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The second edition of Diversity in US Mass Media presents a review of the evolution and the many issues surrounding portrayals of social groups in the mass media of the United States. Unfortunately, all too often mass media depictions play a crucial role in shaping our views about individuals and social groups. Filled with instructive insights into the ways social groups are represented through the mass media, Diversity in US Mass Media offers a better understanding of groups and individuals different from ourselves.

The revised second edition is filled with recent, illustrative examples from the media. Comprehensive in scope, it addresses a wide range of issues that include representations of race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, class, and religion in films, television, and the press. The authors encourage readers to question what is being presented and explore the extent to which they agree with the perspectives that are described.

Diversity in US Mass Media is an important resource that:

Revised and updated, the second edition of Diversity in US Mass Media offers a broad perspective on the myriad issues that influence how the media portrays social groups. Throughout the text, the authors show consistencies as well as differences in media representations of minority groups in the United States.

The companion website with additional resources is available at www.wiley.com/go/luther2e

Catherine A. Luther (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is a professor and the director of the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee. Her research focuses on issues involving the intersections of media, gender, and race/ethnicity. She also conducts research in the areas of intercultural and global communication. Her work has appeared in such publications as the Journal of Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, and Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. She began her professional career working for Japanese television news as a reporter before moving on to ABC News to produce stories primarily involving nations and cultures in East Asia.

Carolyn Ringer Lepre (Ph.D., University of Florida) is dean of the School of Communication and the Arts at Marist College. Her research interests are in journalism, particularly magazine writing and news editing. She has published articles in such journals as the Journal of Magazine & New Media Research and Journalism & Mass Communication Educator. She worked as assistant editor at Martha Stewart Living magazine.

Naeemah Clark (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an associate professor in the School of Communications at Elon University. She has edited the book African Americans in the History of U.S. Media, published work in Journalism History and the International Journal of Organizational Diversity, and opinion pieces in various outlets including the Atlanta Journal Constitution and The Huffington Post. She studies and teaches about economic, programming, and diversity issues related to the media and entertainment industries.

Diversity in US Mass Media

Second Edition

Catherine A. Luther

Carolyn Ringer Lepre

Naeemah Clark











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List of Boxes

2.1 Cultural Indicators Project.

2.2 “Ideal” images of males.

3.1 Taking a stand against the film industry.

3.2 An opposing voice: Cherokee Phoenix.

4.1 Precious and African American reliance on others.

4.2 President Obama and political depictions.

5.1 Dora the Explorer: Breaking down barriers.

5.2 Hispanic hip-hop.

5.3 Interview with Carlos Nicho, founder and editor of Mundo Hispano.

6.1 Mass media representations of Arabs/Arab Americans and undergraduate student conceptions.

6.2 The Society of Professional Journalists' “war” on terrorism coverage guidelines.

6.3 News media coverage of building an Islamic community center at Ground Zero.

7.1 Tropic Thunder – humorous or damaging?

7.2 MANAA vs. Paramount executives on The Last Airbender.

8.1 Scene from How to Get Away with Murder: How would you decode it?

9.1 Common male stereotypes.

9.2 Orange Is the New Black and white privilege.

9.3 Have women come a long way?

9.4 Images of women in the music industry.

9.5 Masculinity and video games.

10.1 Should men care about gender stereotypes?

10.2 Framing working women.

11.1 Formulaic gay storylines.

11.2 Caitlyn Jenner: Deserving of Arthur Ashe Courage Award?

12.1 Teen depictions in the Twilight, Harry Potter, and Hunger Games films.

12.2 Self-presentations in My Super Sweet 16.

13.1 The Sessions and explicit vs. implicit attitudes.

13.2 Million Dollar Baby and disability.

13.3 Language usage reinforcing stereotypes in the news.

14.1 Class crossing in the movies of John Hughes.

14.2 Materialism and the media.

15.1 Portrayals of Rumspringa.

15.2 Faith in popular music.

16.1 Diversity/inclusion statements from Time Warner, Viacom, and 21st Century Fox.

Preface

Diversity in US Mass Media was conceived by one of its authors during the first semester in which she was teaching a course on “Media and Diversity” at her university. She perceived a need for a book that attempted to comprehensively cover the various areas associated with representations of diversity within the mass media. Many outstanding books exist that cover issues related to media, gender, ethnicity, and class. For the most part, however, they are edited books that cover a wide array of areas but do not necessarily flow in and out of each other. This book has endeavored to show consistencies as well as differences in media representations of minority groups in the United States.

