Question

What role does popular media play in societal stereotypes? And How does societal stereotypes affect our self-perceptions?

Answer 1

Mass media have huge reach in society and are a key filter through which people learn about each other, yet countless studies demonstrate that these media continue to reproduce ethnic and racial stereotypes, with often harmful effects. Very often, when minorities are represented in the media , they are shown only in narrowly stereotyped roles, such as the model Asian migrant or the exotic Latina, or depicted negatively as the problematic “other,”. Researchers have found that prolonged television exposure predicts a decrease in self-esteem for all girls and for black boys, but an increase in self-esteem for white boys. These differences correlate with the racial and gender practices in movie and tv shows, which predominantly casts white men as heroes, while erasing or subordinating other groups