Stereotyping in the Media

A stereotype is defined as a widely held conception of a group that's fixed and that allows for little individuality among the group's members. Despite such a negative definition, and constant attempts to avoid stereotypes all together, labeling people has unfortunately become an accepted part of today's culture. Stereotyping has become such a permanent fixture in the lives of many that very often the stereotyping goes unnoticed. Chapter twenty-two of the Lunsford text provides many instances of stereotypes that are found in newspapers, magazines and on television. These forms of media are a part of almost every American's life. It is no wonder that stereotyping can be so easily overlooked. Perhaps it is not just that the stereotypes are overlooked, but also that the media encourages these popular stereotypes in an effort to give the public what they think they want.

The first instance of the media encouraging a popular stereotype is in the essay by Tania Ralli entitled "Who's a Looter? In Storm's Aftermath, Pictures Kick Up a Different Kind of Tempest". Ralli's essay is examining an instance of photo captioning that caused many to question the intents of the photographer. There were two pictures that were taken in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and both pictures showed survivors in the water that were carrying bags of food. The controversy occurred when the photograph showing a young black man carrying food was labeled as "looting a grocery store". However, the other picture depicts a white couple carrying food and was captioned that they were shown "after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store" (Ralli 640-41).

Two different opinions emerged over the captioning controversy. The photos were put online where they were photo shopped so they appeared side by side for comparison. Many pointed out how the photos were captioned in a racist manner, however others were of the opinion that since the photos came from two different agencies, one could not prove that a single media outlet was being prejudice.

Essentially, the issue came down to a matter of semantics. The photographer who labeled the subject as "looting" based his word choice on what he witnessed, "Mr. Martin had seen the man in his photograph wade into a grocery store and come out with the sodas and bag, so by A.P's definition, the man had looted" (Ralli 641). The other photographer who identified his subjects as "finding bread and soda" also based his caption on what he had witnessed; "Mr. Graythen described seeing the couple near a corner store from an elevated expressway. The door to the shop was open, and things had floated out to the street. He was not able to talk to the couple, 'so I had to draw my own conclusions'" (Ralli 641).

After reading the accounts of both photographers it does seem that there is a definite stereotype portrayal in the media, because it seems that both photographers witnessed the same exact incident, the only difference being the color of the individual's skin. The rapper Kanye West spoke out about the incident at a Hurricane Katrina relief concert. He seemed to also feel that whether intentional or not, the media did play a role in encouraging negative stereotypes against blacks. Kanye stated, "I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says they're looting. You see a white family; it says they're looking for food" (Ralli 641). It is hard to evaluate the situation and not agree with Kanye's position. Regardless of whether or not the photographers intentionally captioned the pictures in a racist way, the biased message still was received by many, and stereotypes were further maintained.

Another stereotype that the media encourages can be found in every food store, convenience store and book store across the nation and is goes greatly unnoticed by many. The essay entitled "On Covers of Many Magazines, a Full Racial Palette is Still Rare" discloses the alarming fact that Halle Berry was only the fifth black woman to appear on the cover of Cosmopolitan. The article was written in 2002 and states that Cosmopolitan started using cover photographs in 1964, so that makes Halle Berry not just the fifth black woman to appear on the cover, but the fifth black woman to appear on the cover in a time span of thirty eight years (Carr 649). Sadly, the lack of black woman gracing the covers of Cosmopolitan in the 1960's can be attributed to the lack of social equality, but the civil rights movement has been over for many years, so why the lack of diversity?

