Electronic media makes minorities feel bad themselves

[une]

This comes from a Study done by Indiana University.

Study finds TV can decrease self-esteem in children, except white boys
Posted On: May 30, 2012 - 5:00am

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- If you are a white girl, a black girl or a black boy, exposure to today's electronic media in the long run tends to make you feel worse about yourself. If you're a white boy, you'll feel better, according to a new study led by an Indiana University professor.

Nicole Martins, an assistant professor of telecommunications in the IU College of Arts and Sciences, and Kristen Harrison, professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan, also found that black children in their study spent, on average, an extra 10 hours a week watching television.

"We can't deny the fact that media has an influence when they're spending most of their time -- when they're not in school -- with the television," Martins said.

Harrison added, "Children who are not doing other things besides watching television cannot help but compare themselves to what they see on the screen."

Their paper has been published in Communication Research. Martins and Harrison surveyed a group of about 400 black and white preadolescent students in communities in the Midwest over a yearlong period. Rather than look at the impact of particular shows or genres, they focused on the correlation between the time in front of the TV and the impact on their self-esteem.

"Regardless of what show you're watching, if you're a white male, things in life are pretty good for you," Martins said of characters on TV. "You tend to be in positions of power, you have prestigious occupations, high education, glamorous houses, a beautiful wife, with very little portrayals of how hard you worked to get there.

"If you are a girl or a woman, what you see is that women on television are not given a variety of roles," she added. "The roles that they see are pretty simplistic; they're almost always one-dimensional and focused on the success they have because of how they look, not what they do or what they think or how they got there.

"This sexualization of women presumably leads to this negative impact on girls."

With regard to black boys, they are often criminalized in many programs, shown as hoodlums and buffoons, and without much variety in the kinds of roles they occupy.

"Young black boys are getting the opposite message: that there is not lots of good things that you can aspire to," Martins said. "If we think about those kinds of messages, that's what's responsible for the impact.

"If we think just about the sheer amount of time they're spending, and not the messages, these kids are spending so much time with the media that they're not given a chance to explore other things they're good at, that could boost their self-esteem."

Martins said their study counters claims by producers that programs have been progressive in their depictions of under-represented populations. An earlier study co-authored by her and Harrison suggests that video games "are the worst offenders when it comes to representation of ethnicity and gender."

Other research is starting to show the impacts of other kinds of entertainment sources, such as video games and hand-held devices. It indicates that young people are becoming creative at "media multitasking."

"Even though these new technologies are becoming more available, kids still spend more time with TV than anything else," Martins said.

Interestingly, the young people were asked about their consumption of print media, but the results were not statistically significant.

Martins conducted the research while she was completing her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, as part of a larger longitudinal study done with her co-author, Harrison. They sought out certain school districts in Illinois because of their diversity, but African-Americans were the predominant minority group.

Source: Indiana University

I don't post much, but I thought this was a very interesting article and wanted to see what the people on this board thought of it.

I personally think this is a huge issue. I've always felt that black people in America have a bit of a self image problem, because media in America, even media created by black people, tends to be filled with negative portrayals and stereotypes.

What do you guys think? Is this overblown race baiting or is highlighting a real problem that needs to be corrected?

[Stofsk]

It's highlighting a real problem that needs to be corrected. Gender and race are definitely real and big problems in media depiction.

The problem is it's not something people take all that seriously, so changing anything will be much more difficult.

[Todeswind]

It depends entirely upon the program. I'll grant you that a show like Doctor Who or Law and Order has no justifiable reason for not having more diversity in their cast but other stories on television are Chauvinist by virtue of their age. When someone makes a production of Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare there are a limited number of parts and shoehorning diversity in does not make sense. One would not cast a black Iago, it just wouldn't make sense.

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

Regardless of whether or not it's a bad plan to cast minority actors for the major roles in Work X, if the vast bulk of the programming is filled with things that require casting white men for the interesting roles and the audience isn't composed entirely of white men, then we need new programming.

