The lack of South Asian Representation in the Western Media.

#SouthAsianVoices #MediaRepresentationMatters #DiverseMedia

#BreakTheStereotype #SouthAsianVisibility #RepresentationInMedia #CulturalInclusion #MediaDiversity #ChangingNarratives #InclusiveMedia

#SouthAsianInclusion #RepresentationGap #CelebrateDiversity #EquitableMedia #AmplifySouthAsianVoices

The lack of diversity among the South Asian community is a topic that needs to be addressed. While South Asians are often grouped together as a monolithic group, there are significant language, culture, and religion differences among the various countries and regions. It is important to recognise and celebrate this diversity within the community.

As a media student of South Asian descent living in the Western world, growing up watching the Western media, I realised that there is a lack of South Asian representation in the Western media. This essay will be based on whether it is a good or bad portrayal.

Diversity, in the Collins dictionary, is a deliberate inclusion in a group of people who are of different races, genders and religions. The Western media portrays people of South Asian descent as cons of the inclusion of diversity. The article “Lack of diversity undermines the future of the mass media”, writtenway in 2017, by Lester Hollo talks about how Sir Lenny Henry (a comedian) materialises the pressure over the lack of diversity in the Western media. The article mentions that the mainstream media are losing their diverse talent, but they are losing their future audience. The article mentions that the lack of diversity is turning off a generation of young people from the mainstream media. The article mentions that the audience would want content that is more appealing, and the way they want it is to include more diversity in it.

In one article, it mentions that people of colour have been fighting with racism over the years, and they have been negatively represented in the western media. But recently fashion brands and the media have started embracing different identities. The author mentions that she struggles to see people from her ethnic culture being accurately represented because, in the Western media, South Asian people are misrepresented, also finding it offensive. Another article mentions the media plays a risky position in promoting the misconceptions involving historical roots of conflict that are greatly complex.

In another article, the author critically analyses different characters from South Asian culture. The author illustrates 4 different cases of TV shows from the United States and how South Asian women are portrayed similarly to white women. Especially one case study, in the show Office, the show portrays a South Asian woman who is desexualised and shown as immature and girlish, who is obsessed with celebrity culture. The show portrays their language, dealing with insults, the festival (Diwali) and what they are wearing, and real-life situations like discussing arranged marriage. This is interesting as the article mentions that the Western media are using her to tell the audience that the character is being treated equally by the rest of the colleagues who are white and culturally appropriating the South Asian culture by including the tradition. 

In conclusion, the two articles discuss how Western media represent South Asian people in different ways. In one article, the article talks about how Western media are misrepresenting South Asian people. Another article, it talks about how Western media appreciate south Asian culture, as the media might not know it before. It is believed that the Western media may not fully know the South Asian culture, and this might be the reason why there is a lack of diversity.

References:

Agiwal, S., 2021. The Portrayal and Representation of South Asians in Western Media. [online] sevensixagency.com. Available at: <https://www.sevensixagency.com/blog/south-asian-representation-in-western-media> [Accessed 21 December 2021].

Allen, T., 1995. Civil War, Ethnicity and the Media. [online] JSTOR. Available at: <https://www.jstor.org/stable/2783520> [Accessed 6 November 2021].

Holloway, L., 2017. Lack of diversity undermines the future of the mass media. [online] Runnymedetrust.org. Available at: <https://www.runnymedetrust.org/blog/lack-of-diversity-undermines-the-future-of-the-mass-media> [Accessed 19 December 2021].

Panjabi, C., 2010. The Implications for South Asian Women on Television. [online] scholarspace-etds.library.gwu.edu/. Available at: <https://scholarspace-etds.library.gwu.edu/concern/gw_etds/6m311p405> [Accessed 16 December 2021].