Analyzing the Interplay Between Multiculturalism and the Media

This essay explores the multifaceted relationship between multiculturalism and the media, highlighting both the positive and negative impacts. It defines multiculturalism as the coexistence of diverse ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds within a single society, noting challenges like race discrimination and religious conflicts. The essay emphasizes the media's dual role in promoting and hindering multiculturalism, citing examples such as the #BlackLivesMatter movement and negative portrayals of certain cultural groups. It acknowledges the media's power to educate and foster understanding of different cultures, contributing to globalization and strengthened social ties. However, it also addresses the media's potential to perpetuate stereotypes and negatively influence perceptions of specific communities, affecting societal attitudes towards multiculturalism. The essay concludes that the media significantly shapes how society embraces multiculturalism, ultimately impacting the benefits derived from it.

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MULTICULTURALISM AND THE MEDIA
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Multiculturalism
This has a range of meaning within the context of different studies such as sociology, of political
philosophy among other areas. T can simply be defined as people of different ethical, religion, and race or
color background living in one society. A society where the people or the occupants or the residents are of
different culture. This has been one of the growing society aspects due to globalization among other
reasons. Different examples can be identified such as in the US where the African Americans, the whites,
or the immigrant all have their different cultures to uphold within the same society although over the
years where have seen the different impacts that are associated with multiculturalism. For instance, one of
the most common challenge has been race discrimination and religion conflicts. These are major
multicultural issues that are being faced all over the world (Ahn, 2018). In America, Europe, Africa
among other continents. Race discrimination has significantly controlled some regions in the world
although the fight against this has significantly intensified. In the United States, Last year there was the
rise of an antiracism movement which went by #BlackLivesMatter. The movement became one of the
most discussed matter due to the great involvement of the media. This introduces us to the next matter of
interest. The media has been one of the most informative tools of communication over the past few years.
In relation to multiculturalism the media has played different sides of the matter both for the promotion f
multiculturalism m and against it. The media communicates so much information to the people which is
crucial information that people rely on when making different decisions. As seen from the previous
article, negative advertising which in most cases has been based on the media. In the United States the
media portrayed the brutality of the police men on the black community and with the advancement of
technology the birth of social media came into contact with many. The media helped play a huge role in
informing the world on the racial discrimination cases going around the United states (Bramlett, and
Carstarphen, 2017).

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The media is one of the most powerful tools in the influence of the people’s opinions and views towards
different issues and multiculturalism has been one of the most sensitive issues that has been covered.
People tend to view multiculturalism in line with how the media portrays it. There is good advertising and
negative advertising an this has bee used in the media to preach different sides of multiculturalism. There
are different advantages that media has had on multiculturalism. The media has played a huge role in
educating the society on the different cultures that are existent in the society and their respective values.
This has managed to create a well-educated society that values and respects the each other’s culture.
Through the medial also, it has been possible for the society to embrace the importance of
multiculturalism. It has given the society the chance to identify with the other societies around the globe
that have a multicultural state. The exposure offered to the society due to there interaction with the media
gives the public the chance to positively identify in such a diverse society (McLaren, 2018). On the other
hand, the media place such a huge role in promoting multiculturalism. By focusing on different cultures
and educating the society on these different cultures, the media give the people a chance to learn new
ideas that they share in different cultures. This has led to the growth of globalization; the understanding of
different cultures has made it possible for businesses to thrive in different parts of the world due to the
understanding of different cultures through the knowledge shared through the media (Poster, 2018). This
has also seen the strengthening of different ties both business and social ties since the multiculturalism
aspect within the society has been intensified by the clear understanding of the different people
backgrounds. This understanding has come into the picture due to the learnt information through the
media. Social media for instance has help the society embrace different cultures all over the world.
Cultural publicity has become much easier with the growth of the social media. The advancement of
technology has made it easier for the communication and flow of information from one part of the world
to the other. With this in place, communication of different cultures has been intensified due to the
evolving nature of flow of information. This has promoted the growth of multiculturalism.
Multiculturalism has also had major impacts on the economy of different countries. For instance, in
Canada, the immigrants has helped grow the countries population and from a research by () it is evident

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that the country would have had such as small population if it were not for the immigrants in the country.
This would have led to as weak economy which is not the case in the country. The increase in the number
of the immigrants in the country has promoted the country’s economy and seen the country grow into one
of the most multiculturally diverse countries (Reid, 2018).
It is important to understand how the media affects multiculturalism, as focused earlier in the paper, the
media has played a huge role in promoting multiculturalism and it is important to also address its negative
impact on multiculturalism. The media happens to focus on some major issues that tend to affect the view
towards multiculturalism. In the united states as seen in the introduction, the medias attention n the issues
of drug abuse and trafficking related to particular cultures or immigrants over the years has tainted the
image of who immigrants are in the country (Reid, 2018). A good example are the Hispanics in the
country. These include the Latinos or the Mexicans. The community’s culture has been covered in a
different light by the media with the connections to the use of drugs and the trafficking of these drugs
over the years and in return affected the view of their culture in a negative light within the society. The
media may fail to focus on the brighter side of these cultures such as their hard-working nature and in
return affect the likelihood o the other cultures relating with these communities. This gives a clear idea as
to why politics has found its way into multiculturalism (Wilton, Apfelbaum, and Good, 2018).
Conclusively, it is important to realize the connection between the media and multiculturalism. How the
society embraces multiculturalism greatly lies on how the media portrays the matter hence affecting the
views of the society in general. So far, we have managed to see the advantages of multiculturalism and
both the positive and negative impacts of the media on the subject (Figueroa, 2017). Multiculturalism is
currently inevitable in our society due to multiple features within our society such as globalization among
other features (Sharma, 2017). How the society embraces this significantly impacts how multiculturalism
benefits the society in return.

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References
Ahn, J.H., 2018. Mixed-Race Politics and Neoliberal Multiculturalism in South Korean Media. Springer
International Publishing 8(7), pp.202-291.
Bramlett, S.A. and Carstarphen, M.G., 2017. Race, gender, class and media: Studying mass
communication and multiculturalism. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 4(11), pp.2-21.
Figueroa, P., 2017. Equality, multiculturalism, antiracism and physical education in the National
Curriculum. In Equality, Education, and Physical Education (pp. 90-102). Routledge.
McLaren, P., 2018. Revolutionary multiculturalism: Pedagogies of dissent for the new millennium 4(11),
pp.2-21. Routledge.
Poster, M., 2018. The second media age. John Wiley & Sons, 3(1), pp.55-71.

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Reid, D.M., 2018. Bringing us all together: multiculturalism as neoliberalism through New Zealand on
Air.2(2), pp.33-89
Sharma, A., 2017. Multiculturalism, Diversity and Stereotypes: Engaging Students with Images in
Media. Media Watch, 8(1), pp.20-29.
Wilton, L.S., Apfelbaum, E.P. and Good, J.J., 2018. Valuing Differences and Reinforcing Them:
Multiculturalism Increases Race Essentialism. Social Psychological and Personality Science,
p.1948550618780728.