|
|
|
|
|
|
Lesson#12
|
STEREOTYPING – A TYPICAL HURDLE IN MASS
COMMUNICATION
|
|
|
|
STEREOTYPING – A TYPICAL HURDLE IN MASS COMMUNICATION
Ever since the emergence of mass communication, the media has
been facing a problem of
stereotyping in sending information across. This perhaps is the
only area which even a layman can easily
point out to and hold the mass media responsible for practicing
and promoting what, by a common sense,
is far from reality.
Although stereotyping has its origin from ordinary human
communication and the chronic problem which
mankind is finding difficult to ward off, it has been
strengthened particularly by the media of mass
communication over the years.
Media stereotypes are some time inevitable, especially in the
advertising, entertainment and news industries,
which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand
information. Stereotypes act like codes
that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or
group of people—usually relating to
their class, ethnicity or race, gender, social role or
occupation – true or false is left on the people who
receive the information.
As we get close to understanding the mass communication in its
various forms, it is pertinent to mark this
peculiar area which is widely in practice in news, views,
scripts, TV/ radio shows and, honestly, in common
remarks on mass media.
What is stereotyping?
Stereotypes are ideas held by some individuals about members of
particular groups, based solely on
their attitude. They are often used in a negative or prejudicial
sense and are frequently used to justify certain
discriminatory behaviors.
Stereotypes are a generalization of characteristics; they reduce
complexity, provide stability and also can
offer opportunities to identify themselves with others.
In common practice we assume a certain attitude by a group of
people and start using our assumption as a
reality and thereafter all our analysis are based on our
assumption. Problem is compounded when listeners
(receivers) also start taking the assumption for granted and so
a wrong done once continues to cast shadows
in our communication which at times results in complete
disaster.
Global Phenomenon
The stereotyping in communication, which has its origin in
printing process, is a global
phenomenon and hurting the mass media alike all over. The
preconceived assumption about people, or
group of people in the form of nationality, ethnicity and cast
and in business matters, is holding strong
ground in communication and the experts are still striving to
get out of this menace. One solution is to
make media people aware of it so that its usage may be reduced.
One Example from Hinterland
Pakistan has produced some finest hockey players from a small
town called Gojra – besides from
Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Sialkot. But still Gojra stands
distinguished in this matter. Now, there is a
hockey coach who has not seen two hockey players but asked to
include one in the team. One of the players
belongs to Gojra and the other from little known town (in the
sense of producing hockey players)
Nawabshah, for instance.
What the coach would do in general, is any body’s guess. To
economize time and effort and, in his own way
to justify selection, the coach would not bet on one from
Nawabshah. If he takes in the one from
Nawabshah, the coach may be criticized for experimentation,
favoring or showing prejudice to Gojra etc.
Who can risk against such strong stereotyping.
Stereotype Groups32
Not in sports, but stereotyping is found in scores of ways.
Let’s see the common stereotype groups
based on:
• Age
• Race
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Nationality
• Religious belief
• Profession
• Social class
Stereotypes can also be based on an individual's physical size,
handicaps or other characteristic like the
blinds.
About all the above mentioned groups we attach a particular
behavior and characteristics which, if
examined individually on every member of the group, may not
prove true.
Islamic (religious) Approach
Every individual is responsible for its individual deeds and not
be seen as what cast, creed or tribe
he/she belongs to at the time of justice on dooms day, is only
to defy stereotyping approach towards
human beings.
Media transform assumptions into realities
The sore point in media stereotyping is that by the (over) use
of certain ideas people (receivers)
start believing a truth in what is being said. It is a common
sight watching plays in theater, or in comic
stories especially, to portray a group of people standing for
certain characteristics. The worst is ethnic
division. In early Urdu dramas, the role of baser nature
characters was assigned to certain ethnic people, it
continued in TV plays for sometime till a strong voices in
opposition were raised.
Commercial Interest in Stereotyping – A Case Study
This example has been taken from US media where stereotyping is
being opposed very vehemently
in recent years.
Beauty Image in the Media
Images of female sell everything from food to cars. Popular film
and television actresses are
becoming younger, taller and thinner. Some have even been known
to faint on the set from lack of food.
Women’s magazines are full of articles urging that if they can
just lose those last twenty pounds, they’ll have
it all—the perfect marriage, loving children and a rewarding
career.
Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women? The roots,
some analysts say, are economic. By
presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain the
cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of
growth and profits. And it’s no accident that youth is
increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an
essential criterion of beauty. If not all women need to lose
weight, for sure they’re all aging, says the Quebec
Action Network for Women’s Health in its 2001 report (French)
Changements sociaux en faveur de la
diversité des images corporelles. And, according to the
industry, age is a disaster that needs to be dealt with.
The stakes are huge. On the one hand, women who are insecure
about their bodies are more likely to buy
beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. It is estimated
that the diet industry alone is worth $100 billion
(U.S.) a year. On the other hand, research indicates that
exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed
female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and
the development of unhealthy eating habits in
women and girls.
How much stereotyping can damage a group is so much despised by
experts. To quote one:
33
"We don’t need Afghan-style burquas to disappear as women. We
disappear in reverse—by revamping and
revealing our bodies to meet externally imposed visions of
female beauty." - Robin Gerber, author and
motivational speaker.
The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating
Disorders, Inc. says that one out of
every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight
control—including fasting, skipping
meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced
vomiting.
In 2003, Teen magazine reported that 35 per cent of girls 6 to
12 years old have been on at least one diet,
and that 50 to 70 per cent of normal weight girls believe they
are overweight.
Media activist Jean Kilbourne concludes, "Women are sold to the
diet industry by the magazines we read
and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make
us feel anxious about our weight."
Unattainable Beauty
Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that media images of female
beauty (stereotyping) are
unattainable for all but a very small number of women.
Researchers generating a computer model of a
woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her
back would be too weak to support the
weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to
contain more than half a liver and a few
centimeters of bowel. A real woman built that way would suffer
from chronic diarrhea and eventually die
from malnutrition.
Still, the number of real life women and girls who seek a
similarly underweight body is epidemic, and they
can suffer equally devastating health consequences, due to
unhindered use of stereotyping in the mass
media.
Self-Improvement or Self-Destruction
The barrage of messages about thinness, dieting and beauty tells
"ordinary" women that they are
always in need of adjustment—and that the female body is an
object to be perfected. (This the media does
not say about men. Why? Because they are not stereotyped this
way).
Jean Kilbourne argues that the overwhelming presence of media
images of painfully thin women means that
real women’s bodies have become invisible in the mass media. The
real tragedy, she says, is that many
women internalize these stereotypes, and judge themselves by the
beauty industry's standards. Women learn
to compare themselves to other women. This focus on beauty and
desirability "effectively destroys any
awareness and action that might help to change that climate."
This case study does not end here. In fact all stereotyping used
so frequently in the mass media fetches the
same result. It is here that students of mass communication are
told to be aware of using terms which carry
stereotyping more carefully and in the sense that they may not
be used at the cost of individuals in the
groups formed by the stereotyping-approach for its own
convenience. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
