I know that the media is often criticized for stereotyping. Not all stereotypes are bad. In what ways has the media stereotyped your identity? You are teenagers, but you also identify yourselves by language, ethicity, race, religion, gender, cultural background, native country, or in other ways I have not mentioned. How has your group been depicted in the media? When we say, “the media” we mean popular culture forms such as movies, newspapers, magazines, television shows, advertisements and music (did I miss any?).
How are “you” represented in the media? Please be specific about identity and also about the media you are reflecting on. For example, if you choose a song, specify the artist and the title of the song to support your ideas. If you choose an advertisement, supply a link to it, or supporting information. If you choose a news article, quote part of it, and/or supply a link and credit to the author.
Image Credits: "Parabus Real Hip-Hop" by LiveU4 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/liveu4/134864295/) License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Technorati Tags: multicultural, media, identity, popular culture, race, ethnicity, teens, language, heritage, culture, advertisements,
21 Comments
March 10, 2007 at 5:22 pm
When I think about I am depicted by the media, I first think about television and the internet. To me, these two things equal the media. When I say that I am depicted, I mean all teenagers. There are many stereotypes floating around about teenagers. Many of them are true while others are not. One image that I have seen makes perfect sense to me. This would be that many girls my age seem to use the work “like” more than twice in every sentence.
Take a look:
(http://xb6.xanga.com/9aa81b51036a099805917/z5573027.jpg)
March 12, 2007 at 4:19 pm
I feel like the media is a big source of how everybody is put into categories/clicks. For example people automatically put me in the “geek” or “nerd” categories because I’m intelligent but once they get to know me their idea of me changes. Or another example, the media makes all Latinos look like their tan and have no sense of the English language and that their “ghetto”. So when people look at me they just assume I’m Caucasian because of my light skin, so when I speak Spanish they’re surprised. But to tell you the truth I don’t like stereotypes sometimes they’re so wrong and hurtful. And that’s just my opinion; some people might actually like stereotypes.
March 12, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I think the media represents my identity as something that I don’t look like. I am Colombian yet people believe I am Indian or something in Asia. People are always surprised to hear that I am Spanish because I do not look like people’s idea of Colombian people. People expect a Colombian person to be light skinned like Shakira. I have dark skin.
March 12, 2007 at 6:13 pm
I think the media represents me as a person in many ways. Movies and televisions are big sources of this. For example, the movie, “The Tollbooth” (2004), represents Jewish people(I’m Jewish) in a very stereotypical way; cheap, fussy, “jew nose”, and very conservative. Also, the book, “Jewtopia” (Bryan Fogel & Sam Wolfenson) shows Jewish people in a very inaccurate and negative way. While this does produce laughs, I don’t think that Jews should be represented like this, it’s just not true for most of us. There are positive ways media has represented the groups that I belong to also; there are lots of songs and movies and shows that promote racially and ethnic equality and that show teenagers for who they are – not some guffawing buffoons that only care about themselves and very minor things.
March 12, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I believe that those of my race are represented negativly in the media. Italians are looked down as ruthless mobsters with no soul who commit crimes just for money, such as in Godfather and the Sopranos. We have a very mob-like apprearance in these, something which most Italians are not like in real life. This sterotype does not fit me; however, it may fit some other people. I for one, do not believe in labels and sterotypes. It does nothing but TRY to categorize people, when this can all be avioded with simple interaction with the person.
March 12, 2007 at 7:52 pm
By reading this passage, I think that when we seem to talk about media.For me, I think of television and newspaper first.They are equal to me because when we look at these two things they seem similiar to each other…..
March 12, 2007 at 8:03 pm
I identify myself as a female teenager, and we are depicted as evil creatures. In Mean Girls it shows how we do anything to be apart of cliques. This does not portray me at all because I’m not a follower and I have not sarted hurtful rumors that can destroy peoples’ high school lives. High school girls are always shown to be cruel creatures and although some of us are, I believe that I am not, showing that media is stereotyping us as a whole and not for the individual.
March 12, 2007 at 8:04 pm
I think media represents ME in many ways.Like before Melissa said that people recognise her by saying that she is an indian that how people said to me that i seemed like a spanish girl to them.Nobody ever said me that i am an Indian.Sometimes people said me that i am Bangladeshi that what I am not and i really don’t like when people said these all stuff to me.Only Indians can recognise me nobody else.So,In conclusion i can say that nobody can identify me……
March 12, 2007 at 8:31 pm
i believe everyone is depicted who they are by the media. the media gives a one sided view of many different types of people. many people are usually judged by how their race is seen in the media
March 12, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I feel, that as a colombian, and as a teenage boy, I am sometimes depicted as a drug dealer, or drug user. This is not always true, most of the time it is a negative sterotype that does not prove true when brought to light with most of my kind.
March 13, 2007 at 7:30 am
I think that as a jew, i am stereotyped as being very cheap, but in reality most jews just save their money on things that are worrth spending money for. The ajority of jews spend a lot of money on important things while other people spend money on anything they want. The steroetype started when the jews first came to the U.S and saved all of their money while everyone else wasted theirs. Hopefully thoughout time, this seroetype will disappear.
