Chapter 8 - Producing Identities

Allow me to play the Devil’s Advocate for a moment and ask why is it the media’s responsibility to define someone’s identity? I think most of us are intelligent enough to make up our own minds on who we are, or at least, whom we wish to emulate. Media is a business, they are selling to who is buying. And who is buying has been middle-aged white guys for a long, long time. It’s no wonder that women and minorities have been traditionally under-represented in the media, they weren’t the ones buying product! However, it would be difficult to say that minorities and women are under-represented in media today. We may not always approve of how they are represented, but the programs must be selling product (the attention of the audience) to the advertisers. Take notice that there aren’t throngs of angry, misrepresented audience members protesting shows of minorities or else they would speak out, or at least, cease buying the product and no longer remain that commodity to the advertisers.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Spiderman’s uncle Ben as much as the next guy, and I agree that “with great power comes great responsibility.” And there is no doubt that Media has tons of power. They defiantly have a responsibility to not represent images that are overtly harmful to minds that are incapable of disseminating information but there is a limit to this. We must be some form of Gatekeeper and if we don’t agree with a particular representation, than boycott it, speak out against it. If we continue to view the program and advertisements than we are the true enablers to misrepresentation in the media.