Latinos and Their Portrayal in Modern Television - Research Paper Example

Latinos and their portrayal in modern television Literature Review Over the past, the media portrayed Latinos with negative effects forthe entire community. The same fate befell other racial minority groups in the United States of America. Through stereotypes, the media portrayed Latinos negatively. Allan & Coltrane, (1996) hold that the media largely ignored and excluded Latinos in the early days. Research by The Annenberg School of Cultural Communications Project showed that Hispanics accounted for only two point five percent of the people in prime television for eleven years from nineteen sixty-nine through to nineteen seventeen-eight. The report shows that even among the minorities, Latinos still rank lower with African Americans representing eight point five percent of the characters. On the other hand, research shows that Latinos for over thirty years, average two percent in the media. The same report shows continued decrease in the Prime Time Television. Other findings by Bodenhausen, (1995) also indicate that in terms of characters in the entertainment sector, Hispanics are absent virtually. The same applies to them in correspondence as well as anchoring personalities in the media fraternity. According to Coltane, (2000) changes experienced in the modern media come because of the press conference held on November 16, 1979 by the association of Latino actors based in Hollywood. Members of the association protested against two Movies in CBS aired in the same week featuring Latino gang members. At the time, some analysts felt that NOSOTROS and other groups from Latino communities over-reacted to depictions of gangs in the films. However, two movies namely ACT OF VIOLENCE and STREETS OF L.A proved the Latino groups right. The two films provide a cursory view of how Hollywood among other entertainment industries portrays Latinos. It is in addition to the television as well as other media outlets giving details of how modern media molds famous perceptions of members of the Latino community as explained by Bodenhausen, (1995). The view of the modern media covers among others overt messages and latency bearing in mind the old Latinos and the people the type of people them besides the activities they carry out. The portrayal of Latinos in the modern technology is in sharp contrast to what history documents. Striking differences are in the television and in motion pictures. Improvements are great especially if dew consideration goes to the current population size of Latinos in proportion to the overall American population. In history, evaluation of movies shows derogatory terms applied against Latinos in the same way Chicanos and Mexicans suffered. Other malpractices in the history include successive stereotypes and abusive distortions. The films in the history of America dealt with adequate issues with much sympathy but in the process failed to address important aspects. Coltane, (2000) posits that it was not out of malicious intent but entailed merely displaying unconscious and subtle bigotries from the perspective of producers, directors, and writers. What was evident in the old television sector constituting producer bias is no longer applicable in modern television. Motion picture movies such as VIVA MAX (1970), BANANS (1971), as well as CHICO AND THE MAN among other television series signaled these biases. Presently, youthful members of the Latino gang emerge in updated forms. Examples in this category include the modern variants of the Mexican bandit group. The rejection of STREETS OF L.A, BOULVARD NIGHTS, WALKS PROUD, as well as ACT OF VIOLENCE because of the way the put a lot of emphasis on the criminal rivalry among Chicano gang members. The films series portrayed minority Americans, received sympathetic display, and under harassment by criminals very young in age. A report by the United States Commission on Civil Rights in nineteen seventy-seven brought forth many issues that worked towards eliminating negative stereotypes and inherits in the television industry today. The report explains in part that viewers regard TV entertains more compared to any other media channel. There is more to the television beyond giving information and entertaining people. The television gives a different status to the person covered in the news as well as groups chosen for placement within the eyes of the audiences. It describes the individual more by defining the person and the value of the audiences knowing the person. Those visible in the television get additional attention as opposed to those viewed in other media outlets. People ignored by television in the present society become invisible. New developments including western police officers and robbers receiving airtime as they act on televisions and other new situations in comedies the industry borrowed Latino renderings from motion pictures. The industry also incorporated various features into the television sector. Characters such as the Mexican buffoon in the old Pancho evolved into Pepino in the REAL. The character is different from the one in the CISCO KID movie. Other new characters in films portray Latinos positively include Chico and ZORRO among many more. Bazzini, (1997) also discusses new Latino stereotypes applied in the television in the modern industry. The emergence of compliant peon and bandits from Mexico are components of televisions series in the landscape of Southwestern parts of the United States of America. On the other hand, the single most common form of Latino in series of programs on television was the Latino criminal. The communications Department of Michigan State University identifies MOD SQUAD, KOJACK, IRONSIDE, STARSKY AND HUTCH, and THE POLICE STORY as some of the movies featuring the new developments in the television industry. The university puts this in its study on the Mexican Americans, which the role, availability and representation of the minority on television. Today, the case is different from nineteen seventies when Hispanics accounted for only one point five percent of the people in the television industry. Furthermore, the case was absurd in the context that a quarter of the one point percent were criminals, who included thieves and bandits. The other portion occupied lowly chores such as waiters, car washers, construction workers, repair people, and houseboys and girls among others. As opposed to that era where only three people fell in the category of managers and professionals because they owned restaurants, the position is different presently. Berg, (1990) holds that the history appears to show little effort for positive media depiction of Latinos the way they did other racial minorities such as Mexicans. However, recent activities regarding the reflection of the same groups in films, advertising, and television industry reveals that better economic activities lead to the overhaul of what history holds. A report by Martinez reveals that most of the companies in the television sector have enhanced their efforts in advertising strategies and policies to reach and incorporate more Latinos as opposed to isolating them. Martinez identifies The Frito Lay Company as a good example where the company continues to venture into promotional activities that make use of personalities from Mexico such as Fernando Escandon to market the Tostitos tortilla product (Bartech, Burnett, Diller, & Rankin-Williams, 2000). The author puts forth that the company now enjoys much success running into millions of dollars every trading year. The population of Latinos strikes more than fifty million in the United States going by the recent statistics representing a purchasing power of more than a hundred billion United States dollars each year. Coltrane, & Adams, (1997) put for that with more than a hundred billion US dollars to spend, product companies including Schlitz, Gillette, McDonalds, and Nestle among many more, target at reaching the Latino market. The position in itself gives a new role to the Latinos in the television sector. Through this, many states such as Los Angeles continue to witness a high proliferation rate of radio, television, and cable television stations that use Spanish as the main language just like many other bigger cities around the United States. All these media outlets aim at capturing the attention of the Latino audience. The Latino population is the largest minority community in America and what experts predicted as the Decade of Hispanics toward the end of the twentieth century is now real in the twenty first century. The negative stereotypes directed towards Latinos in the mid of the twentieth century is not viable and present stakeholders in the television sector cannot tolerate similar actions because of the negative impact such stereotypes can have on profits. A bigger attention goes to the Latinos compared to what transpired in the early years. Presently, Latinos fully understand the economic and political strength they hold and represent increasing their position and representation in the present television network. The position started in the late seventies when NOSOTROS threatened to go boycott General Electric products. Programmers, producers, advertisers and other stakeholders comprehend the capacity represented by the Latinos in the modern economy including their role in the success of the television industry. Unchaining the impacts of many years of uncomplimentary stereotypes enjoyed by Latinos today took time. It started with aggressive policies involving hiring of Latinos in the media and especially the television sector. The sensitive nature of the way with which advertisers and executive handled Latinos toward the end of the last century also played a big role in changing the situation to the better witnessed in the modern media. A complete shift took place when Latinos themselves got the opportunity to produce, write, and direct scripts in televisions. Through this opportunity, they displayed their true picture as opposed to what people from other racial groups felt they are. It includes among others lifestyles and lives. Analysis The television sector sees consistent types of Latino when they appear in various forms of the media. Still television scripts depict a Latino as a person with tanner skin, darker features, as well as an accent (Allan, & Coltrane, 1996). The desire to achieve an assorted type of Latino completely disregards diversity featured in the overall terminology. By failing to maintain range, covering ways through which Latinos appear physically polarizes the same racial group by displaying two extremes positions of either very rich or very poor. The film, A Day without a Mexican carries the qualities discussed herein featuring the disappearance of everyone from the Latinos community. The director does not recognize and appreciate various cultures, languages, traditions, as well as beliefs. It sets a bad precedence to fail to recognize and embrace diversity because it insists on homogeneity making people believe that diversity does not exist. The absence of diversity covers many areas such as economic, social, health, and education needs. It is true that once most Americans believe that all Latinos are rich or are poor, the government and other agencies will not be fulfilling their part of addressing the issues under question. A large communal, national, and global outlook help in addressing these problems and only takes place when the producers, directors, and writers including other stakeholders appreciate and embrace diversity. Form many perspectives, displaying Latinos as homogenous is a form of oppression to them especially in the television sector. As much as Latinos are a minority racial group, they do not share all the values across the community and neither do all of them like each other. The description offered above makes it difficult for all Latinos to join hands as a community and fight the stereotype labeled against them by the television stakeholders. The situation