The Changing Face of TV essays

The Changing Face of TV essays African American are living better they were twenty years ago and so our television shows need to reflect that. We now see real people along with the portrayals of African Americans who are lawyers, doctors, and successful entertainers who also, earn major roles where the plots revolve exclusively around them. The quantity of programming devoted to African American culture today, provides us with unlimited choices from which to choose. After careful study, Steinhorn and Diggs-Brown concluded, During the hours when only one show depicts an African American character, we find that the media consistently depicts African Americans as good hard working people in positions of authority. We also see the familiar faces of celebrities selling various products (590-591). While the depiction of African Americans in the media has made great strides in recent years, many of the shows that we know and love today are still infused with negative stereotypes. On the surface, they seem to be sayi ng positive things about African Americans, but underneath they still illustrate the slanted view typical of American TV. When we examine two popular shows, Frasier and Girlfriends we see how the depiction of race has changed and how it has stayed the same, helping prevent an honest depiction of African American culture. We have already established that negative images persist, but they do not represent the African American community as a whole. We now know that class structures within the African American community decide what type of life you will live. Frasier and Girlfriends display different views of African American life and how we communicate. Both shows depict the lives of the upper-middle class, so they are somewhat similar in that respect, but each choose to use different races which is ironic because both are produced by the same person. Change the race of the characters and it c...