March 13, 2007 at 7:38 am
I feel that the media does effect and influence people in the world and now as me being a teenager and what you see on television and magazines and that effects on how we should look like.Also sinceI am black alot of people think I maybe from Jamaica or from Africa and that I should be ghetto and wearing a jordens and rocawear. Since I don’t they call me oreo which I don’t care but it shows how people sterotype certain ethnicities.
March 13, 2007 at 7:44 am
I think that media has influenced the views and opinions of many people. I come from a spaninsh speaking country. I wasn’t born here. Many people think that all immigrants are illegal, and that’s how a lot of people view me. A lot of woman are viewed in a neggative way because of the many new songs that are seen and heard on TV. I am viewed as ghetto person because of the way I look and dress. Media has viewed woman as sexually active people who don’t care about anything, but money. I think this is a bad stereotype because many woman like my mother are hard working and work for what they want.
March 13, 2007 at 7:49 am
Most of my life especailly the past two years i have been mistaken for being someone im not. Many people think im latino which im the farthest thing from.Im also mistaken for being greek or italian.IM morocan and frecnh that is who i am. Im from europe and africa I am muslim. Alot of people think all muslims are terrorists another ignorant statement.
March 13, 2007 at 7:52 am
GO JUSTICE LEAGUE!!!! THEY RULE!!!
March 13, 2007 at 8:01 am
Greg likes soda and a bag of potato chips.
LETS GO DESTROY THE WORLD!!!
March 13, 2007 at 8:02 am
Greg likes soda and a bag of potato chips…
LETS GO DESTROY THE WORLD!!!
March 13, 2007 at 9:25 pm
The media has a big impact on all teenagers around to world mostly from television or the internet. Nowadays when we watch tv, we might see in some shows that people are separated into cliques. You have your preps, the jocks, the geeks, the freaks, the goths, the band, the rebels, the ghettos, and so on are how often people in high school identify others. On the internet, it carries news and a lot of different types of media. I am represented in the media by having people identify me similarly like others on television as the “goth” or the “punk” just because the way I dress and all the music I listen to such as Metallica, COB, etc.
March 16, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Stereotypes are a common thing due to the fact that we are constricted from other countries and not knowing how they are really like. The media does such a bad job at depicting a certain group. The depiction can be good or bad . From my experience the media has depicted Muslims as terrorists and bad people. Sometimes it hurts to be called a terrorist and it’s not like that those terrorists are extremists it is like the counter part of the KKK, but what happens, it wasn’t such a big deal from what I conclude. Nobody calls a Caucasian a KKK member. In the media Asians are not well represented. Do you see any movies with an Asian as the star, excluding the karate movies, there are many great Asian movies out there and actors too. There is bollywood, Korean, Japanese and Chinese dramas which are really good. As an Asian we are depicted as always smart it is a good thing but there should be some other things to be known for. Also another group people start to put me into is “gay”, which I’m not. People think that is because I’m not that kind of guy who is tough and is athletic. I have been called this for 5 years now and it is hard to withstand this but I try not pay attention but sometimes it just breaks through and gets to you. In the media they depict guys as tough, perverted, and athletic. So what if I’m not like that, so what if I don’t like to fight back. I don’t want to be like those disgusting qualities of being perverted and “checking out girls”, I have respects for people and I’m a very modest person. So if people are to stereotypical about these kinds of things and don’t even bother to get to know the real person they are just stupid and I don’t give to their annoying ways.
March 21, 2007 at 8:25 am
The media is a big influence nowadays. The only problem with it is that the media likes to put so called ‘labels’ on people, to depicting groups. I agree with Tayyab that the media has depicted the muslims as terrorists. I certainly don’t think that all the muslims are terrorists. Everyone is different, has different life-styles, different thoughts, different look on things. People aren’t alike, so you can’t say for instance that all muslims are terrorists… It’s just bad..
The problem is that people are so influenced by the media they’re going to believe that humanity is devided in groups. True, there are religion groups, but i mean groups like “preps” “nerds” “goths” etc. I ‘m mostly called a goth, punk, skater, emo etc. It couldn’t bother me less though, it’s my own choise of what i like to wear, listen or do. I think that Christina knows what i’m talking about…(yayy for Metallica, COB, Green Day && all sorts of ROCK!! )
September 27, 2007 at 1:23 am
Hello! My name is Mikyung Kim, I am currently producing an independent documentary that may be of interest to you. The film is about transcultural identity through the story of myself and my boyfriend, Jason Hoffmann going back to Korea to find his birth family.
We filmed in Korea for a month over this past summer, and it was such an amazing experience. I personally am not adopted, but I can relate to the issue of transcultural identity, as I am Korean but was raised in Hong Kong. Whereas Jason, was adopted at the age of 3 months and grew up in New York City.
We attended the IKAA event, where we had the opportunity to speak on a filmmakers panel with Deann Borshaw Liem (First Person Plural) and Tammy Chu (Resilience).
Please be sure to check out our blog at http://www.thirdcatproductions.blogspot.com and our official website at http://www.thirdcatproductions.com for more information about the film.
Best,
Mikyung Kim