the usual representation of digital media

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1 Article 1 Set: What is Representation in Media?

There are THREE (3) article options in this set.

What Exactly is Media Representation Anyway?

Tawil, Y. (n.d.).  What exactly is media representation anyway? Arab Film & Media Institute. https://arabfilminstitute.org/what-exactly-is-media-representation-anyway/

The importance of representation in media has been a prominent topic as of late. From the 2015 Oscars “so white” to the heavy discourse surrounding this year’s remake of  Ghostbusters  with an all-woman leading cast, we’ve finally begun to see a shift in attitudes towards the representation of underserved demographics in a variety of media. Even this year’s Olympics in Rio has been a huge force for representation, especially for women of color from all over the world. It is important to understand representation, though truly understanding the depth of a seemingly simple concept can be tough. We’re going to take you through some of the basic concepts of media representation and its importance, both to underserved communities, and to our society at large.

2016 Summer Olympics.

What does representation in the media really mean?

The basic definition of representation in the media is simply how media, such as television, film and books, portray certain types of people or communities. There are a number of groups who are underrepresented in most Western media. They include women, people of color, LBGTQA+ people, people with a range of body shapes and types, people of non-Christian religions, and differently-abled people. There has been a steady increase of diversity in media, but progress has been long and slow.

Ghostbusters  (2016) image – Sony Pictures

But I see diversity in media all the time…

There are a few major ways producers of media can misrepresent a community, under the guise of creating diversity. The first is tokenism.  Tokenism  is when the inclusion of a minority or other underrepresented group is no more than a symbolic effort to make a story or environment seem equal or diverse. This can be seen in many different aspects of life, from the “diversity hires” at work, to the gay best friend in a television show. Another way to misrepresent people is through  stereotyping and typecasting , which are two concepts that are very closely related. Stereotyping can be seen in media through the assumptions of how a certain type of person is supposed to be due to their racial, ethnic, gender, sexual or religious identity. Stereotypes, even those that seem harmless or even positive, can have a profound effect on society as they create unrealistic, and often negative, expectations and assumptions.  Common stereotypes of Arabs in Western media include the Arab man as a terrorist or an oil-hungry sheikh.  Typecasting, which generally refers specifically to actors, is when a person is repeatedly assigned the same type of role due to success with that role in the past or because they “look like” a specific stereotype. This can happen to all types of people, but underrepresented people tend to find themselves pigeonholed into the same roles again and again. Actor and comedian Aziz Ansari wrote  a piece in the New York Times  about the struggles he’s experienced as an Indian actor, and he touched specifically on typecasting. He wrote, “Even though I’ve sold out Madison Square Garden as a standup comedian and have appeared in several films and TV series, when my phone rings, the roles I’m offered are often defined by ethnicity and often require accents.”

Film still from  Raiders of the Lost Ark  (1981) showcasing a stereotypical Arab character.

What’s the importance of representation?

Strong and positive representation can help fight and break down stereotypes that can be detrimental to individuals and limiting to society . When a group of people is only ever represented in negative ways, it adversely affects the way others see them, as well as the way they see themselves. Which means, on the flip side, positive representation can build self-confidence in individuals. It offers them role models to look up to and people and characters to be inspired by and reinforces that they are not lesser than. They can be the superhero, the doctor, the actor or whoever they want to be. The benefits of better representation are also not limited to the people represented. We all benefit from learning about different experiences and expanding our notion of what is “normal”, isn’t this one of the fundamental purposes of art?

More diverse representation also opens up new and better opportunities. For example, there is a specific lack of acting opportunities available to non-white actors, simply because scripts insist on white characters. More diverse scripts, create more diverse roles which create more opportunities for non-white actors. And when this diversity goes a step further, beyond tokenism, it also opens the door for more interesting and complex roles for these actors. All of this ultimately leads to richer stories, new voices and new perspectives in our media.

Film still from  Hidden Figures  (2017)

Well, media companies are just doing what makes them the most money…right?

Not so true. The  2016 Hollywood Diversity Report  from the Ralph J.Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, found that in the United States “increasingly diverse audiences prefer diverse film and television content”. More specifically, the report found that  films with more diverse cast had the highest median global box office receipts and the highest median return on investment.  It also showed that social media engagement peaked for scripted broadcast and cable television shows that also had more diverse casts. So…that theory’s pretty much dead.

Still from  Orange is the New Black,  a show known for it’s diverse cast.

Want to learn more about diversity and representation in the media? Check out our  blog post on diversity reports .

About the Author:  Yasmina Tawil

Article ii:

Racial and cultural diversity in entertainment media.

MediaSmarts. (n.d.).  Racial and cultural diversity in entertainment media.  https://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/media-issues/diversity-media/visible-minorities/racial-cultural-diversity-entertainment-media

In much the same way that racialized groups are under- or misrepresented in news media, they are also not accurately portrayed in entertainment media, which tends to reinforce themes that are conveyed in the news. Although positive change is occurring, it is important that media content more accurately and fairly reflect the reality of Canadian multiculturalism.

There is no question that entertainment media can have a profound effect on how young people see themselves and others. In a 2021 study, children aged nine to 12 who were asked how they would cast various roles were more than twice as likely to cast a White actor as the hero (52 percent, compared to 19 percent who would cast a Black actor and 12 percent who would cast an Asian actor) and more than twice as likely to cast a Black actor as poor. This held true no matter the race of the child: for example, only 16 percent of Black children cast a Black actor as the hero. [1]

Racialized groups in television

Dr. Minelle Mahtani, of the Institute for Social Justice at the University of British Columbia, argues that Canadian entertainment media shares many problems with American programming, exhibiting a similar tendency to under-represent and misrepresent racialized groups. According to Mahtani, this under-representation is “suggestive of [these groups’] unimportance or their non-existence.” [2]  More recent research suggests that this hasn’t changed much. A 2018 study which analyzed 780 films from 1970 to 2018 found that “white actors are just over three and a half times more likely to speak than their population size would predict, leading to the underrepresentation of all other groups.” [3]

The recent international success of Canadian TV programs such as  Anne with an E  and  Schitt’s Creek  echoes this trend. Despite improved diversity in other areas, these shows feature predominantly White actors. [4]  While racialized people make up 16.3 percent of speaking roles in Canadian television shows overall, [5]  it wasn’t until 2019 that a Black Canadian actor was cast in a lead role for a primetime Canadian television program (Vinessa Antoine, in  Diggstown. ) [6]  Even now, the launch or cancellation of a single show, such as  Kim’s Convenience [7]   or  The Porter, [8]  has a significant impact on the number of non-White roles onscreen.

Until recently, it was still fairly common for White actors to play non-White characters in animated TV shows such as  The Simpsons ,  Family Guy  and  Bojack Horseman.  This has begun to change, however: most notably, Hank Azaria, who voiced Apu on  The Simpsons  – possibly the most widely-seen South Asian character in North American TV over the last three decades – decided in 2021 to stop playing the role, saying “if it’s an Indian character, or a Latinx character, or a Black character, please, let’s have that person voice the character. It’s more authentic, they’ll bring their experience to it. Let’s not take jobs away from people who don’t have enough.” [9]

How  racialized characters are portrayed can be an issue, as well. Though negative stereotypes are still common [10]  – for example, immigrants on American TV shows are often portrayed as being less educated and more likely to commit crimes than they are in reality [11]   – an increasing trend is towards aggressively colour-blind casting. This can occur either in shows that simply pretend that race and ethnicity are no longer relevant to young people’s lives, like the CW’s  Riverdale , or ones that imagine alternate worlds where the concepts are meaningless such as Prime’s  Wheel of Time . While colour-blind casting provides more roles for non-White characters, treating colour-blindness as a positive value can, paradoxically, make viewers less sympathetic to the actual challenges faced by diverse communities: “Color-blindness is not just about showing and adding color to television; it is about assigning no meaning to color, positioning all ethnoracial groups in the same playing field.” [12]

Similarly, shows about law enforcement and crime typically offer a “colour-blind” vision of the justice system, rarely portraying things commonly experienced by racialized groups such as racial bias and racially-motivated police misconduct. [13]

While colour-blind casting may be a valuable starting point, a better standard would be shows that allow their characters to experience “mainstream” stories while recognizing and addressing their characters’ specific identities and the challenges associated with them, such as Netflix’s  Never Have I Ever  and CBC’s  Sort Of . Chris Van Dusen, creator and show-runner of the Netflix show  Bridgerton , took an approach he describes as “not color-blind [but] color-conscious” [14]  in which the producers had “freedom to give people from diverse backgrounds a role but where a character’s race can still play a part in their story.” [15]

The cast of the second season of Netflix’s  Bridgerton

Representation behind the screen is an issue, as well. A 2017 survey found that 91 percent of writers’ rooms in American TV were led by White showrunners, [16]  and 64 percent of diverse writers in television had experienced bias, discrimination and harassment while working. [17]

The advent of streaming platforms such as Netflix and Disney Plus has resulted in more diversity both onscreen and off, [18]  possibly because these services are better able to “narrowcast” to smaller audiences than traditional television. [19]   While streaming platforms do make it easier to access international content, such as the South Korean hit  Squid Game ,   because they feature little Canadian content they may provide a portrait of diversity just as inaccurate to Canadian audiences as American broadcast television.

Racialized groups in film

Film has a long history of racism and stereotyping. The first “blockbuster,”  Birth of a Nation , not only valorized the Ku Klux Klan but led to its revival (and inspired a number of activities, such as cross-burning, which the original incarnation of the group had not practiced.) [20]  It is true that there has been significant progress in the representation of racialized groups in film: compare, for instance, the original  West Side Story,  in which all but one of the Puerto Rican characters were played by White actors, to the 2021 remake, in which all are played by Latinx actors, and their Spanish dialogue is neither translated nor subtitled. [21]  Nevertheless, significant issues and challenges remain.

Thanks to a number of factors, including the small size of Canada’s film industry and the prominence of the National Film Board (NFB), Canadian film has a fairly good history of racially and culturally diverse participation, both in front of and behind the camera. Canadian feature films such as  White Elephant  and  Night of the Kings  feature realistic and responsible fictional portrayals of racially and culturally diverse experience while the NFB has produced dozens of films on everything from hot-button multiculturalism issues to filmmakers’ family histories.

Still, these films make up a tiny portion of the movies watched by Canadian audiences, and too few to prevent actors from being lured away to the United States. As Fabienne Colas, founder of the Toronto Black Film Festival, put it, “in the U.S.A., you do have those roles for black people… we don’t have those roles; they don’t really exist.” [22]   As well, the smaller size of the Canadian film industry increases the power of a small number of gatekeepers who have been, for most of its history, primarily White. [23]

There continues to be a fairly narrow range of roles available to racialized actors in both the Canadian and American film industries. A study of the 1,300 top-grossing films released between 2007 and 2019, for instance, found just 44 – or 3.4 percent – featured an Asian actor in a leading role. [24]  (7.1 percent of the U.S. population identifies as “Asian or Pacific Islander”; [25]  14 percent of the Canadian population identifies as South Asian, Chinese, Filipino, Southeast Asian, Korean or Japanese.) [26]  Of those 44 roles, just 13 percent were considered three-dimensional – not being defined as a foreigner, sidekick or villain – by the study’s authors. [27]

This may be because while a small number of racially and culturally diverse actors, such as Viola Davis and Dwayne Johnson, are among Hollywood’s biggest box-office draws, nearly all of the faces behind the camera are White. The Writers Guild of America’s Inclusion Report 2020 detailed that racialized people make up 20 percent of screenwriters in the United States even though they make up 40 percent of the population. [28]  Racially and culturally diverse actors are also often only considered for parts specifically written as racialized, while parts of unspecified ethnicity are White by default. Kelly Edwards, vice-president of talent development and corporate diversity at NBC Universal, has said that casting directors and producers also tend to turn to actors with whom they’re already familiar, which often results in less diversity onscreen. [29]

Racialized groups in music

Canadian music has traditionally been a way through which minorities have been able to gain visibility, and this continues to the present day, with Ethiopian-Canadian artist The Weeknd and Drake, a biracial artist with a Black American father and Jewish Canadian mother, finding success both in Canada and internationally.

Popular music frequently displays certain racial themes. Toby Jenkins, professor of Integrative Studies and Higher Education, notes that rap and hip hop music express the realities of institutional racism and find their roots in the 1960s civil rights movement and integration of Black students into White society, giving these marginalized communities a way to express their thoughts and struggles at a time when they were often silenced and ignored in classrooms or social life. As Jenkins argues, “hip hop music tells the story of what it is like to be Black in America… hip hop music is one of the few cultural spaces where African Americans can voice their discontent with American power structures that make it difficult for Blacks to be successful.” [30]

Like American hip hop, much of Canadian hip hop is concerned with matters of race, culture and identity – but those of Black Canadians, whose origins, experiences and history are quite different from those of Black Americans. While it originated in close imitation of American hip hop, Canadian artists such as Kardinal Offishall and Boogat produce music which is much more influenced by the traditions of the Caribbean (two-thirds of African Canadians are of Caribbean origin) while first-generation immigrants such as K’naan express their personal and cultural experiences in producing their music and francophone hip hop performers such as Alaclair Ensemble draw on traditional Québécois folk music.

Other racially and culturally diverse groups have begun to make their presence known on the music scene, as well. The increasing prominence of South Asian culture, most visibly represented by “Bollywood” movies, has resulted in a greater visibility for groups like Delhi 2 Dublin which plays songs with lyrics in Punjabi and music played on instruments such as the sitar, dhol and tabla to mostly White audiences, with their 2019 album having more English lyrics. As with Canadian hip hop, this new wave of South Asian music isn’t just a transplant of traditional forms but a blend of influences – in this case South Asian banghra, Celtic folk and reggae. Raghav Mathur, whose music mashes Bollywood beats with hip hop and whose lyrics are equal parts English and Hindi, compares South Asian music in Canada to Latin artists such as Shakira and Camila Cabello, who’ve found success with both diverse and mainstream audiences.

Unfortunately, when it comes to diversity the move to streaming platforms has not had the same positive effects for diverse music as it has for film and television. This may be because users are more likely to allow the recommendation algorithm to make choices for them on music streaming platforms. This can result in a “rich get richer” cycle, which gives preference to mainstream acts even more than traditional media did. [31]  TikTok, which for many young people is the main means of discovering new music, [32]   has a history of preferentially boosting White creators who are performing Black performers’ music. [33]  At the same time, unlike in traditional media, diverse acts  can  be found on Spotify and similar platforms – though the need to find and curate them is a significant barrier. In some cases, those same algorithms have also promoted music that would never have been widely heard on traditional radio, such as gay and Black artist Lil Nas X’s  Old Town Road  (which went on to win a Country Music Association Award.)

Racialized groups in advertising

Advertising has historically been a medium particularly prone to stereotyping. [34]   Ads, which are by definition unwanted by their audience, have to make a strong impression in a brief exposure, [35]   and stereotypes provoke the emotional reactions that drive brand loyalty and purchase intention. [36]  While Aunt Jemima – the syrup mascot whose roots are in Nineteenth Century minstrel shows – has been retired, [37]   research from 2021 found that half of people from historically under-represented communities have seen ads that stereotype them. [38]

Advertisers were slow to directly appeal to racialized groups. For instance, in 1963 Pepsi became one of the first large companies to advertise directly to Black audiences. [39]  More recently, however, a growing number of advertisers have realized the value of appealing to racialized groups [40]  as well as to young audiences who expect the brands they support to reflect their values. [41]   As Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing strategy firm Metaforce, explained, “it’s a cost-benefit thing. Most marketers have come to realize that no matter what they do, a certain segment is going to be offended. But the upside — seeming inclusive — outweighs the risk of ruffling feathers.” [42]

Ads do still draw on racial stereotypes, even from brands that have a long history with those communities. For example, in 2017, a Dove ad featured a Black woman transforming into a White woman and a Pepsi ad appeared to make light of Black Lives Matter protests. [43]   Online, Black influencers routinely earn less per post than their White counterparts, [44]  while the social networks that rely on their content also allow advertisers to target them with ads in ways that can be discriminatory [45]  and even illegal. [46]

Dove’s body wash ad, which was withdrawn in response to protests.

Racialized groups in video games

Unlike other media, there is no domestic Canadian video game industry. While a number of extremely successful video game publishers, such as BioWare and Ubisoft, are based in Canada, their work is created for the American market. As a result, racially and culturally diverse representation in video games can only be considered in an American context.

Video games have perhaps the worst record of racially and culturally diverse representation. While 87 percent of Black teenagers play video games – more than any other teen demographic [47]  – just two percent of game developers are Black. [48]   Most Black video game characters are given background roles or “roles that enforce racist stereotypes,” [49]  and when games do offer diverse characters they’re often reserved for downloadable add-ons sold separately. [50]

Violence, of course, is a frequent occurrence in video games, but while White characters are more likely to be shown engaging in fantasy violence – using swords or laser guns against monsters or aliens – racially and culturally diverse characters are much more likely to be part of realistic violent acts such as drive-by shootings, violent muggings and gang fights. [51]  Asian characters are stereotyped even further, as they are almost exclusively shown engaging in martial arts. Many racialized groups – such as South Asians or Hispanics – are nearly or entirely absent. [52]  Similarly, video games are, like animation, one of the few media where it is still common for White actors to voice non-White characters. [53]

Perhaps because the video game industry is overwhelmingly White, [54]   it’s often proven to be insensitive on racial topics. For instance, it took Nintendo two decades to make it possible to change a character’s skin tone in the popular game  Animal Crossing;  the character Alloy in  Horizon: Zero Dawn  sports “appropriative and gross” [55]  dreadlocks;  World of Warcraft  features characters called “Pandarens” with stereotypically Chinese clothing and mannerisms; [56]  and  Fortnite  has   reproduced dance moves created by Black artists without crediting or compensating them “despite being gaming’s biggest phenomenon.” [57]   Ian Sundstrom, an independent video game developer, comments on these instances saying, “when it comes to the bigger AAA games with huge budgets, there’s really not an excuse to not be hiring black artists and designers to work on your game…[the] bare minimum [is] spending the extra time with the people you do have to add those different options and let people embody a character that looks like them.” [58]

Unlike other media such as television and film, adding onscreen diversity to video games can be a technical challenge – though this can sometimes be overused as an excuse. Ion Hazzikostas, director of the  World of Warcraft  expansion  Shadowlands , explained why the game hadn’t previously offered a diverse range of facial features and hairstyles: “Some of it was technical constraints, going back to the way things were built, and the number of different textures that could be mapped onto a single model from the engine 15 years ago. But those are lines of code that can be changed. And yes, the real question is why didn’t we do it sooner? It’s a good question. We should’ve done this sooner, honestly.” [59]

New character creation options in  World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

Racialized groups in social media

Because of their  networked nature , social media have had a mixed impact on racialized groups. On the one hand, the ability to publish content more or less directly to audiences has allowed racialized communities to bypass the gatekeepers associated with traditional media. Black communities use Twitter as a news source and [60]  a resource for finding congenial businesses [61]  and both Black and Asian communities use social media to demonstrate to skeptical White audiences the reality of racism in Canada [62]  and elsewhere. [63]

But social networks are by no means free of racism themselves. There are many examples of White users making racist posts [64]  or participating in “digital Blackface,” either by appropriating other cultures or using filters to literally make themselves look Black or Asian. [65]  Other apps promote colourism by encouraging users to virtually lighten their skin. [66]   Some platforms’ recommendation algorithms downrank posts about racial justice issues such as Black Lives Matter, [67]   while many of those that allow users to earn revenue from advertising prevent them from monetizing those posts as a “brand safety” measure designed to keep ads from appearing alongside “controversial content. [68]

As with other media industries, this occurs in part because racialized communities are under-represented: just six percent of Twitter’s workforce, and four percent of Facebook’s, is Black. [69]   Among decision-makers, the numbers are even lower. A 2016 study of 177 large US technology companies found that just 1.4 percent of executives and senior managers were Black. [70]  Other forms of racial and ethnic prejudice can also limit participation and representation in the tech industry. While South Asians are well-represented in Silicon Valley, for example, workers from lower castes often experience caste-based discrimination and harassment and feel pressure to conceal their caste origins where possible. [71]

For more information on how to deal with hate directed towards racialized groups and other diverse communities, see our section on  online hate .

Article iii:

Representation of diversity in media – overview.

MediaSmarts. (n.d.).  Representation of diversity in media – Overview. https://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/media-issues/diversity-media/representation-diversity-media-overview

Media representation issues

What we see – and  don’t  see – in media affects how we view reality. Media works can be imagined either as  mirrors  that reflect an audience’s own experience,  windows  that give them access to experiences they otherwise wouldn’t have known, or in some cases both. Rosemary Truglio, Senior Vice President of Sesame Workshop, described the diverse cast of  Sesame Street  as giving children “a mirror for them to see themselves, and (…) a window for them to learn about others.” [1]

Sesame Street  was a milestone in representation of race and disability in children’s media.

Media portrayals may provide different audiences with mirrors but not windows, or vice-versa, and a lack of either can have a negative impact. For members of historically under-represented groups, “when you have never seen yourself in books or movies or music, the first time you do is stunning.” [2]  Similarly, “for children from dominant groups, window moments in stories come when the children realize they hold a powerful place in society and that there is something unjust about this.” [3]  Unfortunately, fewer than half of Canadians feel that “Canadian media is a mirror in which all Canadians can see themselves.” [4]

In mass media, these issues typically play out in three ways:

Under-representation : Many groups have historically been  under-represented  in media. Even today, we are less likely to encounter many forms of diversity in mass media than we are in real life – and diverse communities are typically even less well-represented behind the scenes than onscreen. Under-representation can also make other representation issues worse because less representation means fewer opportunities for authentic representations of diversity  within  a group.

Besides being simply under-represented, groups may also be  de-centred.  That means making them or their culture a backdrop for more “mainstream” (e.g. White, abled, cisgender, etc.) protagonists. In some cases this may take the form of having a White character that excels in skills associated with a non-White culture, such as martial arts; stories where characters from under-represented groups need a White or other majority-culture character to “save” them; [5]  and cases where aspects of an under-represented culture literally act as a prop. [6]

Stereotyping : This means portraying members of a particular group in just one or a small number of roles. This is particularly worrying when the stereotype is a negative one, but stereotyping can also do harm by only portraying a group in a narrow way. Even so-called “positive stereotypes” can have a negative effect because they limit how we see members of that group, as well as how we see ourselves. For example, if you belong to a group that is stereotyped as being good at sports, but are not particularly athletic, you may feel inadequate for being bad at something you’re “supposed” to be good at.

Another form of stereotyping is  exoticizing , emphasizing the ways in which a character or culture are different from the (presumed) audience’s: for instance by overemphasizing aspects of a culture that mainstream audiences are most likely to find strange or disturbing, or by relying on things like accents or stereotyped characteristics for humour. Its most extreme form is  othering , in which groups are shown as being  fundamentally  different from the audience and, in some cases, even as not being fully human.

