Essay Example on Exploring Social Identity Through Media Messages

Social identity signifies the way individuals' concepts and perceptions of things are found in their connection in social groups. The social groups include; sports teams, ethnic groups, gender, sexual orientation, and nationalities. Social identities are most persuasive when people consider membership in a particular group to be central to their self-concept and they feel strong emotional ties to the group. Therefore, a social group of people that appeals to me to analyze their media messages is African-Americans.

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African-Americans have undergone a lot of stereotyping and thus, have had a disadvantaged status in the United States society. However, the stereotyping has been both positive and negative. Thus, according to (Breslau et al. 2006, African-Americans have a sense of self-worth, high self-esteem, and good mental health. Also, this group of individuals have a high sense of spirituality. Thus, most of them are keen on living a religious life. Additionally, African-Americans are optimistic about living a successful life. Another positive perception of this social group is African-Americans put more effort on having a successful career. Also, African-Americans cherish being respected by people thus disrespect to this social group can result in chaos. Lastly, African-Americans are not afraid to stand up for their racial or ethnic group even in the face of dire consequences.

The negative stereotyping of this particular group of people includes; firstly African-American males display who display erratic behaviors are not able to assume the responsivities of being a father. Secondly, this group of people are usually violent and thus mostly indulge in criminal activities. Thirdly, African-Americans are do not take education seriously. Fourthly, this group of people is mostly alcohol and drug abusers or sellers. Additionally, many people perceive African-Americans as being poor because most of them are lazy to seek employment or do not have any kind of employment. Another perception of this group is that most people believe that they hold the majority number of people infected with AIDS.

The media had been a tool that has exaggerated some of the actions performed by the African-Americans compared to the whites. The most affected gender is the African-American males. For various unknown reasons the media has often offered a distorted representation of the African-American males. Some of their action have been exaggerated while some omitted to fuel a story. For instance, there has been an underrepresentation of black males in the roles of computer users or as technical experts in television commercials, instead, they are appearing in roles that emphasize less on intellectuality. Additionally, according to Gray-Little and Hafdahl (2000), there has been an underrepresentation of African-Americans as people who use luxury materials on commercials, instead, they are often featured in using more ordinary products.

The media or media messages disrupt or perpetuate stereotypes, prejudice or discrimination in the following ways; the media is a tool that encourages negative stereotyping in the following ways firstly, many aspects of the lives of African-Americans especially males are often missing from the media portrayal however some aspects are exaggerated. The most discussed behavior is the way the media associate criminality with black males specifically in the television news. The African-American males are portrayed in such a way that not only portrays them as criminals but also as particularly threatening compared to the white males who have committed a similar crime. Additionally, there is an overrepresentation of the African-Americans as offenders of ferocious crimes in news reportage but there are underrepresented in more sensitive roles such as victims or law enforcers.

Additionally, the media has disproportionally represented African-Americans in newscast stories about destitution. The stories often paint a picture that aids in reinforcing stereotype sand makes it hard for people to associate with the African-Americans. For instance, blacks with low incomes featured on the news are more likely to live in slums as opposed to rural areas. They are often referred in the news as unemployed or idle. The negative representation causes a lot of stereotyping because an idle black man on a street corner does not represent all the blacks however, the media will represent him in a way to show others that, that is how the black people are. Also, in the entertainment industry, black male characters are used to disproportionally represent victims and perpetrators of violence. Additionally, music videos tend to reinforce false stereotyping of the African-American males and the victimization of the black females. Lastly, the reluctance of the media to provide a more balanced perception of the African-American population worsen the cultural division among different kinds of people because it aids the judges to hand out severer punishments, establishments to deny job opportunities to this group of people, banks to decline to offer loans and police to shoot the blacks indiscriminately.

The Cultivation theory assesses the long-term effects of television. It explains that the more time people spend watching television programs the more they are likely to believe what is portrayed on the television as being real. Thus, the images and ideologies displayed on television heavily influence people's perception of the world. Thus, Cultivation Theory is reflected in the media message analysis in the following ways; Firstly, television shapes the way people within a society think and associate with each other. Realities on television programs are not based on real-life facts but on speculation however most people believe assume that the programs offer life lessons and believe in them. For instance, programs portraying African-Americans as violent people and perpetrators in crimes tend to change how people perceive this group of people. People who watch television for long periods of time thus become paranoid, suspicious or violent of the black community. This results in unnecessary crimes or hatred directed at the African-Americans.

Secondly, television encourages discrimination against African-Americans. When a person believes that what they are watching is true, they tend to be more cautious especially if the program is violent. Most individuals are always sympathetic to the victim even in a television program and would want to protect themselves and their loved ones to prevent what they watched to happen to them. Therefore, this causes a lot of discrimination, especially to the black community. Most of the blacks are denied opportunities and are greatly discriminated, for instance, an African-American is likely to be given a harsher punishment by a judge or a jury compared to a white for the same crime. Also, when in a job interview a black person is likely to be turned down for a job offer even though he or she qualifies for the job.

Conclusion

In summary, I have learned that people should not believe what they hear or read instead they should give someone a chance to explain themselves. Thus, judging on the basis of hearing or reading makes somebody have a wrong impression without even knowing and at times it costs the other person. Therefore, as a media consumer and intercultural communication scholar, I would urge the media to deliver more poised perceptions of the African-American population to prevent cultural division among different races. Thus, I can offer the following solution; the media should choose its words, images, news angles that give a fuller and more nuanced of the African-Americans.

References

Breslau, J., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Kendler, K. S., Su, M., Williams, D., & Kessler, R. C. (2006). Specifying race-ethnic differences in risk for a psychiatric disorder in a USA national sample. Psychological medicine, 36(1), 57-68.

Gray-Little, B., & Hafdahl, A. R. (2000). Factors influencing racial comparisons of self-esteem: A quantitative review. Psychological Bulletin, 126(1), 26.