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Introduction
One journal states that stereotyping and subjugation is a common problem among Asians (Wu, 2005). Whites commonly look at the Asians as helpers, cleaners, or any ‘dirty’ jobs. In movies, TV commercials and all other forms of media, Asia men and women are always shown as karate experts, naïve, nerds etc. Although there are lots of Asians all over the world who has gotten themselves with new citizenship (such as American citizenship), they could still not escape the injustice and/or the unfair treatment.
It should be noted that Asian are the fastest-growing ethnic group in most countries with large number of immigrant. In America alone, there is a recorded increase of 72% from 1990 to 2000, a decade in which the total U.S. population grew only 13%.’ In the 2000 U.S. Census, 11.9 million people, or 4.2% of the U.S. population, identified themselves as being Asian or Asian in combination with another race, making Asian the fourth-largest ethnic group in the country, behind whites, Hispanics, and African Americans. By 2050, the percentage of Asian is projected to reach 8%. This ethnic group forms a desirable market, with a high average income coupled with an annual spending power of over $200 billion, a high level of education, and exceptional brand loyalty (Stewart & Furse, 1986). Nevertheless, Asians in America are not yet considered a major minority and are typically portrayed as “foreigners” in the media. Moreover, compared to other ethnic groups, they have been almost invisible in mainstream American popular culture. When Asian s do appear in American movies and other pop cultural venues, stereotyped or narrowly defined roles are pervasive. For example, Asian women have been frequently portrayed as passive, exotic, and humble, or at the other extreme, as over-sexualized, treacherous, and evil. Asian men, on the other hand, are often portrayed as incompetent, asexual, and supremely wise, or as martial arts experts.
Problem Statement and Objectives
Because of this, an issue arises, why is there a continued stereotyping among Asians? Does the misrepresentation among Asian of the mainstream media contribute greatly to this never-ending issue of Asian stereotyping?
This research paper is aimed at analyzing how Asian’s are misinterpreted in the mainstream media and how it enforces stereotypes. Specifically this paper targets to:
- analyze the role of media
- evaluate the impact of controversial advertising and portrayal of media among Asians
- explain how all those stereotypes are influencing the wrong social outlook on Asian’s around the world
Significance of the Study
This research is study, which is focused on analyzing how Asian’s are misinterpreted in the mainstream media and how it enforces stereotypes is significant and very timely because this could help open and broaden the minds of the many – including the media practitioners, the youths and all other concerned individuals, Asians or not – of the real role of the media and how misrepresentation can affect the lives of the many. This could also provide a deeper appreciation and understanding of the real negative impacts of stereotyping and even racial discrimination.
Moreover, the results of this study can be use as a reference material or as a guide for other future researchers in line with this paper. Significant evidences that will be cited in this paper will help future researchers identify their course of action in their own research undertaking.
The research also aims to make a definite contribution towards the school’s mission of social change by presenting one of the most critically debated issues – on Asian stereotyping – in a holistic light. The research also aspires to suggest a research design for carrying out non-biased and ethical research on the issue – the findings of which may provide useful inputs in the school’s initiative at bettering the society.
Methodology
The research method that will be used for the study is a review of related literatures regarding the mainstream media and how it portrays or represent the Asians. These literary studies will be further reviewed and discussed in order to identify the issues, rules and regulations, even the changing or unchanging tones of the mainstream media in representing or misrepresenting Asians. Through this method, an overall analysis of how Asian’s are misinterpreted in the mainstream media and how it enforces stereotypes will be achieved.
Theoretical framework
Much research has been done in analyzing the role of media in generating the much needed information dissemination about various social class, minority groups and even racial upbringing. More so, there have been undergoing studies related to the controversial advertising and representation of media among people from different cultural background. As there are numbers of possible resources available, it is then important to assess the common denominator between these resources, hence this study.
The suggested theoretical framework to successfully analyze how Asian’s are misinterpreted in the mainstream media and how it enforces stereotypes is:
Hence, this should then be the focus when analyzing all the aspects related to misinterpretation of Asians in the mainstream media.
