Asians and Hispanics in the U.S. Media

The values, beliefs, and customs of the dominant group in society are often reinforced by social institutions like the government, business, education and the media. The establishment of images in the media reinforces the values of the dominant group in American society, primarily white, male Anglo-Saxon Protestants. When immigrant groups or ôotherö cultures are portrayed in the media, quite often their representation is portrayed as somehow ôinferiorö to the ôsuperiorö portrayals of the dominant cultural group. Racism, prejudice and discrimination often lead to stereotypical representation of immigrant groups as a means of affirming the ôsuperiorö nature of the dominant group and is used as justification for its greater resources, power and control.

Historically in the U.S. media, representation of Asians and Hispanics have largely been stereotypical, often derogatory images that serve to reinforce the image of dominant groups as justified in their class privileges. From news reels in the 1920s and 1930s to current Hollywood films, the media has largely been guilty of reinforcing stereotypical and negative representations of Hispanics and Asians. Nevertheless, the increasing numbers of Asians and Hispanics in the U.S. population, globalization, and the spread of communications technologies have witnessed advances for Hispanics and Asians in U.S. media. This is true not only in terms of their presence in greater numb

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ellious teenage children, and the hapless father trying to keep it all together. What often skews representations of immigrant groups in the U.S. media is attitudes among dominant groups toward portraying other groups as equal to their own. As one television programmer maintains about the tendency to represent other groups as somehow inferior, ôEach cultural group has its strengths, flaws, talents, intellect and areas of excellent. ItÆs unfortunate that some people consider their particular regional or ethnic culture to be superior and focus on the flaws of others. They miss the wonderful benefits of the marvelous cultural diversity that makes our country great.ö Hollywood has increasingly been recognizing the potentially lucrative benefits of embracing this ômarvelous cultural diversity.ö This is perhaps truer for Asians than for Hispanics. Today, directors like John Woo and actors and actresses like Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Lucy Liu write their own ticket in Hollywood and continue to influence both Asian and American filmmakers and talent. Action adventure films have higher global appeal than dramas or comedies which are more culturally-specific. Asians excel at this kind of filmmaking. The recent Academy Award given to
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Approximate Word count = 2147
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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