Stereotypes in Mass Media Essay Example
Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.
But stereotypes can be problematic. They can:
• reduce a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations
• transform assumptions about particular groups of people into "realities"
• be used to justify the position of those in power
• perpetuate social prejudice and inequality
More often than not, the groups being stereotyped have little to say about how they are represented.
When we talk about magazine there is lot to tell. First let us see what a magazines are publications which may be weekly, quarterly, monthly or bimonthly which give lot of information, education and entertainment. They are everywhere. It has been one of the most influential forms of journalism, reasonably withstanding even the pressures and easy access to people.
Magazines are full of useful information and juicy gossips, two things people apparently cannot live without. Some magazines also seem to be dictating unrealistic gender stereotypes, sending subliminal messages to both men and women. After perusing three different magazines the conclusion might be drawn that magazines are portraying men and women in a unrealistic terms, providing messages to men and women about how they should look, act, shop, etc.
The femme fatale, the super mom, the sex kitten, the nasty corporate climber. Whatever the role in popular magazines are full of images of women and girls who are typically white, desperately thin, and made up to the hilt—even after slaying a gang of vampires or dressing down a Greek legion.
Many would agree that some strides have been made in how the media portray women
But stereotypes can be problematic. They can:
• reduce a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations
• transform assumptions about particular groups of people into "realities"
• be used to justify the position of those in power
• perpetuate social prejudice and inequality
More often than not, the groups being stereotyped have little to say about how they are represented.
When we talk about magazine there is lot to tell. First let us see what a magazines are publications which may be weekly, quarterly, monthly or bimonthly which give lot of information, education and entertainment. They are everywhere. It has been one of the most influential forms of journalism, reasonably withstanding even the pressures and easy access to people.
Magazines are full of useful information and juicy gossips, two things people apparently cannot live without. Some magazines also seem to be dictating unrealistic gender stereotypes, sending subliminal messages to both men and women. After perusing three different magazines the conclusion might be drawn that magazines are portraying men and women in a unrealistic terms, providing messages to men and women about how they should look, act, shop, etc.
The femme fatale, the super mom, the sex kitten, the nasty corporate climber. Whatever the role in popular magazines are full of images of women and girls who are typically white, desperately thin, and made up to the hilt—even after slaying a gang of vampires or dressing down a Greek legion.
Many would agree that some strides have been made in how the media portray women