David Carr, the author of the essay suggests that Halle Berry is on the cover of Cosmopolitan because "Ms. Berry is evidently one of a tiny cadre of nonwhite celebrities who are deemed to have enough crossover appeal to appear on the cover of mass consumer magazines"(649). Carr's reasoning to why Halle Berry was on the cover of Cosmopolitan was very interesting. He believes that consumers are not entirely accepting of blacks adorning the cover of a typically Caucasian dominated magazine, but rather consumers are accepting of Halle Berry on the cover of a Caucasian dominated magazine. Ultimately suggesting that another black celebrity may not have been an acceptable crossover that would related to the consumer. Carr's observation is further supported by the incidence that is mentioned on page 650. The story related recounts an event that occurred when a black celebrity was featured on the cover of the teen magazine, YM. Those in charge of circulation resisted the idea, however the editor insisted that the celebrity remain on the cover. Needless to say, the magazine was packaged with a bonus "beauty booklet" that "coincidentally" covered the black celebrity that was on the cover. Once again the media stereotyped the role of a black woman, and in this case it is difficult to even tell if it was intentional.

So far the stereotyping that occurs in the newspapers and magazines have been discussed. However another outlet that is used to encourage stereotyping is through the use of the television, specifically the news. The article "Not Only Natalee is Missing; Is the Media Inattention to Missing Women Who Aren't White Due to Deliberate Racism or Unconscious Bias" discusses whether or not stereotyping is occurring in terms of reporting kidnappings because of racism, or if stereotyping is occurring in terms of reporting kidnappings because of an unintentional bias. The article lists many high profile kidnapping cases that many people would recognize such as Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy, and Natalee Holloway. The common thread between all of the aforementioned women is that they were all white and from the middle-upper class of society (O'Connor 659). Next, the article mentions the names of two other kidnap victims, Evelyn Hernandez and Arden Carter. Sadly, the names are unfamiliar even though the women were kidnapped around the same time as Peterson. Todd Boyd, a professor of critical studies at the University of Southern California was quoted as saying "I don't think a media director is sitting around saying, 'Hey, there's this black woman in Philadelphia and she disappeared and we don't care.' It's an unconscious decision about who matters and who doesn't" (O'Connor 659). Boyd continues to speculate that the stereotyping is unconscious because people assume crime is more natural in black and Latino culture, which allows crimes of that nature to be pushed aside (O'Connor 659).

On the contrary, the vice present of MSNBC News Daytime Programming, Mark Effron does not agree with Boyd's beliefs. Effron does not even think that decisions of who matter are made unconsciously, "I'm not disputing numbers. What I'm telling you is that we have never, ever, ever turned down a story based on race or any of those factors" (O'Connor 660). Despite Effron's beliefs that his corporation has never turned down a story based on racial factors, one can speculate whether or not Effron is unconsciously judging the stories before reporting them. The article ends with a quote from Marty Kaplan the associate dean at the University of Southern California Anneneberg School for Communication. His quote suggests that news directors focus on Caucasian women who are missing because the public are more interested in "every lurid tale about a white woman" (O'Connor 661). His opinion further supports the fact that stereotyping occurs because the media is trying to give the public what they want. Overall, the essay never denies stereotyping in the media, but brings to question whether or not it is intentional.

After reading the essays in Chapter 22 of the Lunsford text, the essays on newspaper, magazine and television stereotyping seemed to be the topics that affected the world the most today. The chapter offered many other directions to explore, in terms of stereotyping and how the media encourages it, however it seems as though the essays discussed in this paper were the best examples of how the media advances stereotyping.

Works Cited

Carr, David. "On Covers of Many Magazines a Full Racial Palette Is Still Rare." Everything's An Argument. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford, John J. Ruszkiewicz and Keith Walters. 4^th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martins, 2007. 649-650.

O'Connor, Anne-Marie. "Not Only Natalee Is Missing; Is the Media Inattention to Missing Women Who Aren't White Due to Deliberate Racism or Unconscious Bias?" Everything's An Argument. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford, John J. Ruszkiewicz and Keith Walters. 4^th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martins, 2007. 659-61.

Ralli, Tania. "Who's a Looter? In Storm's Aftermath, Pictures Kick Up a Different Kind of Tempest." Everything's An Argument. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford, John J. Ruszkiewicz and Keith Walters. 4^th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martins, 2007. 640-41.