14.2 Ethical Issues in Mass Media

In the competitive and rapidly changing world of mass-media communications, media professionals—overcome by deadlines, bottom-line imperatives, and corporate interests—can easily lose sight of the ethical implications of their work. However, as entertainment law specialist Sherri Burr points out, “Because network television is an audiovisual medium that is piped free into ninety-nine percent of American homes, it is one of the most important vehicles for depicting cultural images to our population (Burr, 2001).” Considering the profound influence mass media like television have on cultural perceptions and attitudes, the creators of media content need to grapple with ethical issues.

Stereotypes, Prescribed Roles, and Public Perception

The U.S. population has become increasingly diverse. According to U.S. Census statistics from 2010, 27.6 percent of the population identifies its race as non-White (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).  Yet in network television broadcasts, major publications, and other forms of mass media and entertainment, minority characters either don’t exist or depict heavily stereotyped, two-dimensional representations. Minorities rarely have opportunities to depict complex characters with the full range of human emotions, motivations, and behaviors. Meanwhile, the stereotyping of women, the LGBTQ community, and individuals with disabilities in mass media has also raised concerns.

The word stereotype originated in the printing industry as a method of making identical copies, and the practice of stereotyping people mirrors the same principle: a system of identically replicating an image of an “other.” As related in Chapter 8 “Movies ” about D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, a film that relied on racial stereotypes to portray Southern Whites as victims in the American Civil War, stereotypes—especially those disseminated through mass media—become a form of social control, shaping collective perceptions and individual identities. In American mass media, the White man still represents the standard viewpoint: they stand as the central figure of TV narratives and provide the dominant perspective on everything from trends to current events to politics. White maleness becomes an invisible category because it gives the impression of representing the normal experience (Hearne).

Minority Exclusion and Stereotypes

In the fall of 1999, when the major television networks released their schedules for the upcoming programming season, a startling trend became clear. Of the 26 newly released TV programs, none depicted an African American in a leading role, and even the secondary roles on these shows included almost no racial minorities. In response to this omission, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), an advocacy group for Hispanic Americans, organized protests and boycotts. Pressured—and embarrassed—into action, the executives from the major networks made a fast dash to add racial minorities to their prime-time shows, not only among actors, but also among producers, writers, and directors. Four of the networks—ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox—added a vice president of diversity position to help oversee the networks’ progress toward creating more diverse programming (Baynes, 2003).

Despite these changes and greater public attention regarding diversity issues, minority underrepresentation still remains an issue in all areas of mass media. In fact, the trend in recent years has been regressive. In a recent study, the NAACP reported that the number of minority actors on network television has actually decreased, from 333 during the 2002–2003 season to 307 four years later (WWAY, 2009).  Racial minorities are often absent, peripheral, or take on stereotyped roles in film, television, print media, advertising, and even in video games. Additionally, according to a 2002 study by the University of California, Los Angeles, the problem extends behind the scenes. The study found that minorities face even more underrepresentation in creative and decision-making positions than on screen (Media Awareness Network, 2010). This lack of representation among producers, writers, and directors often directly affects the portrayal of minorities in film and television, leading to racial stereotypes.

Though advocacy groups like the NCLR and the NAACP have often been at the forefront of protests against minority stereotypes in the media, experts point out that this issue should concern everyone. As media ethicist Leonard M. Baynes argues, “Since we live in a relatively segregated country…broadcast television and its images and representations are very important because television can be the common meeting ground for all Americans.”1 Historians have drawn clear correlations between mass media portrayals of minority groups and public perceptions. In 1999, after hundreds of complaints by African Americans that they could not get taxis to pick them up, the city of New York launched a crackdown, threatening to revoke the licenses of cab drivers who refused to stop for African American customers. When interviewed by reporters, many cab drivers blamed their actions on fears they would get robbed or asked to drive to dangerous neighborhoods.2

Racial stereotypes also find their way into news reporting. Journalists, editors, and reporters are still predominately White. According to a 2000 survey, only 11.6 percent of newsroom staff in the United States were racial and ethnic minorities (Media Awareness Network, 2010). The situation has not improved dramatically during the past decade. According to a 2008 newsroom census released by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the percentage of minority journalists working at daily newspapers was a scant 13.52 percent (National Association of Hispanic Journalists, 2010).  In the news media, racial minorities often get cast in the role of villains or troublemakers, which in turn shapes public perceptions about these groups.  Media critics Robert Entman and Andrew Rojecki point out that images of African Americans on welfare, African American violence, and urban crime in African American communities “facilitate the construction of menacing imagery (Christians, 2005).” Similarly, a National Association of Hispanic Journalists study found that only 1 percent of the evening news stories aired by the three major U.S. television networks cover Latinos or Latino issues. When the networks do provide coverage, they portray Latinos negatively 80 percent of the time.3 Still others have criticized journalists and reporters for a tendency toward reductive presentations of complex issues involving minorities, such as the religious and racial tensions fueled by the September 11 attacks. By reducing these conflicts to “opposing frames,” the news media helped create a greater sense of separation between Islamic Americans and the dominant culture after September 11, 2001 (Whitehouse, 2009).