happens despite the fact that, they have many issues to tackle including false propaganda covering the culture usually working against them. To fight wrong portrayal by the media the Latinos are creating and airing their own television programs with the aim of fighting negative stereotypes and false cultural propaganda. Dr. Benamou holds that such documentaries encompass significant areas like farm work, control of borders, media activism, feminism, globalization, lesbian, and gay documentaries among others. Among other roles, documentaries aimed educating the Latinos and other members of other races whether minority or majority, applying them as mirrors of the society, and building opportunities in areas where none of them existed. Lillian Jimenez terms the filmmakers and Puerto Rican Video developers as taking the gun against human and civil rights in the US following the end of the civil war movement. It appears in her article that evaluates the performance of the Puerto Rican movies in New York (Allan, & Coltrane, 1996). It was a history making process for Puerto Ricans to have their films aired on American televisions. Presently, the pronouncement by the filmmakers and video developers are crucial since not all Latinos are immigrants in the United States. They are the second and third generation citizens with some even going beyond. These are wholly assimilated citizens of the US therefore, have rights and proceed with their activities of asserting what they feel is their right. Continued development of documentation and history in addition to the filmmaking process by Latinos continues especially to counter the negative stereotypes; propaganda directed towards Latinos in the television sector. The Latino population is the largest minority community in America. A bigger attention goes to the Latinos compared to what transpired in the early years. Presently, Latinos fully understand the economic and political strength they hold and represent increasing their position and representation in the present television network. The television translates the stereotyping of Latinos negatively. Among other features, the television labels comfortable sexuality in the same degree as prostitution and a person engaged in such activity as being vamp-ish (Coltrane, & Adams, 1997). The media regards being assertive among Latinos as being macho while having many children is a sign of poverty. The unrealistic view of audiences of problems faced by Latinos in addition to poor comprehension of their culture gives room to the media to develop and cultivate myths and stereotypes about the same community. The negative views propagated by the media including the television breed to raise negative propaganda directed to the Latinos. Women since time immemorial appear as temptresses or senioritas. Based on this definition, Latino women are weak, passive, dependant, and unintelligent. There is a slight evolution among male Latinos. First, the media portrayed the negatively but now have a new definition of being the cliché Latin lover. Andy Garcia, Antonia Bandera, and Jimmy Smits are few examples of characters associated with the new male features. The negative stereotypes receive varied reactions from Latinos with the most striking reaction coming five years to the two thousand millennium. The reaction targeted a report that rated the popularity of Latino actors. Rosie Perez rated as the second most popular faced a myriad of criticisms because of her controversial nature (Atkin, 1992). A group of Latinos feels that her tough image is an embarrassment considering that she is not originally from Puerto Rico. The second group considers the tough position held by Perez as carrying more benefits to the Latino community. The third side of the coin holds that her popularity draws the tough stance she portrays. The same image gives her success and it resonates well with the public. There is more to the television beyond giving information and entertaining people. The television gives a different status to the person covered in the news as well as groups chosen for placement within the eyes of the audiences. It describes the individual more by defining the person and the value of the audiences knowing the person (Bodenhausen, 1995). Those visible in the television get additional attention as opposed to those viewed in other media outlets. People ignored by television in the present society become invisible. New developments including western police officers and robbers receiving airtime as they act on televisions and other new situations in comedies the industry borrowed Latino renderings from motion pictures. Some of the new television shows airing the positive nature of Latinos include Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, as well as Desperate Housewives among many more. They all fall in the category of Prime Time television shows aimed at changing the negative portrayal of Latinos. References Allan, K., & Coltrane, S. (1996). Gender Displaying Television Commercials: A Comparative Study of Television Commercials in the 1950s and 1980s. Sex Roles, 35, 185-204. Atkin, D. (1992). An analysis of television series with minority-lead characters. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 9, 337-349. Bartech, R., Burnett, R., Diller, T. & Rankin-Williams, E. (2000). Gender representation in television commercials. Sex Roles, 43,735-743. Bazzini, D. (1997). The aging woman in popular film. Sex Roles, 36, 531-543. Berg, C. (1990). Stereotyping in films in general and of the Hispanic in particular. The Howard Journal of Communications, 2, 286-300. Bodenhausen, G. (1995). Effects of Atypical Exemplars on Racial Beliefs: Enlightened Racism or Generalized Appraisals? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 48-63. Coltrane, S. & Adams, M. (1997). Work-Family Imagery and Gender Stereotypes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 50, 323-347. Coltane, S. (2000). The Perpetuation of Subtle Prejudice. Sex Roles, 42, 363-389 Read More