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Multi-Voiced Inquiry
Brandi Romero
University of Texas at El Paso

Latinos and other minority groups are not portrayed in mainstream media as often as the
majority group often is, I wonder how this influences the opinions and self-view of these groups
of people. What throws me off is that the United States is considered to be a "melting pot" of
people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and this is something that many pride
themselves on. Most of the time if I am watching a show/movie or reading a book it is most
likely that the protagonist will be a white person. This is kind of troublesome to me that even in
todays media there isnt really an accurate portrayal of the true statistics of minorities in the U.S.
Of course, some would disagree with this sentiment by saying that 'political correctness' is why
there isn't any decent media representation. The fears of being too stereotypical or making this
minority angry with the way they are portrayed in media makes the mainstream not want to
portray them at all. I want to know just how the media influences the way Latinos and other
groups may perceive themselves because of their portrayal or lack thereof in current American
mainstream media.
I feel the influence of the media depends entirely on the individual and their experiences.
That being said, one spectrum of Latinos and Hispanics may not feel that there is lack of
representation as a whole but a lack of decent representation. Others may believe there is no
representation at all. Although there is media portraying Latinos and Hispanics a majority of the
time the media portrays them as with low income, as gangsters, and poorly educated. This goes
back to the idea that Latinos and Hispanics are represented but they are hardly represented in a

decent light. Some argue that this causes these groups to see themselves in a negative light while
others believe that the media hardly influences what people may think of themselves.
Roy Malones article, Media Perpetuates Stereotypes simplistically but
straightforwardly criticizes the use of saying illegal workers in the mainstream adding that it,
paints a picture of a population that is intrinsically bad and criminal. This builds on to the
stereotypes that the majority have of Latino groups being illegal, but not once does the media
ever criticize the illegal employers of these illegal workers.
Dr. Chon Noriega an American of Mexican descent pokes fun at how portrayal and
diversity of Latinos in Hollywood has actually gotten worse rather than better. He says there was
more widespread coverage in the 50s than there is today. One thing he writes is that Latinos are
told to fit this mold how Hollywood directors want them to be like, Speak with a certain accent,
or when they try to make them darker. The fact is that Latinos/Hispanics are a diverse,
multiracial group. One can be White, Black, Asian, or biracial and still be Latino/Hispanic.
However, Hollywood still has this picture in their mind of how they are supposed to look like
even if it isnt true.
In todays society, almost everything is connected through some sort of media, whether it
is social media or not. YouTube is a prime example of one such media that is widely accessible
to people of various backgrounds. Lei Guo and Summer Harlow theorize that since the internet is
the alternative path to media that there might be some differences in the portrayal of minority
groups on the internet rather than on TV or in movies. In order to break from the status quo that

the media throws onto these groups, they have turned to different resources to share their stories
and creativity. In their study of how popular videos treated stereotypes of Latinos they found
that, 99% reinforced those stereotypes and almost none-just 1% or one video- challenged
them.(Guo and Harlow. 290) These stereotypes included, law breaker, uneducated, poor,
illegal immigrants, sexualized women, and appearance/language and pronunciation (Guo and
Harlow. 289).
The study that I was the most intrigued to learn more about was Distorted Reflections:
Media Exposure and Latino Adolescents' Conceptions of Self. And from the get-go there was
shocking evidence, even though Latinos/Hispanics make up about 13% or more of the total U.S
population they are in less than 0.6% of the mainstream media. Because of this, the researchers
wanted to see how this influences adolescent Latinos to see themselves. They believe that if
these groups continue to see themselves as lazy, uneducated, or violent that they will begin to see
themselves that way as well. Especially at these young ages when everyone is easily pressured
and influenced it is easy to see why the self-perception of these groups can be negative.
That is not to say that mainstream media isnt showing any Latino/Hispanic characters.
Just this year there has been two shows to showcase Latinos as main characters, Cristela and
Jane the Virgin. While these shows may be far from the ideal portrayal, it is something at least.
Disneys latest animated feature Big Hero 6 even has an ensemble main cast of people of color
under its belt, with one of the characters being a Latina chemical engineer. Altogether, I believe
that the media is finally starting to get comfortable using Latino characters but there is still a

long way to go. Will the portrayal be perfect? Maybe not, but it all comes in through trial and
error. There will always be a divide among those who want more politically correct media and
those who just want decent representation.

Works Referenced
Ford, W. J. (2009). Smashing the stereotypes on the big screen. Diverse: Issues in Higher
Education, 26(13), 4-4.
Guo, L., & Harlow, S. (2014). User-generated racism: An analysis of stereotypes of African
Americans, Latinos, and Asians in YouTube videos. Howard Journal of Communications, 25(3),
281-302.
Malone, R. (2008). Media perpetuates stereotypes. St. Louis Journalism Review, 38(303), 4-4.
Rivadeneyra, R., Ward, L. M., & Gordon, M. (2007). Distorted reflections: Media exposure and
Latino adolescents' conceptions of self. Media Psychology, 9(2), 261-290.

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