Defining Whiteness and White Privilege

Our concept of race is equally shaped by social norms and expectations, which are based on historical events and current practices. In North American society, being white is perceived as the norm. Often the fact that whiteness is also a race is not acknowledged. As a result, researchers have begun to examine whiteness and to define it in terms of social impact. Such research concentrates on "white privilege" - the differences in power between whites and non-whites, and the advantages white people automatically take for granted. The advantages of being white include learning the history of one's own race in school, to seeing members of one's own ethnic group widely represented in the media, to being confident that job refusals are not based on one's race.

White Authority in the Media

Most of the decision-makers in North American news and entertainment media are white. Media ownership is mainly concentrated in the hands of white males; white journalists dominate the mainstream media; and white people hold most creative positions in the entertainment media as actors, writers and directors. All these factors contribute to the prevalence of whiteness in media, and help to reinforce white privilege as the norm. Most mainstream media content also reinforces white privilege by featuring white characters and addressing white interests and experiences. When programming does feature non-white characters, they usually appear in supporting roles. News and information media also demonstrate the preponderance of white privilege:

In the early 1990s, the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) surveyed the makeup of the guests on ABC's Nightline. It found that 80 per cent were professionals, 89 per cent were male, and 92 per cent were white. FAIR also found that on PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, 90 per cent of the guests were white, 87 per cent were male, and 67 per cent were current or former government officials. A 1996 survey conducted by Women, Men and Media found that subjects interviewed for the evening news were predominantly (75 per cent) professional white men. As well, 86 per cent of American network news was also reported by white men.

Media Representations of the Working Classes

Social researchers and scholars point out that the mainstream media typically skew their portrayals of economic classes towards the white middle and upper classes, with all their privileges. They rarely represent the interests or perspectives of working-class women and men.

It is noted that the entertainment media tends to exaggerate affluence, and underrepresent working-class men and women. Working wives in television series tend to be middle class women in pursuit of careers. Depictions of working class wives are rare. Working-class men tend to be shown as immature, irresponsible, and requiring the supervision of their "betters." The media rarely represents the interests or experiences of working class women and men. In news and current affairs programming, the "experts" who discuss issues affecting the working classes are often white, professional, middle class men. Members of the white working classes are portrayed as dumb, inarticulate and old-fashioned. Such stereotypes serve to silence the concerns and perspectives of working class women and men in the media. News and information media also express biases against working-class interests: A survey conducted by City University of New York found that in two years of PBS prime-time programming, 27 hours addressed the concerns and lives of the working classes - compared with 253 hours that focused on the upper classes.

The Institute for Alternative Journalism, and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), have reported on the negative or non-existent coverage of union activities and labour strikes in the mainstream news.

Media Portrayals of Ethnic and Visible Minorities: Introduction

Anyone who examines North American entertainment and news media will notice that members of ethnic and visible minorities are inadequately represented in entertainment and news media, and that portrayals of minorities are often stereotypical and demeaning. This tendency is particularly problematic in a multicultural country like Canada, where 15 per cent of the population are immigrants and visible minorities comprise 25 to 51 per cent of the larger urban centres. Toronto is the first city in the Western world in which the majority of inhabitants are people of colour. Here we will explore the ways in which members of ethnic and visible minorities are portrayed in news coverage and entertainment media in Canada and the U.S. We will also explore the representation of minority groups behind the scenes, as journalists and media producers.

Media Portrayals of Aboriginal People: Introduction

Aboriginal people have been vigorously stereotyped in words and images for hundreds of years. Film, television and comic-book producers have perpetuated these stereotypes over several generations, and so old notions of what it is to be a Canadian Aboriginal or a Native American have lived on well past the emergence of a public consciousness that knows

better.