What is stereotyping in mass communication?

Answer 1

Stereotyping in mass communication is when one group is portrayed to be a certain way. For example teenagers may be portrayed to be rude and thoughtless. Fathers may be portrayed to be uninvolved. This is stereotyping.

Answer 2

Stereotyping in Mass Communication involves portraying certain groups of people in a simplistic, generalized, and often negative way based on shared characteristics, such as race, gender, or religion. These oversimplified representations can perpetuate harmful biases and reinforce societal inequalities. It is essential for media professionals to challenge stereotypes and promote accurate, nuanced portrayals of diverse individuals and communities.

Answer 3

There is a general consensus among researchers of mass media stereotyping (such as Stanley Cohen, in his study "Folk Devils and Moral Panics") that stereotyping has been around for as long as mass media has been around.

To understand why this is, you need to think of the following truths about mass media:

1. Time (or space, in the case of newspapers) is limited. Broadcasting is restricted by both money and the number of hours in a day (most broadcasting agencies run on a 24hr schedule).

2. There is a lot of information that broadcasting agencies want to get out into the public, and with this limited time, they have to do this quickly.

3. The fastest way to get the information across is if the audience is already expecting it.

Therefore, stereotypes are an excellent way to communicate information quickly to an audience (especially useful for news media). The audience is already made aware of the context through the images, and a few words about the details is enough for them to understand the main idea.

So to communicate efficiently and still maintain their fast-paced schedule, most mass media outlets will employ stereotypes (a.k.a. labels on certain identifiable groups).

It's no surprise then that there seem to be so many stereotypes floating about in society:

- Youth nowadays are unruly and irresponsible, participating in at-risk activities that put themselves and the rest of society at risk. (This is a myth because youth crime rates have been falling. But the stereotypes are effective in communicating the acts of some young offenders).

- Aboriginal peoples have also long been stereotyped. They are depicted usually as primitive, barbaric and manipulative, or sometimes as passive, displaying a "childlike obedience".

- Women's stereotypes have been by far the most common on television. They used to be portrayed as servile homemakers (domestic housewives). The stereotype has changed since the Great Wars (they fought for their rights around that time [the movement started in the 1920's..see the Famous Five for more info]) and are nowadays shown socially as free as men, but physically as impossibly thin, with curvaceous bodies.

- Caucasians are more likely than any other group to be depicted as rich, and of upper-class society by the mass media. This negatively impacts the characters of children growing up, where children of other ethnicity suffer from the imago of being white.

- There is also significant stereotyping against "gays and lesbians". Everything from accents to colours of clothing to lifestyle choices have been inconsiderately invented and labelled onto this group of people. Homosexual youth are already confused as it is of their differences from the rest of society. These labels tend to confuse them even more, since they now think that they have to become what they see on TV to embrace who they are, or that they should reject who they are because they don't like what they see on TV.