Portrayal of Minorities in the Media Essay

The portrayal of minorities in the media much debated topic. Media have an immense influence on society; they teach the society about minorities, ethnic and societal groups. As Harris points out, “sometimes everything we know about some kinds of people comes from television.”(...) In return, the media greatly influence the lives of the minorities.
This is why the portrayal of minorities in the media is worth studying and discussing. Especially the portrayal of African Americans on television has been historically studied the most. However, there are many more minorities that struggle to be represented fairly and objectively in media. Other ethnic groups, disabled or aging people receive incomparably less attention in media as well as in studies concerning portrayal of minorities in the media.

It can be agreed that African Americans are the one minority group that is portrayed the most. And even though the portrayal of African Americans is still far from ideal; they are much less underrepresented that Latinos, Asians, elderly, or disabled people. The journey African Americans have traveled was a long one. Harris agrees with Clarks four chronological stages of the portrayal of minorities in media.

During the first stage, which is called nonrecognition, “the minority group is simply excluded from television.” (Harris) For African Americans that was not until 1950s that they appeared on television. Today the nonrecognition is not so easy due to great number of different kinds of media. Underrepresentation of certain groups, such as disabled people or elderly, is much bigger problem today.
The second stage is the most damaging. During the stage of ridicule, the minority group is being caricaturized and stereotyped. In the case of African Americans this stage began in late 1950s with television shows like Amos and Andy. Currently, as Harris says, Arabs are is the stage of ridicule and in some cases even homosexuals such as in I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry.
The stage of ridicule is followed by regulation, in which the minority takes on the roles of “protectors of the existing order” such as policemen, detective or spy (Harris). A memorable movie I Spy from 1960s is an excellent example of African Americans during the regulation stage. Currently Latinos and even much underrepresented group of people with disability can be seen portrayed in this way. Good example for the later is the Avatar movie where the hero was bound to a wheelchair.
The last stage is respect during which the minority should be portrayed “in the same full range of roles” as the majority. African Americans are one of the few groups that have reached this final stage of portrayal in media. Now there is much larger variety of characters portrayed on television, good as well as bad.
Clark’s model of chronological stages of the portrayal of minorities in media was explained and illustrated by recent examples from the mass media. Although this model is not the only and flawless model it sufficiently illustrates how are minorities integrated into the media.

Work cited:
Harris, Richard Jackson. A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication. Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2004. Print.