In the article titled, “The Portrayal of Racial Minorities
on Prime Time Television” by Dana E. Mastro and Bradley S. Greenberg, the
authors present a content analysis from the fall 1996 prime television
schedule. Over the course of six weeks participants watched fictional
entertainment programs on ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC. The purpose of this study was
to examine the linkage between social perceptions of Latinos on their TV roles.
The authors looked at how television portrays Latino TV characters individual demographic
and personal attributes, their relative importance to the story, and the nature
of their character interactions with others in the show. Although this study
focused mainly on the representation of Latinos on prime time TV, I was more
interested in the results they found on the portrayal of African Americans.
There were two particular results that really surprised me.
One being that 16% of African Americans were featured as main and minor roles
in prime time television shows and that African American characters were
portrayed more negatively than Latino characters on TV. They were seen as more
lazy, disrespectful and provocative in dress. If this study were conducted
today, and looked at the representation of African Americans on prime time TV, I
believe the results would show the complete opposite. If you consider shows
such as, Scandal, Revolution, Guys With
Kids, 666 Park Avenue, and Chicago Fire, all of these prime time television
series feature strong, influential African Americans who have taken on major
roles. The shows depict positive portrayals of African Americans. These
characters are intelligent, charismatic, and lively, they are they least bit
lazy and disrespectful.
For those who have not seen Scandal, I highly recommend you do. This past Tuesday the 3rd
season aired on ABC so, start watching! Kerry Washington, who is an affluent
African American actress, assumes the main role as Olivia Pope. I love this
show because it provides African Americans with something positive. Kerry is a
strong, inspirational woman and her character provides the audience with
someone they can aspire to be. This show, as well as the ones listed above,
finally represents African Americans in a way where they are taken seriously
and have the capability to perform to a larger audience but African Americans
are still very underrepresented in prime time TV.
What will it take for more African Americans to be casted as
major roles? Is there a need for more African American screenwriters/directors/producers?
Thoughts?
You make some very interesting points regarding how people are portrayed in media. This is important when discussing minorities because media contributes a substantial amount to how we categorize individuals. When watching movies or even shows, we usually see the same type of character being shows over and over again. This is very essential when understanding how media controls certain aspects of how we perceive others because it can reflect negatively or positively in our daily interactions with others. I would like to add that I don’t think that have an African Screenwriter or director is enough for making sure that African Americans are portrayed a certain way; this is because first there are so many ideas that would need to come in to mind when directing. This would mean that many people would have a say on what should or should not be shown when directing, and because it’s almost a comfortable factor or an expectation to see Black or Latinos portrayed a certain way, it would be more difficult to escape what we are used to seeing. I also believe that money plays a huge factor in this because many movies or shows are shown for entertainment purposes rather than informational purposes. Therefore, directors can get attention from a larger audience by portraying Blacks a certain way (negatively) then that can also be a reason as to why it would be difficult to cast an African American in major positive roles.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of it has to do with writers and directors having the power to create and cast the shows. If they were more conscious about not always showing the same stereotypes, then things would change. The media is very powerful and pretty much what they feed us is what we see. I totally agree with Scandal and how it's an awesome show with such a powerful black woman as the lead. I also think of shows like Grey's Anatomy where a lot of the main cast members are powerful African Americans, and that is one of the most popular TV shows. I think if more writers and people involved in TV stopped being afraid and took the stance against stereotypes on TV.
ReplyDeleteZeba, I agree with you in that the money plays a huge factor when it comes to creating movies and tv shows and that programs are created purely for entertainment and not so much for informational purposes. When you mentioned that directors get attention from a larger audience by portraying blacks negatively, I’m not sure I agree with that. I think white men, who are the owners of networks/production companies ect. are the ones responsible for portraying blacks negatively because they are in charge of what we see in the media. The shows and movies we see cater to their taste, which happens to portray blacks negatively. That also can be attributed to why blacks are not cast in more positive roles.
ReplyDeleteAlex, I agree with you in that if more writers and people involved in TV took a stance against stereotypes on TV, what we see in the media would be a lot different. The media perpetuates negative stereotypes of African Americans and we are influenced by the content we see. If writers and directors stop using stereotypes in their shows, this could open the door for more positive roles for blacks.