Since the late 1970s, the major professional journalism organizations in the United States—Associated Press Managing Editors (APME), Newspaper Association of America (NAA), American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE),  Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ), Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), and others —have included greater ethnic diversity as a primary goal or ethic. However, progress has been slow. ASNE has set 2025 as a target date to have minority representation in newsrooms match U.S. demographics .4

Because the programming about, by, and for ethnic minorities in the mainstream media remains disproportionately low, many minorities turn to niche publications and channels such as BET, Univision, Telemundo, Essence, Jet , and others for sources of information and entertainment. In fact, 45 percent of ethnic-minority adults prefer these niche media sources to mainstream television, radio programs, and newspapers (Whitehouse, 2009) . These sources cover stories about racial minorities that legacy media outlets generally ignore and offer ethnic-minority perspectives on more widely covered issues in the news (State of the Media, 2010 ). Entertainment channels like BET (a 24-hour cable television station that offers music videos, dramas featuring predominately Black casts, and other original programming created by African Americans) provide the diverse programming that mainstream TV networks often drop (Zellars, 2006). Print sources like Vista,  a bilingual magazine targeting U.S. Hispanics, and Vivid, the most widely circulated African American periodical , appeal to ethnic minority groups because individuals within these groups control and create the content. Though some criticize ethnic niche media, claiming that they erode common ground or, in some instances, perpetuate stereotypes, the popularity of these media has only grown in recent years and will likely continue in the absence of more diverse perspectives in mainstream media sources (Tran; Flint, 2010).

Femininity in Mass Media

In the ABC sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966), actress Donna Reed plays a stay-at-home mother who fills her days with housework, cooking for her husband and children, decorating, and participating in community organizations, all while wearing pearls, heels, and stylish dresses. Such a traditional portrayal of femininity no doubt sounds dated to modern audiences, but stereotyped gender roles continue to thrive in the mass media. Women still often get represented as subordinate to their male counterparts—emotional, non-competitive, domestic, and sweet-natured. If not, they tend to be portrayed as unattractively masculine, crazy, or cruel. In TV dramas and sitcoms, women continue to fill traditional roles such as mothers, nurses, secretaries, and housewives. By contrast, men in film and television appear in their home environment less often than women and are generally characterized by the attributes of dominance, aggression, action, physical strength, and ambition (Chandler). The legacy news media predominately features men as authorities on specialized issues like business, politics, and economics, while women reporters have a greater likelihood of finding themselves relegated to reporting on stories about natural disasters or domestic violence—coverage that does not require expertise (Media Awareness Network).

Not only does the White male perspective still get presented as the standard, authoritative one, but the media itself often comes to produce content that embodies the male gaze . Media commentator Nancy Hass notes that “shows that don’t focus on men have to feature the sort of women that guys might watch (Media Awareness Network).” Feminist critics have long expressed concerns about how the film, television, and print media define women by their sexuality. Few female role models exist in the media who primarily demonstrate qualities like intelligence or leadership. Inundated by images that conform to unrealistic beauty standards, women come to believe at an early age that their value depends on their physical attractiveness. According to one Newsweek article, medical practitioners have routinely diagnosed eating disorders in girls at younger ages, sometimes as early as eight or nine. Magazines and print advertising feature models who appear unrealistically skinny (23 percent thinner than the average woman), and digital editing programs like Photoshop can further enhance photographs to hide flaws and blemishes. Meanwhile, the majority of women appearing on television are under the age of 30, and many older actresses, facing the pressure to embody the youthful ideal, undergo surgical enhancements to appear younger (Derenne & Beresin, 2006). TV news host Greta Van Susteren, a respected legal analyst who moved from CNN to Fox in 2002, sat behind a table that allowed viewers to see her short skirt during the debut of her show, On the Record. She had also undergone not only a hair and wardrobe makeover but also surgical enhancement to make her appear younger and more attractive.5

In addition to the prevalence of gender stereotypes, a disproportionate ratio of men to women work in the mass media, in and behind the scenes. Surprisingly, though women slightly outnumber men in the general population, more than two-thirds of TV sitcoms feature men in the starring role (Media Awareness Network).  Among writers, producers, directors, and editors, the number of women lags far behind. In Hollywood, for instance, women only represent 17 percent of behind-the-scenes creative tale nt. Communications researcher Martha Lauzen argues that “when women have more powerful roles in the making of a movie or TV show, we know that we also get more powerful female characters on-screen, women who are more real and more multi-dimensional (Media Awareness Network).”