[Surlethe]

It depends entirely upon the program. I'll grant you that a show like Doctor Who or Law and Order has no justifiable reason for not having more diversity in their cast but other stories on television are Chauvinist by virtue of their age. When someone makes a production of Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare there are a limited number of parts and shoehorning diversity in does not make sense. One would not cast a black Iago, it just wouldn't make sense.

Did you read the article? The problem isn't about lack of token parts or lack of "diversity." the problem is that the women/minority characters who do appear are too often one-dimensional crappy role models.

[Stofsk]

It depends entirely upon the program. I'll grant you that a show like Doctor Who or Law and Order has no justifiable reason for not having more diversity in their cast but other stories on television are Chauvinist by virtue of their age. When someone makes a production of Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare there are a limited number of parts and shoehorning diversity in does not make sense. One would not cast a black Iago, it just wouldn't make sense.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1990-1 ... -desdemona

Shakespeare is one of those things that can and have been adapted in a variety of different ways.

And the problem isn't 'shoe-horning in' diversity, but like Surly said, what representations are there, are one-dimensional for a lot of media.

[Todeswind]

I misunderstood the article's intent.

[Col. Crackpot]

Quite frankly, it is the Tyler Perrys of the world that are driving no small part of this. If non minorities were responsible for making any of the crap he makes billions churning out they'd be rightfully jeered for creating one dimensional stereotypes.

[Rogue 9]

One would not cast a black Iago, it just wouldn't make sense.

The National Players cast Othello with a black actor a few years back, though.

[loomer]

Given that Othello was a moor, and that at the time they didn't really draw a particular distinction between Arab, African, and Berbers... Casting him with a black actor isn't really as significant as it might appear. What was interesting was when Sir Patrick Stewart did a white Othello in a court of black men.

[Akhlut]

It depends entirely upon the program. I'll grant you that a show like Doctor Who or Law and Order has no justifiable reason for not having more diversity in their cast but other stories on television are Chauvinist by virtue of their age. When someone makes a production of Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare there are a limited number of parts and shoehorning diversity in does not make sense. One would not cast a black Iago, it just wouldn't make sense.

Aside from maybe Othello and the Merchant of Venice (and even for the MoV, not really), I don't see really compelling reasons to not cast people of various racial origins in Shakespeare; it's not like his work is historically accurate anyway, so I don't see any real reasons to try and shoehorn in a homogeneous cast just to try and fulfill some idealistic vision of an "accurate" Shakespeare when he didn't conform to that himself. For instance, it's not like Hamlet or Macbeth conform to actual Danish or Scottish history anymore than Inglourious Basterds is an accurate World War II history.

[une]

Quite frankly, it is the Tyler Perrys of the world that are driving no small part of this. If non minorities were responsible for making any of the crap he makes billions churning out they'd be rightfully jeered for creating one dimensional stereotypes.

I agree with you up to a point about Tyler Perry. But even in Tyler Perry movies, as bad as they are, there is more diversity in terms of the types of black people they show than you see in more mainstream media. They definitely have stereotypes like the gangsta and loud black women, but they also show black people that are successful and educated in a variety of jobs. So, there is a kind of balance, which I think is part of the appeal of the Tyler Perry movies.

Another thing is that there just aren't many movies aimed at black women. Tyler Perry is successful, partly because he's the only game in town.

[someone_else]

the problem is that the women/minority characters who do appear are too often one-dimensional crappy role models.

It's more a problem of crappy writers and producers that dont' give a fuck as long as it sells, I doubt it's actually racism or whatever. It's easier to copy-paste stereotypes than coming up with something original.

As long as people swallows that crap and producers make money, how can you change it?

I mean you cannot pass laws saying "crappy writers will be hanged till death comes" or similar, that's a violation of free speech.
Giving some government money to stuff that isn't crappy could do the trick (if you have decent judges anyway), but I doubt any government has the intention to do so.