Representing race in the media

Week four – Amberlie, Stevan, Alison

Readings:Orientalism – Edward Said

Racism in the Media – Henry et al.The Whites of the Eyes – Stuart Hall

Mediations of Domination: Gendered Violence Within and Across Borders

– Yasmin Jiwani

Introduction

All of the articles discussed below share the view that the

media produce, reproduce and transform ideas of race

within the ideological frameworks of our society. Themedia influence and create ways in which we can

identify and classify racial groups within our society, in

addition to helping naturalize the way we view race. All

of the authors agree that media, race and ideology are effectively interconnected and deeply

influence each other and society.

Mediations of Domination: Gendered Violence Within and Across Borders – Yasmin

Jiwani• Focus on how gendered violence is defined, constructed and shaped by the

mainstream media in Canada

• “The dominant Western globalized media participate in the continued marginalization of indigenous women and women of colour unless they demonstrate signs of assimilation –abdicating cultural allegiances in favour of the mythic liberation promised by Western notions of progress and equality” (p.130)

• White society uses the framework of culture to pre-empt both racism and sexism. In this sense, violence becomes, a “culturally-enshrined practice” (p.132).

• Examples: the dominant media coverage of Muslim women post-9/11 and of missing or murdered Canadian Aboriginal women

• Muslim women as symbols of the “presumed oppressiveness of Islam” (p.133)

• Islam constructed as the “culturalist explanation for a variety of different ills –from the subordination of women to the emerging terrorist threat” (p.135).

Mediations of domination (cont’d)

• In contrast, Aboriginal women largely invisible in the coverage of gendered violence

• Depicted by the media as having an “inherent cultural deficiency – an inability to ‘fit into’ white, middle-class society” (p.138). They go missing or are murdered because of their ‘high-risk lifestyle’ (drug addiction, prostitution…).

• In popular culture, Aboriginal women are stereotyped as either Pocahontas-style Indian princesses or sexually available squaws.

• Muslim women constructed as victims needing a Western saviour while Aboriginal women are regarded as ‘expendable bodies’.

• Linking the media portrayal of Muslim and Aboriginal women is the fact that in both cases the media ignores structural violence.

Interpretation• Very recent and contemporary article, relevant to such issues as the

media coverage of the Pickton trial (which she touches upon).

• I think she makes a strong case for how the dominant media construct gendered violence and female victims in particular angles, in the same way it constructs racism and racial groups, always from an essentially white, middle-class, western ethnocentric lens.

• I agree it’s very true that in a country like Canada the media have a tendency to cover spectacular cases of violence and abuse against women abroad (such as their oppression by the Taliban in Afghanistan or acid killings in Pakistan) but downplay or downright ignore the fact that we have systemic violence against women going on right in our own backyard (e.g. against Aboriginal women, Sikh honour killings).

• I think the recent media coverage of the Pickton trial illustrates Jiwani’s point about the construction of ‘bad’ and ‘good’ women, as many of the media reports on the case implied that the missing women, most of them Aboriginal, went missing or were murdered because they (‘chose’ to) live a ‘high-risk lifestyle.” Can you imagine anyone saying the same thing had the case involved mostly white, middle-class women from West Vancouver?

Aboriginals in film • Representation of Aboriginals in Hollywood typically highly stereotypical

- spiritual, nature-loving, ‘primitive’ natives

• E.g. Canadian actor Adam Beach’s biography/description on the official website for the movie Wind Talkers with “Adam's work is strongly rooted in his Native heritage, bringing a unique and diverse perspective to his craft. His commitment to his spiritual development through traditional grass dancing enhances his work.”

• The movie’s DVD cover is interesting in itself: only shows Nicholas Cage, despite Adam Beach being one of the film’s most significant characters!

The Colour of Democracy: Racism in Canadian Society Chapter 10: Racism in the Media - Henry,

Tator , Mattis & Rees

• This chapter looks at how ideas are formed by the public and reinforced by media representations of racial minorities in society

• Through the absence of minorities, stereotypical portrayal, marginalization, lack of access to media outlets, biased attitudes and practices of the members of the media, and representations in advertisements certain characteristics of race are developed and promoted through the mainstream media

• By heavily relying on ‘official sources’ for ‘expert opinions,’ the media furthers certain ideas, biases and commonly-held conceptions of race and racial groups (e.g. recreating social stereotypes and expectations of certain groups by using police-generated criminal racial profiles).

• Role and Function of the Media– to represent the society, as an accurate reflection of its citizens– to develop people’s sense of identity– to create not only a single image but work through and with a

pattern of behaviours that help support ideas of race and racism in both the media and the general public’s conceptions

Racism in the media (cont’d)• Manifestations of Racism

- Despite one third of all Canadians being non-British and non-French, one study found that in 1984-85 less than 3% of characters on stage or in commercials were visible minorities and only 5.5% were television principals. - Issue of representation of people of colour, due to overt bias and systemic discrimination- A 1986 study found that of 1731 full-time newsroom employees, only 30 were visible minorities, disabled or of Aboriginal descent - One reason for this: hiring practices such as a reliance on word of mouth - Another study found that of 725 news interviews done in a 4 week period, only 20 solicited the opinions of racial minorities not specifically related to stories or people from their communities- Of local stories dealing with visible minorities 49% were negative and over half dealt with either entertainers or athletes.

