Media, Stereotypes & the Perpetuation of Racism in Canada - Essay Example

The media – print as well as television is one of the most powerful sources of mass communication in today’s times, and its accessibility and vast outreach has further added to its sheer power to influence the ‘minds of the masses’. The issues portrayed by the media are almost invariably regarded as ‘truthful’ and assumed to be accurate by the audiences, which lends even more power in the hands of those who control it. The media, world over, has recently attracted severe criticism for the negative portrayal of critical events, and especially for irresponsible reporting by hiding the facts and reality and sensationalizing the news through willful and deliberate misrepresentation of issues which can have a strong negative influence on those who consume such blatant lies.

One of its several outcomes is the perpetuation of racism, on account of the negative portrayal or racial stereotyping of the ethnic minorities. This paper critically examines the portrayal of minority communities by the Canadian media, explores the manner in which they are represented – i.e. misrepresented or underrepresented in the media, and its ultimate impact on the masses, culminating of such news into a negative image of members of such groups, there by attracting harsh and often discriminatory behavior towards them by the dominant groups.

This study is an attempt to study the highly complex relationship between the minority communities and their gross misrepresentation by the Canadian media, the role of the media in shaping national identities and influencing peaceful or destructive inter racial relations and / or harmony depending on the media representations. “Racisim is prejudice or discrimination against other people because of their race or because of what is thought to be their race (their biology or ancestry or physical appearance).

It involves the assumption that peoples birth or biology