Advanced Essay #3 [How the Media Can Cause Invisibility]

Colin Taylor-McGrane

Mr. Block

English 3-Earth

March 7 2018

How the Media Can Cause Invisibility

One issue with our media has had harmful effects on the youth of america is the harmful effects of the absence of representation of marginalized groups in America. The reason why media representation is so important is because children are highly receptive to the characters and images they see in books, on television and in film. Children are impacted by messages from the media and carry them throughout their lives. When children do not see people similar to themselves in the media, researchers have found it lowers their self esteem and contributes to a self-view of unimportance. In a Huffington Post article entitled “Why On Screen Representation Actually Matters,” sociology professor Nicole Martin of Indiana University stated, “There’s this body of research and a term known as ‘symbolic annihilation,’ which is the idea that if you don’t see people like you in the media you consume… you must somehow be unimportant.”(Boboltz) The article describes a study that she conducted in which she showed children of color and white children a television program featuring white lead characters. She found that white children had much higher self-esteem after watching the program while the children of color reported much lower levels of self-esteem.(Boboltz) This suggests that seeing characters like themselves in the media may have a noticeable impact on their views of themselves and their roles in society. This can influence their aspirations about the life that they want to lead, the careers they wish to pursue, and the level of confidence that they have in navigating life.

One prime example of this phenomenon is the psychological effects of the lack of hispanic representation on the children of the latin community. In a 2017 study by USA today on racial representation in film, it was revealed that only 3.1% of speaking roles in films are were given to hispanic actors, despite the fact that hispanics make up 17.8% of the American population.(USA Today)  In a Ted Talk by Maria Hinojosa, founder of  the newspaper Futuro Media Group, “As a little girl, I understood the importance of journalism, reporting and media. But I never saw myself there. My stories didn’t appear. We were invisible. I was invisible from the media narrative. No one in the reporting that I saw I saw looked like me, looked like my family. So I began to think that maybe somehow my life —my story— was less valuable, less important.”(Hinojosa) This clearly shows how media representation affects the aspirations of minority children. If minority children do not see themselves receiving proper representation in the media, they will not view themselves as important members of society, nor will they feel that they have any place certain careers or social groups.

When a group is underrepresented or invisible in the media, the impact of any one character can be profound.  This can be clearly seen with the character in the Simpsons named Apu. This year, Indian comedian Hari Kondabolu made a documentary called the “Problem with Apu” where he interviewed many famous South-Asian actors about the impact that the character had on their childhoods, as well as their professional pursuits. Though one may initially believe that the fact that Apu is an Indian stereotype voiced by a white man was the character’s main issue, that is not the case. Nearly all of the Simpsons characters are stereotypes, however, when Hari was asked in an interview why Apu was so problematic, he replied by saying that:

“There are other representations of Italians. I'm not saying they're all good. But there's a - wider representations of people who are Italian, people who are Scottish. I don't know of any kids who are Scottish that grew up with - who are like, God, Groundskeeper Willie really embarrasses me and my parents. But, like, for me, because of my skin color there was no hiding from it. There was no, that's not me. You know, I didn't have a bunch of other brown characters. This was it. And that's the big difference.” (Kondabolu)

While this character is a stereotype of Americans of South-Asian descent, the main reason why this character is so unacceptable in the eyes of many South-Asians is because he was their only form of representation while growing up. Because there were no other forms of South Asian representation in the media at the time, one stereotypical portrayal became all the more harmful to the lives of people of South Asian descent.

The media is an amazing outlet for people of many different races and ethnicities to share their culture and talents with the rest of the nation, and sometimes, the world. However, many members of marginalized groups of people do not get the opportunity to share their talents and culture through the media. Therefore, each individual of that group that does get that opportunity has a significantly larger impact on the perception of children of the same minority group.

Bibliography:

“Study finds films exclude women, Hispanics.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 31 July 2017, www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/07/31/study-finds-films-exclude-women-hispanics/104158948/.

Hinojosa, Maria. “From Invisible to Visible.” Latino USA, 31 July 2015, latinousa.org/2015/07/30/from-invisible-to-visible-2/.

Kondabolu, Hari. “In 'The Problem With Apu,' Hari Kondabolu Discusses South Asian Representation.” NPR, NPR, 17 Nov. 2017, www.npr.org/2017/11/17/564936511/in-the-problem-with-apu-hari-kondabolu-discusses-south-asian-representation

Boboltz, Sara, and Kimberly Yam. “Why On-Screen Representation Actually Matters.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 24 Feb. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-on-screen-representation-matters_us_58aeae96e4b01406012fe49d.