Media Influences on Public Perceptions of Ethnic Groups, Generations, and Individuals

America's pluralistic society is growing increasingly diverse as groups compete for media representation. This article focuses on people's perceptions of how their ethnic group is portrayed in the media, as well as the issue of media influence on the values portrayed. A cross-sectional survey in a major Midwest metro area measured perceived importance of values and their portrayal in the media, finding that TV viewing is correlated with perceived media representativeness of one's own values and TV news viewing is associated with perceptions of media portrayals of the values of one's ethnic group. Results indicate that several dimensions of values recognized in the media are linked to people's perceptions of how the media portray people like them, their generation, and their ethnic group.