by Takhta Pandu Padmanegara
From the past until now media is the great source that promotes stereotype in the society. Stereotype is a fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality (2003, Oxford Advanced Learned Dictionary); or a short-hand way to describe that many people have from their collective behaviour without seeing their unique characteristic (generalization). Stereotyping leads to discrimination that leads to separation that also leads to physical abuse and in the end it leads to state-sponsored genocide.
Media (electronic media and print media) promotes stereotype through many ways, such as in television we could find from its TV programs and shows, news, advertisements, etc.; in print media we could find in the cover, advertisements, articles, etc.
There are several reasons why media promotes stereotype. The first reason, media delivered the messages of stereotype because the society also did stereotyping. We, as the general society, are happy and enjoy to judge people based on their collective behaviour then when we meet or see the person at a glance, we directly tend to judge him/her based on “the truth” that is accepted in the society.
Second, media contents are not independent. If we back to The Triangle of Power, we could know that media depends on the interest of the owner or the one that have dominant power that can control the media, such as the owner, businessman (advertiser), and government. That’s why media messages are creating “the truth” to make the society accept it as the standard or normal. In the end, we know that it leads to the media’s main purpose; to get profit.
Third, in media especially advertisement, we know that the duration of advetisement is very limited. Then we will see the advertisements only in few seconds and it always repeated. Because of that, we will interpret the messages from the advertisements quickly, and we won’t realize that we have received the messages without analyze what is the underlying messages from the advertisement. It also happened in the TV Show or Program. The situation that is happened in media because of lazy or highly pressured reporters that don't take or have the time to explore issues within their multifaceted and complex contexts, few members of diverse cultural groups working as photographers, reporters, editors, or publishers in an organization,and the presumed, conditioned expectations of readers and viewers to only accept images of diverse members within a limited range of content categories.
Stereotyping couldn’t be erased it’s only can be reducing. Why? Because when we want to erase the stereotype we also create the new stereotype. The stereotyping will always happen in the society, the solution from this problem is we go back to the society, to ourself, if we're not willing to change what we know is true in society, there is little chance of there ever being a change in media images. The media provide a message and that message is that the media is us.
Reflection
From the summary above, we can know that everyday we always stereotype people. We do it easily without being know what is the effect from our actions. I agree that media messages contain stereotype and the society will accept it as “the truth”. We could take example from the media in our society, Indonesia.
Nowadays the development of TV program or TV show is very significance, especially Soap Opera or Sinetron. Sinetron usually broadcast in prime time between 17.00 until 21.00 in every TV stations. The content of sinetron isn’t good but it’s very poor and it’s very dangerous if it’s consumed by children and teenagers. Sinetron’s content typically exploiting good-looking stars, intriguing family affairs, tear – jerking love stories, and displays of the glamorous lifestyles of the rich. In promoting stereotype, sinetron demonstrated the stereotypical characterizations visually through body parts, mimics, gestures, and outfits. Sinetron also typically contains exaggeration of events or characters to demonstrate extreme emotional expressions and conflicts. Then the effects are people/society will be getting used to to that kind situation and it leads to stereotyping. For example, Sinetron Ratapan Anak Tiri, the situation is illustrated to the public that step mother will always become cruel to her child. Then public accept those kind situation as the standard of step mother.
It’s similar in advertisement; Advertisement that always shows in TV will create “the truth” in society, and the society “should” follow the standard that advertisers want. For example, Ponds advertisment that has a tagline “kulit putih lebih cantik daripada kulit hitam” (having white skin is better than having black skin), Tropicana Slim and The Cambridge Diet ”Lost the weight, not the fun …” & “Yes, bertuliskan “Yes! Turunkan berat badan anda hingga 5 kg perminggu!”, Sunsilk that promotes about beautiful girl should has a long black straight hair, shine, etc. All of above really create the standard or the normal or the ideal one of what a girl should look like. Again, those are stereotyping.
Based on Michael Foucault , the post modern philosopher: “It’s the production of authority”, He said that the authority didn’t focused on one central point and didn’t come from the dominants, but it spread in the society. (John Lechte, 2001). In advertisement, the production of authority can be seen in the strategy of advertisers to make the standard (normalization of the ideal one). When the standard is set in the society, then it’s very difficult to change because the society itself that decides to accept and follow the ideal one while the advertisers see that as their goals.
Then we will be faced to the question “what should we do to reduce the stereotype? And what should media suppose to be?” If we back to the conclusion of the summary we find the solutions that the change itself should come from ourselves. We should not judge or generalize people only based on their physical or behavior but we should think wisely and analyze first about our perception to them. And for media, they should have self-regulatory about how do they deliver the message without creating bad stereotype about some people. Although it is non sense to erase the stereotype but at least it will reduce.
1 komentar:
I love this article.... Sharp!
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