Stereotyping can also happen when diverse identities always play the same role in the story. Author Corinne Duyvis identifies three ways that a character’s identity may be part of a work: “issue” stories where the identity and the challenges that come with it are what the story is about; “incidental” stories where a character’s identity is apparent but not relevant to the story, such as the main character’s sexual orientation in the Disney film  Strange World,  which provides a romantic subplot but is never specifically commented on;   and “middle ground” stories where the identity is not the  focus  of the story but is recognized as always being  relevant . As Duyvis puts it, “ableism, homophobia, and racism influence countless aspects of people’s everyday lives.” None of these is necessarily better than the other: what is most important is that audiences see all three kinds of stories, so that while marginalized communities’ specific issues and challenges are reflected in media they are also allowed to simply  be . [7]

Whitewashing : While it has become rare for White actors to play Black or Asian characters, it remains common for disabled people, 2SLGBTQ+ people and other groups to be played by actors from outside those communities. Similarly, when works are adapted from one medium to another – such as when a book or comic is made into a movie or TV show – it is still fairly common for diverse characters to be changed into White ones, or for characters’ sexual orientation or disabilities to be downplayed or altered.

It’s important to point out that whitewashing only occurs when a character from a historically under-represented group is changed or recast so they are no longer part of that group, leading to reduced representation for that group and less diversity overall. For instance, the casting of a White actor to play an Asian character in the film  Doctor Strange  would count as whitewashing, while the casting of a Black actor to play a White character in the same film would not. [8]

These three issues are related, of course. Whitewashing contributes to both under-representation and stereotyping, as there are both fewer representations of historically under-represented groups in general and, in particular, fewer authentic representations. Similarly, under-representation contributes to and increases the impact of stereotypes because having fewer characters representing a particular group means fewer opportunities to show members of that group playing different roles in stories and in society.

For more examples of how these apply to different communities, see the specific articles on how each group is represented.

Impacts of media representation

All of these representation issues can have significant effects, both on audiences who are members of historically under-represented groups and those who aren’t. Seeing one’s own group stereotyped can lead to stress, negative self-image [9]  and impaired academic achievement, [10]  while being exposed to stereotyped portrayals of  others  can contribute to implicit or explicit prejudice. [11]  Even more than changing individual attitudes, media portrayals – because they are seen as representing how  others  view a group – can have an impact on broader social attitudes towards different groups. [12]  At the same time, exposure to  authentic  portrayals of oneself can improve self-esteem and promote a more positive view of one’s identity [13]  or even improve academic performance, [14]  while seeing authentic portrayals of other groups – which do not have to be uniformly positive ones [15]  – can actually reduce prejudice. [16]

“Works of art are the only silver bullet we have against racism and sexism and hatred […] Art engenders empathy in a way that politics doesn’t, and in a way that nothing else really does. Art creates change in people’s hearts. But it happens slowly.” [17]    Lin-Manuel Miranda

There can be significant impacts if different groups are not represented  behind  the scenes, as well. In mass media, under-representation behind the scenes generally results in under-representation on the screen, but it can also contribute to stereotyping as the portrayals are less likely to be authentic. [18]  In digital media, not having historically under-represented groups involved at the design and management levels can lead to their experiences and concerns being ignored or treated as afterthoughts.

For more examples of how these affect different communities, see the specific articles on how each group is represented.

Intersectionality

While the other articles in this section address media portrayals of different groups separately, it’s important to point out that for many people they are not experienced that way. Many people identify with more than one historically marginalized or under-represented group, particularly when  gender  is added to the equation. Legal scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” to conceptualize “the way that different identity markers, such as race, gender, sexuality, and class, interact and affect each other.” [19]

Intersectionality does not mean that the impacts of different identities (including stereotyping) simply add on to one another, but that they transform and sometimes conflict with one another. East Asian women are frequently hypersexualized in media, [20]  for example, while for East Asian men the stereotype is often the reverse. [21]  However, audiences tend to consider just one aspect of intersectional identities. [22]  When the stereotypes associated with two identities conflict with one another, people who identify with both may face confusion [23]  or even hostility [24]  from others.

It’s important to consider intersectionality both when making media and when critiquing it. For media makers, “shows and movies that attempt to lift up marginalized communities without thinking about intersectionality are only perpetuating different systems of prejudice and oppression.” [25]  As well, some intersections may be an easier “sell” than others, both to audiences and the media industry. While the title character of  House M.D.  (2004-2012) both had a physical disability and was an outspoken atheist, he was also White; conversely, the showrunner of the currently running (2022) series  Abbott Elementary  said of one character’s canonical but unseen agnosticism “I honestly don’t know if we would be able to present that on ABC. It may not seem a big deal, but for a Black girl in Philadelphia — there are very few agnostic people.” [26]

When critiquing media, we should consider not just whether individual characters are stereotyped but whether a broad range of diversity, including intersecting identities, is represented. [27]  As well, we should make a point of recognizing authentic portrayals of intersectionality in media, such as  Reservation Dogs  and  Hawkeye.  Finally, taking an intersectional approach to media education means considering  other  digital media issues – from cyberbullying to advertising to digital access and privacy – through an intersectional lens: not assuming, for example, that only White youth suffer from body image issues, and giving all young people a chance to confront the distinct ways that those issues affect them. [28]

Maya Lopez from the Disney Plus series  Hawkeye  is Deaf and Indigenous, as is the actor who plays her, Alaqua Cox.

The importance of media education

Young people’s attitudes towards media representation changes over time. Children under nine don’t generally question whether what they see in media reflects their reality unless they are prompted to by parents or teachers. Tween and teens typically begin to become aware of media representation issues, especially if they are members of under-represented or stereotyped groups. By their later teens many actively seek out works with better representation. [29]

Media education can help young people put current images and messages into perspective by helping them understand how the media work, why stereotyping exists, how decisions are made and why it matters who is involved in making media works. Digital media literacy, especially if it explicitly addresses stereotyping and other media representation issues, can correct misperceptions of and prejudices towards other groups. [30]  For young people who see stereotyped depictions of themselves in media works, media literacy can also mitigate negative effects on their self-esteem. [31]

Media education has also been shown to be an effective way of approaching issues like racism, providing a way of discussing difficult topics that feels safer while still challenging students’ assumptions and preconceptions [32]  and can also help students affected by stereotyping deal with its effects. [33]  Talking about media portrayals of diversity, especially positive ones, can also be a way of affirming students’ identities and encouraging them to create works that reflect those identities.

Positive portrayals don’t just avoid stereotyping, under-representation and the other issues identified above. They also:

• take the extra step of authentically portraying the challenges that members of under-represented communities face, such as racism or accessibility issues;
• tell stories of characters’ accommodations, resilience and agency in the face of those challenges; and
• show characters in the context of, and connected to, their communities. [34]

Media education is not about learning the right answers; it’s about consuming media images with an active, critical mind and asking the right questions.

Here are a few examples of the types of questions that could lead to a better understanding of how different groups are represented depicted in media:

Who selected or created these images and stories? Why does it matter who made these selections?

The first principle in media education is that nothing is objective—each and every media production is created with a viewpoint and for a purpose. The “reality” depicted in film or television productions is the result of many choices and each of these choices is based on the experience, knowledge and bias of the producers involved. More important than any conscious choices are the questions media makers  don’t  ask – the things they believe they already know. When members of historically marginalized groups are not involved in making shows, movies, news coverage or other media featuring them, it shows.

It’s also important to understand that media can have very different meanings depending on who made them, and that marginalized groups may “reclaim” stereotyped portrayals for their own purposes.

Whose voices are being heard? Whose voices are absent? Why?

Who is interviewed on a current affairs program? Which “experts” are chosen for sound bites on an issue? Whose perspectives are ignored completely? If characters or cultures representing a historically marginalized group are represented in a media text, have the creators of that text made significant efforts to consult with those communities, as Disney did when making  Frozen II  and  Moana ? [35]

The question of whose voices are heard isn’t just important in mass media. While digital technology has made it easier than ever for people to make and share their own media, the online platforms where they share their work – whose ownership and workforce remain overwhelmingly White [36]  – do not provide sufficient moderation and tools to push back against hate speech, they may fall silent in the face of online harassment. [37]

Why are certain stories selected or privileged and others not? Are some groups only represented in a small number of frames or contexts? Are characters representing diverse communities shown as real human beings in media, or are they defined exclusively by their identity? Do depictions respect differences and diversity within these communities?

Media producers, especially those in Hollywood, have used members of historically marginalized groups to tell mainstream cultures’ stories for generations. Rarely are diverse characters given complex personalities or autonomous roles. Rarely do they rely on their own values and judgements, or act upon their own motivations. Although efforts have been made to undo this tradition, old stereotypes die hard. [38]

This question highlights why it’s important not to look just as specific media works, but at the bigger picture. Each individual game, movie, or TV show with a White, non-disabled, cisgender, heterosexual, non-denominational Christian protagonist does not necessarily matter by itself, but when all of these are seen as the  default  identity for a main character it sends a powerful message about who can be the “main character” and who cannot.

How do commercial considerations, including the “conventional wisdom” in the industry, lead to issues around stereotyping and representation?

Commercial considerations are often given as a reason for excluding members of historically under-represented communities, whether explicitly (such as the assumption that White audiences won’t see movies with non-White leads) [39]  or implicitly (by saying, for instance, that a movie needs a “big-name” lead to be successful – without saying out loud that most of those big names are White, non-disabled, heterosexual and cisgender). [40]  While this industry conventional wisdom has been proven to be false, it’s still widely held. [41]

Characteristics of different media industries, in different countries, can also have an impact on whether diversity is represented. The Canadian television industry is often described as highly risk-averse, with licensing American shows seen as a safer bet than developing Canadian ones. As a result, when diversity does appear on private Canadian channels such as Global and CTV, it more often reflects the population of the United States than Canada’s. When private broadcasters do make original programming, they tend to play it safe – which usually means making shows aimed at White audiences. [42]  As the report  Deciding on Diversity  puts it, “Risk narratives about equity-seeking stories and storytellers persist to preserve the status quo.” [43]  Nathalie Younglai, founder of BIPOC TV and Film, paraphrases TV executives’ attitudes more bluntly: “How is this Canadian? How does someone in Saskatchewan relate to this?” [44]

Similarly, digital technology companies claim to be motivated by market pressures in deciding things like which languages digital assistants should be able to speak; this, too, often fails to hold true in the light of accurate data – Apple’s Siri, for instance, is offered in Finnish (which has about five million native speakers) but not Swahili (which has nearly a hundred million). [45]

How can different audiences “read against” or negotiate the meaning of a work with representation issues?

Some audiences, especially those from groups that have traditionally been marginalized in media industries, may engage in “resistant reading,” interpreting works in ways that are directly contrary to the generally received meaning. Nevertheless, it is true that, as bell hooks put it, “While audiences are clearly not passive and are able to pick and choose, it is simultaneously true that there are certain ‘received’ messages that are rarely mediated by the will of the audience.” [46]

In other words, while we don’t automatically accept the surface meaning of media works, most of us will take away a meaning that is fairly close to it. Only a small number of people, mostly those whose identity or experience lead them to a resistant reading, will have a significantly different interpretation. Until members of these groups have more meaningful participation in the media industries, however, neither the portrayals nor the mainstream audience’s interpretation of them are likely to change.

