Media Bias and Racial Stereotyping in America

“All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.” This quote, by the social commentator and actor Will Rogers, expresses that you can’t always take what the media says at face value. Television and the news don’t always depict reality faithfully, not to mention all of the critical diction used in stories which can distort actuality even further. For better or for worse, this fact is especially prevalent in the instance of racial stereotypes in America.

It is a quixotic notion that newspaper sources would give unslanted information to their viewers solely for sake of spreading information. Instead, many newspaper publishers use their articles as a platform to subtly express their own opinions. A newspaper article summarised in Dyson’s “Frames of Reference” is a prime example of how this occurs. The story covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and how survivors took action to secure food. Black people were described as looting supplies, while White people were described as stumbling upon food (Dyson, 4). The subtle blow at the African American race was accomplished through something as simple and seemingly innocent as word choice. It’s hard to catch, but

Many television shows realize this and try to challenge stereotypes set by their contemporaries. The popular Netflix original Orange is the New Black is a prime example of this. They involve stereotypes for all sorts of demographics, but they develop the characters further to show that there’s more to people than popular stereotypes tend to give them credit for. For example, Black Cindy starts off as a relatively stereotypical black woman, but flashbacks show her thought processes and the motives behind her actions(Kohan). It brings depth to her as a person and in sequence makes the stereotypes associated with her in the beginning of the show seem shallow. Whether negative or positive, though, it is proven that media biases affect many