Stereotypes

A "stereotype" is a generalization about a person or group of persons. We develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all of the information we would need to make fair judgments about people or situations. In the absence of the "total picture," stereotypes in many cases allow us to "fill in the blanks." Our society often innocently creates and perpetuates stereotypes, but these stereotypes often lead to unfair discrimination and persecution when the stereotype is unfavorable.

For example, if we are walking through a park late at night and encounter three senior citizens wearing fur coats and walking with canes, we may not feel as threatened as if we were met by three high school-aged boys wearing leather jackets. Why is this so? We have made a generalization in each case. These generalizations have their roots in experiences we have had ourselves, read about in books and magazines, seen in movies or television, or have had related to us by friends and family. In many cases, these stereotypical generalizations are reasonably accurate. By stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain characteristics. Quite often, we have stereotypes about persons who are members of groups with which we have not had firsthand contact.

Television, books, comic strips, and movies are all abundant sources of stereotyped characters. For much of its history, the movie industry portrayed African-Americans as being unintelligent, lazy, or involved in violence and drugs. As a result of viewing these stereotyped pictures of African-Americans, for example, prejudice against African-Americans has been encouraged. In the same way, physically attractive women have been and continue to be portrayed as unintelligent or unintellectual and sexually active.

In conclusion, Stereotypes are developed by a series of isolated behaviors by a member of a group which was unfairly generalized to be viewed as a character of all members of that group.

That's a wrap, Walter!

After reading Public Opinion and digesting all of the information, I've noticed that Walter Lippmann addresses many issues in this book. His main focus is on stereotypes, and also the fact that media creates the pictures that we have in our heads. The reason that the public has these stereotypes is because the media puts these ideas into our heads. The action that media takes is multifold. It acts as the gatekeeper and agenda setter of society. Media chooses what it wants individuals to know and feeds it to us through various sources of medium. In this way, Lippmann hints to the idea that our society is not a democracy at all, but in fact, the public is controlled by the gatekeepers of media.
Technological determinism ties into this idea. Technological determinism is the idea that technology determines history and drives society. In a more specific sense, technology (media) determines how individuals in society react and the choices that people make every day. We act on the pictures in our head implanted by the media. This creates society.

The solution that Lippmann proposes to stop the media from holding this power over the public, is a call for intellegencia- the individuals who are educated and thus will educate the public and cause individuals to participate and think critically. The intellegencia will help the public become media literate, and end the power that it has over society. In this way, media will not be able to set their agenda and act as the gatekeepers, but we as society will be guided by individuals who are educated and will lead us to become a better society.

This book was hard to read at times, but it was very interesting. It's hard to fathom that I knew so little before reading this book on how the media can have a chokehold on us as a society. It is only after we realize this, and become educated enough to stop it, that we can create a change in society and be our own gatekeepers.

Letter to myself: My role.

Dear Zac,
Become more knowledgeable when it comes to other cultures. Treating everyone the same is obviously a step towards equality, but shielding the fact that a black person has darker skin than yours hinders you. Take steps in learning that race does in fact matter. It would be great if it didn't matter, however, this class along with centuries of historical dates along with important figuers wouldn't exist if it didn't matter. Martin Luther King's dream unfortunately will always be a dream, but we in fact can take steps in making it more of a reality. As I leave Westminster College, I will take these values that I learned from this course and apply them to my daily living.

The Golden Years: Shine brighter than most think

Come to Mueller Theater on May 8, 2007 to watch "Body and Mind", created by myself, A. J. F., Heather Davis, and Bill Sadler. This documentary attempts to debunk any stereotypes that people, especially young people, have about the elderly. Listen as five older folks open up and tell what it is really like being old. This will truly open up your eyes, and shed a new light on the rapidly increasing elderly population.