Resistant reading is also easier in some media than others: in most video games, for instance, ‘resistant play’ – choosing actions other than the ones the designers assume you will take – will prevent you from progressing very far in the game. [47]

How may the codes and conventions of the medium and genre perpetuate stereotyping and representation issues?

Both different  media  (such as TV, film or video games) and different  genres  (science fiction, advertising, animation, et cetera) have their own codes and conventions that may lead media makers to fall into stereotyping or under-representation, often unconsciously. For example, both advertising and news (especially headlines) have to grab the audience’s attention right away and communicate information in a small amount of time. As a result they often use stereotypes as a kind of “shorthand” that allows the audience to fill in what they already know (or think they know). Similarly, animation and comics – and works in other media that are based on comic or cartoon characters – often have characters whose racist origins are still apparent, or for whom traits like facial scarring, prosthetic limbs or stereotypically Jewish features serve as visual markers of villainy.

Even when media works try to confront racism, homophobia and other issues, there may be fundamental features of certain media, like the episodic nature of news and the focus in fictional media on individual characters, that lead them to portray these primarily as something perpetrated by individuals and downplay their systemic qualities. [48]

How can digital tools and platforms give voice to historically marginalized communities? How may they contribute to marginalization?

Unlike traditional media, there are no one-way connections in digital media. You can share content with other people as easily as a producer or distributor shares it with you. As a result, the barriers to participation are much lower than in traditional media and anyone can publish content and find an audience. But while power in networks is not hierarchical, neither is it evenly distributed: it rests in the nodes with the most links. This means that those who had gatekeeping power in the old media environment have had their influence reduced, but not eliminated.

For instance, while online publishing has made it possible for historically under-represented groups to “restory themselves” by making versions of popular culture works that include and even centre their own experiences, [49]  online platforms also have tremendous power to either promote or suppress the same voices through the algorithms that determine what is shown or recommended to users. [50]  As the historian of science Melvin Kranzberg put it, different technologies are neither inherently good nor inherently bad, but neither are they neutral: [51]  like mass media, they reflect the beliefs, unconscious biases and unquestioned assumptions of their creators.

As a result, the impacts that networked technology have had on historically under-represented groups are complex. Online spaces can provide diverse communities, especially those that are geographically far-flung, with an ‘ecosystem’ that would not be possible with traditional media; [52]  at the same time, content moderation systems can apply censorship that is more absolute than was ever found in film and television, limiting the ability of marginalized youth to access relevant health information, [53]  to monetize content that reflects their community [54]  and even to speak the name of their identity. [55]

Technical tools have an impact on how we use them not just through their  affordances  (what  can  be done with them) but also their  defaults  (what we are  expected  to do with them). For example, one study of video games found that while 23 percent had  affordances  that allowed players to choose their character’s race, 60 percent of those  defaulted  to a White character unless the player actively changed it. [56]  Whether or not members of diverse communities were involved in the design of those affordances and defaults may determine whether they work successfully when used in or by those communities: a review of facial algorithms found that they were at least ten times as likely to mis-identify a Black or East Asian face as a White one, [57]  for example, and many digital assistants such as Siri and Alexa routinely misunderstand Black users. [58]

Networked media can also make it possible, or easier, for marginalized groups to experience harms that were not possible or less likely with traditional media. One of these is  amplification: [59]   for example, the frictionless quality of networked media allows  hate groups  to broadcast their messages more widely and to tailor them to potential audiences at different levels of the “radicalization pyramid.” Amplification does not only apply to intentional acts, though. It can also reflect a harm that already exists and make it more widespread by embedding it in the operation of a networked tool – for example, for many years Google searches for terms such as “Asian girls” and “Black girls” returned primarily pornographic results, reflecting how they were most often used in the wider internet, while “White girls” did not. [60]  Questions as simple as who appears in an image search for “doctor” or “happy family” can have a huge impact on how different groups are perceived.  [61]

A Google image search for “happy family” conducted in March 2022.

As with the other search terms mentioned above, Google has taken some positive steps in this regard as a result of consumer pressure. [62]  This demonstrates why a key part of media education is empowering young people to make their voices heard through making and publishing their own media, as well as to push back against stereotypes and other misrepresentations in media and to use digital tools to make a difference in their online and offline communities.

• MediaSmarts lessons that teach students to make their voices heard through media making include  Representing Ourselves Online ,  Avatars and Body Image ,  Bias in News Sources ,  First Person   and  Art Exchange .
• MediaSmarts’ guide  Talk Back! How to Take Action on Media Issues   explains the rules and codes that apply to different media industries on issues such as stereotyping and representation and includes some advice on how to use social networks to speak out on a media issue.
• Speak Up! Your Guide to Changing the World, Online and Off   explains how to use digital tools like social networks to share your views and organize others in making change.

How can educators limit resistance and backlash when addressing diversity in media?

Two of the most common risks of addressing diversity representation in media are  resistance  – in which students challenge the validity of media education as practice, such as by dismissing the work under study as “just an ad” or suggesting that the teacher is reading meaning into a work that isn’t there – and  backlash , in which students feel the teacher is pushing their own views or interpretations, rather than encouraging students to articulate and argue their own.

One way of minimizing these is having young people explore  questions,  such as the ones listed above, rather than leading them towards a pre-ordained conclusion. While it is important to make them aware of the facts of representation in media, conclusions about the implications of those facts – and appropriate responses – should emerge from critical thinking and discussion.

Another important approach is to help students understand the key concept that  all  media have social and political implications – and that when they appear not to, it’s because they reinforce how you already see the world. Similarly, while we may be tempted to dismiss the importance of entertainment media relative to things like news, we are actually more likely to be persuaded by works that “transport” us and bypass our critical minds. [63]

As well, highlight to students that it is possible for a media work to be problematic in some aspects of its portrayal of diversity but successful in others. The 2016 film  Doctor Strange , for instance, had many problematic elements in its portrayal of cultural diversity but also a fairly nuanced representation of the main character’s disability and his efforts to accommodate it. [64]

Perhaps most importantly, it’s important to teach students from early on that critiquing a part of something doesn’t mean you don’t like it, nor does critiquing a work mean that you’re criticizing anyone who likes it. Criticizing our children’s media choices can easily make them feel we’re criticizing  them.  There is a difference between a media work that was  motivated  by racism or sexism and one where it’s the result of the media-maker not questioning their assumptions or the “conventional wisdom” of their industry. Most of the time, the messages in the things they make aren’t on purpose but because of things they assumed or questions they didn’t think to ask. (It’s important to understand that the people who make media aren’t necessarily media  literate  in the critical sense.)

As Turner Classic Movies host Jacqueline Stewart points out, this is a distinction that people in historically under-represented groups often learn early. Describing a childhood viewing of  Gone With the Wind,  Stewart notes that “Black audiences have always juggled the pleasures and problems of mainstream media. I was learning that you can enjoy a film even as you are critiquing it.” [65]  Of course, we also have to make a habit of studying accurate representations as well as critiquing negative ones – and recognize that a work may be positive in some aspects but problematic in others.

There may also be backlash from students relating specifically to the topic of diversity representation. This can be a result of a belief in the value of colour-blindness; though generally well-meaning, this attitude has been shown to contribute to prejudice, rather than reducing it, because it denies the identities and experiences of historically under-represented groups and prevents us from addressing the challenges and injustices they face. [66]  Instead, stereotypes need to be acknowledged and faced head-on. As Jeffrey Adam Smith, author of  Are We Born Racist? , puts it, “When we encounter a ‘slant-eyed, Oriental mastermind’ (to quote one old comic of mine), I stop, close the book, and tell [my son] that image is a product of prejudice, and that I think prejudice is wrong. I try to answer any questions he has. Then I re-open the book… and keep reading.” [67]

Young people may also want to distance themselves from a sense that  they  are accused of being prejudiced, or that they benefit from a prejudiced system. To explore different ways of addressing this, see our article on  Privilege in the Media  and our guide to  Complicated Conversations in the Classroom .

For more tips on how to approach digital media literacy, see our article on  Digital Media Literacy Fundamentals .

CS 050: College Writing Media Theme Copyright © by Confederation College Communications Department and Paterson Library Commons is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Article contents

Media constructions of culture, race, and ethnicity.

• Travis L. Dixon , Travis L. Dixon Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Kristopher R. Weeks Kristopher R. Weeks Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
•  and  Marisa A. Smith Marisa A. Smith Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.502
• Published online: 23 May 2019

Racial stereotypes flood today’s mass media. Researchers investigate these stereotypes’ prevalence, from news to entertainment. Black and Latino stereotypes draw particular concern, especially because they misrepresent these racial groups. From both psychological and sociological perspectives, these misrepresentations can influence how people view their racial group as well as other groups. Furthermore, a racial group’s lack of representation can also reduce the group’s visibility to the general public. Such is the case for Native Americans and Asian Americans.

Given mass media’s widespread distribution of black and Latino stereotypes, most research on mediated racial portrayals focuses on these two groups. For instance, while black actors and actresses appear often in prime-time televisions shows, black women appear more often in situational comedies than any other genre. Also, when compared to white actors and actresses, television casts blacks in villainous or despicable roles at a higher rate. In advertising, black women often display Eurocentric features, like straight hair. On the other hand, black men are cast as unemployed, athletic, or entertainers. In sports entertainment, journalists emphasize white athletes’ intelligence and black athletes’ athleticism. In music videos, black men appear threatening and sport dark skin tones. These music videos also sexualize black women and tend to emphasize those with light skin tones. News media overrepresent black criminality and exaggerate the notion that blacks belong to the undeserving poor class. Video games tend to portray black characters as either violent outlaws or athletic.

While mass media misrepresent the black population, it tends to both misrepresent and underrepresent the Latino population. When represented in entertainment media, Latinos assume hypersexualized roles and low-occupation jobs. Both news and entertainment media overrepresent Latino criminality. News outlets also overly associate Latino immigration with crime and relate Latino immigration to economic threat. Video games rarely portray Latino characters.

Creators may create stereotypic content or fail to fairly represent racial and ethnic groups for a few reasons. First, the ethnic blame discourse in the United States may influence creators’ conscious and unconscious decision-making processes. This discourse contends that the ethnic and racial minorities are responsible for their own problems. Second, since stereotypes appeal to and are easily processed by large general audiences, the misrepresentation of racial and ethnic groups facilitates revenue generation. This article largely discusses media representations of blacks and Latinos and explains the implications of such portrayals.

• content analysis
• African American portrayals
• Latino portrayals
• ethnic blame discourse
• structural limitations and economic interests
• social identity theory
• Clark’s Stage Model of Representations

Theoretical Importance of Media Stereotypes

Media constructions of culture, race, and ethnicity remain important to study because of their potential impact on both sociological and psychological phenomena. Specifically, researchers have utilized two major theoretical constructs to understand the potential impact of stereotyping: (a) priming and cognitive accessibility (Dixon, 2006 ; Scheufele & Tewksbury, 2007 ; Shrum, 2009 ), and (b) social identity and social categorization theory (Mastro, 2004 ; Mastro, Behm-Morawitz, & Kopacz, 2008 ; Tajfel & Turner, 2004 ).

Priming and Cognitive Accessibility

Priming and cognitive accessibility suggests that media consumption encourages the creation of mental shortcuts used to make relevant judgments about various social issues. For example, if a news viewer encounters someone cognitively related to a given stereotype, he or she might make a judgment about that person based on repeated exposure to the mediated stereotype. As an illustration, repeated exposure to the Muslim terrorist stereotype may lead news viewers to conclude that all Muslims are terrorists. This individual may also support punitive policies related to this stereotype, such as a Muslim ban on entry to the United States. Therefore, this cognitive linkage influences race and crime judgments (e.g., increased support for criminalizing Muslims and deporting them).

