Ethnic Minorities In The Media Essay

The lives of black men and women in the United Kingdom have long been affected by the negative perception of the society. The media played a vital role in the representation of ethnic minorities. So what is media? All forms of communication that reach a large number of people can be considered as part of the mass media. Medium refers to a single source of information or technique of passing on information. Media is simply more than one medium. Therefore, the mass media is a term used to refer to more than one source of information designed to reach out to large number of people - a mass audience. Media is also a powerful tool used to shape our ideas. According to Ralph Milliband (1973), he argued that the role of media is to shape how we think about the world that we live in. This can suggest that media can brainwash its audience and people will conform to the ideas projected by the media about ethnic minorities, in this case the black community. Hollywood movies are one of the many forms of media which is used to promote stereotypical thinking or ideas about Black British in the United

The media can influence their audience not only through the way they represent information they provide but also through the way they represent people. They also can do this through pictures, videos or languages, which can have a subtle and powerful effect on the audience. According to Angela Barry in ‘Black Mythology: Representation of Black People on British television’ reports that when black people are portrayed, they are rendered as troublemakers, dependents or sports figure. There is a big emphasis on the cultural differences, criminality and racial conflict. Angela Barry first saw the British sitcom ‘Till Death Do Us Apart’ in 1971, she had ‘shed a few tears’ and argued that the television show had racist views ‘a real