Role Of Minorities In The Media

Running Head: MINORITIES IN THE MEDIA

Minorities in the Media:
Have We Dropped the Ball Ethically?
Seth W. Horning
Dr. Jay Martinson
December 6, 2000

Minorities in the Media:
Have We Dropped the Ball Ethically? This is a time when civil rights are beginning to be taken for granted by many minorities and used as an excuse for inaction by the white majority. This taken with the onslaught of the information age begins to create a problem unique to this period in history. Any other period of history shows a distinct ruling class, which has no problem with authority over the rest of the population. The present represents more equality, but it still lacks complete equality. This is especially evident in
the mass media. Just the fact that the terms "majority" and "minority" are still used show that the problem of inequality still exist. In today's terminology, majority doesn't even necessarily mean majority. The white population is considered the majority even though this is hardly so. As a matter of fact, many believe that within the next few years, the white population will be the minority. But as Ishmael Reed (2000) writes, "there is no such thing as white culture. Whiteness … is nothing but a reflection of privilege, and exists for no reason other than to defend it." Majority here means the same thing. One does not have to be the majority to have the power. One might assume that African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and others actually are the minorities in American Society if the only source of information is the mass media. On prime-time television, less than one percent of the major roles are Hispanic. The percentage of Asian and Indian Americans is even smaller ( ). African Americans represent just under their actual population percentage, but very few of those same people are put in roles of power. The mass media including advertising, television, radio, newspaper, and the Internet is balanced unfairly to the advantage of the white "majority." This situation creates an unethical gap in power in favor of the whites. This is seen in the amount of research done concerning minorities, how minorities are involved in each of the mass mediums, and the number of powerful positions minorities occupy within mass media. By exploring these areas, the disparity between the mass media's portrayal of minorities and reality will be found to be huge, and this disparity is unethical. Bush, Smith, and Martin found that minorities (specifically African-Americans) spend more than $270 billion a year on consumer goods (1999). Even with all of that money at stake, little research has been done to find out what minorities like, how they buy, and even what effects them. This tremendous potential remains untapped (1999). One would think that given the buying power of minorities, there would be much research done on their buying habits. But the concern of the white majority rarely falls on in that area. Research has been done on minorities concerning media, but it has been focused on the attitudes toward advertising. The large percentage of the population that minorities represents is far greater than the amount of research done by the mass media in comparison with their white counterparts. This only goes to show that focus on the white "majority" is without logical base and unethical. While there has been little research about what minorities prefer and are attracted to in mass media, there has been more research on buying trends and mean salaries of households and the like to help advertisers direct their business specifically to minorities. Bush, Smith, and Martin found that minorities watch more television, respond more favorably to mass media, and use mass media for guidance (1999). One study showed that minorities watch up to five hours a week more television than Caucasians (1999). One would think that the mass media, having that much influence and receiving the amount of business generated from minorities that they do ($270 billion), would spend a great amount of money on targeting those same minorities in their advertising. In fact, minorities are spending and making more every year, making jumps in spending about 23 percent. The advertising dollars don't match up with the spending though. Of $160 billion spent on advertising, only $1.1 billion was used to target minorities (Jackson, 1999). That is only a 12 percent increase from $865 million, slightly over half the increase in spending on the part of minorities. The advertising time sold during minority based programming is also considerably less than time during majority programming. Even then though, advertisers are wary of buying up that valuable time (Jackson, 1999). Tom Joyner is quoted in an article by Joe Patoski saying, "We can't get CompUSA to advertise with us…My audience costs less to advertise to than Howard Stern's…Why wouldn't you want to go after black folks?" (1998, p. 131). Jesse Jackson also comments, "Yet while their programs are often well received and higly rated, they receive lower advertising rates than general program stations (1999). The advertising that is bought is highly unbalanced. Sports and entertainment personalities tend to be over-represented in advertising targeted toward minorities (Bush, Smith & Martin, 1999). "Ad agencies are practicing covert racism based on stereotypes, fueled by ignorance and characterized by stubbornness and entrenched structures" (as cited in Jackson, 1999). This problem is characterized as racism because it limits good minority role models to athletes and entertainers. Other than that, there seems to be no good minorities. Minorities run advertising agencies have been slowly squeezed out of business as well.
Fonda Lloyd found that there were 25 black advertising firms in 1972 (1995). In 1995 there were only four (1995). The reasons for this are only assumed at this point, but one can easily conclude that unfair advantages to the "majority" may be a significant part. Television is also being accused of creating an unethical gap in the way that minorities are portrayed compared to the majority. While the larger networks are beginning to diversify their shows, the numbers still do not add up. Hispanic and Native American characters composed less than one percent of all characters on television (******). African-American characters added up to about 11 percent which is close to the actual population makeup. Even with this beginning diversification, there are still a disproportionate number of whites in leading roles compared to other minorities. Excluding the news, of the three main networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, CBS was the only one with a Minority as the lead character. All of the other shows had minority characters but none of those characters demanded center stage on the show. It is not surprising then that CBS was ranked as the number one network among both minorities and
whites. In order to find leading minority characters on television, minority viewers need to turn to minority run stations. Stations like UPN and Univision are very popular among African-Americans and Hispanics alike (Schneider, 2000). But these stations are both lower budget stations in comparison to their larger network competitors. The reason for this goes back to advertising dollars. In television news, minorities compose a more realistic percentage of the population, but the jobs are not spread out power-wise.
There are more minorities working as anchors and reporters, especially in local television, but there are many obstacles for them to reach any higher (Prato, 1999). Prato says that due to the pressure to garner high ratings, general managers are simply not willing to experiment with minorities, putting them in positions of more power (1999). Therefore, in television, minorities end up in supporting roles again. Lafayette found that the meteorologist jobs in every major network were filled by African-Americans (1999). While this is a step up from no minorities in television, it is still putting minorities in subservient
roles. Radio broadcasting is probably the mass medium that is the farthest behind in equality. The problem is so far reaching that in the almost 90 years of radio, only one minority has ever made it into the Radio Hall of Fame, Tom Joyner (Patoski, 1998). Jesse Jackson notes that in Chicago there is only one black owned and operated talk radio station and that station is only operated from midnight to one p.m. (as cited in McConnell, 1999). The city of Chicago has 1.3 million residents (1999). This disparity is more poignant than any of the other mediums. Many suggest that this is reason why minorities are more prone to listen to CDs and tapes than they are to listen to radio. The Internet has been a mass medium that is almost entirely untapped by minorities. There are probably many sites that are run by minorities or have a minority focus, but there are very few sites that are run by major corporations. The owner of Black Entertainment Television Robert Johnson laments the fact that, "Right now African-Americans think, 'There's nothing on the Internet that's of value to me.'" (McDonald, 1999). Johnson's new web-site BET.com is rivaled by only a handful of other sites (1999). Even though this site is doing fairly well, it is already his third attempt at breaking into the Internet. Minorities have not had much opportunity on the Internet to diversify it. The newspaper form of mass media has also lacked in its job of creating equality. One problem that commonly occurs is assigning stories according to racial background. "There is an instinctive editorial urge, or at least tendency, to assign people to stories by their race." (Anders, 1999 p. 23). This tendency often blindly assumes that just being a member of a minority race will translate into complete understanding of complex issues behind a story (1999). Often this is not true, and it can be offensive both to journalists and readers. More striking in the newspapers is the focus of stories on minorities. The majority of the stories presented by the newspaper mass medium focus on the negative aspects of minorities. In cases of positive coverage, the minorities are often athletes or entertainers as in advertising (Hanson, 1999; Fitzgerald, 1995; Fellows, 1998). The one exception to this is Black History Month when most of the coverage is positive. But Hanson complains that if the newspapers are going to make a positive impact, they need to continue positive coverage beyond the month of February (1999). Fellows refers to a case that involved welfare recipients in California (1998). Many complained that they didn't want the welfare to go to black citizens leeching off of the government (1998). In reality, there were more white welfare recipients than black (1998). Jesse Jackson calls this, "putting a black face on a white body." (as cited in Fitzgerald, 1995). This stereotype of minorities as more violent and less patriotic is untrue but unchecked in newspapers. In cases of positive news coverage, newspapers often focus on the anomaly of the event rather than the positive event itself. Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr. was the first black president of Michigan State University. The newspapers continually reported about the event as him being a "black president." (Reflections, 1998). After a while, the press got bored with it and began to treat the event with more normalcy, but the fact still remains that the original focus was on the abnormality of the event. This only adds to the fact that most editors and writers are of the assumption that most minorities are less valuable and productive than the majority whites. This may be the generally accepted norm in newsrooms because most newsroom editors are white, or non-minority.

