The document discusses how the media portrays minorities to make majority audiences feel more comfortable. It does this through several techniques: 1) By portraying minorities in stereotypical ways or in settings that play up to stereotypes from the perspective of the majority. 2) By depicting minorities as experiencing the same things as the majority, like The Cosby Show did by showing a black family living a similar middle-class lifestyle as white families. 3) By using minorities as "token" or minor secondary characters that play supporting roles to white primary characters. This allows the media to include diversity while still catering to white audiences.

1. Minorities in the Media

2. What defines “Minority”?
• Minorities are any group of people who
are considered by the majority to be
different from that majority.
• They may be of a different race, religion,
or sexual preference.

3. Comfort Factor
• The media, as we have learned, is in
business to make money. So, how do they
make the majority feel more comfortable
about minorities?

4. The Normative Gaze
• The Normative gaze is just the perspective
of the majority, so media will try to make
the majority feel a certain way about
minorities by placing them in settings that
play up to the stereotypes.
• Not all stereotypes are considered
negative either.

5. Check it out:
• What stereotypes do you associate with the
following groups?
– African Americans
– Asian Americans
– Native Americans
– Gay or lesbian
– Catholics
– Protestants
– Mormons
– Muslims

6. Did you think of any?
• Discuss what the stereotypes were and
where you learned them.

7. Comfort
• One way the media skews the perspective
is to make the minorities experience the
same things that the majority experiences.
For Example: The Cosby Show depicts a
Black middle class family whose
experiences are very much like those of
any white household. The use of humor
makes the show even more comfortable to
the majority viewers.

8. Take a look
• Let’s watch a little of the show and make
note of how this family compares to the
average white family of the 1980’s. Look
for obvious things that you may take for
granted.

9. Setting
• How did the setting make you feel
comfortable?
• Try to think of a show today that makes
you feel more comfortable about
minorities that we mentioned earlier.
Think of a universal experience that we
share as humans if you can’t think of one
off the top of your head.

10. Avoiding discussion
• Often, media will soften the blow of
discriminatory plots by making them seem
like part of the norm and the characters
themselves, though a minority, will not be
chastised or discriminated against.
• For example: A teen gets pulled over for
driving an expensive car in a show. There is
some discrimination there, but the character
is not ostracized in the scene. The characters
do not discuss the stereotyping of the other
characters.

11. Token or Minor characters
• Media also uses the minor character to
portray minorities. The minor character
plays second fiddle to the primary
character, who is usually white.
• Think about the shows you watch…who
are the token characters?

12. Some shows with Token
Characters:
• NCIS LA
• Burn Notice
• The Big Bang Theory
• The Closer
• Mike & Molly
Did you ever notice that in horror movies,
the first two to die are the black man and the
blonde!?

13. The Big Bang Theory Cast

14. Mike & Molly Cast

15. NCIS LA Cast

16. Normative Characters
• Another way that media
represents minority
characters is through the
perspective of the
“Normative” characters. An
example of this would be a
Simpsons episode where
Homer befriends a
homosexual.
• By the end of the show, he
is over his prejudice.

17. Normatives
• By the end of the show, all of the
normative characters get over their
prejudice.

18. Final thoughts on this…
• The last way to get the characters and the
audience to accept the minorities is for the
protagonist to “save” the minorities from
themselves.

19. Saviours
• Michelle Pfifer starred as a teacher who
was able to reach troubled inner city kids.
• In Freedom Writers, Hillary Swank
portrays teacher, Erin Gruwell, who
reached the students in her LA classroom
and many went onto college and lucrative
careers.

20. The Freedom Writers

21. Feel good…
• All in all, the games the
media play are numerous
and clever. It is all about
letting the majority feel good
about themselves and
accepting those who are not
in their social circles.

22. Self Check:
• What is the Normative Gaze?
• In what ways does the media present
stereotypical characters so as not to
appear prejudiced?