Contemporary Issues in Media Representation: Critical Analysis of Get Out

This essay critically analyzes the contemporary issues in media representation with a specific focus on race and ethnicity. The essay uses the film media Get Out to understand the ways in which the issues of racial identity, justice, and background are tackled in modern media prices. The essay highlights the importance of accurate and genuine portrayal of race and ethnicity in media and the challenges associated with it. The essay also discusses the intersectional theory of racism and how it can be applied to analyze the representation of racism in Get Out. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for accurate representation of different issues related to gender equality, feminism, sexuality, race, social mobility, and disability in media to overcome the problems and improve gender equality and generate accuracy, fairness, and honesty.

Contemporary Issues
in Media –
Representation

Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................3
REFLECTION...........................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................7
REFRENCES.............................................................................................................................8
Books and Journal..................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Television, movies, and interactive technology can all have an impact on how people
perceive others as well as ourselves. Accurate, genuine portrayal has the capacity to break
down the barriers, bring us up more possibilities, establish role models, and even inspire us.
Humans utilize 'resources' provided by the media to develop their identities (Brown, 2018).
Repeating may be dominant in styles, but they are also defined by distinction, diversity, and
transition. This essay will focus on the contemporary issues in media representation with
specific focus on the area of race and ethnicity. In addition to this the essay will include
critical analysis of film media to understand the ways in which the issues of racial identity,
justice and background are tackled in modern media prices. The film which will form the
basis of this essay is the 2017 American Horror Comedy movie Get Out.
MAIN BODY
Race is a social construct which gains it power from the social psychological
dynamics of sushi classification along with the powerful legitimacy which risk categories
have acquired in their historical formulation. The social construct of race has become so
powerful that race is taken as a social fact and truth instead of a socially constructed category
which is based on arbitrary and what was formulation of racial classification. This definition
of race showcases the complexity associated with racial identity which increases the
challenges in ensuring representation of race racial issues and racism in media (Warbrick,
Came & Dickson, 2019).
Throughout cinematic history many movies have tried to capture the concept of race and
racial issues in specific time periods and geography’s so that the contemporary racial issues
of the time can be effectively communicated to the audience through a tight narrative
presented in the media whether it be a movie animation media or a serial show. The movie
which is used for depicting the contemporary issues in media representation in context of race
and racism is the 2017 Academy award winner get out. The respective piece of film media
received best original screenplay award at the Academy Award ceremony in 2018 and was
widely appreciated for its clever depiction of racial issues in contemporary American Society.
Critical analysis of the movie showcases that the piece of media was able to
effectively represent the current social and cultural issues associated with racism in America
while also providing audience is entertaining and engaging horror comedy movie. The
primary issue associated with contemporary media representation of racism and racial issues

is the inability to present racial issues and differences in the society in a subtle manner so that
the nuances associated with the concept of race along with current racial issues are depicted
cinematically (COOKY, MESSNER & DWORKIN, 2018).
Get out is a clever piece of film media which represents the contemporary racial
issues such as the concept of casual racism in American Society along with the impact of
liberalism on racial justice and racism in America through connected and symbolic
screenplay (Jordan Peele on How He Tackled Systemic Racism as Horror in ‘Get Out’,
2017). Get out is a horror thriller which offers audiences satirical critique of systematic
racism. The plot overview of get out is meeting between Chris Washington a young African
American man and the family of his white girlfriend and her family. Symbolism and
cinematic techniques are used throughout the movie to showcase various racial issues such
as relation of white liberalism’s with systematic racism in America along with casual racism
and the history of slavery racism and American South.
The racial theory which can be used to critically analyse the concept and media
representation of racism in get out is intersectional theory of racism. According to
intersectional theory of racism the distribution of inequality is not equal among marginalized
communities as so much list communities who fall under intersection of two communities
facing and systematic operation. The intersection of racism and mental illness is discussed in
the movie get out as the white family utilize is hypnosis to trap the black victims in the
sunken place which is a symbolism of impact of systematic racism on black audiences.
The white family traps the black victims by creating a hypnosis induced state that
results in full body paralysis where mind of white individuals can be transferred in black
bodies. This sequence in the movie not only acts as but depiction of American history
associated with slavery and inherent racism in lamented by white liberals in America which
oppresses black individuals but also highlights the negative viewpoint of black communities
towards mental health and therapy. In this way this piece of media utilizes is an additive
element of the movie to depict various racial issues in the country including intersectionality
of mental health and racism faced by black communities in United States of America (Get
Out’ confronts the intersectionality of race and mental health, 2017).
After this another point of movie which can be dissected by applying intersectionality
theory is the final moment where the protagonist of the movie is able to escape from his
white abductor’s by using things which are symbolic of black slavery and racial injustice

