Assess the view that the media are biased in their representation of ethnic minorities. (33 marks)

Sociologists such as Van Djilks (1991), Hall (1989), the GUMG and Hartman and Husbands have done sociological theories into the way the media portrays ethnic minorities. The way the media portrays certain ethnic groups can have an effect on how the public view them and also it can stereotype certain groups or make people have certain opinions of ethnic minorities. The media represents some ethnic minorities as being poorer or not as stronger as other groups. The media shows many different media groups and sometimes good and sometimes the bad. Society is changing in the way it sees other ethnic minorities and it portrays them as hardworking and part of a changing society. Different sociologists see ethnic minorities portrayed in different ways and the ways they have been represented over the years in completely different.

Van Djilks (1991) studied the inner-city riots of the 1980’s and showed how tabloid stress focused on a racial and criminal explanation of the riots, even though many young white people were involved. Using a form of content analysis called disclosure analysis, Van Djilks analysed the meanings and ideology behind these portrayals. He argued that the British media constantly flatters its readers with statements that supported white people and then was against other ethnic groups accusing them of being abusive, scrounging of the social, being bogus asylum seekers and criminals who were terrorist sympathisers.

Hall (1989) also says how the media represents ethnic minorities as bad; he did three basic representations of blacks in the cinema and on TV was seen as natives, entertainers and slaves. Ethnicity is seen through the white eye and interpreted through the grammar of race. The Medias view of minority ethnics is coloured by colonialism and the dominance of the white western world. Hall seen the media as very biased towards ethnic minorities as TV and the cinema have portrayed them to be lower class citizens.

The GUMG has shown how news and current affairs programmes are essentially nationalistic. Problem countries are presented as problem countries that have disasters and wars. Marxists believe that ethnic minorities are portrayed and reinforce the capitalist system by showing the superiority of white western culture. The GUMG again see the media as biased towards ethnic minorities and that they are seen as lower class citizens and that the Marxists views are being reinforced by how the media portrays different ethnicities.

Hartman sees that the media operates within a culture that sees foreigners, especially blacks as inferior. The media emphasises racial