Discrimination in the media

In society today there are many stereotypes and discrimination, even in the year 2013. Most often the discrimination can be seen in the media. The media often portrays negative stereotyping towards different groups f people. Social networking, comedy television, and commercials are contributing factors to these stereotypes.

Social networking sites often provoke prejudice attitudes and stereotypes. On Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram you can find pages or videos dedicated to hate on a group of people. There are many negative stereotypes that also can be found on these websites. People use these websites everyday, most often they are exposed with these hate pages. I came across pages on Facebook such as “We hate India and their rubbish culture” and “We are Muslims and we hate America”. These types of pages have very hostile comments from people who agree with the page and people who disagree with the page. On Twitter and Instagram a user can use hash tags. Sometimes these hash tags can contain stereotypes. There was a picture of a white girl squeezing her eyes together. It had the caption of “#chinesegirlproblems”. The hash tag is promoting a stereotype that Chinese people look like they are squeezing their eyes together. Ignorant people most often cause these stereotypical comments and discrimination. Social networking websites can be seen as something positive, but on some occasions they promote discrimination.
A contributing factor for negative stereotypes is television shows. A viewer would most likely see stereotypes on comedy TV shows such as Tosh.0, South Park, Family Guy or The Cleveland show. You would often connect animated shows to a children’s show, but not in the case of Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, and South Park. These shows contain very profane material that a child should not see if they are flipping through TV stations. An episode of South Park discriminated against people with red hair. The character Eric Cartman delivered a “hate speech” directed at gingers, claiming that they are disgusting non-humans that do not have souls.” Later on in the episode Eric gets “Gingervitis”, which causes someone to become a ginger. If a child were trying to watch TV and saw this episode they would get a horrible message. Even though the show is supposed to be funny, it will still hurt many people emotionally. The shows Family Guy, The Cleveland Show and Tosh.0 most often make fun of different races. In an episode of Family Guy there was a joke, “Why are there so few black baseball players” “because they’re always stealing bases.” This is stereotypical against black people because the joke is saying all black people steal. These shows should be more careful to what goes on television. Comedy television shows frequently show stereotypes of different groups of people.

The average day American is often exposed to prejudice from commercials. Commercials such as Go Daddy, Planet Fitness, Old El Paso, and Coca Cola can be seen as stereotypical or derogatory. During the Super Bowl the commercials for Go Daddy and Coca Cola aired. The Go Daddy commercial had the stereotypical pretty girl make out with the stereotypical “geek”. The commercial was quite awkward. The Coca-Cola commercial angered many Arabic Americans. The commercial opens on a desert, immediately revealing an Arab man leading a camel through the desert. The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee spoke out against what they considered to be a stereotypical depiction of an Arab man. In the Planet Fitness commercial there is a very fit man that says, “ I lift things up and put them down” through out the whole commercial. This creates the stereotypes that muscle men are stupid. The Old el Paso commercial depicts Mexican people by eating tacos and wearing sombreros. Even though some of these stereotypes maybe unintended, they still can anger many people. Commercials often show discrimination and stereotyping.

Today, there are many stereotypes that can be seen in the media. Stereotyping and discrimination can be seen everyday on social networking sites, comedy television shows, and commercials. It is most often that these stereotypes are negative rather than positive.