Stereotyping is something that is prevalent in today's society and most everyone's life. Us as individuals often perceive the world around us in a very stereotypical fashion in order to categorize and process more information. However, just because it is habitual and easily done, doesn't mean it is necessarily right. Generally defined, stereotyping is generalizing or assuming things about a person's character, values and actions based on unrelated, often physical, characteristics such as skin color or the way they dress. Stereotypes are often negative and have negative impacts but can be positive in some cases. In this class, we have discussed a variety of diverse and minority groups and how they are stereotyped, misinterpreted and underrepresented in the media. Also, we have discussed ways in which we can reduce these media trends and promote effective and ethical media coverage.
In general, there are many guidelines in which we as hopeful media professionals one day can follow and in order to effectively promote diversity in our work. One general guideline is being more critical of the media we allow ourselves to be exposed to and how this media may be devaluing certain minority groups. Another general guideline could be allowing more diversity in people in the work environment, such as women, African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, or disabled people. This primarily will allow everyone to be more exposed to a diverse set of people and understand the importance of equally representing people throughout their work.
One group that is often misinterpreted or misrepresented in the media is women. Women are overly sexualized on covers of magazines as well as in advertisements throughout mainstream media. Throughout the course, we have explored various advertisements such as ads for Calvin Klein and magazines such as Maxim and been able to really understand what is going on with this stereotype in media of the past and in media of the present. In this particular field, I would work to portray women who are interviewed or are appearing in print media as not sexual beings but professional and working individuals who are just as qualified as male counterparts. I would try to find more women to give expert testimonies on a variety of subjects. Also, within sexual advertisements and media, women are also show to be the ones to blame a lot of the time for sexual acts, for example the story about the murdered "All-American Girls" who were stereotyped to be drug addicts as well as lesbians, when in the end they were neither of the two. Overall, the lesson to be learned from this is that in one's own writing, it is important to not put blame on a certain side to the story and really researching the evidence before assuming things and giving into stereotypical behavior.
Another group that is often underrepresented and stereotyped is the disabled. Disabled people are stereotyped to be evil in many fictional stories as well as to be pitied in society. In class we have studied how they are seen as evil in motion pictures such as "Captain Hook" in Peter Pan and are very rarely covered in news media and when they are covered, it usually has something to do with their disability and how it limits them. Overall, as media writers, we can change the stereotype that disabled people are evil by having the "villain" character have diverse characteristics from story to story and in news coverage making sure it is not biased or swayed towards the disabled people being stereotyped as evil. Also, the media could more effectively cover the disabled in more professional settings and ask them insight on certain topics do not pertain to their disability. Through these practices, we as a society will feel less inclined to treat disabled people any different than the general public and learn to appreciate their of certain societal topics.
Lastly, people of Asian decent are frequently stereotyped and portrayed in a stereotypical fashion throughout the media. Many people assume that Asian Americans are extremely smart and have high socio-economic status. This, however, is definitely not the case. Many Asian Americans face poverty and struggle economically in American society. Today, much of the coverage of Asian Americans focuses on the successful CEO's and other citizens of high economic status. This causes Asian students to be pressured by their parents and peers to overachieve in school in order to be successful. This can be mentally exhausting and stressful on the student. In order to change this typical perception, we have to portray Asian Americans in all socio-economic statuses be more aware of not putting pressure on our Asian American peers to reach a more elite academic standard than they can mentally handle.
