Media Depiction of Ethnic Minorities

Abstract

This article discusses how media depiction of ethnic minorities poses various ethical dilemmas for media practitioners. Initially, the central terms of mass media and ethnic minority are defined. The contemporary context of such depictions is reviewed, noting different types of minority status, their common exclusion from economic and political power, the importance of media portrayal to their social and citizenship status, and variations in the structure and regulation of media systems. Then, key questions about media depictions along four axes – inclusion versus exclusion, accuracy versus distortion, sensitive understanding versus rigid stereotyping, and multiculturalism versus assimilation – are discussed. Evidence about media depictions in news, televisual entertainment, feature films, and other media content is then presented. News analysts have provided evidence about total coverage and its distribution amongst key topics: immigration, law and order, welfare, politics, and victimhood. Television analysts have examined ethnic minority presence or absence in all television output and especially situation comedies, principally in the United States but also in the United Kingdom and Australasia. Similarly, feature film analysis has concentrated on Hollywood’s depiction of Native Americans and African Americans. Other areas reviewed include advertising, children’s television, sports, and popular music. The discussion then returns to the four axes introduced previously and formulates some answers. With some exceptions, media depictions of ethnic minorities are characterized by exclusion, distortion, rigid stereotyping, and assimilationist assumptions. The reasons for this pattern are explored. Ethnic majorities tend to own and staff the media, as well as constitute its most economically desirable audiences. Professional practices concentrate on deviant minority behavior, reinforcing the boundaries between them and us which the media habitually reproduce. Then, the article considers how far the overall picture is likely to be altered by any changes in media ownership or staffing, audience demographics, professional practices, and dominant beliefs about ethnicity. The conclusion argues that the media have yet to face up to their responsibility for helping to define the nature and dimensions of ethnic conflict.