Social Identity Theory and Media Judgments

Other scholars have noted that our own identities are often tied to how people perceive their groups’ relationships to other groups. Social categorization theory argues that the higher the salience of the category to the individual, the greater the in-group favoritism one will demonstrate. Media scholars demonstrated that exposure to a mediated out-group member can increase in-group favoritism (Mastro, 2004 ). For example, researchers found that negative stories about Latino immigrants can contribute to negative out-group emotions that lead to support for harsher immigration laws (Atwell Seate & Mastro, 2016 , 2017 ).

Both the priming/cognitive accessibility approach and the social identity approach demonstrate that cultural stereotypes have significant implications for our psychology, social interactions, and policymaking. It remains extremely important for us to understand the nature and frequency of mediated racial and ethnic stereotypes to further our understanding of how these stereotypes impact viewers. This article seeks to facilitate our understanding.

Stage Model of Representation

In order to provide the reader with an introduction to this topic, this article relies on the published content-analytic literature regarding race and media. Clark’s Stage Model of Representation articulates a key organizing principle for understanding how media may construct various depictions of social groups (Clark, 1973 ; Harris, 2013 ). This model purports that race/ethnic groups move through four stages of representation in the media. In the first stage, invisibility or non-recognition , a particular race or ethnic group rarely appears on the screen at all. In the second stage, ridicule , a racial group will appear more frequently, yet will be depicted in consistently stereotypical ways. In the third stage, regulation , an ethnic group might find themselves depicted primarily in roles upholding the social order, such as judges or police officers. Finally, a particular social group reaches the respect stage in which members of the group occupy diverse and nuanced roles. Given Clark’s model, this article contends that Native Americans and Asian Americans tend to fall into the non-recognition stage (Harris, 2013 ). It follows that few empirical studies have investigated these groups because empirical content analyses have difficulty scientifically assessing phenomena that lack presence (Krippendorff, 2004 ).

Bearing in mind Clark’s stages, Latinos appear to vacillate between non-recognition and ridicule. Meanwhile, blacks move between the ridicule and regulation stages, while whites remain permanently fixed in the respect stage. In other words, in this article, our lack of deep consideration of Native Americans and Asian Americans is rooted in a lack of representation which generates few empirical studies and thus leaves us little to review. The article offers a quick overview of their portrayal and then moves on to describe the social groups that receive more media and empirical attention.

Native American and Asian American Depictions

Although severely underrepresented, there are a few consistent stereotypical portrayals that regularly emerge for these groups. In some ways, both Native American and Asian Americans are often relegated to “historical” and/or fetishized portrayals (Lipsitz, 1998 ). Native American “savage” imagery was commonly depicted in Westerns and has been updated with images of alcoholism, along with depictions of shady Native American casino owners (Strong, 2004 ). Many news images of Native Americans tend to focus on Native festivals, relegating this group to a presentation as “mysterious” spiritual people (Heider, 2000 ). Meanwhile, various school and professional team mascots embody the savage Native American Warrior trope (Strong, 2004 ).

Asian Americans overall have often been associated with being the model minority (Harris, 2009 ; Josey, Hurley, Hefner, & Dixon, 2009 ). They typically represent “successful” non-whites. Specifically, media depictions associate Asian American men with technology and Asian American women with sexual submissiveness (Harris & Barlett, 2009 ; Schug, Alt, Lu, Gosin, & Fay, 2017 ).

Overall, scholars know very little about how either of these groups are regularly portrayed based on empirical research, although novelists and critical scholars have offered useful critiques (Wilson, Gutiérrez, & Chao, 2003 ). Hopefully, future quantitative content analyses will further delineate the nature of Native American and Asian American portrayals. Consider the discussion about entertainment, news, and digital imagery of blacks, Latinos, and whites presented in the next section.

Entertainment Constructions of Race, Culture, and Ethnicity

Entertainment media receives a great deal of consideration, given that Americans spend much of their time using media for entertainment purposes (Harris, 2013 ; Sparks, 2016 ). This section begins with an analysis of black portrayals, then moves on to Latino portrayals to understand the prevalence of stereotyping . When appropriate, black and Latino representations are compared to white ones. Two measures describe a group’s representation: (a) the numerical presence of a particular racial/ethnic group, and (b) the distribution of roles or stereotypes regarding each group. When researchers have often engaged in examinations of race they typically begin by comparing African American portrayals to white portrayals (Entman & Rojecki, 2000 ). As a result, there is a substantial amount of research on black portrayals.

Black Entertainment Television Imagery

Overall, a number of studies have found that blacks receive representation in prime-time television at parity to their actual proportion in the US population with their proportion ranging from 10% to 17% of prime-time characters (Mastro & Greenberg, 2000 ; Signorielli, 2009 ; Tukachinsky, Mastro, & Yarchi, 2015 ). African Americans currently compose approximately 13% of the US population (US Census Bureau, 2018 ). When considering the type of characters (e.g., major or minor) portrayed by this group, the majority of black (61%) cast members land roles as major characters (Monk-Turner, Heiserman, Johnson, Cotton, & Jackson, 2010 ). Black women also fare well in these representations, accounting for 73% of black appearances on prime-time television (Monk-Turner et al., 2010 ).

However, recent content analyses reveal an instability in black prime-time television representation over the last few decades. Tukachinsky et al. ( 2015 ) found that the prevalence of black characters dropped in 1993 and remain diminished compared to previous decades. Similarly, Signorielli ( 2009 ) found a significant linear decrease in the proportion of black representation from 2001 (17%) to 2008 (12%). Signorielli ( 2009 ) attributes this decrease in black representation to the decrease in situation comedy programming. Indeed, African Americans appear most frequently in situation comedies. Sixty percent of black women featured in prime-time television are cast in situation comedies, and 25% of black male prime-time portrayals occur in situation comedies (Signorielli, 2009 ). However, between 2001 and 2008 , situational comedies decreased, while action and crime programs increased.

The previously discussed analyses describe the frequency of black representation. However, frequent depictions do not equate to favorable representation. Considering role quality (i.e., respectability) and references made to stereotypes, entertainment media offers a mixed bag. On the one hand, some recent analyses found that the majority of blacks are depicted as likable, and as “good characters,” as opposed to “bad character”-like villains (Tukachinsky, Mastro, & Yarchi, 2015 ). In addition, the majority of black characters are depicted as intelligent (Tukachinsky et al., 2015 ). On the other hand, the rate of blacks shown as immoral and despicable (9%) is higher than that of whites (2% and 3%, respectively) (Monk-Turner et al., 2010 ). In addition, black depictions exhibiting high social status and professionalism trended downward. Between 2003 and 2005 , higher status depictions reached their peak at 74.3% but sharply fell in subsequent years to 31.5%, with black women faring worse than black men (Tukachinsky et al., 2015 ). Classic studies of entertainment representations found that blacks tend to be the most negatively represented of any race or ethnic group, often being depicted as lazy and disheveled (Mastro & Greenberg, 2000 ). Overall, black characters tend to be portrayed in less respectful ways compared to whites in content intended for general audiences, although they sometime fare better when the targeted audience is African American (Messineo, 2008 ). For example, crime drama television frequently depicts white women as at risk for murder, but FBI statistics demonstrate that murder victims are more often likely to be black males (Parrott & Parrott, 2015 ).

Black Representations in Magazines and Advertising

African Americans remain well represented in magazines, though they are not as prominent in this medium as in television (Schug et al., 2017 ). Moreover, the trend in the representation of African Americans, particularly women, appears to be improving (Covert & Dixon, 2008 ). Images of black women represent 6% of advertisements in women’s magazines and 4% of advertisements in men’s magazines (Baker, 2005 ). However, both black-oriented and white-oriented magazines appear to advance portrayals of black women with Eurocentric rather than Afrocentric features, referencing whiteness as a beauty standard. Overall, compared to black-oriented magazines, white-oriented magazines feature more black women with fair skin and thin figures. Black-oriented magazines feature more black women with straight hair. Moreover, straight hair textures outnumber other natural styles (i.e., wavy, curly, or braided) in both white- and black-oriented magazines.

Conversely, black men typically assume unemployed, athletic, or entertainment roles in these ads (Bailey, 2006 ). Moreover, mainstream magazines are most likely to depict black men as unemployed. Meanwhile, black-oriented magazines tend to portray African Americans in more managerial roles.

Black Representations in Sports Entertainment

Besides prime-time television, black stereotypes in sports coverage and music receive substantial attention in the literature. The unintelligent or “dumb” yet naturally talented black athlete remains a programming staple (Angelini, Billings, MacArthur, Bissell, & Smith, 2014 ; Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005 ). For example, Angelini et al. ( 2014 ) found that black athletes receive less success-based comments related to intelligence than white athletes (Angelini et al., 2014 ). The findings echo previous research arguing that black athletes receive fewer positive comments regarding their intelligence than do white athletes (Rada & Wulfemeyer, 2005 ). Fairly similar depictions exist in broadcast commentary (Primm, DuBois, & Regoli, 2007 ). For example, Mercurio and Filak ( 2010 ) content-analyzed descriptions of NFL quarterback prospects featured on the Sports Illustrated website from 1998 to 2007 . The descriptions portray black athletes as possessing physical abilities while lacking intelligence . Conversely, Sports Illustrated described white prospects as intelligent but lacking in athleticism.

Black Representations in Music Videos

Music videos tend to sexualize black women, reinforcing the black jezebe l stereotype (i.e., a sassy African American woman who is sexually promiscuous) (Givens & Monahan, 2005 ). Also, black men appear aggressive and violent in music videos (e.g., like a criminal, thug, or brute ) (Ford, 1997 ). According to rap research, blacks appear in provocative clothes at a higher rate than whites, and black women are the most provocatively dressed in music videos (Turner, 2011 ). Even black female artists are twice as likely to wear provocative clothing than are white female artists (Frisby & Aubrey, 2012 ). Furthermore, Zhang, Dixon, and Conrad ( 2010 ) and Conrad, Zhang, and Dixon ( 2009 ) found that black women appeared in rap videos as sexualized, thin, and light-skinned while black men appeared dark-skinned and threatening .

Latino Entertainment Television Representation

Unlike African Americans, Latinos remain significantly underrepresented in English-language television outlets. For instance, Tukachinsky et al. ( 2015 ) found that of all characters, the number of Latino characters was less than 1% in the 1980s and increased to over 3% in the 2000s. However, these numbers fall significantly below the proportion of people who are Latino within the United States (about 18%) (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 ). Similarly, Signorelli ( 2009 ) also found that the percentage of Latinos in the United States Latino population and the percentage of Latino characters in prime-time programming differed by approximately 10%.

Latinos continue to be underrepresented in a variety of genres and outlets. For instance, Latinos remain consistently underrepresented in gay male blogs. For example, Grimm and Schwarz ( 2017 ) found that white gay models (80.2%) were most prevalent, followed by black gay models (4.5%). However, Latino models were the least prevalent (1.5%). In addition, Hetsroni ( 2009 ) found that the Latino population makes up 14% of patients in real hospitals, yet they only comprise 4% of the patients in hospital dramas. Conversely, whites make up 72% of real patients but comprise 80% of hospital drama patients.

Latino Underrepresentation in Advertising

Latino underrepresentation extends to the advertising realm. For example, Seelig ( 2007 ) determined that there was a significant difference between the Latino proportion of the US population and the Latino proportion of models found in mainstream magazines (1%). Another study that investigated Superbowl commercials conducted by Brooks, Bichard, and Craig ( 2016 ) found that only 1.22% of the characters were Latino.

