People’s cognitions about racial/ethnic minority group are influenced by media. People engage in social categorization and often use stereotypes for people who do not share similar social group memberships to reinforce the status quo. Stereotypes are also used to justify existing social hierarchies.
Different minority groups are represented in different ways in the media:
- Black representations
This minority group is proportionally presented on television. However, they are represented in roles that serve to perpetuate and increase negative stereotyping. Nowadays, this representation has improved and blacks are more often in more appropriate roles on television. The typical representation was of black male as criminals and aggressive and black women as either asexual and sweet or as highly sexual. News representation continues to promote the stereotype of the black criminal. This bifurcation might lead black people to internalize failure. Black people are still underrepresented in video games and video games still use the stereotype of the black criminal. - Latino representations
This minority group is underrepresented on television. They are also still stereotypically represented. The stereotype is that of the Latino lover and is highly sexualized or the Latino criminal who is lazy and unintelligent. The image of the Latino criminal has decreased but the image of the Latino lover has not. In the news, Latinos are likely to be portrayed as poor, dangerous and criminal due to immigration debate. Latinos barely appear in videogames. - Asian representations
This minority group is underrepresented on television. The typical stereotype is the Asian as villain who is intelligent, devious and has martial arts skills. The Asian female is stereotyped as sexualized but dangerous. Asians appear in greater numbers in videogames than in other media and the stereotype exists here too. In advertisements, Asians are most likely to be seen as professional and involved in the technological sector. - Native American representations
This group is proportionally represented in the media. Most representations are historical representations. One stereotype of Native Americans is animalistic, aggressive and uncivilized. The other stereotype of Native Americans is being wise, spiritual and connected to nature. - Middle Eastern Representations
This group is typically portrayed as terrorists in the news and entertainment. Threat and fear are often linked to Middle Easterners. They are often depicted as violent and dangerous adversaries.
There is a relationship between exposure to racial/ethnic portrayals in the media and evaluations of race/ethnicity in terms of social roles, pro-minority policies and stereotype consistent race-related attitudes and beliefs.
Exposure to media stereotypes of racial/ethnic minorities may increase individuals’ propensity to making prejudicial real-world judgments of these groups. Racial stereotyping may also increase after exposure to stereotypes of racial/ethnic minorities in videogames. Exposure to stereotypes of minorities in the media may result in negative real-world judgements that deviate from the media stereotype but are representative of other minority stereotypes (e.g. lazy Latino stereotype makes the Latino lover stereotype more salient).
Exposure to media stereotypes may create and shape cognitive structures one has about a race/ethnic group (e.g. create stereotypes). The I nfluence of media stereotypes of racial/ethnic groups on individuals’ attitudes and beliefs is more impactful the less real-world contact an individual has with a minority group.
Prototypes are a set of features commonly associated with members of a category. A prototype provides individuals with a generalization consisting of de-individuation information that can be applied when making judgements about a person who is determined to be a member of that group (i.e. the prototypical group). Exemplars are specific examples of a categorical group that are used as a basis for comparison when making judgements about a member of the group.
The intergroup contact theory states that greater interpersonal experience with members of a minority group and the more positive that contact, the less influence negative media stereotypes will have on one’s judgement.
The priming effects of media on stereotypes of minority groups may be aided by heuristic processing (1) and the illusory correlation (2). Vividness of media messages may contribute to stereotyping and media images of minorities may be particularly vivid because they are not represented as often as the majority group.
Sub-typing refers to group people of a minority who violate the stereotype in a sub-category.
Media portrayals can influence behaviour with stereotypes leading to more negative behaviour regarding that stereotype. If race or ethnicity is not salient for the person viewing the media image, then people are more likely to act in line with the primed stereotype. If race or ethnicity is salient for the person viewing the media image, then people are less likely to act in line with the primed stereotype.
Media images have been linked to self-esteem for the minority groups and body satisfaction. The exposure to the stereotyped image of one’s group leads to lower self-esteem while exposure to a proper image of one’s group leads to higher self-esteem.
Ethnic identity gratifications avoidance refers to believing that media (e.g. television) fails to provide one with a model with whom they can identify and thus avoid using that form of media.
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