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Reflection 3

The document discusses the significant impact of media representations and stereotypes on societal concepts, particularly regarding race and gender. It highlights how stereotypes can lead to identity distortion and systemic inequalities, while emphasizing the importance of media literacy and inclusive narratives to combat these issues. The author connects their views with existing literature on the persistence of stereotypes in media and the negative effects on marginalized communities.

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3 views

Reflection 3

The document discusses the significant impact of media representations and stereotypes on societal concepts, particularly regarding race and gender. It highlights how stereotypes can lead to identity distortion and systemic inequalities, while emphasizing the importance of media literacy and inclusive narratives to combat these issues. The author connects their views with existing literature on the persistence of stereotypes in media and the negative effects on marginalized communities.

Uploaded by

qzhu237
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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English 319

Qingze Zhu

January 20th, 2025

Media Representations and Stereotypes: Shaping Society through

Simplification

As one of the most influential groups on the Internet, the media has a huge
influence on shaping people's social concepts. To gain attention, they often rely on
stereotypes to simplify some social situations. Shakunthala's article published in 2013,
"Media Representations and Stereotypes: Analyzing the Societal Impact", studied the
important impact of media stereotypes on social inequality and the formation of
marginalized identities. I think this can be very well matched with the two viewpoints
in our course, "The Persistence of Stereotypes and Reasons for Stereotyping in the
Media" and "Archetypes of African Americans, Indigenous People, and Mexicans in
Media", which jointly explore the lasting influence of stereotypes in different
contexts.

Shakunthala's article highlights that media portrayals can reflect


stereotypes, especially in terms of race and gender, which can lead to identity
distortion and systemic inequalities. Marginalized communities can experience
damaged self-esteem and self-stigmatization after being affected by this. In contrast,
media literacy and inclusive narratives are important ways to combat these
stereotypes and can greatly reduce the formation of stereotypes among the masses.

My opinion is that stereotypes often make people give up on in-depth


understanding and simply define something, simplifying the process but
unconsciously causing harm to the individual and the community. Today's society is
too fast-paced, and the media, as the most common channel for ordinary people to
receive information, has a wide influence on shaping social attitudes and cognition.
Once they simplify descriptions to form stereotypes, it will not only distort the
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public's thinking but also make people who can clarify the stereotypes lose the
opportunity to redefine themselves. Therefore, the media is extremely harmful to
society in terms of stereotypes.

The reasons why stereotypes exist in the media are very consistent with
what we learned in class: "the persistence of stereotypes and reasons for stereotyping
in the media". Specifically, Shakunthala explained that the media would choose
simple descriptions to simplify the storytelling process and quickly establish the
identity of the character. Engl319-Module-C1a-Stereotyping-overview mentioned that
media creators rely heavily on stereotypes because it is easy for their creations to meet
the expectations of the audience. These can explain the reasons for the existence of
stereotypes in the media.

At the same time, Shakunthala’s article is consistent with Rahman's 2015


and Lippi-Green's 1997 Chapter 5 on “Archetypes of African Americans, Indigenous
people and Mexicans in media”, which supplements my understanding. The two
materials in class explain the archetypes of stereotypes in the media, for example,
African Americans are often depicted as criminals, Indigenous people as noble
savages, and Mexicans as immigrants. Shakunthala’s point of view affirms the
importance of these small descriptions, which not only bring negative ideas to society
but also make these groups more marginalized. They also mentioned that inclusive
performance is an important way to promote social empathy.

In general, I think the relationship between stereotypes and the media is an


issue that we all need to think about because if we don’t know that the media is
promoting the formation of stereotypes, we will unconsciously change our ideology
and unconsciously form stereotypes about a certain group. It is extremely
irresponsible to simply define a certain group without understanding it. It is
disrespectful to them and overindulge us. More importantly, we may also become part
of other people’s stereotypes. Therefore, this article is well combined with the two
viewpoints on the subject, which has expanded my knowledge, further understood the
relationship between stereotypes and the media, and inspired my thinking. (592words)
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References
Shakunthala, S. (2013). Media Representations and Stereotypes: Analyzing the
Societal Impact. International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT),
1(1), 718-725.
Engl319-Module-C1a-Stereotyping-overview.
Engl319-Module-C1b-Stereotyping-Literature.
Rahman 2015.
Lippi-Green 1997 Chapter 5.

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