I have chosen to discuss the representation of minorities in the media. I wanted to write about this because I noticed that there is a bit of a gap of non-white actors in the media. With this in mind, the questions I want to address are: What impact does it have on minorities to not see themselves in films or on television? And can individuals develop a negative self-image due to a lack of representation? I will address each of these issues while focusing on the benefit of people seeing their race represented, the lack of minorities in media, and why it is important to show all races in film or television. By researching this topic, I hope to further explain these issues and understand why they are still present. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first article I want to review would be “Why On-Screen Representation Actually Matters” (Boboltz and Yam). In this source it is explained that the fact that people do not see themselves in a film has negative psychological impacts. This article supports the idea that it is essential that minorities be represented on screen. This quote from the source explains how people who have studied minority representation have come up with terms to explain the feelings involved: "'There's this body of research and a term known as 'symbolic annihilation,' which is the idea that if you don't "I don't see people like you in the media you consume," she explained, "you must somehow be unimportant." » (Boboltz and Yam). I was surprised to learn that the term symbolic annihilation even exists, the fact that there even is a term for it shows what a problem it has become. This article also mentions that minorities are often represented with offensive, overused and stereotypical tropes. While it is good for minorities to be represented, it does no good if they only act in stereotypical ways (Boboltz and Yam). Television and movies are often an escape from the real world, but they can put someone at a disadvantage if they translate what they see in the media into reality. Watching a show with minority actors playing stereotypical roles or only white actors isn't reality, it's important to see people different from you in movies or on TV represented without bias. Through this article, I learned how inadequate representation of minorities can make them feel like they are not important to society. The next article I'll talk about is "Out of 30,000 Hollywood Movie Characters, Here's How Many Weren't White." » (Crigger and Santhanam). This article explains how, over a 10-year period, the percentage of minorities in cinema has remained low; looking from 2007 to 2014, the percentage of black, Hispanic, Asian, and other actors remained below twenty (Crigger and Santhanam). ). This shocked me because the world has changed a lot since 2007, but the percentage of minorities on screen has remained the same. While it is important to simply be represented in a film, how non-white characters are represented is also important. The stereotypes presented can cause the majority to have a biased view of minorities (Crigger and Santhanam). It's strange that someone can have a vision of someone just based on what they see on screen, but for some, that might be all they know about therace of this person. The next source I will analyze will be “Hollywood Stereotypes” (Mastropolo and Stossel). This article discusses how the media can impact the way people perceive minorities and also how actors don't like to play a role simply because of their race. Actors such as BD Wong, who wished he was a white actor just so he could be offered the other roles, "'I wanted to be Matthew Broderick,' Wong says. "If you could have given me $150,000 and told me that it was possible, I would have undergone this operation."" (Mastropolo and Stossel). An actor's race should not exclude them from roles. Another part of the article that I found interesting would be "The popularity of a stereotype does not justify it... Cowboy and Indian films have been extremely popular for generations. But that doesn't make it fair stereotype.” (Mastropolo and Stossel). This excerpt ties in with the previous one, arguing that minority actors are confined because of bias and that while the aforementioned biases may be widely accepted, they still do not constitute an accurate portrayal of minorities. Non-white actors are currently limited to the roles offered to them. The next article “Hollywood Has A Major Diversity Problem, USC Study Finds/USC Study: Minorities still underrepresented in popular films” (Keegan) explores how the actors we see in cinema can extend beyond that and in our daily lives. The article's following quote addresses how the people we see in films can translate what we find important: "Who we see in film sends a powerful message about who is important and whose stories are valuable, both to international audiences and to young viewers in our own country... Do films communicate to audiences that only certain stories are worth telling” (Keegan). it highlights how essential it is to see films with actors of all types of races. This way we are not saying that only a specific race, mainly Caucasian, has stories that matter. races go to see movies versus which races star in movies This excerpt from the article mentions how Hispanic moviegoers are particularly disadvantaged: “Hispanics buy about 26% of movie tickets, they only have 4. .2% of speaking roles. » (Keegan). I was surprised when I first read this, because even though Hispanics make up almost a third of movie audiences, that percentage is poorly reflected on the screen of the movie they are watching. What I understood from the article is that the films do not take into account minority ticket buyers, therefore the number of minorities in the films is insufficient. The last source I'll mention is "Why Minority Representation in Movies, Comics, and TV Matters" (Tasker). This article discusses the positive effects of seeing yourself translated on screen. In the following excerpt, it is noted that we connect more with characters who are like us: “The more a character is like us, or faces the same problems as us, the more we care. » (Tasker). While I found this interesting, it's also unfortunate that people can't connect with characters who aren't there. Therefore, it's amazing that we have shows/movies like Luke Cage, which stars an African American man who in the series has superhuman strength, and Rogue One, which stars Diego Luna and Riz Ahmed ( Tasker). Both Luke Cage and Rogue One feature minority actors and are directed,.