Communication 101 Final

Communication 101: Final Exam
Wednesday December 19, 2012
The Origins and Evolution of News:
-The News is socially constructed, which means that several actors have interacted to determine which meanings, stories and versions of reality would be presented as dominant understandings of reality. In this case, there is no absolute truth or knowledge.
-News plays a large role in telling us what to think and does so through prioritizing of reports. -News emerges out of several areas:
1. Commercial News: commodity information. (Note that this has gained in importance since the rise of capitalism and increase in trade.)
2. Political News: information regarding government policies, procedures, announcements, etc.
-The Penny Press: News started in the early 1830’s with Benjamin Day’s The Sun, which was sold on street corners for less than 6 cents. This newspaper increases the coverage of upper and lower classes, and was largely focused on local events, rather than opinions.
• Partisan Press is a big factor of early American news. Here, newspapers were designed for property owners, politically active people, and active commercial elites.
At this time, ships used to come across the Atlantic with the news to inform others about what was going on in the world.
• The Associated Press (AP) was created in 1848. It played a significant role in the promoting of news, as it pooled resources to improve the collection and reporting of news. This news was then distributed to local and some national areas. o With time, news became a commodity, and was sold via the telegraph. o Joseph Pulitzer’s The World was one of the main newspapers at this time, and it competed with The Journal. In order to compete with each other, there was an increase in comics, yellow journalism (sensationalism), and the weighing between fact and entertainment.
-Contradictions of Press in the 1890s:
• All of a sudden, the press became a capitalist business, full of ads and strategies to lure in more readers, such as large, overly dramatic headlines. (These were also used to help people learn how to read, apparently.)
• March 1895: Spain colonized Cuba, and began to repress rebellion, famine, and death. This is a significant news event, as it serves as an example of the American dramatization of news. This was one of the first highly covered event, in which fake pictures were used to try and convey the scope of a fake war. o The media coverage of this event lead to the US declaring war on Spain.
-Understanding the News:
• Objectivity is defined as an unattainable, but theoretically conceivable condition of unbias, and is key within the news world.

o Objective Journalism seeks to distinguish factual reports from opinion columns, in order to maintain a neutral attitude toward the issue or event being covered. This is often done through competing points of view.
 The early press in the US was highly partisan.
 Overall, though, most journalists claim to have no bias.
• Agenda Setting: when the news focuses on particular stories as a means to determine the major topics of discussion of interest and concern to individuals and society. o It tells us what to think about, but not necessarily what to think.
-Most news is based off of official sources, and the most sought out sources are those close to people in power, as they are seen to have more information and be more reliable. There is a symbiotic relationship between sources and journalists.
-Less than 1% of all news is made up of journalist analysis.
-40-45% of news in a newspaper originates with a public relations press release.
-Investigative Journalism is a kind of journalism in which news does not come to reporters through sources that offer information, but is rather gathered as a result of a lot of work oh behalf of the journalist. This is very expensive and time consuming, and is a main reason why it is less common.
-A news peg is a recent event or statement, which is used as a handle on which to hang other, related stories.
-News Biases:
• Generally, it is fair to say that large businesses and wealthy people control the news. o Management > Labor, Corporate > Anti-Corporate, Affluent > Poor, are all relationships seen in the news.
• One of the most common biases in the news reflects the perception of political, racial, class-based, and gender hieracharies within the US. The news generally magnifies social issues. o People with more respectable ideals, like community activists, are rarely seen in the news.
• A bias is often seen in the coverage of elections, as there is minimal importance given to crucial issues, and more given to the horse race and predictions.
• Here are some of the reasons why we get the news that we do: o Bias of newsworthiness in favor of conflict o Public official news management to promote agendas o Corporate completion for the scoop o Ratings o Pressure for profits o Press Releases o Increased Entertainment o Advertiser pressure o Tech/Economic constraints o News Routines.
• Newsworthiness depends on: o Local and national impact in terms of interest and people reached o Historical or future significance. Whether or not it is new.

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o TV sexiness.
The most important stories are: o Government conflicts, decisions, ceremonies, personnel changes o Crimes, scandals, investigations o Wars, conflicts o Disasters- natural and health o Traditions, national ceremonies, holidays, funerals
These stories focus on the following most important people: o The president or high government official o World leaders o Violators of the law o Celebrities o Victims o Voters

-News has trended in various ways recently:
Increase in …
Decrease in …
Infotainment, soft news, tabloid news,
International News celebrity journalism
Ratings competition
Opinion
Branding of news
Self Censorship
Grief TV

News Management and Censorship:
Documentary: PBS Frontline: News War
This is the documentary about George W. Bush’s manipulation of the media throughout his presidency. -Bush used his administration as a means to sell a point of view through a pattern of carefully-selected speeches. One of the most common stories sold concerned the weapons of mass destruction.
• The NYT played a big role in promoting Bush’s agenda, as they used materials given to them by the government in their articles. In this case, the reporters thought that they were getting an exclusive scoop to an important story, and thus were more than willing to go out of their way to publish them. o This lead to many news publications getting stories wrong, and brought up the essential question of: how can the press be a watchdog when it communicates false stories?
-May 2003: Baghdad fell, but there was still no sight of WMD’s. People starting wondering where they were come summer of 2003. The New Yorker was one of the first media sources to publish this doubt, by stating that there was never a uranium deal in Niger, as previously believed. Despite this, though, Bush continued to make false claims in speeches.

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It was discovered that this story was given by the administration as a means to manipulate the press. The leak of it, though, had very negative effects on the government and undermined the fabric of journalism.

-The government had many ways to get information, many of which were illegal. The press gets its information through claims of ‘confidentiality’. Government can only use subpoenas when all other lines of communication are close and the information could be life threatening. -The Bush administration was obsessed with capturing authority through the media. The
President had specific ideas about the press, and did not accept that the press take up a public interest role etc. He wanted to maintain the excessive secrecy in government.
• As the war progressed, more secrets were leaked. Bush tried to counter this by allowing for the NSA to wiretap and suspicious actions without a court order.
• Bush even met with the press corps in 2005 for an off-record conversation in which he stressed that the press be careful about what it publishes as national security was at risk. Bush was more than ready to blame the press for any issues the US had.
Reporters claimed that they never published material that would threaten national security. Public Relations and Propaganda:
-Persuasion: a communicative process designed to influence others to evoke a specific change in their attitude or behaviors. A persuasive message has a point of view, and hopes that the recipient will adopt the same point of view. Propaganda is a category of persuasion.
• Persuasion is more interactive than propaganda, as both the persuader and the persuade have their needs fulfilled. It is much more mutually satisfying.
-Public Relations: the attempt, by information, persuasion and adjustment to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution.
• It is the management of information by individuals or organizations for the purpose of creating good will. It seeks to: o Shape the image of an individual or organization o Repair the image of an individual or organization o Establish two-way communication between consumers and companies.
• PR Firms are responsible for: o Generating good publicity for their clients o Producing ads, press releases for use by the news media o Involvement in public affairs to generate a good image o Lobby state legislatures and congress. o Get involved in community or minority relations.
-Financial PR: enhancement of communication between investor-owned companies and their shareholders.
-Industry relations: enhance communication with other companies in their line of business.
Hill and Knowlton is one of the most famous PR firms. It was responsible for helping
Enron through its scandal. Tiger Woods is another example of a PR lesson.

-Ivy Lee: the founder of PR, who thought that a good approach was to be direct and honest in life, rather than being deceptive. Edward Bernays was the father of public relations, as he furthered this work. He also happened to be Freud’s nephew, and coined the term of PR.
-Propaganda: the propagandist usually conceals the true purpose or goals of his or her messages. It is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist. (Jowett and O’Donnell.)
• It is meant to promote particular ideas and produce specific effects among the target population. It is a form of organized mass persuasion, where the balance of power is held within the propagandist.
• There are three types of propaganda:
1. White: the source is identified correctly, and the information presented is generally accurate. It is presented in a manner designed to convince the audience that the sender is a great, friendly person. This intends to build credibility within the audience.
a. EX: presidential appearances before the troops etc.
2. Black: credited to false sources and spreads lies, fabrications and deceptions.
a. EX: Brits airing ‘war news’ that was in fact a German undercover operation designed to reduce moral of British people.
3. Grey: Between black and white. Source may or may not be correctly identified, and the accuracy of information is uncertain.
-Propaganda Tactics:
• Withholding vital information
• Invoking powerful symbols
• Use of simple images and slogans
• Uses meaningless associations (Germans= gorillas)
• Life or death choices with regards to war
• Enemy dehumanized, so that he can be killed without guilt.
-Examples of propaganda:
• Presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
• Operation Desert Storm
-Nayirah: this is a woman that appeared before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, and she became the face of violence against women in Kuwait. This was a huge propaganda campaign. • Note that this is a caucus, not an official committee. This allowed her to lie without being under oath. Her whole story was broadcast and eventually used by the first
President Bush to talk about how savage Iraq was. This lead to people being in favor of the war. o This was a fake story all along. She had been coached and rehearsed by Hill and Knowlton. It is through stories such as this one that Operation Desert
Storm could exist.
 Note the name, Operation Desert Storm. This name was intended to sway public opinion.

