Minorities in Commercials and Advertisements Although the portrayal of African Americans has changed over the last couple of decades the media still have a long way to come before they have a satisfying image of African Americans on the screen, or in the newspapers. "Studies show that black adolescents who have a strong ethnic identity perceive themselves more similar to and identify more strongly with black characters than black adolescents with weaker identities" (Appiah, 2001, p.7). My research will be based on language and message in advertisements and commercials. I will give descriptive explanations of the contents that are in each article, mostly focusing on the language, appearance, and educational background. Content analysis is the best method for the proposed question. 1. How are minorities being portrayed in sitcoms, commercials, and magazines?.
2. What stereotypical messages are being conveyed by the media in the portrayal of minorities in commercials and advertisement?.
3. Are stereotypes hidden or blatant?.
How are minorities being portrayed in sitcoms, commercials, and magazines? One would assume that since African Americans watch television more than any other race that there is more positive representation of African Americans than negative images. The 1996 fall prime-time television season premiered with two new networks, United Paramount Network (UPN) and Warner Brothers (WB), and a total of 17 minority- themed shows mostly situation comedies. UPN aired shows like In the house, (which was on NBC first but cancelled after a couple of season). They also aired Moesha, Malcolm and Eddie, and Homeboys from Outer Space. The WB network aired shows like The Jamie Foxx Show, The Parent Hood, and the Wayans Brothers, Sister-Sister (which was on ABC first but cancelled after a couple of season.), and The Steve Harvey show. That same year the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX) also tried to put African American show into their programming.