Sexual Content in Public Communication

Creators of all forms of media know that sex—named, hinted by innuendo, or overtly displayed—will grab an audience’s attention. The advertising cliché “Sex sells” manifests across the mass media through the inexhaustible number of products that advertisers have linked to erotic imagery or innuendo, from cosmetics and cars to vacation packages and beer. Most often, the media delivers sexualized advertising content in the form of the female body, in part or in whole, featured in provocative or suggestive poses with or without a product that may have nothing to do with sexuality. However, by linking these two things, advertisers market the concept of desire itself.

Besides consumer goods; sex sells media, too. Music videos that promote artists and their music can capture the audience’s attention with highly suggestive dance moves, often performed by scantily clad women. Movie trailers may flash brief images of nudity or passionate kissing to suggest more to come in the movie. Video games feature female characters like Lara Croft of Tomb Raider, whose tightly fitted clothes reveal all the curves of her Barbie-doll figure. Partially nude models grace the cover of men’s and women’s magazines like Maxim, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue where cover lines promise titillating tips, gossip, and advice on bedroom behavior (Reichert & Lambiase, 2005).

In the 1920s and 1930s, filmmakers attracted audiences to the silver screen with the promise of what their modern audiences considered scandalous content. Prior to the 1934 Hays Code , which placed restrictions on “indecent” content in movies, films featured erotic dances, male and female nudity, references to homosexuality, and sexual violence. D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916) includes scenes with topless actresses, as does Ben Hur (1925). In Warner Bros.’ Female (1933), the leading lady, the head of a major car company, spends her evenings in sexual exploits with her male employees, a story line that would never have passed the Hays Code a year later (Morris, 1996). Paramount Pictures withdrew its 1932 comedy Trouble in Paradise from circulation after the institution of the Hays Code because of its frank discussion of sexuality. Similarly, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), which featured a prostitute as one of the main characters, experienced a ban under the code (Hauesser, 2007).

In the 1960s, when the sexual revolution led to increasingly permissive attitudes toward sexuality in American culture, the MPAA rating system placed the Hays Code. This rating system, designed to warn parents about potentially objectionable material in films, allowed filmmakers to include sexually explicit content without fear of public protest. Since the replacement of the Hays Code, films have featured sexual content with much greater frequency.

Many media critics do not lament the appearance of sex in the media, rather its unrealistic portrayal in American mass media (Galician, 2004). This can harm society because the mass media act as important socialization agents and inform ways that people learn about the norms, expectations, and values of their society.

Sex, as many films, TV shows, music videos, and song lyrics present it, occurs frequently and casually. Rarely do these media point out the potential emotional and physical consequences of sexual behavior. According to one study, portrayals of sex that include possible risks like sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy only occur in 15 percent of the sexually explicit material on TV (Parents Television Council). Additionally, actors and models depicted in sexual relationships in the media demonstrate thinner, younger, and more attractive characteristics than the average adult. This creates unrealistic expectations about the necessary ingredients for a satisfying sexual relationship.

The negative effects these unrealistic portrayals have on women particularly concern social psychologists, as women’s bodies symbolize the primary means of introducing sexual content into media targeted at both men and women. Media activist Jean Kilbourne points out that “women’s bodies are often dismembered into legs, breasts or thighs, reinforcing the message that women are objects rather than whole human beings.” Adbusters, a magazine that critiques mass media, particularly advertising, points out the sexual objectification of women’s bodies in a number of its spoof advertisements, such as the example included in this chapter, bringing home the message that advertising often sends unrealistic and harmful messages about women’s bodies and sexuality. Additionally, many researchers note that in women’s magazines, advertising, and music videos, women often receive the implicit—and sometimes explicit—message that they should primarily concern themselves with attracting and sexually satisfying men (Parents Televison Council). Furthermore, the recent increase in entertainment featuring sexual violence may, according to some studies, negatively affect the way young men behave toward women (Gunter, 2002).

Young women and men are especially vulnerable to the effects of media portrayals of sexuality. Psychologists have long noted that teens and children get much of their information and many of their opinions about sex through TV, film, and online media. In fact, two-thirds of adolescents turn to the media first when they want to learn about sexuality.

The media may help shape teenage and adolescent attitudes toward sex, but they can also lead young people to engage in sexual activity before they have the maturity to handle the consequences. According to one study, kids with high exposure to sex on television had almost twice the likelihood to initiate sexual activity compared to kids without exposure (Collins, et. al., 2004).

As Jean Kilbourne has argued, sex in the American media “has far more to do with trivializing sex than with promoting it. We are offered a pseudo-sexuality that makes it far more difficult to discover our own unique and authentic sexuality.” However, despite these criticisms, unrealistic portrayals of sexual content will continue to signify the norm in mass media unless the general public stops consuming these images.