Prominent Stereotypes of Latinos in Entertainment Media

Although underrepresented, Latinos are also stereotypically represented in entertainment media. For example, Tukachinsky et al. ( 2015 ) discovered that over 24% of Latino characters were hypersexualized in prime-time television. Furthermore, Latinos tended to occupy low-professional-status roles. This trend also occurred more often with Latina females than Latino males.

Spanish-language television also reinforced stereotypes. For instance, Mastro and Ortiz ( 2008 ) studied the portrayals of characters in prime-time Spanish-language television broadcasts by Azteca America, Telefutura, Telemundo, and Univision. They found rich Latina women reinforced the harlot stereotype . They were sexualized , were provocatively dressed, and had slim body types (Mastro & Behm-Morawitz, 2005 ). Similar to the findings for African Americans and rap music, colorism was also part of these depictions, with idealized Latinos having more European features. Men with a dark complexion were depicted as aggressive (e.g., the criminal stereotype) , while men with a fair complexion were portrayed as intelligent and articulate.

Entertainment Imagery Summary

Blacks appear to be well represented in entertainment imagery, often in favorable major roles as professionals. However, their positive portrayals appear to be on the decline as situation comedies become displaced by other genres where blacks are less prominent. Although well represented, black depictions continue to embody many stereotypes. African American males are portrayed as unintelligent or “dumb” athletes whose only assets are their inbred athletic abilities. Black men tend to appear as aggressive criminals or brutes in music videos while black women appear as sexualized jezebels with European features.

Latinos, on the other hand, face substantial obstacles related to their lack of representation. They tend to be grossly underrepresented across a number of entertainment outlets including television, magazines, and advertising. When they are seen, they tend to occupy two primary stereotypes, the harlot stereotype and the criminal stereotype. This appears to be a constant across both Spanish-language and English-language outlets.

News Constructions of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity

News remains an important area to consider when it comes to media stereotypes for two reasons. First, news can be considered a powerful purveyor of social truth (Romer, Jamieson, & Aday, 2003 ; Tewksbury & Rittenberg, 2012 ). While entertainment can be considered by lay audiences to have a weak relationship with social reality given its fictional nature, news is rooted in actual events, and therefore seems more real. Stereotypes found in news content may seem believable, increasing these stereotype’s influence on audiences’ perceptions of reality. Second, citizens rely on news to form opinions about policies and politicians (Iyengar, 1987 ; Price & Tewksbury, 1997 ). News reports contain the reservoir of information that citizens utilize to make decisions within our representative democracy (Iyengar, 1991 ). If the news falsely points to racial groups as the cause of social problems, these citizens may advocate for ineffective and misguided policies. The next section explores how the news purveys racial and ethnic stereotypes.

Blacks in the News

A number of early studies suggested that the news often stereotyped blacks as violent criminals , consistently overrepresenting them in these roles by large margins (Dixon, Azocar, & Casas, 2003 ; Dixon & Linz, 2000a , 2000b ; Entman, 1992 , 1994 ). At the same time, many of these studies showed blacks underrepresented in more sympathetic roles, such as victims of crime (Dixon & Linz, 2000a , 2000b ).

However, recent research suggests that the criminal stereotype has not remained consistently part of the news landscape. For example, Dixon ( 2017b ) found that current depictions of blacks in local news reflect actual percentages of blacks in these various roles, including as criminals. Similarly, Dixon and Williams ( 2015 ) found African Americans underrepresented as both criminals and victims. On the other hand, another recent content analysis that investigated black family depictions in the news, conducted by Dixon ( 2017a ), found that black family members were overrepresented as criminal suspects compared to crime reports.

Furthermore, Mastro, Blecha, and Atwell Seate ( 2011 ) content-analyzed articles pertaining to athletes’ criminal activity published in newspapers and found that mentions of black athletes’ criminal activity outnumber white and Latino athletes. Furthermore, mentions of criminal activity among black athletes outnumber their real-world proportion in professional sports (Mastro et al., 2011 ). In addition, crime articles discussing black athletes provide more explicit details of the crime and mention more negative consequences (e.g., jail or fines) than articles regarding white athletes. News narratives also present less sympathetic coverage for black athletes, more support for the victim, a less respectful tone, and fewer thematic frames (i.e., situating the crime in a larger context) for black athletes compared to white athletes.

Besides criminality , news tends to also depict blacks as part of the underserving poor . For example, van Doorn ( 2015 ) content-analyzed images depicting poverty in news magazines (i.e., Time, Newsweek , and USNWR ). News magazines picture blacks as the majority of persons in poverty (52%), while blacks only account for around 25% of Americans in poverty (van Doorn, 2015 ). Blacks experience similar misrepresentations as welfare recipients . Based on magazine depictions, black people comprise 55% of all welfare recipients. However, in reality, blacks only account for 38% of welfare recipients. Furthermore, the black elderly are depicted as only accounting for 1% of poor elderly persons pictured, while the true percentage is 6%. In addition, during times of economic stability, African American association with poverty increases, but during times of economic upheaval (e.g., the Great Recession) white association with poverty goes up.

Latinos in the News

If there is an overarching issue to consider regarding Latino depictions in news, it would again be their perpetual underrepresentation. Overall, Latinos remain severely underrepresented on television news, especially in sympathetic roles. For example, early studies by Dixon and Linz ( 2000a , 2000b ) found Latinos were underrepresented as perpetrators, victims, and police officers in the news. In one of these studies, Latinos were 54% of the homicide victims in Los Angeles County but were depicted as homicide victims only about 19% of the time on television news. A recent update to this study found that Latinos were accurately represented as perpetrators, but continued to be underrepresented as victims and police officers (Dixon, 2017b ). This invisibility extends to newspapers and magazines (Sorenson, Manz, & Berk, 1998 ). For example, Latinos are underrepresented in Time and Newsweek as part of the obese population, 5% in these magazines versus 18% according to medical statistics (Gollust, Eboh, & Barry, 2012 ).

When we considered the pervasive stereotype that is present with Latinos, it revolved around the issue of immigration and Latino immigrants as criminal or cultural threats . For instance, a meta-analysis (i.e., a type of method that unearths patterns of academic research) by Rendon and Johnson ( 2015 ) on studies that analyzed media coverage of Mexican affairs in the United States revealed a Threat Phase, from 2010 to 2014 . During this phase, reporters investigated the notion that immigrant Mexicans imperil the United States. Furthermore, Chavez, Whiteford, and Hoewe ( 2010 ) found that more than half of analyzed stories concerning Mexican immigration from the New York Times , Washington Post , Wall Street Journal , and USA Today focused on illegal immigration. Furthermore, within these immigration stories, crime was addressed most often (50.6%), followed by economics (e.g., job competition) (30.6%), and legislative deliberations (28.1%). Similarly, Branton and Dunaway ( 2008 ) found that English-language newspapers were almost twice as likely as Spanish-language news to depict immigration in a negative light.

Kim, Carvahlo, Davis, and Mullins ( 2011 ) found that illegal immigration stories produced by the media focus on the negative consequences of crime and job competition. A more recent study conducted by Dixon and Williams ( 2015 ) appears to confirm the media link between immigration, Latinos, and criminal behavior. They found that criminal suspects identified as immigrants in news stories were greatly overrepresented as Latino. In addition, almost all of the illegal or undocumented immigrants appearing in the news were depicted as Latino, which is a great overrepresentation based on official government reports. Dunaway, Goidel, Krizinger, and Wilkinson ( 2011 ) confirm that news coverage encourages an immigration threat narrative, meaning that the majority of immigration stories exhibit a negative tone.

Whites as the “Good Guys”

While black representations as criminal suspects does appear to vary in intensity and Latinos tend to be depicted as either invisible or threatening immigrants, white portrayals remain consistently positive in this domain. Classic studies of both news and reality-based programming show whites overrepresented as officers and victims (Dixon et al., 2003 ; Dixon & Linz, 2000a , 2000b ; Oliver, 1994 ). This includes network and local news programs. More recent studies show that this continues to occur regularly and remains a news programming staple (Dixon, 2017b ). When contrasted with black and Latino representations, this reinforces the notion that whites resolve social problems and people of color create social problems.

Summary of News Constructions of Culture, Race, and Media

Based on this literature review, three significant findings that summarize news’ construction of race and ethnicity emerge. First, African Americans tend to be overly associated with criminality and poverty . However, the intensity of these portrayals depends on context (e.g., a focus on families, athletes, or general economic conditions). Second, Latinos tend to be largely underrepresented, but when they are seen, they tend to be overly associated with problematic illegal immigration , especially immigrants who may pose a threat or be prone to criminality. Third, news depicts whites most favorably, overrepresenting them as victims (e.g., innocent portrayals) and officers (e.g., heroic portrayals).

Digital Media Constructions of Culture, Race, and Media

The vast majority of research detailing the portrayal of people of color in the media relied on the analysis of traditional media sources including television and magazines. However, increasingly, people turn to digital media for both entertainment and news. This section provides an overview of this growing industry that will eventually dominate our media landscape. The discussion first entails video games and Internet news websites. Speculation about the role social media will play with regard to these depictions follows.

Black Depictions in Video Games

An abundance of research focuses on racial representation within video games (Burgess, Dill, Stermer, Burgess, & Brown, 2011 ; Williams, Martins, Consalvo, & Ivory, 2009 ). Similar to traditional entertainment media, African Americans comprise approximately 11% of popular video game characters for major game systems (e.g., Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube) (Williams et al., 2009 ). Conversely, blacks are underrepresented in massive multiplayer online games (MMO) in which players customize their own avatars’ features, including gender and skin tone (Waddell, Ivory, Conde, Long, & McDonnell, 2014 ). In this environment only 3.84% of all unique characters within MMOs are black.

When considering gender differences in portrayals, more problematic depictions exist. For instance, black women are underrepresented in gaming magazines and almost completely absent from video game covers (Burgess et al., 2011 ). Meanwhile, black men are typically portrayed as either athletic and/or violent . Black aggression does not occur in socially sanctioned settings (e.g., war). Instead, many black males appear as outlaws (e.g., street fighters).

Black Depictions in Digital News Sources

There is limited research on news depictions and race within digital media contexts, but this will most likely become the focus of future scholarship over the next few years. This focus will be fueled by the rise of political figures, such as Donald Trump, who utilize media stereotypes to advance their political agendas (Dixon, 2017a ). Much of what we do know stems from research on websites and digital news sources. One earlier study of this phenomena found that African Americans were underrepresented as part of images and headlines used in these web news stories (Josey et al., 2009 ). They were also more strongly associated with poverty than what the actual poverty rates suggest. A more recent analysis of a wide variety of online news sources similarly found that black families were overrepresented as poor and welfare dependent (Dixon, 2017a ). In addition, black fathers were misrepresented as excessively absent from the lives of their children. Finally, African American family members were overrepresented as criminal suspects. These findings complement the traditional news conclusions reached by previous scholars.

Latino Depictions in Video Games

Waddell, Ivory, Conde, Long, and McDonnell ( 2014 ) found that the trend of Latino underrepresentation in media extends to the video game industry. Latino avatars were not observed in the highest grossing MMO games in 2010 (0%). Williams, Martins, Consalvo, and Ivory ( 2009 ) also assessed the racial characteristics of video game characters across 150 games and found that white characters were observed more often (59.32%) than Latino (1.63%) characters. Furthermore, Latino characters were never observed assuming primary roles.