-In analyzing propaganda, it is important to ask yourself:
• What is the image trying to convey?
• What is the structure of the organization?
• Who is the target audience?
• What media utilization techniques were used?
-A recent type of PR that has emerged is called Green Washing. This is making environmental claims if you are a company that damages, or at least does not improve the environment. For an example, BP changed their logo etc, no longer wanted to refer to themselves as British Petroleum.

The Greatest Story Ever Sold: REVIEW IT.
Celebrity Culture and the Media:
-There has been a recent rise in celebrity culture due to:
• Industrial and business relations: This is great material to fill in spots and add color to a media report. It sells very well.
• Individual and psychological reasons: This helps with our need for identification, and gives us an idea of how to get positive feelings or allows us to.
• Cultural Reasons: synergies in publication.
• The rise in the number of teens in the 21st century. The main market for celebrity culture were women aged 18-34.
• Rise in outlets of celebrity titles after 9/11
-The hypothesis of celebrity culture is:
• We have an innate appeal of stardom and fantasies of rising about the herd. WE want to be seen as distinct individuals with some special abilities.
• It is a substitute for religions and gods.
• It is a substitute for real world interactions.
• It reinforces or even supplements social interactions.
-The role of celebrities themselves:
• Invited to public stage as others watch
• Can express themselves with individuality and idiosyncrasy.
• Participates openly as a marketable commodity, as they are also selling themselves.
• They make the existing economic hierarchy seem thrilling. The distribution of wealth is personified.
• Celebrity status gives people a voice above others
-Celebrties are a blend of the exceptional and the everyday. Their power comes from a blend of the extraordinary and the familiar.
-Types of interactions:
• Parasocial Interaction: engaging the television. It is the compensation for gaps in real life and derives from a lack of something.
• Face-to-face: can see expressions, it is unmediated

Mediated: there is some technical medium between communicators
Mediated Quasi-Interactions: mass media, where you have one-to-many interactions. -Relationship between celebrity and people:
• Identification: recognizes some characteristics in the media figure in themselves.
• Wishful identification: we desire to emulate the figure
• Affinity: we like the media figure without identifying with him or her.
-Transportation Theory: this seeks to specify mechanisms of media enjoyment. It conceptualizes transportation as a distinct mental process that molds attention, imagery and feelings. It facilitates enjoyment. Audiences are eager to escape in such an alternative universe and to be take from mundane reality to a story, worriless world. This expands our horizons. -Types of celebrities:
• Ascribed: born into celebrity
• Achieved: becoming a celebrity because of skill or talent
• Attributed: a celebrity because they are the center of a story, despite the fact that they haven’t done anything substantial.
-Celebrity culture and women:
• Self-Regulation of physique, and comportment.
• Perfect consumer
• Women often pitted against each other
• Having children is very important.
• Women are good judges of character.
-Celebrity Culture and men:
• Manage career properly, be financially and articically successful.
• Don’t cheat, or at least don’t get caught
• Don’t be arrogant, be modest
• Be a good family man
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-Turning point of celebrity culture: 1970’s.
• People Magazine, National Enquirer, Barbara Walters, Entertainment Tonight. o The real explosion of celebrity and online publications was after 9/11 as sales soared. By 2005, celebrity news consumed more space in magazines than any other topic.

Media and Globalization:
-Technology and new media have completely revolutionize our world. It has become an extension of ourselves.
-All communications technologies are scopic technologies, which means that they are instruments of viewing, listening, and observing. They can slide out perceptions outward or inward. -There are many views on technology:
• Utopian Predictions: it helps improve our understanding, equalize power relationships, bring world peace. It is the idea of what technology can provide.

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Dystopian Prediction: it is a threat to our privacy, as it allows strangers easier access to us and will lead to further cementation of inequality and power relations. It can be used to spread propaganda, hate messages, pornography. This is the grimmest version of technology.

