Media Stereotype: What is normal and what is a type?

Stereotype seems easy to define: an image that people hold about other people; but it is difficult to rationalize. When people have a "fixed mental image" that is applied to members of a group, it might seem justified because this image has been unconsciously approved by people who constantly use it.

At one level stereotype actually helps people to get a larger picture of the "other" who is different from the rest, and therefore, the general opinion is an economical way of viewing the world. So, can journalists also go by these stereotypes?

We see people using stereotypes in every culture. Some usage may be humorous while other can be negative and scathing.

The world of entertainment is replete with creative uses of stereotypes. In 2005, Screen Actors Guild commissioned a research on stereotypes that reported actors with disability faced “stereotypical” attitudes and were considered only for supporting roles. People with disabilities are rarely “allowed to develop into fully-rounded characters or shown as valuing and participating in typical activities like sports or fitness, thereby further reinforcing stereotypical views." This situation isn't likely to change in the next decade.

However, other groups of minority have had a favorable stereotype. For instance, in the United States Asians are considered as some sort of wiz-kids. In the 1960s, William Petersen wrote for the New York Times Magazine about the Japanese as the “model minority.” All immigrant communities in the US have some kind of stereotypes associated to them because stereotyping is deeply rooted in human nature.

In Bollywood movies, stereotypes of territorial regions or communities are predominant. For example, a south-Indian Tamil will be shown to be speaking a distorted version of Hindi, a north-Indian UPite is almost always a beetle-nut chewing bhaiyya (literally, a brother but used pejoratively), Pakistan is always India’s enemy, and a Nepali is always a baton-bearing Gurkha gatekeeper or night watchman who patrols the urban streets.

One such recent example of extreme stereotyping is the Hollywood blockbuster Borat. This movie outrageously ridicules Kazakhstan to the meanest degree. The humor in the movie comes from cynical portrayal of their habits and customs. I've talked to couple Kazakh nationals and they don't find this humorous at all. They felt it created an erroneous ethnic prejudice and created an unfair label about their people. The government of Kazakhstan objected to the movie for its misrepresentation of the country. Forbes.com reported about the “pernicious influence” of the movie and how government of Kazakhstan launched a massive ad campaign to salvage the country’s image.

An important question to answer is, does the entertainment industry reflect the characteristics of the society? If not, what ethical consideration should it make to create a better understanding of the ‘other’ culture? Can the media, both as journalism and creative arts, truly play a catalytic role? Do mass media have a responsibility to differentiate between reality and stereotype?

In the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists, there is a clear guideline, “Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.” This guideline almost puts a journalist to perform a didactic role in an attempt to treat others with dignity. That is for journalists who strive for objectivity.

But how much is too much in the field of creative expression? Is there a line that one shouldn't cross? Well, that's another serious debate.