Latino Depictions in Digital News Sources

In terms of digital news sources, the research presents extremely similar findings between Latinos and African Americans. Latinos continue to be largely underrepresented across a variety of roles in web news (Josey et al., 2009 ). They are underrepresented in both headlines and images. They are also likely to be overassociated with poverty (Dixon, 2017a ; Josey et al., 2009 ).

Summary of Digital Constructions of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity

In summary, underrepresentation remains the norm for both African Americans and Latinos in digital media. At the same time, digital news overly associates these groups with poverty . Clearly, as traditional media and its audience migrate to new digital platforms, this area will continue to be researchers’ focus well into the future. One digital platform not mentioned is social media. Many users receive, consume, and share entertainment and news content via social media. This includes music and music fandom content (Epps & Dixon, 2017 ). Social media’s specific and unique characteristics may contribute to media stereotype cultivation and prevent positive intergroup contact (Dixon, 2017c ). Much work needs to be undertaken in the future to explore these possibilities.

Conclusions

This article began with a discussion of the possible impact of mediated stereotypes to contextualize our discussion. Social categorization theory, social identity theory, and priming/cognitive accessibility suggest that the prominent black stereotypes of black laziness , criminality , innate athleticism , jezebel, and poverty would be embraced by heavy media consumers. Similarly, even though Latinos remain underrepresented, the reinforcement of Latino stereotypes like poverty , harlot , criminal , and illegal immigrant would result from regular media consumption. While underrepresented, Latinos receive enough mainstream media attention for scholars to conduct quantitative social research. Asian and Native Americans’ underrepresentation in mainstream media, however, indicates these groups’ general absence.

When educators teach these topics in class, they are often asked: Why? Why does media perpetuate these stereotypes? Consider these two prominent answers. First, media creators suffer from mostly unconscious, and sometimes conscious bias, that scholars believe facilitates an ethnic blame discourse (Dixon & Linz, 2000a ; Romer, Jamieson, & de Coteau, 1998 ; Van Dijk, 1993 ).

This discourse tends to occur within groups (e.g., whites conversing with one another) and leads them to blame social problems on ethnic others (e.g., Latinos and blacks). Given that media producers remain overwhelmingly white, this explanation appears plausible. As white people engage in these discussions, their way of thinking manifests in their content. The second explanation revolves around the structural limitations and economic interests of news agencies (Dixon & Linz, 2000a ). This explanation suggests that media agencies air material most appealing to audiences in the simplest form possible to increase ratings. This process heavily relies on stereotypes because stereotypes make processing and attending to media messages easier for audience members. In turn, profits increase. This points to problems related to the relationship between media content creation and the media industry’s profit motives. Skeptics may question these explanations’ plausibility, but overall, mediated stereotypes remain a persistent part of the media environment. Digital media exacerbate the negative effects of mediated stereotype consumption.

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What is Digital Media? Understanding the Digital Content Landscape

The digital media wave has developed into a tsunami, engulfing various industries with its transformative power. This digital revolution has reshaped how we create, consume, and distribute content, opening up a sea of possibilities and challenges in equal measure. But what exactly is digital media? And how has it revolutionized the way we interact with the world?

Key Highlights

• Digital media is a cornerstone of our information-driven society, revolutionizing how we create and consume content.
• Businesses should blend digital and print media campaigns to leverage each medium’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Owned, paid and earned media are all important elements for successful digital marketing strategies.

Digital Media Formats

Digital media encompasses a wide spectrum of content and digital media products, including:

• Advertisements
• Virtual reality

However, it’s not just about the type of content; digital media has also revolutionized how we create and consume this content.

Businesses leverage digital media marketing as an effective tool to reach an extensive audience and boost revenue. Companies generate high-quality content that appeals to their target audience, which increases website traffic and enhances visibility on social media platforms. This isn’t just about selling products or services; it’s about engaging with customers, understanding their needs and preferences, and building a strong brand identity. You can discover more about how to invest in digital media by reading our Investment Theme feature.

However, the influence of digital media extends beyond the realms of business. It’s also reshaping the way we consume information and entertainment. Here are some examples:

• Digital illustrations created by graphic designers are used to convey information
• Digital marketing campaigns utilize a range of skills, including video editing, to create compelling packages
• Companies like Netflix have even transformed the entertainment landscape with their original content and accessible platforms

Essentially, digital media is one of the foundations of our information-driven society. It’s how we stay informed, entertained, and connected in our day-to-day lives. But to fully appreciate its impact, we must understand its evolution in the information age.

How can we Understand Digital Media in the Information Age?

The information age has seen an unprecedented transformation in media consumption. Digital media, delivered primarily through electronic devices such as smartphones, computers, and televisions, has taken center stage, highlighting a stark contrast with traditional print media. Online media, as a subset of digital media, has also played a crucial role in this shift.

The current digital media is not limited to a single form. It encompasses a wide range of digital content, including:

• Digital images
• Social media

Yet, the expansion of digital media brings challenges such as outdated copyright laws and the risk of a digital dark age – in which not all previously available data will be accessible.

Despite these obstacles, digital media has had a profound impact on our daily routines and the business sector, necessitating a shift in business strategies to integrate digital approaches.

The Evolution of Media: From Traditional to Digital

The transition to the digital age began in the late 20th century, peaking in the 1990s with the rise of platforms like Yahoo, signifying a significant shift from traditional to digital media. There are historical precedents as to how technology has revolutionized media's dissemination, with the key events, including:

• The invention of the printing press
• The introduction of radio broadcasting
• The rise of the internet
• The emergence of social media platforms

Traditional media has had to adapt or risk digital media's disruption completely overtaking its market share. Some of the ways traditional media adapted include:

• Newspapers and magazines transitioning to online platforms
• Television and radio stations providing streaming services
• Traditional advertising methods migrating to digital channels

Digital Media vs. Print Media: A Comparative Overview

Even though digital media has gained prominence, it coexists with print media, each possessing unique strengths and weaknesses. Digital media offers the advantage of rapid creation, publication, and editing, and is more environmentally friendly. However, with a proliferation of sites it’s often seen as less trustworthy and can be intrusive.

Meanwhile, print media is often regarded as more credible and offers a sense of novelty. However, it comes with higher production and distribution costs and challenges in targeting specific customer segments. To leverage the strengths of both, businesses are advised to blend digital and print media campaigns and evaluate their effectiveness in the context of digital vs print media.

What is the Spectrum of Digital Media Platforms?

Digital media platforms, such as websites, applications, and other digital channels, are instrumental in sharing and distributing digital content. These platforms offer content creators a space to showcase their work and for users to discover, interact with, and disseminate that content.

These platforms host a variety of media content, including text, images, audio, and video. They facilitate communication, collaboration, and interaction between content creators and consumers, fostering a dynamic and interactive digital content landscape.

Social Media Channels: Connecting the World

Among these platforms, social media channels – such as Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and Snapchat to name but a few – have had an enormous impact, bridging different cultures. They enable businesses and individuals to create and share social media posts that:

• Establish enduring connections
• Provide opportunities for online advertising
• Reach a wider audience
• Impact brand recognition
• Enable customers to share their experiences with a brand
• Provide businesses with opportunities to connect and engage with consumers.

What is the Role of Owned, Paid, and Earned Media in Digital Marketing?

In digital marketing, media is categorized into three types: owned, paid, and earned. Each type contributes significantly to a successful marketing strategy, and understanding them is essential if you want to leverage digital media for business expansion.

Owned media pertains to the digital assets a company controls, like websites and social media profiles. It helps businesses build brand authority and visibility by offering a platform to showcase their expertise and distinctive value proposition.

Conversely, paid media involves online promotion of content to boost traffic to owned media assets. This includes strategies such as:

• Pay-per-click
• Local service ads
• Paid search ads
• Display ads
• Social media ads

Earned media refers to the recognition and exposure a brand receives through customer-initiated activities like word of mouth, social media engagements, reviews, endorsements, and content sharing.

Brands can position themselves as industry leaders, cultivate trust and credibility, and maintain autonomy over their communication and brand identity.

For optimal results, businesses should concentrate on:

• Delivering value to the audience
• Refining content for discovery
• Incorporating contributions from internal experts
• Amplifying the message across various channels
• Continuously measuring and refining efforts.

What is Digital Media’s Impact on Various Industries?

Digital media has significantly influenced several industries, presenting new opportunities and challenges. For instance, in the journalism industry, digital media has facilitated the global reach of journalists, broadened the scope of citizen journalists – made infinitely easier and more accessible through the use of mobile phones – and intensified the difficulty of countering mis– and disinformation.

In the publishing industry, digital media has:

• Increased the popularity of e-books and audiobooks
• Created opportunities for authors to use social media, and enhanced the ability for them to self-publish
• Developed closer connections between publishers and readers

The education sector has also been transformed by digital media, with the expansion of access to academic resources, facilitation of online learning, and increased student interaction with interactive content.

The entertainment and music industries have seen transformations in production, consumption, and distribution due to digital media. This has resulted in fundamental changes in audience engagement and monetization models.

How to Invest in Digital Media with OurCrowd

To make well-informed investment decisions about whether to invest in digital media companies, it is crucial to conduct thorough research. The following steps will guide you in effectively researching these companies:

• Explore OurCrowd’s top digital media investment opportunities and assess their market position.
• Analysis of their financial performance, revenue streams, and growth prospects. Join OurCrowd to access OurTake Analyses that include executive summaries, investment overviews and competitive landscape insights 
• Evaluate the expertise of their company leadership and management.
• Assess their industry reputation and consumer sentiment.
• Examine their compliance with regulations and legal considerations.

Remember, researching digital media companies is an ongoing process. Stay updated with industry news , attend investor conferences, and review analyst reports to gain deeper insights into the companies you are considering for investment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some of the challenges in digital media.

These can include some or all of the following: information overload, digital piracy, privacy concerns, and the rapid evolution of technology.

What is the future of digital media?

There are a number of emerging trends, technologies, and predictions for the future of digital media, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. 

How can businesses optimize owned media for maximum results?

Businesses can optimize owned media for maximum results by providing value to the audience, optimizing content for discovery, enlisting internal experts to contribute, amplifying the message through various channels, and measuring and optimizing efforts.

How does digital media impact copyright and intellectual property?

Digital media’s rapid evolution has created challenges and legal considerations surrounding the use, sharing, and protection of digital content.

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Digital Media Design Theories and Principles

• First Online: 23 November 2019

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• Anthony Karl Betrus 5  

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The selection and integration of digital media is intentional and therefore considered in every stage of the design and development in instruction. The selection and placement of digital media should adhere to theory, principles, and guidelines on the ways people process information and learn. It is essential to keep in mind the human learning processes and how digital media learning can support or disrupt it. Multimedia learning principles, design and type principles, graphic design principles, and universal design principles al provide guidance in the selection and integration of digital media.

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Professional Practice Case Study

Mayer’s design principles in financial training.

By Terri Mestre, Instructional Designer

A high priority project needing a major overhaul was assigned to me with a short turnaround time of 2 weeks. The project was originally developed by an external vendor and the client was unhappy with the end product. The project was a web-based training course, approximately 30 min long covering a complex financial topic.

To begin the redevelopment process, the first action was to take the course myself as a learner. The course content was completely foreign to me, so I was able to have a true novice learner experience. I completed the course several times and by the end I was no more knowledgeable than when I started. The content was a mix of narrated text and images. The course began with six defined learning objectives and covered a large amount of detailed content. The course ended with a ten question assessment, that in all of my attempts I was never able to achieve a passing score. Overall, as a learner I was overwhelmed with the amount of content and never grasped what I was supposed to be learning.