-Globalization: the growing integration of economies and societies around the world. With globalization, if there are issues, they can affect others instantly.
• Distance and time are compressed
• Increased velocity of human affairs
• Heightened possibilities for social interconnectedness
• Increased possibilities for cultural imperialism
• Importance of local, nation boundaries are undermined.
• Increased possibilities for actions between people.
-Cultural imperialism: this is seen as a form of colonialism, as there is a sense that alien western ideas are being imposed on people. Due to the growing influence of globalization, the cultural power in some areas is receding.
-What values do the global media promote?
• Consumerism
• Individualism
• Inevitability of class inequality
• Little hope for social change
-The Internet is a vast central network of high-speed telephone lines designed to link and carry computer information worldwide. These networks carry a high volume of computer data at high speeds. It is a true, decentralized, network. Messages are broken up into packets.
-ARPAnet: This grew out of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, and is a sponsoring of defense related research.
-The US is at the center of the media empire. Other people and countries know all about it due to our exposure to them through the media. We, however, know very little about other countries. This is caused by the proximity and media system in place. We do have many transnational corporations, that dominate the US and world media market. (Disney, Sony etc.) • Action movies are one of the first ways in which we exported our culture, as they are rather easy to understand due to their decreased dialogue and great visuals.
Animation is another of these easily exportable genres.
-There is a feat that the growing media market will lead to neoliberalism, as some people suggest that the government is too controlling and that it places too much emphasis on growing its international brand.
-New Media:
• The internet does more than simply facilitate direct communication. It can allow for many things, while prohibiting others. Web 2.0 is seen through the various social

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networks and databases all over the Internet today. These focus on availability, convergence, revolution and multitasking. New media has given us 24 hour access to news and information. We do have to wonder how we know what we know, though. The new media is: o Speeding up the pace of life and expectations for the speed with which we should get information o Modernizing language with new, technical terms. (google) o Easing access to news, where people can choose what they read. We have access to news articles at a greater speed. o Government is still struggling with the idea of law and the first amendment.
We do not know what is considered intellectual property and what is not o Increases ones contacts with people you would not have met, or simply cannot talk to otherwise o Increase of commerce internationally.

Media, Music and Social Change
Masculinity:
-Studies have shown that the media plays an important role in creating gender roles and perceptions of gender. Masculinity and Femininity are costumes that we learn to put on from a young age. Both men and women are socialized to adopt acceptable, or appropriate behavior. -Gender: cultural meanings attributed to biological differences--men and women are acculturated into their gender roles--masculinity and femininity a set of social expectations
-Masculinity: What a culture expects of its men. There are several types of masculinity: dominant masculinities and subordinate masculinities.
-The media plays an important role in portraying positive and negative images of how men should act. One of the expected aspects of masculinity is that dominance of men over women is normal.
-Hegemonic masculinity: The dominant image of men, which is often seen in actionadventure films and TV shows. It depicts a hyper-masculine ideal of toughness and dominance, with men defined in relation to power, technology, aggression. These men have an aggressive masculinity, expressed through guns, helicopters, tanks, other instruments of death. Additionally, the emphasis on the male body, it musculature and strength, its ability to withstand torture and kill efficiently is very important.
Hyper Masculinity: when all of the hegemonic elements come together in one character.
• Ex: Bruce Willis in Die Hard. He has a gun, is powering over his victim, shirtless, tattooed, smoking, has a huge pain tolerance, is sotic, can outman any man.
-There are many kinds of masculinity in the music industry:
• Hip Hop: gangsters kill, get girls, dominate all.

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Bon Jovi, Living on a Prayer: Very stylized image, big hair, fringe jacket, tight pants, singing close to other men, ripple jeans, running around, commanding audience, male bonding, all girls want him, bad bow image, mastery of technology with harness. He can own both masculine and feminine cues.
LFO: male bonding, dancing, girls all over them, singing directly to audience, giving girls attention, not taking things seriously. Directed to women through telegraphic gestures that mirror the lyrics.
One Direction: hanging out together on the beach, jumping through water, girls love thme, very fashionable etc. Very welcoming.

-There has also been the emergence of the sensitive new-age guy, who is focused on family, emotions, change in women, and is very caring of others.
Success for men can be defined by:
• Occupying a high status position
• Initiating action
• Rational > emotional
• Financially successful
• Strong in many facets.
-There is a very recent emergence of the gay chic, which has been legitimated by the media.
This has been met but an emergence of the metrosexual, as well.
-Nonetheless, lad masculinity, where men objectify women, still exists. This is marked by an appreciation for sports and drinking, as well.

The Images of Women in the Media:
-The role of women has greatly improved since the 1950-60s, where the media significantly underrepresented and underreported the achievements and goals of women. Today it is fair to say that the media actually over represents and over reports these.
-The media is also responsible for presenting a mixed message of what it means to be a woman. There is a war between femininity, feminism, and anti-feminism. Women have a love hate relationship with the media, which either seeks to empower and flatter them, or seeks to make them feel badly about themselves, forcing them to buy new products and change their lifestyles.
-Fragmented subjectivity: here the woman inhabits multiple personas, some in conflict with each other. She is able to identify with the contradiction itself. We are presented with an array of different kinds of women that women have to learn how to play, while embracing their different personalities.
• Ex: A librarian should do her job as a serious, studious person. But, she should also be a party girl at night.
§Stereotypes of women in the media, 1950s and 1960s: The Feminine Mystique:

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In 1960s—Feminine Mystique identifies women’s second class citizenship o Biology is destiny o All women have built-in maternal instinct o Women are nurturing, passive, and inherently domestic o Overly emotional, hysterical o Illogical, not rational o Poor drivers, techno-phobic o Bad at math and science

-Affirmative Action has been racialized, however it was initially used for women. There were many discriminatory practices against pay, employment etc. This lead to the rise of the women’s movement.
-Symbolic Annihilation: the systematic underrepresentation of a particular group or groups and/or media representations that favor stereotypes and omit realistic portrayals
Women—“to be looked at;” men act, women appear.
-In the 1970s there was the explosion of feminist scholarship. This revealed that women were seen as having to be:
• Beautiful and slim
• Under 25
• Weak, possive, dump
• Not decision makers.
• If they worked, the would be secretaries, nurses, teachers etc.
• They are sex objects, used to sell products.
-At this time, women were taught to put themselves under constant surveillance.
• 75% of women think thast they are 15
• Since 1979, Miss America Contestantts have been 15% below ideal body weight
• Model proportions are not average.
• 85% of body doubles in movies had breast implants. This surgery has increased by
54% since 2000.
-This was met rather negatively from women, so the media had to respond to this movement. This is where characters like Superwoman came into play.
-Rise of embedded feminism—feminist politics is taken for granted, its sensibilities folded into various media texts. Roseanne is an example of this. New feminine politics all of a sudden began to be embedded in shows.
• There were still significant issues with the representation of women, though. If you were not feminine enough, for example, you would not be a woman. o This led to the rise of girl power, which was a movement spearheaded by the Spice Girls. This in turn lead to third wave feminism, which brings a new female superhero to the public. Ex: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. o However, some of these shows mixed bringing awareness with resurrecting stereotypes. – Clueless, Legally Blonde.
 This lead to the struggle between embedded feminism and enlightened sexism in the media. Embedded feminism would cast female cahracters that were empowered. Enlightened sexism would cast the Girls Gone Wild, Real World, type.

-The most underrepresented group in the media are older women (over 65). Men are seen as middle aged. Women as elderly.
-Post Feminism: An ideology that insists that feminism’s goals have been achieved. This movement thinks that feminism is an irrelevant, outdated, and spent force. As a result, sexist images of women are accepted. Post-feminism relies on repudiating feminism: “I’m not a feminist, but…”. Here, female freedom and ambition taken for granted (no past “struggle”).
Media texts often enact sexism to show how humorless women are, and to show the fminists that their ideology is no longer needed. It comes with an assumption that women can now get all of the same jobs etc. as men.
There are, however, significant gaps between image and reality:
• Women segregated into low paying jobs; in 2007, nearly half confined to 20 occupational categories, median income just over $27,000
• White women still make 75 cents to a man’s dollar (it’s 62 cents for AfricanAmerican and only 53 cents for Latina women)
• Median income for women, 2006, just over $32,000 a year, more than 31 percent less than their male counterparts
• A year out of college, women earn 80% of what men make. And ten years out? 69%.
• Young men four times more likely to negotiate their first salary than young women, resulting in $500,000 more in earnings by age 60.
• The majority of poor people in U. S. are women, gap in poverty rates between men and women wider here than anywhere in Western world o So important to examine the relationship between media representations of women and women’s ongoing inequality