Review of Related Literature
The Role of the Mainstream Media
In today’s world, media has been playing a detrimental part to the people’s lives. Media is a short form of the term “media of communication” that is used to refer organized means of dissemination of facts, opinions, and entertainment such as newspapers, magazines, cinema films, radio, television, and the World Wide Web (Roberts, et. al. 1999). It should be noted that media is used for many different purposes. It is also used to target audiences with specific specifically age, gender, class and even ethnicity.
Aside from that fact that media provides a cost-effective method for reaching large audiences, the numerous other uses of media add as a factor of its becoming very prevalent. Among these different uses are:
Media can be used in cases where the are only minor barriers; and this ensures substantial direct benefit. One can totally rely on the media as the primary tool for bringing about the desired behavior from the receivers or audiences particularly when the barriers to adopting the behavior are relatively minor and if there is a clear and substantial direct benefit to the person making the change (Seels, et. al., 1996).
Media can also be used in cases wherein there are minor barriers but there is also no direct benefit foreseen. If the barriers are relatively minor and there is no clear, direct benefit to the person making the change, or if the benefit is not large enough to be taken seriously, the media is still considered as one of a few key tools for bringing about the desired behavior to the audiences (Seels, et. al., 1996).
Media is essential in creating interest to program. If one would want to raise awareness or provide basic information in order to promote receptivity to the program, media could be the best tool to facilitate that (Seels, et. al., 1996). This is because all the forms of media – printed (such as the news papers or magazines), heard (such as the radio advertisements) and/or seen (such as TV programs and ads) could reach even all types of audiences – from whatever age bracket and social or economic status – from most parts of the world.
Media can draw people to the program. If one would want to attract people to an event, or notify them of an opportunity such as home visits or incentive programs, use the media (Seels, et. al., 1996). This is why various advertisements – commercial are government-initiated ads – are being shown in the mass media.
Media is also used for seasonal reminders. If people are generally committed to doing the activity but have not done it for a while, a seasonal reminder through the media may prove helpful. For example, seasonal reminders can be used to promote cleanliness of one’s community (Seels, et. al., 1996).
Media is good in stimulating face-face conversations. A good media campaign can get people talking with one another about the issues and/or actions that the campaign is trying to promote (Seels, et. al., 1996). Through this, encouraging people to initiate an action or a response towards a certain economic or governmental issue can easily be done. This is also why surveys and people analyses are also very common in most researches because the mass media can provide the shortest bridge to access on the people.
Media shows participation and results. Once the program has gained participation and has started to show results, the media could provide excellent opportunities for providing group feedback, strengthening norm appeals and building motivation (Seels, et. al., 1996).
There is a bit big difference on the interest or purpose with respect to media owners, the advertisers and even the public. The media owners, for example, because they own the media or because they have this direct control over a media (such as one news paper publication, or one TV or radio station), they would be definitely interested in gaining something in return for their company. They would be charging anyone, any body, or any group who would want to use their media. Furthermore, the media owners will not entertain everything and anything that would put their media company to bad light. That is why only selected information or campaign could be shown in different media companies because they are protecting the image of their companies.
The advertisers, on the other hand, have their own line of interests. Their very goal is to highlight their campaign, product, and program among others. They would pay any media owner to do just that. And they would want the public – the audience – to patronize or follow their campaigns, programs or products. To do this, only the benefits would be highlighted, and to some extent, the negative side or the disadvantage of the opposing campaigns or programs or products will also be given enough exposures.
As for the public, their main interest is to be informed … to get as much information as what their mind could accommodate. The very goal of the public is to get the right information, at the right time and at the right place. The only problem that the public usually encounters is the idea that because the media owners and the advertisers have their own agenda, the public is sometimes being positioned to situations where they are unsure of what or whom to believe in or follow.
Because of the information presented above, it cannot be denied that the mainstream media is a very powerful tool in imparting knowledge to the audience – regardless of the age, gender and social orientation. How the media represent a certain character or cultural group is how the audience will view and perceive it.
