FInal wrap-up

    As it is getting closer to the end of the semester I would like to sum up everything that I have learn in this course. I believe that this course was not only relevant to what is going on in today's society but also helped me understand the world of media on a different level. 

    The essential role of gender, race and class in the media not only shapes the environment we live in but also often perpetuates old stereotypes. Throughout the course of this semester we were supposed to relate each and every topic to three different aspects. According to Kellner, in order to understand the culture and the way certain ideas affect us we need to look at them from the political economy perspective, text analysis as well as audience reception. All of these play a role in how we perceive and understand a certain message. 

    The issue of gender in the media touches not only at the presence of femininity and masculinity but also at the LGBTQ community in the media. All of these shape the way we think about others as well as us. They show us what we are as an individual of a certain group within the society. I not only learned that women are often viewed as subjects and sexual objects but also that the unrealistic looks of women are present. This ultimately creates pressure on young girls trying to fit the picture that they see on the screen. 

     When it comes down to race and its representation in the media it has a lot in common with the representation of gender in the media. The presence of race in the media is still till this day slanted and perpetuates stereotypes in one way or another. The members of minorities are mostly pictured unrealistically and often de-humanized by being presented as a clown or a criminal.

     Class plays also a very important role in the way people relate to the media. Everybody sees themselves as a part of certain class and therefore looks at the television and tries to find an answer of what it actually means to be a part of a certain class. Not only the television pictures unrealistic ideas of what people can afford being members of a certain class but also represents an unrealistic lifestyle in general. 

     Overall I have learned that gender, race, class and many other factors shape who we are. The environment around us shapes who we are as well as we influence people around us based on who we perceive ourselves to be. Each culture has certain ideas or ideology about what it means to belong to a certain gender, class or race and by this we adapt to our environments and create our own view of the world around us.

References

Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.) (2008) Gender, Race, Class and Media (Third Edition) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage