One often doesnt consider media as a primary influence on social and

cultural identity. Personally, I didnt have a full grasp on the relationship

between societal structure and media until I was faced with a situation that
illustrated the power media has over an individuals beliefs and values. In
2012, on a visit to a small village in Ghana, myself and a group of University
students spent our evenings interacting with the local children. We asked
them what they wanted to be when they grew up, and one of the girls
proclaimed she wanted to be white. Dumbfounded, we asked her why she
would feel that way; she responded that she wanted to be beautiful and
successful, achievements the community identified as being correlated with
skin color. Upon reflection, we realized that all Ghanaian media was imported
from Western culture; pop stars, movies, television, and literature, and how
damaging mainstream reflections of reality can be to development. A quote
from Croteau and Hoynes Media/Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences
that struck me as applicable was the absence of a racial signifier in this
country means whiteness. The pervasiveness of white perspectives in
media is perhaps its most powerful characteristic (192).
For the purposes of my reflection, I interpret whiteness as a
characterization of the heteronormative, upper-middle class white male
perspective. Whiteness, as the reading demonstrates, has been damning
to all minority identities and shaped the collective perception of major
political and social issues. The issue isnt just that media has a bias; it is also
that said bias embeds itself within culture until it is perceived by most as a
universal truth. But, as the reading illustrates, media has made strides
towards visibility for minorities and fairer representation, largely influenced
by stereotypical imagery [being] challenged by organizations that monitor
and respond to such content (Croteau/Hoynes, 200). Citizen attentiveness
to the media has been crucial to facilitate change; in turn, the change
reflected in the media has expedited social progress.
Interestingly, the reading notes how not all mediums equally represent
minority groups. Despite being the youngest form of popular media, video
games continue to almost exclusively portray white males as protagonists,
who account for 85% of the leading characters. The issue with gaming isnt
just on the development side, but also within its sexist, homophobic
community. For example, GLAAD conducted a study in which they concluded
57% of surveyed gamers felt that the community was hostile towards LGBTQ
players, and 87% had heard the word gay used in a derogatory manner
while playing online. When EA announced in 2012 Mass Effect 3 would

include options to make the protagonist gay, the company received fierce
backlash from the gaming community for its decision.
While most of mainstream media has become statistically more inclusive,
minority communities still rightly feel that their voices are underrepresented.
This sentiment gives way to the emergence of alternative sources of media,
created by the respective minority community for their community.
Alternative media allows issues and cultural tendencies to be addressed and
expressed freely that may not be applicable to a larger audience. Croteau
and Hoynes posit that, when lacking fair representation or visibility,
minorities can decide to create these forms of alternative media, or attempt
to change the mainstream from within. Out of the two options presented,
which would be more beneficial for the empowering these communities?
There are two considerations in the debate; alternative media is great for
establishing and perpetuating microcultural identity, but it also widens the
gaps that separate communities and isolates them. An illustration that
comes to mind is the films and television shows produced by Tyler Perry;
they are identified as distinct pieces of black culture. Perry has been wildly
successful; his studio has been one of the most profitable modern
independent production companies, and his name has become an
identifiable brand. But its also a brand that is tied with low, base culture; the
programs are cheap entertainment, so the public perception of his audience
is less than reputable. There are equal, perhaps more crude forms of popular
entertainment that could be equated with Perrys products, but the issue
here is that Perrys work is identified as black entertainment- thus
perpetuating stereotypes of the black community as consuming low culture.
The second consideration is that adapting to mainstream media generally
means adapting ones cultural identity to make it digestible for a mainstream
audience, which may be sending the wrong message.
The debate of alternative vs. mainstream media is just one of the many
emerging complexities when considering media influence that need to be
attended to. Is subversive racism more damaging to society than blatant
because it is more difficult to detect? And, given the crude and offensive
nature of prejudice in historical media catalogues, does that change how we
should value the end product? Should Breakfast at Tiffanys no longer be
considered a hallmark of American film because of Mickey Rooneys
mortifying portrayal of an Asian-American? Its imperative to understand the
mutual influence between pop culture and society, the questions we need to

ask ourselves, and how media can be harnessed as an impetus for social
change.
Works Cited
Croteau, David, and William Hoynes. Media Society: Industries, Images, and
Audiences. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2003. Print.
Croteau, David, and William Hoynes. Media Society: Industries, Images, and
Audiences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2003. Print.
Kim, Ryan. "Gay Rights Group Plans Talk on Silencing Slurs by Online
Gamers." SFGate. San Francisco Gate, 16 July 2009. Web. 17 Sept.
2015.
Yalburgi, Vinod. "'Mass Effect 3' Gay Sex Controversy: EA Defends Itself
Against Anti-Gay Campaign." International Business Times RSS.
International Business Times, 10 Apr. 2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
Yousman, Bill. "Revisiting Hall's Encoding/Decoding Model: Ex-Prisoners
Respond to Television Representations of Incarceration." Review of
Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 35.3 (2013): 197-216. Web.