American Indians in Mass Media Representation

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Table of Contents

Stages of Minority Representation by the Media
The Native Americans in the US Mass Media
The Indian Symbolic in the Names of the Sportive Teams
The Development of the Native Mass Media
Conclusion
Works Cited

The modern mass media influence the audience’s social and cultural perceptions to a large extent. Nowadays, the television and other informational resources often become the broadcasters of narrow, unrealistic, and negative images of particular social, and ethnic minor groups in the USA. In this way, mass media may be regarded as the main source of gender and racial prejudices’ creation. Moreover, it contributes to the development of the hostile attitudes towards minorities, and it may be regarded as one of the basic reasons for the lack of open-mindedness in the modern US society.

According to Azocar, the current elementary education system and television often depict the American Indians in a stereotypical way (122). In the mass media, the image of the Native Americans is primarily defined from the Western point of view and according to their ideologies and perspectives on the historical events and culture. In this way, the mass media take part in the formation of public perceptions, and, at the same time, in shaping the cultural identity of the minor groups. The stereotypes promoted by television induce the social division and comparison which may affect the minor group members’ self-esteem and social identity (Trebbe and Schoenhagen 411).

In the highly diverse US community, it is important to pay attention to the voice of each social group. The development of the Native American mass media will contribute to the expansion of the current one-sided and narrow worldview. As a result, the US mass media will assist the creation of the sound and holistic picture of the world.

Stages of Minority Representation by the Media

In 1969, the scholar Cedric Clark introduced a model of the chronological stages according to which mass media depicts the minor groups (Fitzgerald 367). These stages are nonrecognition, ridicule, regulation, and respect.

At the first stage of nonrecognition, the group is excluded from the broadcasting, and the information about it is not spread at all. It may be regarded as a form of the social exclusion.

At the second stage, the dominant group exalts its own image at the expense of the minor group. The level of ridicule is characterized by the stereotyping and humiliation.

At the third stage of regulation, the members of the minor groups commence acquiring the positive features; the representatives of the minor groups start to fulfill the role of the social “regulators: police officers, soldiers, public-school teachers, administrators, and government functionaries” (Fitzgerald 371). As a result, the overall image of the minority starts improving.

Finally, the last stage is characterized by the equality – the minorities are assigned with all the spectrum of social roles, both positive and negative, as the dominant group members.

The American Indians overcame through all stages from annihilation and stereotyping that may be considered a part of the colonizer discourse (Fitzgerald 370). By broadcasting the unfair and subjective images of the Native Americans, the dominant group attempted to reach the self-affirmation for the brutal and unjust behavior and acquit its supremacy as a natural and inevitable phenomenon. However, as the findings in the recent research demonstrate, “the majority of American Indian characters on television may be classified as regulators” (Fitzgerald 379). And it may be regarded as a positive sign of the increase in the US public awareness.

The Native Americans in the US Mass Media

The Native Americans were the most maligned and prosecuted ethnic groups in the history of the USA and Canada. In 18^th and 19^th centuries they were the main subjects of the genocide campaigns. As a result, nowadays, the population of the American Indians constitutes merely 1% of the US society, and a great portion of them lives below the poverty line (“Indian Country Demographics” par. 1).

Throughout the American history, the informational and entertainment mass media were flooded with the negative and stereotyped images of the Native Americans. The old movies and the first television shows often depicted the Indians as the bloodthirsty and ferocious people. The genre of western was one of the most popular in the 60s, and according to the genre, the American Indians played the roles of enemies or people bereft of dignity and intelligence.

Although today there are over five hundred officially recognized Indian tribes, the television, and the western movies in particular, usually depict the Plains Indians and their customs. In this way, other American Indian tribes became associated with their mode of life, although it is incorrect. Moreover, in the movies, the Indian women appeared rarely, and their roles were usually passive and inexpressive (Leavitt et al. 40). The informational media also usually evaded the depiction of the powerful women from the matriarchal Navajo and Mohawk tribes.

