TV and Immigrant Groups

It happens in millions of homes all across America every evening: it's the end of another long, hard and everyone is exhausted. Dinner is over, and the dishes sit scattered across the countertops and sit piled in the sink. The children have been bickering since the moment they walked in the door. Desperate for a few moments of peace, Mom walks determinedly into the family room and turns on the television, announcing to all children within earshot that it's time to sit down and chill out in front of the "toob" for a few minutes so she can clean the kitchen in peace. Without thinking twice, she has just set her children up to be bombarded by images that will significantly impact them in ways she might not even realize for years to come. Once she sits down to join them, the characters, communities, and ideals portrayed influence her as well.

It's true that in our society, Americans watch more television than ever and the images they consume help shape their opinions, their perception of themselves and their peers, and their view of the world around them. As such, it is imperative for television and movie writers and producers to present their audiences with a fair and accurate representation of the world and its peoples. Unfortunately, many ethnic groups do not receive such fair treatment.

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ated?" This particular teenager observed that most black sitcoms today are shown by the newer networks such as UPN and the WB, while the mainstream channels of NBC, CBS, and ABC present white sitcoms with occasional appearances by minorities and ethnic groups. She also noticed the lack of representation of Asians and Latinos on American television (Poussaint, Noticing the Difference, para.1). Confirming this student's observation, Lionel Lumb of Carleton University's School of Journalism in Canada asks the question, "Why are the millions of minorities that are so visible on our streets and in shopping malls, our offices and health care centers, so invisible on our television screens?" In fact, out of the 26 new prime-time shows on the four major networks during the 2000 television season, not a single lead role was featured by a "person of color" (Media Awareness Network, White-Washing, para.2). The result is that when a particular ethnic group is "invisible" on television, they are also perceived as invisible, or insignificant, in society as well. As evidenced here, the extent to which immigrant ethnic groups are represented on television and in television-producing roles is a significant force in shaping public perce
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Approximate Word count = 3175
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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