Refences

(1998). Reflections of a trailblazer. Black Issues in Higher Education, 15 (6), 14-17.

Anders, G. (1999). The crucible. American Journalism Review, 21 (4), 22-31.

Bush, A., Smith, R., & Martin, C. (1999). Journal of Advertising, 28 (3), 13-24.

Fellows, J. (1998). Meet the (black) press. The Washington Monthly, 30, 10-12.

Fitzgerald, M. (1995). Jesse Jackson scolds the news media; addresses

Associated Press Managing Editors convention. Editor and Publisher, the Fourth Estate,

128, 11.

Hanson, J. H., (1999). Minority news needs balance inside and outside the

newsroom. Editor and Publisher, the Fourth Estate, 132 (15), 70.

Jackson, J. (1999). Rainbow imperative. Advertising Age, 70 (395), 56.

Lafayette, J. (1999). Electronic media special report. Electronic Media, 18 (34), 11-13.

Lloyd, F. M., & Hayes, C. (1995). 25 years of blacks in advertising. Black

Enterprise, 25, 92-93.

McConnell, B. (1999). Sharpton vows to make media sweat. Broadcasting and

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McDonald, M. (1999). A cable tycoon takes on the digital divide. U.S. News

and World Report, 127 (9), 51-52.

Patoski, J. N. (1998). Tom Joyner. Texas Monthly, 26 (9), 130-131.

Prato, L. (1999). Bumping up against the glass ceiling. American Journalism

Review, 21 (9), 74.

Rathbun, E. (2000). Leading the way to diversity. Broadcasting and Cable, 130

(32), 60.

Reed, I. (2000). The rhetoric of the ersatz. Tikkun, 15 (1), 73.

Schneider, M. (2000). Black, white tastes merging: dramas and diversity

decrease the racial divide. Variety, 377 (13), 31-32.