Minorities in television, film and commercials… Well this fall more onto film and television series. As you know the media portrays many minorities in a bad light, you never see them as heros or mixed into scripted shows as the lead as much. This is due to something beyond what we understand as far as research and data analysis approaches that are applied to media communcations because everything in entertainment is a communication, they are trying to tell us something or at least that is what the purpose of watching a film or producing a film product is to make it attract as many people to make as much money. Let us look at the main approaches that most market researchers for the entertainment use…

The “functional” approach bases its data on audience observation and experiences of these individuals such as a questionnaire while critical/cultural research uses a more of broad mass communicative study of culture within the audience. Both approaches may or may not come to the same conclusion based on the communication that is trying to be delivered because the major critical/cultural differences may have an impact on the outcome. The diversity in society and the account of examination of different concepts, ideology, politics and social structure vary greatly when taken on macrolytically and much of the research is aimed at describing these depictions within the society. Many views can be drawn when using a critical/cultural approach such as a something produced with certain characteristics such as a Mexican or a Black man playing a criminal in the entertainment industry, the entertainment industry from data gathered sees this in a functional approach by data gathered from society versus how the audience might see it as insulting and degrading society. Both approaches from either side have viable application in understanding how mass communication effects audience and the society.

You see, it’s not really the filmmakers fault that they CHOOSE to make a mexican, latino actor into a criminal, the research department are the ones that TELL us who the majority and minorities are in a perfect and unperfect world.