The number of research studies addressing diversity within the mass media has grown over the years with the increasing awareness that inequities in portrayals and coverage of various groups still remain an important issue. This book refers to many of the well-known studies on this topic and also presents some original research and observations that have been provided by the book's authors. Although the authors have made strenuous efforts to be uniform in the writing across the chapters in terms of themes and topics covered, some variations do exist, of course, because of the differing subject matter and the extent to which the phenomenon being discussed has been researched within scholarly circles and among practitioners. For example, in the African American and Hispanic chapters, we present discussions of how these groups have been represented in music and have used music and radio as a channel of communication. The amount of research conducted on this topic with regard to these two groups is quite large, and not to include it would have been negligent. Similar research pertaining to American Indians, Arab Americans, and Asian Americans, does not exist, however, and so this topic was not discussed in these chapters. Another example in terms of the variation in presentation is with regard to gender. The fact that years of research pertaining to mass media and gender have produced large quantities of studies and insight in this area prompted the decision by the authors to provide two separate, but related chapters on gender. In sum, decisions regarding which areas to cover in the chapters were driven by the importance of the topics as they related to the specified social groups and the amount of pertinent existing research.

In this second edition, the book's authors offer updated references and studies. Some of the updates reveal that the media landscape has changed quite a bit since the first edition was published in 2012. In some cases, media content better reflects the identities discussed in the book. In other cases, there has been little or no movement in the way these groups are represented. The second edition also introduces a chapter discussing media portrayals of mixed race relationships and multiracial/multiethnic people, and a chapter on representations of religion and faith. These chapters were added because the authors recognized that there has been a burgeoning body of research and media discussion surrounding these identity-related areas.

We hope that the readers of this book will approach it with a critical eye. While introducing the material, the authors encourage readers also to question what is being presented and explore the extent to which they agree with the perspectives that are described. The book includes many examples to help illustrate the concepts and perspectives discussed; however, readers should consider alternative examples from their own media use that support or contradict those included. We hope that the book will enlighten but also evoke further important questions that need to be considered at the personal and broader social level.

Several people need to be thanked for their individual input into the fruition of the book's first edition and this second edition. For the first edition, our continued thanks go to editors Deirdre Ilkson and Elizabeth Swayze as well as editorial assistant Margot Morse and project manager Alec McAulay. For this edition, many thanks go to project manager Hazel Bird, project editor Dhanashree Damodar Phadate, commissioning editor Haze Humbert, and assistant editor Mark Graney. Also, much gratitude goes to copyeditor Caroline Richards for her keen editorial eye and Arlene Naranjo as well as Justin West for their Spanish-language translations.

The first author of this book, Catherine Luther, would also like to express her heartfelt thanks to her husband, Yosh, and her two boys, Gennick and Jovan. Their patience and understanding were unsurpassed while she worked countless hours on the book. She would also like to dedicate her effort in this book to her mom, Sadayo. With each passing year, she has come to better understand the huge amount of courage it took for her mom to come to the United States as a young bride of an American serviceman with little knowledge of English but a strong determination to learn the language and everything there was to know about her new home.

Carolyn Ringer Lepre, this book's second author, would like to express her eternal gratitude to her husband, Todd, her father, Jim, and her mother, Jackie, who passed away during the writing of this second edition. She would especially like to thank her twin daughters, Sarah and Ainsley, for their endless supply of hugs, kisses, and giggles, and for putting up with all the long evenings and weekends that she spent working instead of playing with them.

The book's third author, Naeemah Clark, would like to thank her family – Kacie, Kam, Betty, and Ken – for their unending suggestions of song lyrics, movie clips, and magazine titles. She is grateful for the opportunity to discuss these important topics at a time when understanding one another's humanity is needed more than ever.