MASS MEDIA AND RACE/ETHNICITYLecture 15[NAVINDI WEERASINGHE]July 22, 2014MASS MEDIA AND RACE/ETHNICITYLecture 15 As per seen in the graph below, the majority of the US population is white. Political examples such as the one of the ‘fist bump’ between Barack and Micheal Obama was seen as the ‘terrorist fist bump’. If this fist jump was done between two people of white ethnicity, there is a highly likely chance that it almost goes unnoticed (for example when GeorgeW Bush fist bumped with a tennis player, it was referred to as ‘fun on the court’) .However sincetwo people of the black ethnicity ‘fist bumped’ it is seen as a terrorist act. Dilemma of this sort maybe not be done intentionally or may not be intended to hurt someone, however a message saying that if you try to do something different or unique ‘the media is going to remind you of where you come from’ is sent out to the public. Arabs face stricter stereotypes. For example in the movie Non-Stop an Arab doctor who was on board was accused for hijacking the plane, just because he was an Arab.[NAVINDI WEERASINGHE]July 22, 2014 African Americans have achieved diverse portrayals in the media. For example, Will Smith is an extraordinary role representing a man from the black community which is not often portrayed inmedia. Images and words which are on t-shirts specifically portray cultural discrimination. It doesn’t hurt just an individual but everyone. For example the phrase ‘Don Imus is a nappy head hoe “may seem funny to many but college girls are being portrayed as sexual objects. Images can be edited to a huge extend to show the contrast between color. White people on media are often stereotyped as working class males. Racism is global. For instance at the Beijing 2008 Olympics it was noted that the Spanish Basketball team referred another team as Asian ball. In a study where randomly selected people took a test, the half of the group that was asked about their ethnicity before the test, scored lower than the other half. This shows that people are disturbed by the fact that their ethnicity is being questioned. 4 myths of reality TV includeThey have no social messageThey liberate subjects from stereotypesCritical thinking is equal to rejectingPeople are too savvy to be