Social Minorities in Stereotypical Depictions in Entertainment Media Are Beneficial to Society

Stereotyping

Social Minorities in Stereotypical Depiction

Social Minorities in Stereotypical Depiction at Entertainment Media

Social Minorities in Stereotypical Depiction at Entertainment Media

In the 21st century, media has become so powerful that it is considered to be shaping the culture and affecting prevalent social systems. Particularly speaking in the context of entertainment media, masses are referring to it in their all possible leisure time. With the advent of international culture and globalization, people are interested to know about other people. Media is playing an important role in spreading awareness about other cultures. Entertainment media is playing the same role with little different perspective.

Since the purpose of entertainment media is to present an overall image of a community is less span of time, it leans towards the most influential, prominent and stereotypical depictions. It is interesting to mention that there are certain stereotypes present about every community and they are spread vastly. The stereotypical depiction may or may not be true for the whole community but it gives a clear picture about an aspect that prevails in certain community among few people.

The effects of media on society have been evaluated for quite a long while. Few theories have also been developed which explain whether the effects are good or bad. Each scholar has his own views. The early Catharsis theory was in favor of the negativity shown on media (Bushman & Philips, 2002). The theory finds its roots in the ideas of Aristotle and Plato. It supports the view that every one faces much tensions in life hence the negativity shown on media relieves people from their hostile emotions. However, the theory received much criticism as every aspect cannot be treated like this. There is strong possibility that what a person watches on media, is imitated in his actions. It was named as aggressive cues theory. It was presented by Berkowitz in 1965 (Baron & Richardson, 2004). It supported the view that negativity shown on media encourages one to follow the same action in real life. Still, there were the people who supported the view of positive depiction by media.

The next theory was named as Observational Learning theory. It was presented by Bandura (Learning Theory Database, n.d.). It was based on the notion that media does not only give hype to feelings, emotions and thoughts, it also teaches one how to convert them into action. Hence, media acted as a guide to perform the acts in a manner an individual could not think on his own.

The theory of reinforcement saved media from the on-going criticism. It supported the view that media depicts an aspect, what the viewer learns from the aspect is largely the matter of his perception and attitude (Akers, 2009). He can learn both positive and negative aspects. Hence, media cannot be criticized for spreading negativity in the society.