Gender, Race and Media

The media plays an important and integral role in the society. The media gives meaning about gender, race and ethnicity. The media is essential to the understanding the questions about sexism, race, and gender. Race deals with the classification of individuals solely based on the color of their skin. Ethnicity, however, is delineates individuals based on their nationalities such as Mexicans, Chinese based on their cultural ancestry and language. Sexism is the delineation of individuals on the principle of sexual orientation and the general perception of the certain person towards a particular gender (Holtzman & Sharpe, 2014). The media, therefore, plays a significant role in either encouraging delineations based on gender, race or ethnicity or can help in the cohesion of the diverse nature of the human population.

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The media is made up the social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, the news and broadcasting stations and the print media. The print media make publications that can either encourage national cohesion or the disintegration of the core values that holds humanity together. The use of social platforms which has been encouraged by the diversification of the software developments has necessitated high levels of communication and the global outreach. Such platforms if not regulated accordingly so that they do not facilitate hatred, sexisms, and racism, can contribute largely to the lawlessness and political instability among the population. Racist and sexist can take advantage of the social media platforms to disintegrate the cohesion in the population. The availability of the global internet makes the world a global village and individual can obtain information and share ideologies easily. However, some racists and sexist have developed their websites that lower the human dignity. They have developed racist sites that promote hatred based on the racial orientation of individuals. Such sites include www.racist.com and www.helloracist.com.

The kind and manner in which information is shared among the population have significant bearing in the upholding the human values and dignities (Holtzman & Sharpe, 2014). It is, therefore, pragmatic for every individual and the media and the communication commissions to take responsibility in good social integration and the dissemination of information. Some of the newspaper publications also delineate the population. The recent newspaper publication by the Philadelphia Daily News in praising Gabby Douglas for raising above the racist criticism during the Olympics. The article, however, used the image of Simone Biles in the place of the successful Gabby Douglas.

The article derails the position of women and their roles in the society. The women face domestic violence and are viewed as sexual objects. The dissemination of polarized gender images and images by the media fraternity has significant anti-social effects on the population (Holtzman & Sharpe, 2014). The female gender has been alienated to perform certain roles in the society. The manner in which femininity is portrayed in the adverts, television programs, newspaper articles and magazines, in the music and videos, in the video games and the homes show that the women are given secondary roles. The media facilitates the development of the gender stereotypes among the population.

Masculinity is represented by the total dominance of the male gender in taking active roles. The men represent a lot of aggression and violence towards the women. Women are represented as victims who cannot defend for themselves and are occasionally subjected to sexual assaults, domestic abuse, and harassment which often lead to murder. The working women in most of the media are represented stereotypically as unattractive, their inability to sustain relationships and unfulfilled in their lives. The working women are often blamed for the emotional neglect towards their children (Holtzman & Sharpe, 2014). The magazines also tend to make the women conform to the ideals that relegate women in their subordinate position about the men. The film industry is a subject of racial, gender and ethnical discrimination. Certain roles are meant for some specific group of individuals and of the particular gender. Such unfair alienation on roles especially in the Hollywood showbiz should not be encouraged. For instance, in the series The Haves and Have-nots, the position of women and racial prejudice play the significant role in the development of the themes.

The house maids in the series are women from the African-American origin. Most of the African-Americans in the series experience a lot of discrimination and manipulation even by the judicial system. They are depicted to be engaging in drugs trafficking and the escort business so as to earn a decent living. Candice with his associates has resorted to conning and blackmails. For instance, David Harrington, the judge although he was the best candidate for the governors position it was deemed that the population was not ready for an African-American governor.

Overall, the mass media has to take an active role in providing media education to the population so that they promote national cohesion and integration (Holtzman & Sharpe, 2014). The media can help in the transformation of the society about the racial, gender and ethnicity challenges in the contemporary society. It is the responsibility of every individual to use the social media to empower marginalized communities and individuals so that there can be peaceful coexistence and sound social values.

References

Holtzman, L., & Sharpe, L. (2014). Media messages: What film, television, and popular music teach us about race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Routledge.