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Brady Copeland

So Young Koo

ENC2135

July 7, 2022

Project 2: Minority Representation in Media

Representation in media may not seem like a big deal, but it actually holds a lot of power.

The media is one of the world’s number one sources of knowledge. It is what influences people’s

everyday decisions whether they intend for it to be intentional or not. That being said, what is

produced by the media will have a significant impact. How people are represented is the picture

that is painted in the minds of society. Media is always present whether you are scrolling through

social media or even just walking down the street downtown. That’s why minority representation

is such a big deal. If minorities are not represented correctly or at all then there could be serious

backlash. Misrepresentation and underrepresentation are the two main issues when involving

minorities. These groups are often discouraged from chasing their dreams due to the lack of

representation within the media. Why is this the case? Why would the media not give some light

to these certain minority groups? It is most easily linked to the idea that the world that is

beautiful is the one that has its act together. To explain more in-depth, society will create a reality

that is fitting to what they find to be acceptable and normal. This is an issue that needs to be

brought to light and looked at in-depth. This essay will discuss two artifacts about minority

representation within the media. They will be analyzed, compared, and contrasted in depth. By

the end of the analysis, the reader will have a deeper understanding of minorities’ representation

in the media.
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The first artifact is an article published by Johnson and Wales University’s College of

Arts and Sciences. This article fits perfectly into the topic of minority representation. Its author is

Kai Nelson. Nelson is an African American student at Johnson and Wales. This article was

published in the spring of 2016 and was written for an Academic Symposium of Undergraduate

Scholarship. It was reviewed and admitted by an authorized administrator at Johnson and Wales

University. The author cites many credible sources and is confident in her use of them. This

helps in building ethos in the article and showing its reliability.

The article tackles the reality of Black individuals being intentionally removed from

media. It takes us through the action of whitewashing and misrepresentation. Nelson dives into

the effects that these actions have on the children of the black community. She provides statistics

from a variety of studies that show surprising results. One of the studies done by USC’s

Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism takes a look into diversity in the film

industry. In the study, the students looked into the top 100 films released from 2007 to 2012 and

looked at about 20,000 characters to pull some results. In 2012, out of all the characters that

actually have lines only 23.6 percent of them are not White. That means that 76.3 percent of

these speaking characters are white (Rizov) Another experiment that Nelson mentions was

released by the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology. In the study individuals surveyed police officers to see how Black boys were

viewed. The results that came back were that many cops viewed these boys as less innocent and

sometimes unhuman (Starr). These statistics provide the logos aspect to the article and give it

some structure.

The audience of this article would be someone with the same interests as the author. This

article is directed toward those people who want to see change within the media. The individuals
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that want representation for all types of people and are willing to learn more about it. The

exigence or purpose behind this article is clear. The author desires a change that she hopes will

be brought about by getting the information out there. She believes that things need to change

and she has a part to play in the process. Nelson structures this article nicely and makes it easy to

read. She starts off by stating facts or summarizing something and provides statistical evidence to

back it up.

Even though Nelson is only able to use words to draw emotion and set the tone she does a

magnificent job. She is able to portray this emotion of despair and sadness in the way she words

things. She creates in the reader’s mind a sense of change and a desire to make a difference. This

is how she creates the pathos of the article. However, one constraint is that she was only able to

use words to paint a picture in the reader’s head. The author might have been even more

effective if she was able to use visual imagery. Another constraint is that the data in this article

isn’t current. Things change over time and have certainly changed in the recent media.

The second artifact is a video titled Racial Representation in Mainstream Media. This

video is a Ted Talk given by young Reeti Malhotra. Reeti is a Singaporean of Indian roots and is

a student at Saint Joseph’s Institution International. She is involved in many student councils and

has led many conversations on minority representation.

This Ted Talk talks about a look into the life of a minority. Reeti talks about how she felt

growing up as a minority. She wanted to change her name and her skin color altogether. She goes

into how she hates what she is and how she wishes she was White. She speaks about how she

felt inadequate and how other children do too.

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She then provides some statistics about minorities’ roles in the film industry. She notes

that in 2019, 27.6 % of all lead actors and 13.9% of writers were of a racial minority. These

statistics help her develop the logos aspect in her speech.

Reeti makes note that although there is representation, they can't relate. This is because of

the roles that they have these minorities play. They are not accurate and aren’t interpreted

correctly. They are portrayed through the filter of a white-washed lens. She says it creates a

confusing relationship where these minorities are expected to be grateful but aren’t because it’s

not realistic. Reeti mentions a quote by Nancy Wang Yeun, “When there is a lack of contact

between racial groups, people tend to rely on media stereotypes to formulate ideas about people

outside of their own race.” This is a major issue that seems to be a common theme within the

media world.

The audience for this video is individuals that want to gain more knowledge on minority

representation. It is for those that want a real-world example from someone who is a minority.

The purpose behind this talk is so that other people of color will hear this and be encouraged. It

is also to provide knowledge and raise awareness of the cause. The speech flows nicely and is

easy to follow. She uses a different tone and certain vocabulary that makes the topic seem like a

very serious issue. She creates a feeling of hope yet at some points can make thighs seem

hopeless. pathos is created through stories and examples of truth. And ethos is created through

the speaker actually living this life. Reeti never uses any visual aids in her speech. However, she

does put up images of charts and the book cover. Being that she was giving a presentation, this

was shocking.

The artifacts that were analyzed above are both very similar in the topic but very different

in format and structure. Each audience is the same in a way. Both audiences would want change
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to come or would want to know more about minority representation. Both artifacts had the same

purpose of providing knowledge and having an impact on that. Neither article had any visual aid

to go with their knowledge. However, both pieces did provide a good amount of statistics to help

provide evidence of what they were saying. Some of the biggest differences were in the style.

One artifact was restricted to typing out words to create an emotional connection, while the other

was able to use tone and pronunciation. Another difference was how the video went into more of

a personal story aspect while the article was more based on information from the media. Both

authors were women of color. That being said, they are more likely to have a deeper

understanding of the topic. They have both felt this underrepresentation in the real world. This

can serve as a real asset to them when trying to relate to their desired audience.

Minority representation is definitely a current issue that is in need of some attention. The

two artifacts that were analyzed shed some light on its reality of it. Although these artifacts were

very similar, they also had some key differences that set them apart from each other. They both

brought about their rhetoric strategies in different ways but in the end accomplished the same

goal. Equal representation should be given to all persons no matter their shape, size, or color.
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Works Cited

Nelson, Kai. “Where's the Representation?: The Impact of White ... - Scholarsarchive@Jwu.”

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship, 2016,

https://scholarsarchive.jwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=ac_symposiu

m.

“Racial Representation in Mainstream Media.” YouTube, TEDxTalks, director. 28 Sept. 2020,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5L8hG6iyOU. Accessed 7 July 2022.