Running head: DIVERSITY IN DOMESTIC SOCIETY 1

Diversity in Domestic Society in relation to Mass Communication

Jasmine J. Jones

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Final Exam Research Paper JOMC 393

DIVERSITY IN DOMESTIC SOCIETY 2

Diversity in Domestic Society in relation to Mass Communication

To begin, diversity is one of those topics that often gets heavily debated. It has been the

topic of discussion for many years and continues to sometimes divide people while bringing

them together. Diversity is a simple yet broad topic and usually covers terms such as, gender,

race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Diversity although seeming positive to some can always

consist of negative attributes.

Diversity in Media tends to go up and down with minorities not making up enough of the

room, which leads companies to be in high demand for diverse talent. This almost seeming like a

good thing can as well turn bad with a lot of places having to have legal documents just for race.

For example, a lot of questionnaires tend to ask “please list your race/ethnicity” along with some

colleges. These companies and schools have to have a certain number or quota in regard to race.

This is done to ensure that many of the same race/ethnicity is not getting hired and that

minorities are not being overlooked which in turn can be deemed unfair.

Diversity is defined as “the condition of having or being composed of differing

elements according to (Merriam-Webster, 2018). Even with this definition seemingly simple

it still tends to be a huge issue in 2018 and in most fields such as media. Some outlets do well

in terms of showing their diverse talents on air, radio, writing etc. others not so much. As

stated earlier many things can all tie together to make up diversity and what it means. One of

those things happens to be gender.

Gender and Sexual Orientation in the Media

Gender is defined as the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically

associated with one sex (Merriam – Webster, 2018). Gender tends to be a huge issue by itself

and correlates heavily with diversity. Gender is most often classified as male/female with
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most bathrooms indicating either party to enter on the right or left. Separate bathrooms to

ensure safety and with most people comfortable with this being in place for so long. North

Carolina tried to change that and enforce stricter bathroom rules most commonly known as

HB2.

According to CNN, the bill required that people at a government-run facility must use

bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate, if the rooms

in question are multiple-occupancy (Hanna, Park, McLaughlin, 2017). This at the time made

many people angry and many groups such as LGBT, spoke out saying that it was simply a

discrimination law. This law hurt North Carolina in many ways and brought more negative

media coverage than positive.

The biggest hit that North Carolina took at the time was when the NCAA Championship

conference got announced that it would not be held in North Carolina due to the HB2 law. After

facing this economic hit, lawmakers decided to make a change which led to a new law being put

in place which didn’t come right away.

North Carolina as with many other states did not decide to make change until their money

took a hit.

Diversity comes into play because gender is another huge topic that is debated regularly.

Many people whether male/female/transgender often find themselves facing discrimination and

in many cases lack of diversity. For example, there is much talk about having more women in

sports and women of color, but it is rare and a proven fact that there is not a lot of trans people in

the media in regard to diversity along with them having/expressing their rights. This is an issue

because people have different cultures and customs and majority of the time the media or

globally it is not always acceptable in society. Gender often corresponds or goes hand in hand to
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sexual orientation which is another area within the media and mass communication that is often

not talked about. Male/Female or gay or straight the media can project anything into a negative

light.

While there are many more people coming out and simply being true to themselves there

is still a lot of work to be done. In the media and with the impact of mass communications in a

global society, people are the ones that make up all of this and keeps the wheels turning.

For example, although they are more gay men on TV in prominent roles such as

Anderson Cooper. Different cultures and people are needed in mass communications. This can

be proven with simply looking at the news. Most anchors, reporters, will tend to be white with

blonde hair or white and straight. It is rare that a viewer will turn on the tv and see a gay anchor

which makes the pool of diverse talent lack just because of a person’s sexual orientation and/or

gender. Sexual orientation seeming similar to gender is different. Sexual orientation according to

planned parenthood is “Sexual orientation is about who you’re attracted to and want to have

relationships with. Sexual orientations include gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, and asexual”

(Planned Parenthood, 2018).

Race & Ethnicity

Two more terms that often are meshed together although different are race and ethnicity. Race is

defined as or refers to a person's physical characteristics, such as bone structure and skin, hair, or

eye color.
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With Ethnicity referring to cultural factors, including nationality, regional culture,

ancestry, and language.

This is why many people state “what is your ethnic background”. Race also ties heavily

within the media from children being passed up in school with little to no education just to make

their schools look good. For example, many schools pass minority children up a grade even

when their reading levels and test scores are low. This impacts the global scheme of things as

well as mass communications because the youth is our future. Children are who is next in line

when this generation is done and so on and so on. How teachers teach them is extremely

important and more times than not kids are not being properly taught which leads to lack of

education more violence (in some cases and more times than not more negative life affects than

positive ones).

This ties into news and mass communications because if we have an issue with our youth

and if they are not meeting certain standards then it will be a cycle and repeating affect and we

will be the ones that have to cover them on the news. This happens in a lot of places where

schools pass up their kids, but one school did it on the college level with many kids having fake

test scores which led them to get into Harvard, Yale, and many other Ivy League schools.

Diversity played into this because colleges and schools as stated above have to meet a

certain quota. This school in Louisiana particular profited off of diversity. According to the NY

Times and one Louisiana school “the colleges want to be able to get behind the black kids going

off and succeeding, and going to all of these schools,” said Raymond Smith Jr., who graduated

from T.M. Landry in 2017 and enrolled at N.Y.U. He said that Mr. Landry forced him to

exaggerate his father’s absence from his life on his N.Y.U. application and “It’s a good look,”
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these colleges “getting these bright, high-flying, came-from-nothing-turned-into-something

students,” Mr. Smith stated (The New York Times, 2018).

All in all, race and diversity even with-it going hand in hand there is much into it. The

media although things are somewhat getting better still has a way to go with making things more

diverse and open so that people can relate and somewhat be more engaged to what is happening

in the world around us. All in all we still have so far to go with diverse changes into this world

but a difference has been made but these are issues that are still affecting us to this day.
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References

Ethnicity. (2018). Retrieved December 2, 2018, from https://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/ethnicity

Gender. (2018). Retrieved December 2, 2018, from https://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/gender

Green, E. L., Benner, K., & Flanagan, A. (2018, November 30). Louisiana School Made
Headlines for Sending Black Kids to Elite Colleges. Here's the Reality. Retrieved December 2,
2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/us/tm-landry-college-prep-black-students.html

Parenthood, P. (2018). What is Sexual Orientation? | Definition and Meaning. Retrieved

December 2, 2018, from https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/sexual-orientation-
gender/sexual-orientation

Park, M., & McLaughlin, E. C. (2017, March 31). North Carolina repeals 'bathroom bill'.
Retrieved December 4, 2018, from https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/30/politics/north-carolina-hb2-
agreement/index.html