Stereotyping of Asians in the Mainstream media
Stereotyping of Asians occurs in various media forms. Their portrayals in ads usually reflect the “model minority” stereotype, in which they are depicted as diligent, hard working, technologically competent, and mathematically skilled. Although this stereotype may seem complimentary, it can lead to negative consequences for individuals both inside as well as outside the group. For instance, continued portrayals of Asians based on the model minority stereotype and repetitive exposure to these images may create undue pressure on Asian Americans to confirm stereotype-driven expectations, consequently undermining their performance. When failing to meet expectations, Asians may be more harshly penalized than others,” and suffer lowered self-esteem (McArthur, & Resko, 1975). Furthermore, to the extent that Asians are viewed as industrious, hardworking, and serious, they may be prone to experience the more negative stereotype of being less sociable or “workaholics.”
The Model Minority Stereotype: More Harm than Good? This study is couched in two theories: cultivation and expectancy-violation. Cultivation theory suggests that audience perceptions toward a group are influenced by how the group is portrayed in the media. Specifically, heavy television viewers develop a social reality that reflects the television world because that world is relatively “consistent” and “uniform” in the images and portrayals it conveys. Although the theory was originally proposed to explain the effect of violent primetime television programming, it can be readily applied here, because if Asians are stereotypically portrayed in a consistent manner in magazine ads, TV commercials and even Hollywood movies, audiences should develop perceptions of Asians that mirror the way they are depicted. Cultivation theory may be particularly applicable because of the geographical distribution of Asians. For example in the US, Asians tend to be heavily concentrated in a few areas of the United States such as Hawaii, New York, and several cities on the West Coast, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. People in many parts of the country may have little or no personal interaction with Asians. Lacking such contact, the audience may be more likely to accept media portrayals of Asians as a fair and accurate description of the group (Bretl, & Cantor, 1988).
Expectancy-violation theory offers a convincing explanation for a potentially negative effect of the model minority stereotyping of Asians in ads and other form of mainstream media. This theory suggests that when an individual’s characteristics violate stereotype-based expectations, judgments tend to become more extreme in the direction of the violated expectation. Studies have shown that the violation of a negative stereotypical expectation tends to generate more favorable judgments for the members of a negatively stereotyped group, while the violation of a positive stereotypical expectation generates more unfavorable judgments for the members of a positively stereotyped group. This so-called “contrast” effect in judgment has been found for Asians (Stewart & Furse, 1986). For example, it was disclosed that that Asian students who performed poorly on a math test in a particular US university were given substantially lower points than white students when judges lacked motivation to grade seriously. In addition, the pressure to meet the high expectation to excel in mathematical skills is likely to create the potential for “choking” on the part of performers, thus affecting performance on the task.
Portrayals of Asian in Mainstream Media
Studies of how Asians are portrayed in advertising began only in the 1990s, with many reporting that Asian representation is sparse and often virtually invisible. When Asians do appear, they are assigned to narrowly defined roles based on the model minority stereotype. For example, in both television commercials and magazine ads, Asians have shown a differential presence in terms of the type of products they endorse. Specifically, Asians have most often been found as endorsers of high-tech products and banking/financial services, and less often in ads for domestic products. Similarly, they have appeared more frequently in technology and business magazines than in general interest and women’s magazines. Furthermore, they have frequently been portrayed in business settings, but rarely in home settings or social gatherings. This disproportionate portrayal of Asians in terms of setting has been attributed to the “hard work, no fun” or “all work, no play” stereotype of Asians (Stewart & Furse, 1986). Based on this presumption, a number of researchers defined a set of variables for the content analysis of minority portrayals in magazine ads, and have demonstrated that Asians are pictured as hardworking, serious, and technologically savvy, confirming the model minority stereotype.
Although there has been relatively consistent support for the model minority stereotype, research on the frequency of Asian representation has produced somewhat conflicting results within and across media. For example, it was reported that Asians accounted for 4% of the magazine ads analyzed from 1992 to 1993, higher than the proportion of Asians at that time in the U.S. population (3.3%). In a study of television commercials in 1994, it was also revealed that an even higher representation of Asians (8.4%). However is some other studies it was found that Asians present in only 2.5% and 1.8% of magazine ads in 1987 and 1992, respectively (Stewart & Furse, 1986).
Of course, it is also necessary to consider that the presence of ethnic minorities in ads is often minimized by their assignment to token roles rather than main characters. Tokenism is especially apparent in ads where minorities are the sole representatives of their ethnic group in a crowd of otherwise white-only characters. This suggests that the frequency overrepresentation of Asian found in some studies may not reveal the true nature of the portrayals of Asian Americans in ads.
