The Media Diversity Institute: An Analysis

The sense of outrage many people felt in their childhoods when their parents told them to not watch violent or explicit television programs is seemingly universal. However, these parents’ reasons for doing so are not entirely unfounded -- the concept that the sight of certain imagery affects one’s behavior can be explained through cultivation theory, which posits that continual exposure to a message in the media convinces the brain that that message is applicable to real life (Disha et al.). Certainly, it gives parents reason to keep their children from watching excessive violence, for they may end up with a case on their hands like that of the twelve-year-old who killed a first grader in an attempt to replicate a wrestling move (Jackson).
Although both deal specifically with journalism (and so influence televised news), since the effects of a television program on one’s cognitive biases increase the more “realistic” that program is, these institutes can create more of an impact. The Media Diversity Institute is the more globally successful of the two, as teams from the institute visit newsrooms worldwide. For instance, in 2015, members of the institute traveled to Sri Lanka to examine how the divide between the ethnic majority and minorities affected journalism there (Ilic). Adding to its effectiveness is the fact that the institute has offices located throughout Eurasia and so is not limited to one country. Moreover, it offers a “Reporting Diversity Guide” that has been used by journalists in various countries, such as Africa, to minimize bias against minorities and ensure different viewpoints are included in reporting (Ilic). That the Media Diversity Institute has locations worldwide, and, in fact, sends members to actually interact with journalists rather than giving them a dry set of rules to follow makes it more influential in the news media, as it clearly gets involved in the issue to a greater extent than some other groups, like the Maynard Institute. The Maynard Institute does have its own strengths,
When this negative representation outweighs the positive, cultivation theory dictates that society will begin treating these portrayals as accurate depictions of reality. As a result, minorities are less likely to be hired for jobs that do not mesh with the common stereotype, and those minorities that have their culture equated to violence on television are more likely to be targeted for hate crimes stemming from this fearmongering. Although one can make the argument that it is “just television”, and so cannot affect reality, the fact remains that some correlation exists between behavior and what is seen on television -- one only needs to look at the impact a single fictional role model can have on a child to know so. As the world tries to move forward from institutionalized racism and discrimination, the effects of the media must not be underestimated. Biases in television cannot be dismissed because they’re “only fictional”, or, alternatively, because of the misinformed belief that everything the news presents is pure fact. After all, stereotypes and biases ingrained in a person will feed into that person’s work, seeing as no one is able to distance themselves entirely from their personal worldviews no matter how impartial a piece