A.k.a. Pablo: Mexican American Images for Television

Abstract

The study of “minority group images in mass media” has been of considerable interest both to humanities and social science writers in the ethnic and media fields. Most investigations have focused upon the descriptive content of the minority portrayals, though a few have also dealt with related aspects of minority group reactions to images. Among the large volume of varied writings have been those which have considered minority group images in films, images of Asian Americans in print and electronic media, dissections of single television shows about minorities, and responses of minority audiences and media critics to television portrayals of their group. In general, studies have tended to find minority media images inaccurate, inadequate, and too infrequent. Explanations for these tendencies have usually emphasized how mass media reflect prejudices existing in the culture of the larger society, the faulty perceptions or decisions of the image-makers (writers, producers, directors, executive programmers), and the underrepresentation of minority persons in important and powerful image-shaping mass media positions.