Nowadays, the majority of the Indian characters in the mass media are depicted in the historical context; but a few of the modern characters are introduced as the fighters for justice (Fitzgerald 371). In the rare cases when the Native Americans are mentioned in the news, it is usually said about the land lawsuits or the casinos owned by the Native American businessmen. Since the presence of the American Indian population in the USA is extremely low, only the Native movie and television production may become the main source of the substantial changes in the current situation.

The Indian Symbolic in the Names of the Sportive Teams

Even more confusion is made by the fact that the signs of the Indian cultural identity are used in the names of the professional and school sports teams which have nothing in common with the Indian heritage. This issue provokes many controversies and criticism. The Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Chiefs, and Cleveland Indians are the most prominent examples of the national professional sports teams with Native mascots.

The implementation of the Indian symbolism in sports had begun a long time before the public started to pay attention to the existence of the ethnic stereotypes. It is possible to assume that such symbolism was meant to remind about the strong and militant character of their carriers. This implication is directly connected to the image of the Native Americans depicted in the westerns. Another side of the Native symbols usage in sports is their cultural depreciation. Many researchers claim that the usage of Native American traditional symbols as the nicknames and mascots in sports is another form of stereotyping and commoditization of Native cultural objects by the dominant culture (Williams 31). Therefore, it is important to abandon this offensive sportive tradition.

The Development of the Native Mass Media

Nowadays, the members of the Native American community in the USA make a lot of efforts for the increase of social awareness regarding the issues of cultural identity and American Indian history. More often, the Native Americans become the participants of art and fashion markets and business. Many of the Native artists and designers become successful and popular because of their ability to integrate the modern tendencies with the authentic cultural heritage of their ancestors. For example, a multimedia artist, Jackson 2Bears, from the Mohawk tribe, is the participant of multiple international festivals of visual arts (Smith par. 2). His art is the manifestation of the technologic innovations combined with a rich traditional point of view. The success of 2Bears is not merely personal, but it may be regarded as the success of the whole Native community that recovers the ability to express itself and declare its stance on the global scale.

Conclusion

According to the research findings, the images of the particular social groups depicted in the works of fiction (i.e. movies or books) influence the public perceptions to a larger extent than the documentary images (Leavitt et al. 39). The findings demonstrate the significance of fictitious images in influencing the formation of social prejudices in case the experience of actual interrelations with the given group lacks.

For the majority of people, the mass media is the dominant source of information, and, unfortunately, the modern informational media resources are still characterized by stereotyping. Thus, the development of Native mass media and popular art is the positive phenomenon because it helps to correct the present-day media character of the Native American community. In this way, the Native media sources contribute to the development of a more accurate perception of reality by all social groups and change the overall worldview making it more prejudice exclusive.

Works Cited

Azocar, Cristina L. “American Indians and the Mass Media.” American Indian Quarterly 38.1 (2014): 122-125. ProQuest. Web.

Fitzgerald, Michael Ray. “‘Evolutionary Stages of Minorities In The Mass Media’: An Application Of Clark’s Model To American Indian Television Representations.” Howard Journal of Communications 21.4 (2010): 367-384. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web.

Indian Country Demographics 2016. Web.

Leavitt, Peter, Rebecca Covarrubias, Yvonne Perez, and Stephanie Fryberg “‘Frozen in Time’: The Impact of Native American Media Representations on Identity and Self-Understanding.” Journal of Social Issues 71.1 (2015): 39-53. Academic Search Complete. Web.

Smith, Matthew. “Noxious Sector Arts Collective (Jackson 2Bears, Ted Hiebert & Doug Jarvis) exhibition “Remote Viewing” at Grunt Gallery, Vancouver.” First American Art Magazine 20 Jan. 2016. Web.

Trebbe, Joachim, and Philomen Schoenhagen. “Ethnic Minorities in the Mass Media: How Migrants Perceive their Representation in Swiss Public Television.” Journal of International Migration and Integration 12.4 (2011): 411-428. ProQuest. Web.

Williams, Dana M. “No past, no respect, and no power: an anarchist evaluation of Native Americans as sports nicknames, logos, and mascots.” Anarchist Studies 15.1 (2007): 31. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web.

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