faced by black communities in America. This includes pieces of cotton which are used by the
protagonist to escape from trap which symbolize the enslaved history of black communities
in cotton fields of southern America. In this way the movie is able to easily tackle
representation of past and present concerns associated with racism against black communities
without interrupting the flow of the negative end missing any nuances of the current climate
off racism against black communities in America.
REFLECTION
From the above mention essay I analyse that global media monitoring analyse that
women are the most important individual and more likely than men to be featured as victims
in different kind of story. and it also has been analysed that Mass media are involved in real-
world inter - racial relations about everything from the regulations that regulate multimedia
sectors to the activities of the organisations that create the communications to the user
preferences of the consumers who pick them. Notwithstanding the interconnections among
media and problems of racial and ethnic groups, no thorough attempt has been made to
research and resolve these connections (Cullingford & Arora, 2018). Media Recreations of
Race and Ethnicity: Consequences for Identity, Group Dynamics, and Policy Analysis, the
current problem, attempts to achieve precisely that. The value of an endeavour is highlighted
in this volume's prologue, which also includes an overview of the current status of studies in
this field. Apart from this from the above essay I analyse that mediated presentation of the
most effective ways in the process in that the media portrays particular groups and
communities and ideas a note or particular topics from a particular ideological or value
perspective. Appropriate representation of the media helps the individual to breakdown the
videos and brings more new ideas and create more powerful role models so that the
individual become capable to overcome the contemporary issue which is associated to the
media representation and improves the capabilities. Apart from this media representation also
helps the individual to build their perspective on their own ethnic racial group. Apart from
this I also analyse from the above mentioned report that there are different kind of issues
which is associated to the contemporary issue in media representations. Several media
representation issues are related to the audience and fans, gender and feminism, sexuality and
ethnicity, class in social mobility, disability and many more (Pincus, 2019). Apart from this, I
also analyse that there are a number of women that are working in the media and that has
been improving globally and there are some top positions like producers, chief editors and
publishers are still very male dominant. The global media monitoring projects in the lies that

throughout the globe the female journalist are more likely to be assigned soft subjects like
fashion related in art related, lifestyle related family related and the hard news related to the
politics and the economy is much less likely to be returned or covered by the woman. It is
very essential for the individual to analyse that however, that not every woman working or
operating in the media will be gender of heir and it is not much impossible for the individual
to effectively cover gender issues. It is become very important for the every person to
influence of woman in the media and overcome the gender discrimination and race and
ethnicity so that the individual and we can enhance their gender portrayal in context of media
(Strmic-Pawl, Jackson & Garner, 2018).

CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned essay it has been analysed that televisions, technology or
movies create impact on individual capabilities and also create impact on how individual
perceives other as well as ourselves. There are various issues associated with representing
racial struggles and concepts related to racial injustice in the modern world in any piece of
media. The specific cinematic issues related with showcasing an accurate depiction of race,
ethnicity and identity is to effectively create a narrative thread revolving around racial issues
in a way which is engaging to the audience and handles the racial issues with sensitivity. It is
very important for the every individual to analyse different kind of issues in context of media
representation that is related to the gender equality or feminism, sexuality, race, social
mobility, disability in order to overcome the problems and improve gender equality and
generate accuracy, fairness and honesty. It is determined from the essay that key theories
related to racism can be highlighted by using cinematic language to effectively depicted on
visual medium. In addition to this depiction of racial issues is different in different genres of
film such as comedy, drama or horror and require different approach to tackle racial issues,
assimilate racial theories while also providing audience engaging and thoughtful
entertainment.

REFRENCES
Books and Journal
Brown, J. A. (2018). # wheresRey: feminism, protest, and merchandising sexism in Star
Wars: The Force Awakens. Feminist media studies, 18(3), 335-348.
Dunk, N. S. No Slam Dunk: Gender, Sport and the Unevenness of Social Change.
Cullingford, C., & Arora, R. (2018). Race and ethnicity in education. Routledge.
Pincus, F. L. (2019). Race and ethnic conflict: Contending views on prejudice,
discrimination, and ethnoviolence. Routledge.
Strmic-Pawl, H. V., Jackson, B. A., & Garner, S. (2018). Race counts: racial and ethnic data
on the US Census and the implications for tracking inequality. Sociology of Race and
Ethnicity, 4(1), 1-13.
Warbrick, I., Came, H., & Dickson, A. (2019). The shame of fat shaming in public health:
moving past racism to embrace indigenous solutions. Public Health, 176, 128-132.
Online
Get Out’ confronts the intersectionality of race and mental health, 2017. [Online] Available
through <https://bowdoinorient.com/2017/04/26/get-out-confronts-the-intersectionality-
of-race-and-mental-health/>
Jordan Peele on How He Tackled Systemic Racism as Horror in ‘Get Out’, 2017. [Online]
Available through <https://variety.com/2017/film/news/jordan-peele-get-out-systemic-
racism-1202604824/>