Race and the Media:
-In our culture, race is generally just applied to non-whites. This is a social construct. Race is not a category of nature; it is an ideology through which unequal distributions of wealth and power naturalized, a mode of placing cultural meaning on the body
-Physiognomy is relevant to race in the sense that we are born with different skin colors, we may have different facial formations, eye color or shape, hair etc. However, with time, these have become socially defined as markers of other kinds of differences, such as emotional, intellectual, psychological difference.
-Entman and Rojecki:
• Segregationn heightens the importance of media images.
• White ambivalence on race: it is a mix of animosity and yearning for racial harmony.
• Media can sometimes convey images of harmony and similarity. This can be a double-edged sword though, as stereotypes can then be created, or a false perception of equality can be conveyed.
-Media has been a source of perpetuating, repeating, and reinforcing racial stereotypes
And also a place for challenging those stereotypes

-One of the biggest issues for various minority groups has been invisibility—being vastly under-represented in the media, as Latinos and Asian American are—again, symbolic annihilation African Americans:
-Stereotypes of African Americans became cemented in the 19th century with the rise and huge popularity of Minstrel Shows
• Nathan Huggins coined the term "Stage Negro" to describe the white invention, in the 19th century, of a black character type who appeared in minstrel shows--the
Stage Negro served to delimit the terms of black identity within popular culture. At this time, the Stage Negro represented what whites feared within themselves. This was a way to laugh at their situation etc.
-The Stage Negro:
• Childlike--could be duped into most idiotic schemes
• Songs were vulgar, stories gross and broad
• Lazy, slow moving, hated work, terrified of ghosts
• Loved music, had natural aptitude for dancing and rhythmical movement
• Insatiable in his bodily appetites, esp. for food--watermelon, pork and fried chicken-and sex
• Indifferent to success, innocent of obligation, a person devoid of tension and anxiety
• Stage Negro--the antithesis of the Protestant work ethic. o Other stereotypes:
 The Contented Slave--loves his/her station in life, like black mammies or butlers
 Wretched Freedman--can't really cope with being free--can't hold down a job, not successful as head of the family
 Brute Negro--Militant black, anti-white, anti-society, pro-black
 Comic Negro--mission in life is to be funny
 Tragic Mulatto—belonged neither in white or black society, culture
-Jim Crow (the character): He was an unintelligent, plantation-bred, black male who was known for his love of watermelon and chicken.
-Jim Dandy: An urban black male, silk hat, cane etc. He was the vain, black man overstepping his bounds.
-1860s: height of the Minstrel ear, as there were hundreds of different companies
• 1920: 3 companies. By the turn of the century, Blacks were able to get past the
Minstrel era as many whites started embracing parts of black pop culture. Music gave credibility to blacks throughout the world. o The media has played an important role in providing a vehicle for the circulation of African American music, style, fashion etc throughout society.  So in some ways, it perpetuated stereotypes, but it in others, it provided an opening to society.
-Amos N’ Andy: two former Minstrels that moved to radio and film.

-Image of Black Women:
• They are often referred to as: o Mammies o Being over sexed o Servants
-Image of Black Men: o Dumb o Over Sexed o Childlike
-1970s: The media put pictures on TV that allowed for people to change their perceptions and increase their Civil Rights Awareness. This redefined racial justice. The Black Panther
Party was one of the main images of this, as they worked to fight police brutality. They wanted to fight the over-representation of blacks as criminals.
-Obama is the perfect example of how we allegedly now live in a post-racial society, but this may not in fact be the case.
View of Chinese:
• With influx of Chinese workers who built America’s railroads in the 19th century, rise of the “yellow peril”
• The notion that Asians indelibly alien; threaten the economy, bring corruption
• Cast as threat of pollution, threat to the nation
• Asian women as docile, subservient to men—but also as ruthless dragon ladies
• Yet, we get Asian Americans as “model minority”—model of successful assimilation
View of Native Americans:
• Obstacle to westward expansion
• All tribes are reduced to simply being Indians
• Barbaric, uncivilized
• Primitive, passive, full of childlike obedience
• Can be a loyal sidekick
Views of Arabs:
• Largely influenced by 9/11, which has lead to a lot of racial profiling as terrorists etc.
• All from middle east are islamists, Muslims
• Videogames perpetuate these stereotypes, same with Aladdin etc. It is not just a
Mexicans and Latinos in the media:
• Lazy, corrupt, sadistic, dirty
• Unskilled, unsuccessful hordes stealing American jobs
• Yet also stereotype of Latin lover
• Latinas as either impoverished mothers of too many children or overly sensual Latin
“spitfires”

Class and the Media:
Guide of class dismissed: http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/411/studyguide_411.pdf