In the decades since the civil rights movement, overt stereotypes of blacks in the mass media have largely faded from view. However, more subtle stereotypes remain. This paper will discuss the nature and impact of these remaining stereotypes as they are treated in the current literature.
The U.S. mass media is dedicated to selling products through advertising. The most targeted consumer of mass media advertising is still the white consumer. The current mass media's largely positive portrayal of blacks is well received by most white consumers, but the reason for this is controversial. Studies have suggested inconsistent.
consequences with respect to how many white viewers in particular respond to these representations independently of program content. In one view, researchers have suggested that popular, positive portrayals of many blacks in the media are marketable because they affirm white consumers' self-concept as non-racist, as well as many whites' negative attitudes toward blacks. These analyses describe white consumers' positive responses to programs like "The Cosby Show" as a form of "enlightened racism" whereby white consumers' fears of seeming racist are allayed but their negative assumptions or racist attitudes about blacks in general go unchallenged. As a result, black characters are well-liked, not in spite of their race, but because of.
their race (Coover 2001 414).
However, research also supports an alternate conclusion, that white viewers' responses to.
representations of blacks in the media suggests that positive representations of blacks may cause the gradual weakening of racial bias on the part of whites against blacks. In this view, white consumers" responses to portrayals of blacks suggest that for many whites the problem of racial prejudice is based on limited interpersonal contact and limited access to direct experience about blacks. Consequently, repeated exposures to positive portrayals of blacks on television and other mass media sources should gradually decrease the negative stereotypes of blacks that many whites develop at young age (ibid).
