Race In The Media

In the reading “Gender, race and class in media” it is stating that the world is not an equal place as racism is a prime problem. It states within the opening paragraph that,

“Racism and the media touches directly the problem of ideology, since the media main sphere of operations is the production and transformation of ideologies.”

This is a relevant statement that is occurring currently and is what the whole reading is about. Through the use of technology gender and race is showing that the ideological power are not evenly distributed between certain (those) groups. What this reading is trying to impose to the viewer/reader is that race is something given to you whereas, ethnicity is about identification, history and language. Therefore, race tends to be a category opposed from the outside, which is exactly what popular culture and technology has created. It has formed this sense of overt racism. However race itself is an on going and shifting idea in which the media portrays it to be.  

Throughout the reading the word ideologies is brought up quite a few times as it is stating that individuals make up this term “ideological statements”. However this term is not a product of individuals. Rather, it is a particular word that is worked upon in many places within society, especially media institutions. As they use this word as a term of “ideological production”. In other words, what the media is doing in terms of this definition previously stated, it is producing certain representations of images, descriptions, and frames of a particular ethnicity group.  As it states within the reading on pages 90-91,

“The media are not only a powerful sources of ideas about race. They are also one place where these ideas are articulated, worked on, transformed, and elaborated.”

Therefore, the media is not all the same, as there are different media institutions. Hence, within media organizations certain race is used to associate the product with ideas of authenticity. It is the media though, that is constructing these identities and encouraging us to see things in a particular way. In this case, certain ethnicity groups as racial difference becomes commodified as a source of pleasure. From this reading it is clear to acknowledge that race is constructed and not biological. Race also can be considered as a signifier and the subject of discourse. As Stuart Hall puts it nicely,

“Races do not exist outside of representation but are formed in and by it in a process of social and political struggle [which was formulated an on going process]”

Therefore, popular culture through the use of certain media institutions has brought up racism and shown that through the use of ideological power can cause some disturbance.