Media representation describes how specific groups of people, communities, and topics are portrayed by the media. In the aspect of race, media representation is the way in which media portrays a particular group (race) of people concerning speech, writing, still or moving pictures. Media is a powerful tool as described by Malcom X – "The media's the powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses." It is true that media fortifies racism in most communities and this is clearly depicted on how African American male shooting victims are portrayed on the media. A study conducted on the portrayal of the African Americans in the prime television showed that “89 percent of the characters on the television population were white and only 6 percent of the population was African American, and that was from 1955 to 1986. Further research on the 6 percent showed that 19 percent of the population lacked high school certifications and 47 percent were low in economic standing” (Venkatesh 2017).
Ownership of the media platforms is one of the major areas in the United States that influences or affects the representation of the African American men and women. The content diversity is majorly affected by the ownership diversity, for that reason, the African American ownership of media platforms in the recent past has greatly improved their image as compared to the past years (Simon 2017). This is because many people rely on the local news from these media platforms as their primary sources of information. In many instances, the media content is formed, selected and presented according to the opinions of those people who are involved in the industry. A good example in America is the situation where the advertisement for products being marketed to the general public depicts Caucasian people. This leaves the advertisements for products marketed to the black Americans to represent people of color (Simon 2017).
According to the history of mass media, the presentation to the general public of the negative and emotion provoking pictures of the minority group to support the power of the dominant group has been the struggle. For instance, in the ‘Birth of a Nation' film from 1915 and the ‘Tarzan series' from 1932, the African American people in the films were represented as ignorant, savage, potential rapists and thieves. In some instances of film distortions, the white people playing the character of the African Americans painted themselves for them to appear black in the film (Leung 2017). That act sends strong symbolic message to the minority African American people and their representation that they are not good enough to represent themselves and also they are presented to be lacking the talent to fill a character role that only a white person could make up for. In another view of this act is that the white person is considered to be the preferred person and that he is the only one capable of participation in mainstream media.
In the early stages of films and media, the whites used to control the entertainment industry and the black people in those times used to struggle to present their stories, beliefs, ideas or opinions and identities. The whites used to choose how to portray the image of the blacks. This changed in the early 1970s where African Americans were starred in the "Blaxploitation" films which described the black as the protagonist in a movie (Tukachinsky, 2017). This was the time that African American men directed film production although the contracts for the film were being held and directed by companies such as Columbia pictures and motion picture association of America which were owned and regulated by the white. This is the reason why the film blaxploitation did not do well in the theaters regarding profits as they were not embraced by the dominant white community (Tukachinsky, 2017).
After the struggle of getting into film production, followed the black representation in the media during the civil rights struggle. This are the times that the images of the black protests were showed on the television and newspapers. Up to this time, one has to understand who owns the media for them to realize the importance and the significance of the media and its history. Until now in the 21st century, the whites have been and are still the gatekeepers in the American news media organization as they are the people who control what comes out in the media industry (Tukachinsky, 2017).
Digital media has improved the spread of information which has led to the widespread misleading of content and facts. This is promoted by the evolution of Smartphone’s, social media, applications, television and the internet. This is clearly stated by Moores Shaun as he calls the "doubly digital" quality of contemporary media which points to the intimate connection between movements through media settings such as online environments and movements of the fingers or digits on keyboards, keypads and touch-screens (Moores, 2017).
In the digital domain, the African Americans people both men and women are represented as people with less intellectual capabilities. For instance in movies, the black males are underrepresented in the roles of computer users or technical experts in the television programs instead tending to appear in some roles that put less emphasis on intellectuality. The African American celebrities are underrepresented as lavish users of luxurious items in commercials instead of them being featured using more pedestrian consumer products (Markham, 2017). This aspect has painted a very wrong image on other people outside America who does not know the kind of live that the average African American is going through in American in their day to day life. One might think that all blacks in America live a good live as they are being portrayed on television and films. Consider the aspect of hip hop music industry which is dominated by the black people, their videos is full of luxurious and expensive things but it only ends in the video. The problem here is within the blacks also, they present to the media what is not their class or standards on films instead of being real like the white people videos.
African Americans are wrongfully represented in news stories about poverty and these stories have the habit of painting picture that is likely to reinforce stereotypes and make it hard to identify with black males. For instance, a low-income African American in news stories are presented to be living in slums or urban areas as opposed to rural areas than real world averages would suggest, more likely be entirely unemployed and idle as opposed to working and so forth. If an African American is seen to be idle on the streets, they are not the “true face” of poverty in America but they are dominant ones as presented on the media platforms (Markham, 2017). This is also in line with how the African Americans are represented as culprits of violent crimes and are associated with crimes. In television, the blacks are portrayed in ways that make them appear threatening as compared to white criminals despite both of them being criminals.
Media influences
Crime reporting: the media has a biased manner of reporting crimes when they occur in some places depending on the residence. For example, a crime that has happened in regions occupied by the white community in the United States of America is likely not to be aired on the media or if it does the press finds soft words to report the crime (Leung 2017). But if a similar crime occurs in regions occupied by the African American people, the media will cast the scene on the live television and explain how the area is unsafe for human settlement. They are likely to use harsh words for a similar crime they used soft words on the other side. The stories that are being reported are criticized for depicting racial groups and how they target specific ethnic groups in a biased manner.
Crime reporting covers the aspect of social issues within racial equality in the United States. For instance, crime reporting is seen to depict how certain community functions and its health. It generalizes the people of that community as violent, and all are criminals according to how they are represented on the media.
Ethnic emphasis: still on the aspect of crime reporting, media is expected to be ethnically neutral when reporting but what it is happening is different as there is still ethnic biasness. Majorly the news with ethnic emphasis occurs in topics that are related to social dilemmas, politics and other issues like education. For instance, a research that was done on the 2008 presidential primary to find out how frequent racial references appeared in the newspapers showed that every day there was a racial consideration being factored in on the newspapers. One of the specific findings was that the representation of "one or more racial minorities increased the likelihood and present of racial references found in the story" (Leung 2017).
This means that even the leaders in the United States of America knows that to win the votes of the majority, one has to play the race card in order to divide the people. The media is used as a tool of spreading this bad image especially of the minority groups which are represented by the African American people.
References
Leung, L., 2017. Virtual ethnicity: race, resistance and the World Wide Web. Routledge.
Simon, J., 2017. Governing through crime. In Law and Poverty(pp. 97-115). Routledge.
Tukachinsky, R., Mastro, D. and Yarchi, M., 2017. The Effect of Prime Time Television Ethnic/Racial Stereotypes on Latino and Black Americans: A Longitudinal National Level Study. Journal of Broadcasting " Electronic Media, 61(3), pp.538-556.
Venkatesh, A., 2017. Market Value of Diversity and Ethnicity: A Cultural Analysis of African American Media Consumption and Representation. In Contemporary Consumer Culture Theory (pp. 51-67). Routledge.
Moores, S., 2017. Digital orientations: Movement, dwelling and media use. Conditions of mediation: Phenomenological perspectives on media.
Markham, T. and Rodgers, S., 2017. Conditions of mediation: phenomenological perspectives on media. Peter Lang.
