Watch and learn! Carefully selected media links will help bring key concepts and theories to life, preparing you for your studies and exams. 

Click on the following links which will open in a new window.

Audio Links

• “Casting Call: Hollywood Needs More Women” from NPR’s All Things Considered: This piece examines the reasons for the lack of women’s representation in the movies, and why it might be getting worse.

• “On ‘Hicksploitation’ and Other White Stereotypes Seen on TV”: A number of new “reality” shows feature stereotypical representations of poor whites, often from the South.

• “Who’s Gay on TV? Dads, Journalists, Investigators and Footmen” This piece looks at the current crop of gay characters on TV, investigating both the positives, including the representation of parenthood, and negatives.

Video Links

• Class Dismissed: This documentary examines class representations from American television's beginnings to today's sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows.

• Women's Stories, Movies and the Oscars This video examines the lack of women’s stories in highly-celebrated movies.

• TED Talk: Social Media and the End of Gender: Media and advertising companies still use the same old demographics to understand audiences, but they're becoming increasingly harder to track online, says media researcher Johanna Blakley. As social media outgrows traditional media, and women users outnumber men, Blakley explains what changes are in store for the future of media.

• The Smurfette Principle: This video examines the common appearance of a single female character among a largely male cast in TV shows, especially those aimed at young people.

• That’s Gay: Homo-cidal Maniacs: Bryan Saafi examines the many portrayals of homosexuals in the media as violent killers.

• The Daily Show, “Arrest Development: Caucasian Terrorists” Aasif Mandvi explains how the Boston Marathon bombers' ethnic background disrupts the story Americans have long been told about who the bad guys are and what they look like.

Web Resources

• About-Face. Online resources about gender and body image.

• Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Monitors portrayals of LGBT people in media.

• Media Action Network for Asian Americans. Works for accurate, balanced, and sensitive Asian American images.

• NAACP’s Media Diversity Program. Advocates for diversity in media and minority employment in the media industries.

• National Hispanic Media Coalition. A civil rights organization that advocates “Latino employment and programming equity.”

• Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Examines gender across the entertainment industry, started by the actress.

• Racialicious. A collaborative weblog discussing media coverage of the multiracial community.

• The Representation Project: Built off the documentary film Miss Representation, TRP offers educational resources about sexism in the media.