Media Discourses and Representation of Marginalized Communities in Multicultural Societies

Abstract

Albeit an increase in awareness of minority problems, people from immigrant, ethno-cultural, and diverse racial groups or who are lesbian, bisexual, gay, or transgender or who are from low-income groups, do not have the same access to media like majority members of the society. In any democratic society, circumstances like this should not be marginalized because news cannot be perceived merely as commodity for lucid public discourse, but as the public construction of exact images of society. This implies that one of the central problems to address when scrutinizing the contribution of the news media in community-building is its relationship to cultural diversity. Although representation and visibility of minorities in mass media, reflects just one of several factors related with the standing of minority groups in society, its influence should not be underestimated. Both theory and empirical research on media discourse, suggests that stereotypes arise from and are maintained via interaction with the messages offered in mass media fare. Journalists and media professionals, in many parts of the world, replicates part of the everyday biased practices against members of marginalized communities, whether in pejorative, offensive and abusive texts or speeches, or by way of other strategies employed for marginalization and barring from media discourses. Often, minority members are depicted through a negative lens by the news media and most usually as a homogenous group rather than as individuals. In addition, they are scarcely visible in news media, either through exclusion from majority establishment or through self-invisibility practices. In contrast, the news media also produce discourses that attempt to identify the difficulties regarding discrimination and social exclusion of members of marginalized communities, and they struggle to fight for equal human rights. In any case, the news media have a deep effect on their audiences and should be prudently considered in matters of representation and visibility of minorities. “Media discourses and Marginalized Communities in Multicultural Societies” is Journalism Practice’s special edition with a purpose to present studies offering insights into the news media’s role in jeopardizing the representation of minority/or marginalized groups, as well as to address their potential role to combat discrimination against members of marginalized groups such as minority racial and ethnic communities, asylum seekers, migrants, sex workers, LGBT persons, and rape victims. The term media discourses does