Media Effects Influence on Race and Gender

Expanding on “What is a Media Effect?,” and connecting to Zac Cheney Rice’s article “One Tweet Shows the Hypocrisy of America's Reaction to White People Rioting at Ohio State.” The media has both direct and indirect effects on perceptions of race and gender. Rice discusses the portrayal of black people and white people in the media. If white people are rioting, its excused and the people are typically described as “students” or “fans” of a sports team if the riot is sports related. However, black people are very commonly portrayed as “thugs” or “delinquents” regardless of the context of the riot or behavior. This is an example of how the media affects society and how society perceives segments of the population. Potter describes six different types of media effects. In particular, Potter’s description of Cognition, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Affects are relevant to Rice’s piece. By constantly portraying black people in a negative way, the media is reinforcing negative stereotypes and affecting people on a cognitive level. The media is influencing a person’s mental processes and shaping how they think of certain subgroups. Similarly, the media is shaping attitudes and beliefs of its audience. For example, news sources typically use mug shots to depict black people, but nice and humanizing pictures for white people. This subtle difference contributes to how society at large views the black community versus the white community.

In relation to gender, media has constantly reinforces gender roles and societal views on gender. Everything from ads, to TV shows, to films, to games. All of this contributes to how society views gender and micro-level perceptions of gender. Media portrays women as softer, kind, weak, and dependent. Similarly, men are portrayed as strong, confident, aggressive, and leaders. As a result, masculinity is reaching toxic levels in society. This is why we see research like what was discussed in Dan Cassino’s “Even the Thought of Earning Less than Their Wives Changes How Men Behave” article. Men who were asked about spousal income were more likely to want to vote for Trump because he is a man. By prompting the idea of financial insecurity, men reverted to a masculinity complex and desired a man to lead rather than a woman. These sorts of ideas plague our society and are visible in nearly all forms of media. 

Media, both directly and indirectly, alter peoples beliefs and attitudes regarding gender and race and reinforce negative associations with both categories.