Before storyboarding for the redesign, I met with the project Subject Matter Experts to complete a Topic Analysis. Even though all of the content and learning objectives were available in the course, it was not clear what the overall goals of the course were and what content was essential to a learner’s understanding. After a thorough analysis I was ready to begin the redesign process. As I worked on the redesign and the development, I kept Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multi-Media Learning at the forefront of my mind.

The training needed to begin with a clear introduction and learning objectives in order to ground the learner, focus the learner’s attention, and prepare the learner for the course content. This principle is outlined by Mayer as the Pretraining Principle. This training was a complex financial regulation compliance course. To ground learners, I began the course with a brief background of the law, how it applies to their job role, and why it is important information for them to know. This also helps to gain buy-in from adult learners.

I then reorganized and segmented the content into distinct modules that corresponded to each clearly defined learning objective. Mayer’s Segmenting Principle supports the shorter segments approach. Through analysis I was able to reduce the learning objectives down from six to four specific goals. I created four modules, to replace the one lengthy course. Along with the reduction of extraneous content, a segmented approach organizes content in a more memorable way for the learner. Each module was thoughtfully designed with the same format: introduction, content, knowledge check question, and recap. This design helped to prepare learners and know what information to specifically focus on. This approach is supported by Mayer’s Signaling Principle. Using explicit cues consistently is a good approach to prepare and familiarize the learner with the structure of the course.

The largest overhaul needed was an editing down of the content. Mayer’s Coherence Principle tells us that limiting the amount of detail provided allows learners to focus on the main points of the training and focus on the true learning objectives. I removed unnecessary definitions, background information, all extraneous images, text, and narration. It can often be more challenging to find succinct and direct ways to deliver content than to just throw everything at a learner, but cognitive overload is a risk for any training. Knowing the audience’s background was critical to understanding what could be eliminated and what was essential to keep. Related to the Coherence Principle is Mayer’s Redundancy principle. Simply, all text on screen did not need to be narrated and vice versa. The original development had paragraphs of text on most slides with accompanying narration. It is simply too difficult to focus on written text and narration at the same time. To reduce the conflict of content delivery, I shorten text to key main points or substituted with images and kept the corresponding narration. For other slides where the text was not too lengthy, I reduced narration and simplified the text with added images and infographics, eliminating any extraneous components. This also supports Mayer’s Temporal Contiguity Principle and Image Principle, only include relevant text and images on screen that directly correspond to the narration and clearly represent the content being presented. The combination and thoughtful balance of graphics, images, text and narration ensured that Mayer’s Principles of Modality and Multimedia were also adhered to for this training development.

The final course development with a clean and direct approach was well received by the end client and was proven successful with learners. Data from the knowledge check questions and final assessment gathered through the Learning Management System showed an 86% passing rate for learners’ first final assessment attempts and a 98% passing rate by all learners’ third final assessment attempts. Mayer’s Principles of Multimedia learning is a tool every designer should keep handy.

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Martin, F., Betrus, A.K. (2019). Digital Media Design Theories and Principles. In: Digital Media for Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33120-7_2

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International Media and Information Literacy e-Platform

Unit 1: The Concept of Representation

• Unit 2: News Reporting & The Power of The Image
• Unit 3: Institutional Code on Diversity & Representation
• Unit 4: Television, Film & Print Publications
• Unit 5: Representation & Music Film

Media and information literacy involves a critical analysis of representations availed by media, digital communications companies, libraries, archives, and museums, etc.: the ways in which individuals, groups, places/communities or even news items of the day are “re-presented” or portrayed in various media and information sources.

MIL involves a critical understanding of the power of representations—of issues, individuals, and communities-and the influence of these representations on the discourse of the day, and on how we see ourselves and others. MIL is about understanding the power of content providers to shape the way we respond to a pandemic or health crisis, the choice we make when we cast a ballot in an election, or the way we think about our identities, communities, and culture.

Len Masterman reminds educators of the importance of the analysis of various content providers, and recognizing all content providers are representational systems. If we are looking at media and digital communications companies as representational systems, then the questions inevitably arise as to who is creating these representations. Who is doing the representing? Who is telling us that this is the way the world is? That their way  of  seeing  is  simply  natural?  Other  questions  emerge.  What  is  the  nature  of  the  world that is being represented? What are its values and dominant assumptions? What are the techniques used to create [its] ‘authenticity’...? How are the media’s and digital communications  companies’  representations  read  and  how  are  they  understood  by  their audiences? How are we, as an audience, positioned by the text? What divergent interpretations exist...? (Adapted from Masterman, 2010). As always, critical analysis in media and information literacy requires that educators and learners explore how representations in all forms can affect our actions and behaviours, our knowledge and understanding, our thoughts and feelings, our sense of self, and our relationship with others. Media and information literacy also has a significant role to play in promoting dialogue, diversity, equity and inclusion, by enabling citizens to create and recognize stories and perspectives that are often not part of mainstream content. In  many  instances,  representations  that  appear  through  various  content providers are based on stereotypes - oversimplified representations that emphasize difference. Because of this oversimplification, an audience is sometimes shown only a few characteristics that may not accurately or fully represent an issue, individual or a group. This kind of narrow focus can often prevent us from recognizing and understanding the richness  and  complexity  that  exist  beyond  the  portrayals.  Gender  biases  are  among  the  most  common  forms  of  stereotypes.  This  is  with  detrimental  impact  as  such  representation leads to almost half the world population being invisible in the media. The Global Media Monitoring Project, the longest running research on this topic, found that “in 2015, women make up only 24% of the persons heard, read about or seen in newspaper, television and radio news, exactly as they did in 2010.” The gap is even more significant in news concerning politicis and government, where women represent only 16% of the people in these stories. In the multicultural landscape that is our global village, part of being media and information literate is being conscious of the ways in which the various content providers present the diversity of individuals, groups and communities that make up the social and cultural fabric of our world.

• Stereotypes in the media and digital communication companies
• The importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in content providers’ representations
• How messages and values can be conveyed through content providers’ representations
• The impact of representation on audiences
• The role of agency in representation
• The role of policy in ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion

Learning Objectives

• Analysis of content providers’ representations as constructions
• Assessment of the impact of content providers’ representations on audiences
• Assessment of the impact of policy decisions on diversity, equity and inclusion
• Identification of the characteristics of content providers' representations that contribute to diversity in the media

Pedagogical Approaches and Activities

In summary: as discussed earlier in this Curriculum (Part 1) various pedagogical approaches are possible. Please review the list in Part 1 and decide which approach to apply to the suggested Activities below and others that you may formulate.

• What representations of race, gender or class exist in the content you use, or in the wider online spaces you visit? Would you describe these as stereotypical or diverse representations? How do the visuals or language used reinforce or break stereotypes?
• What gender groups do you see in the media (presence/invisibility), and in what roles (stereotypes)?
• Typical representations of the “other” in content often fall into particular categories, including: the sexualized, the exotic, the dangerous, the humorous, and the pitiful. How common are these representations today? Are there other categories that appear in the content that are not listed here? Are these representations associated with particular gender groups (including, women, men, and LGBTQI+)?
• How are these portrayals constructed? What are the technical elements that have been chosen? How do they reinforce content?
• What is the message that is conveyed through these representations? Who benefits if the message is accepted? Who loses?
• How easy is it to find examples from mainstream or alternative media that break or go against a stereotype and provide more complex portraits of an individual or a group? Search for gender equality, minority groups, and other themes of interest to you. What do you find?
• To what extent are a variety of voices present in content you use or create? Why might this be the case? What impact do the voices that are present have on particular audiences? What is the impact of the absence of certain voices?
• What factors do you consider when deciding how to “represent” yourself online or in your own media and digital content creations? How do you determine what factors are important?
• Describe the characteristics of a media platform that embeds the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion and fair representations of our global village. What are the potential uses and effects of such a platform?

Assessment & Recommendations

• Essays, reflection and reaction papers to lectures, case studies, audiovisual presentations/viewings
• Participation in group learning activities and discussions
• Production of information-education-communication materials (e.g. posters, brochures, infographics, social media cards, vlogs)
• Textual analysis of content providers for examples of representation
• Development of a model, table, or evaluation instrument to determine who the audience is for specific media representations
• Collage of media messages along with a word-map or Wordle that describes dominant media representations today, as well as the major influences on audiences
• Development of an outline for a content provider that embeds the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion and fair representations of our global village. The plan can also outline the potential uses and effects of such a platform.

Related items

• Information and communication
• Guidelines and tools

ANTH 3040 6.0: The Anthropology of Digital Media and Visual Representation

--> anth 3040 6.0: the anthropology of digital media and visual representation, ap/anth 3040 6.00 the anthropology of digital media and visual representation.

This course is about anthropology and visual representations of culture, and cultural difference. It looks at a wide variety of visual media online, including art, photography, film, and specific digital technologies (such as video games and online museums), to explore the ways in which they shape both the perception of, and the experience of, cultural difference and identity. Throughout the course, an emphasis is placed on the inherent power of digital images, and their ability to shape our own cultural experiences, to cast cultural and ethnic others in particular ways, and to act as a mode for producing and resisting stereotypes.

This course examines a wide range of readings, films, and online videos in an effort to move toward developing a theoretical framework for analyzing and reading visual images. It draws on sources from a variety of media formats that are available online. Of central concern are representations of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and “otherness.” Cultural anthropologists have a vested interest in analyses of visual representations for a variety of reasons, one being that visual images, as cultural productions, are steeped in the values, ideologies, and taken-for-granted beliefs about various cultures. Having said that, they are also produced within a political economy that is affected by class and gender hierarchies, and therefore issues concerning power and social order are central.

Course Director: L. Mannik - [email protected]

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412 Digital media and intellectual property

• Published: April 2019
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Vannevar Bush envisioned a machine that would assist humanity in the creative work of writing. Doug Engelbart imagined the collaborative sharing and enhancement of knowledge. Digital media today—text, drawings, photos, audio, and video—surpass the visions of their pioneers. These media may be copied, shared, and modified in ways that challenge the legal system, because unrestricted content sharing without suitable payment to creators runs counter to intellectual property (IP) traditions and laws. Writers, musicians, artists, and inventors have long relied upon IP protection to enable them to control the use of their creations and inventions. Copyright infringement, that is, copying in violation of copyright, threatens the income that they could receive from their creations. The concept of fair use is a critical issue in such discussions, as it allows certain exceptions to copyright. One area that has received a great deal of attention is the digital copying and sharing of music; we shall examine the interplay between conventional behaviour, ethics, technical interventions to limit or block copying, laws and legal battles, and product and pricing innovation. Next, we shall look at similar issues in the domain of motion pictures. There are effective and legal streaming services, yet there are still concerns about copyright infringement. Copyright holders now automatically produce takedown notices to insist that websites remove illegally or improperly sourced material. Such notices include many errors, causing additional complications for video creators. One interesting challenge to the concept and laws of copyright occurs in the creation of mash-ups. Artists use fragments from existing musical or visual performances as well as their own material to create audio-visual works that combine multiple content sources. Artists, lawyers, and businesspeople debate the extent to which such mash-ups violate reasonable copyright protection. Copyright is also significant for academic articles and textbooks. There are two especially interesting cases to discuss. One is the widespread copying of textbooks by students due to the high price of texts. The other is the fair pricing of the publication of research results that have been funded by government grants. This issue has provided one of several stimuli to the creation of open access publications.

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