- Frequently the position taken in the media is one of whiteness, the hidden norm against which all else is compared. These events are typically sensational, extraordinary, and exotic, thereby creating an image of otherness which is applied to visible minorities – Some frequently used images:

- For Asians: untrustworthy, menacing, submissive, quaint, gangsters, cooks, vendors- Blacks: drug addicts, pimps, prostitutes, murderers, butlers/maids, simple-minded, savages, primitive, inconsequential, needing a white saviour- Aboriginal Peoples: savages, alcoholics, uncultured, noble, victim - A 1982 study on print media found Arabs were repeatedly portrayed in political cartoons as blood thirsty terrorists blackmailing the west

Racism in the media (cont’d)• Components of prejudice in the Media:

1. Repeated stereotypes 2. Writers attempts to rationalize or deny their prejudice3. Belief in biological racism4. Demagogy, by appealing to the fears and emotions of readers (e.g.: emphasizing the number of immigrants, with phrases like ‘flood of refugees’, ‘stem the tide of illegal aliens’, ‘job stealers’

• Marginalization in Programming– frequent misrepresentation of visible minorities through exaggeration or misinformation of

facts – when included, visible minorities are also shown in a specific way (e.g. black characters as

victims, villain, buffoon or cuddly folksy types)– in viewer-generated programming, minorities do not seem inclined to participate in

programs where the hosts hold opposing views as participants tend to hold ideas consistent with the host

• Lack of Access to Mass Media– Little opportunity for minorities to be heard on mainstream stations (radio or television)

• Racism in the Advertising Industry- Ads tend to show a predominant view of the white population - Ads ‘not only filtered into our experience of external realities, they have entered into our very experience of ourselves’ - C Wright Mills- Of 163 billboards studied, only 10 showed an individual from a visible minority - Ads perpetuate stereotypes of other forms of media and society (e.g. Aunt Jemima and Uncle

Ben;• Responses? - Many communities working towards a more accurate representation in the media through

advocacy groups that monitor programming and ads - Public sector also being pushed to balance programming and representations due to their

‘commitment’ to multiculturalism

Interpretation

• This article provides a comprehensive analysis of racial presence in the mainstream media and illuminates some of the central problems of both racial representation and exclusion from the majority of programming.

• It shows how all racial representations are contrasted to white culture and how they support the misconceptions and racist attitudes held by non-coloured viewers.

• By seeing these representations in the media, the white viewers then feel justified in their own attitudes and beliefs (i.e. of their ‘superiority’ over the coloured population).

• The article seems to suggest that through a greater and positive representation of coloured characters, these attitudes and beliefs

could be curbed and changed over time.

• Bruce Allen (Sept. 13/2007)

“Allen made his comments on B.C.’s CKNW: "It seems more and more that we are being pilloried by special interest groups that just want to make special rules for themselves," he said."This is easy to solve: these are the rules, there's the door. If you

don't like therules, hit it. We don't need you here. You have another place to go -

it's calledhome. See ya."

“He specifically mentioned RCMP officers who wear turbans instead of the

traditional hat, and a decision by Elections Canada to allow women to wear burkas

to vote, "when it's clear voters have to be able to be identified at the polls." Allen

said, "We have laws in this country. If you're immigrating to this country and you

don't like the rules that are in place then you have the right to choose not to live here.”

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070925/bruce_allen_07095/20070925/

        

The Whites of their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and Media - Stuart Hall

• Racism and media will always deal with ideology because the sphere in which the media operates is fundamentally connected to the production and transformation of ideologies.

• 3 important facts about ideology:– no individual or separate concepts of ideology - all ideologies are

constructed of a long chain of meanings.• The re-articulation of ideology and ideological struggle comes

from taking the elements in the chain and moving/altering them to create a new set of meanings.

– ideological statements are made by individuals but they are not the product of individual thought, we formulate individual intentions within ideology

• We speak through the ideologies already present within our society and thus no one individual can claim ownership of an ideological statement.

– ideologies function by creating systems of identification allowing us to come up with statements of ideological truth about the world around us.

• These systems of identification allow us to classify the world and make ideological statements about our society.

The Whites of their Eyes (cont’d)

• The media help to produce representations of the social world and ideological frameworks for understanding how the world works.– Within these frameworks, media help to create the idea of race

and to classify the world in categories of race.

• Two major types of racism within media:– Overt racism: involves openly discussing racist points of view.

– Inferential racism: generally thought of as sets of unquestioned assumptions that form a racist viewpoint (e.g. “naturalised” views of problematic racial relations or stereotypes of certain races within the media)

InterpretationRacism, media and ideology are fundamentally connected because they all functionwithin the same sphere to shape the way we view and classify the world. Media is afundamental tool of ideological production and transformation, creating ideas aboutrace to naturalize the world around us. The media create representations of the socialworld and thereby affect how we view and understand race and racism in everyday life.

