypothesis. Overall I believe I have managed to meet all my aims and complete them too.
Image 1
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(All images were found by searching on google.co.uk, but I actually watched something and then used images to show my findings)
News
(News found on the BBC website searching for different types of crime cases)