Racial Stereotypes in the Media Essay Example

The article Thinking About What We See: Using media Literacy to Examine Images of African Americans on Television written by Paula Tosi speaks on the portrayal of African Americans on TV while making sure to keep media literacy in perspective. The key factor in this article is to focus on the stereotypes of African Americans in media specifically in television. Another key factor mentioned in the article is the recycled and reused stereotypes shown in the media of African Americans, and how it has desensitized people who consume the media of the negative portrayal of these stereotypes. The article writes about the beginning of television and how the roles given to African Americans didn’t expand on the potential they had to reflect the different opportunities they’ve stumbled upon but instead played into their stereotypes. The article's strength relies on talking and focusing on modern issues of stereotyping African Americans but lacks historical and background information on why these stereotypes currently exist and continue to exist. Its focus on modern television shows such as The Chappelle Show, The Boondocks, and The Cosby Show is a great example of how it plays on its strength of focusing on modern television but by doing so lacks in focusing on how these shows stereotypes of African American has come to be. With more focus on the historical background of the development of these stereotypes in media, it would make the article more compelling. Also, another strength of this article is the analysis of the roles African American actors were given and how these roles subject African Americans. This article would be helpful in my paper because it’s a good source on how modern media portrays African Americans. Although it lacks historical contexts it makes up with its analysis on why African Americans were only given roles that continued the portal of them in a negative perspective supports my thesis of how stereotypical representation of African Americans in media is a constant issue.  

The article Measuring the Meaning of Black Media Stereotypes and Their Relationship to the Racial Identity, Black History Knowledge, and Racial Socialization of African American Youth written by Valerie N. Adams-Bass, Howard C. Stevenson, and Diana Slaughter Kotzin covers the topics of the impact of the portrayal of African- Americans in Black media through images. They measure the impact these images have had on the Black youth. The study includes measuring how the Black youth react to the images whether it’s through rejection or endorsement of these images and how it affects them personally. The articles' goal is to come to terms with how Black media stereotypes and how they affect adolescents by focusing on individuals of the ages 14 to 21. This study touches on the topic of racial socialization, racial identity, body image, and self-esteem. The weakness that this study has is that there are a lot of variables that can impact this study like how often the individual consumes media, their age, and gender. The strength of the article relies on the goal and its intentions of the study that’s being conducted. Through its goals to find out how stereotypes affect Black youth both negatively and positively, it brings attention to how the consumption of stereotypes is directed towards African Americans. The recycled materials of the stereotypical portrayal of African Americans and how it can potentially affect future generations is the strength of this article and study. The data they collected also supports my paper. I intend to include this article in my paper to support how the continuation of negative representation of Black individuals in media not only negatively impacts how people view African Americans but also African Americans themselves.  

The article But She’s Not Black! written by Philip Kretsedemas focuses on the media stereotype of Black women in recent years, specifically the portrayal of the angry Black women. The article covers the historic background of this specific stereotype while also touching grounds of how this stereotype affects the Black community in recent years by explaining its connection to the Jim Crow era. It looks at television shows and gives an analysis of how the portrayal of Black women enforces negative stereotypes. It also goes over a study that examines fifty-two participants that are given different examples of what angry Black women look like. The results of the study show that the racialize interpretations of these women stem from the negative stereotype of black women. The article’s weakness is that it only mentions a limited amount of stereotypes that Black women face in media. It could benefit from talking about other stereotypes such as also depicting Black women to be strong and independent. The article's strength is in how it covers colorism in media and how it impacts Black women. It uses examples from television shows to support its claims on how African American women are misrepresented. The article's strength allows me to incorporate colorism into my paper and use it to display the deep-rooted stereotypes are in our media. I can use this in my article to support how the negative representation of Black women stems from previous historical backgrounds. I can also use the study that is mentioned in the article to support how the media representation of African Americans greatly impacts how the consumers of the media perceive African Americans.