Impacts of Asian Misrepresentations
Research on cultivation effects suggests the possible impact that stereotypical portrayals of minority groups in the mainstream media may have on people’s beliefs and attitudes toward these groups. Once reinforced and entrenched by continued media portrayals, these stereotypes can guide our expectations and color our interpretations of minority group members’ behaviors and traits (Rak & McMullen, 1987). The representation of minority groups in the media is also indicative of how the host culture and minority groups themselves perceive these groups’ legitimacy in society.
Overall, this study provides further support for the findings of research which concluded that magazine ads, TV commercials and Hollywood films reflect the commonly held model minority stereotype of Asians as hardworking, intelligent, and highly skilled in math and science. In addition, with the aid of logistic regression, this study offers a new avenue to pursue by detailing how portrayals of Asians differ from those of other minority groups.
The frequency of Asian representation in various forms of media was higher than its actual percentage in the U.S. population, and Asians are now more frequently portrayed in non-stereotypical areas than they once were. For example, we witnessed the growth of Asian presence in ads whose settings are non-business in nature, such as home and social settings (Stewart & Furse, 1986).
Scrutiny of the data, however, suggests that, compared with other minority groups, the portrayals of Asians are still limited in narrowly defined roles. In general, the presence of Asians was still salient in the areas where the model minority stereotype applied. Specifically, Asians more frequently appeared in technology and business product categories, and were assigned to roles where greater emphasis is placed on work ethic (i.e., business settings and coworkers) than other minorities. These results indicate that despite the increase in Asian American presence in terms of frequency and setting, ads continue to perpetuate the model minority stereotype (Stewart & Furse, 1986).
The narrow scope of Asian portrayals may have several harmful implications. First, Asian Americans who are not particularly adept in technology and business areas could suffer lowered self-esteem when they do not reach the expected achievement level anticipated by others. Second, continued stereotypical portrayals might place undue pressure on Asians to conform to the stereotype, and they might incur unjust treatment when they fail to meet the stereotype-based expectations. In addition, the seemingly positive characteristics associated with the model minority stereotype may in fact contribute to negative stereotyping in the other direction (Stewart & Furse, 1986). For example, to the extent that Asians are viewed as industrious, hardworking, and serious, they may also be regarded as less socially skilled and as workaholics. This suspicion was supported by the results of the logistic regression, indicating Asians are less likely to appear in social and family settings, and are less often featured as friends and family members than African Americans and Hispanics.
To circumvent these possible problems, advertisers and other media practitioners should be more attentive when featuring Asian models in ads, movies or TV programs by including more of them in a variety of non-business/non-technology product categories, settings, and relationships.
This heightened sensitivity in portraying Asians would be beneficial to both the media industry and society as a whole. For advertisers, greater inclusion of Asians in those areas with which they have not been typically associated can provide an effective means of reaching out to this promising, but previously neglected, market segment. Research suggests that members of minority groups favorably evaluate ads featuring models of their own race (Stewart & Furse, 1986). Thus, Asians will react positively to ads including models with whom they can easily identify, and these positive reactions may, in turn, translate into more positive brand attitudes.
For society as a whole, non-stereotypical portrayals of Asians will not only provide a fair description of this minority group, but also contribute to the assimilation process of its members into mainstream culture by signaling to them that they are not treated as a stereotyped minority, but as legitimate members of society.
Conclusion
Indeed, the mainstream media is an influential social agent in the development of our understanding of social reality, and in particular, perceptions of ethnic groups, both by group members and by others. These perceptions can be reinforced by repeated exposure to prejudicial and stereotypical portrayals of a targeted group. To the extent that advertising portrayals of Asians continue to be consistent and limited in certain areas, they will contribute to the creation and reinforcement of the stereotype associated with this group. The model minority stereotype is, thus, likely to place undue pressure on Asians to conform to it, as well as possibly encouraging unjust treatment when they fail to meet the stereotype-based expectations. In sum, although seemingly positive, model minority stereotyping of Asians may do more harm than good.
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