Chapter 4 Summary

Television and media present repetitive types of images for different racial backgrounds or neglect to represent their presence at all. Media influences racial ideologies. Media imagery naturalizes false ideas about racial groups while hiding how society is constructing those ideas and making decisions based on them. New representations are formed, and old representations continue to be perpetuated.

Media predominately keeps the white majority visible with more speaking roles and in more media production positions. White actors are still cast in roles that were originally designed for people of color, creating unintended racialized messages such as white savior complexes. These racial ideologies keep the status quo in place and do nothing to deal with racial disparities. In the United States, the average person watches 2.8 hours of television per day. This venue transmits influential imagery and ideologies on a daily basis. Diverse groups face particular challenges of representation. Particular stereotypes of people of color and Native Americans continue to be broadcast over all media forms. These stereotypes have consequences for people of color in their everyday life. New racism perpetuates different versions of old stereotypes. Latinxs are often invisible from popular shows. Arab Americans are portrayed negatively. In some storylines, discrimination against Arab Americans is portrayed as patriotism. New media also typecasts (such as Asians appearing in combat video games) and makes invisible certain people (such as black women). At the same time, newer media forms provide outlets for confronting stereotypes and misguided public beliefs. The news and reporting industry, as subset of the media, is not exempt from making groups invisible. News anchors do not report on black women and transgender women who have been victims of police violence. It is important to include analysis of race, class, and gender in the representations and silences present in all forms of media.