Media does not only work to create ideas of race but also to transform and elaborate onideological notions of racism found within our society. This racism is found overtlythrough racist statements and inferentially through stereotypes and certain views ofracial relations found within the media. This article makes strong statements aboutthe way in which race and media interact with each other, and how this is createdby and helps transform ideology within our culture.

However, it seems to completely overlook the idea of audiences and they way theyinteract with media. It makes a good argument for the concept of the reproduction ofrace through ideology within media yet makes no statements about passive or activeaudiences and how this would influence the impact race and media have. I think this isan essential point when looking at media and the article completely ignores it. Despitethis, the article touches on essential points and clearly explains ideology and the effect ithas on race and media.

Orientalism – Edward Said• Here, Edward Said discusses orientalism, which he defines as “a Western style

for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” (p.3).

• Need to analyze Orientalism as a discourse in order to understand how “European culture was able to manage –and even produce- the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during post-Enlightenment period” (p.3)

• The Orient as an idea emerged because of the close links between Britain and France and the Orient, and, since World War II, the U.S. and the Orient.

• Orientalism as a “dynamic exchange between individual authors and the large political concerns shaped by the three great empires –British, French, American- in whose intellectual and imaginative territory the writing was produced” (p.15). He focuses his own work on the Anglo-French-American experience of the Arabs and Islam.

• Essentially Said views orientalism as a powerful form of cultural domination exerted on the Orient first by the British and the French and later by the Americans. In today’s technological world, he argues, oriental stereotypes have been reinforced. He is personally interested in the topic because he is of Arab-Palestinian descent and experienced living as an ‘Oriental’ in the western world.

• Said emphasizes how this 'knowledge' of the Orient was produced by scholars and was therefore taken as a factual account of the region. This reliance on 'expert' opinion is one still very much in use - as pointed out in the Henry article, which discusses how people now rely mostly media mostly to relay this 'expert' information rather than on scholarly sources. In either case however, there is a great deal of misinformation being circulated and taken at face value as factual representations.

Interpretation

Although Said wrote this article in the late 70s, his work still rings true today in

our post 9/11 world. More than ever, oriental stereotypes have invaded the

media, with renewed intensity since the construction of the Oriental subject as

the terrorist ‘enemy’. Orientalism as a way of cultural domination, it could be

argued, has been profoundly transformed by the events of September 11th.

Media examples

• Casablanca http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byWkC5jLDXw

• Take the Lead http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808718772/video/2981485/20051111/147/2981485-300-

wmv-s.19401554-158283,2981485-700-wmv-s.19401586-158283,2981485-56-wmv-s.19401532-158283,2981485-100-wmv-s.19401533-158283

• Bride & Prejudice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENeylvMl9_M

• Bend it like Beckham

Discussion questions:Jiwani

• Apart from Pocahontas, when was the last time you saw a female aboriginal character in film or on TV?

• Drawing from last weeks readings, specifically the Collins article, do we notice the same categories being applied to indigenous and men of colour, as we see to indigenous women and women of colour?

• Jiwani states that “globalization facilitates the migration of images about other people, cultures and nations,” but that this also causes, “national cultures contort[ion] often to fit prevailing assumptions”. Do you agree or disagree? Does the globalization of media negatively or positively affect our views of race?

Hall• Do you see “traces” of Hall’s stock racial characters in recent films or TV

series? • Hall states that the media not only create ideas of race but help to transform

and elaborate on these ideas. Do you think the media acts more as a producer or elaborator of the idea of race? To what extent do you believe it does both?

• According to Hall, one of the ways in which Black characters are portrayed in film are as 'the childlike slaves, capable of 'turning nasty' or plotting against his or her master'. Can you think of any examples of this in mainstream film?

Said• Can you think of any TV shows or movies in which so-called

“Orientals” are stereotyped?• Said states that European culture gained strength by “setting

itself off against the Orient”. Do you believe that cultural identities are still constructed by setting cultures off against each other? Any examples?

• One of the features of Orientalism discussed by Said is the fact that some re-occurring themes of the Orient have been ingrained into western thought as characteristic of the Orient. Come up with a short list of those that come to mind most readily.

Henry et al.• In relation to the Take the Lead clip, identify which racial

minorities are being shown and how they are being depicted. • Henry et al. discuss the different ways in which different types of

media (including print, film and radio) reproduce race. Which do you think has the most impact on the way we view race? Why?

• Do you think Canadian radio programming supports racist

ideologies?

Some food for thought

Tonight from 5pm to 11pm, CTV will be airing 6 one hourprograms: CTV News at 5 with Bill Good and Pamela Martin,CTV News the National with Lloyd Robertson, a special onValentino (who is retiring this year), CSI NY, CSI, and Without aTrace.

Excluding the Valentino special, there will be 3 principalcharacters/actors in these programs, one black male from both

CSIand a black female from Without a Trace. If you have time, try totune in to CTV tonight at some point and see if there have moreminorities shown then these 3 and what roles they play in eithernews coverage or in the programs themselves.