Television has a long history. The first electronic television was invented in 1927. Due to the benefits it brought to people as the main source of entertainment, it also caused many disputes. This media has repeatedly been the cause of numerous scandals. And this also includes the propagation of common stereotypes and prejudices about a particular group of people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayAccording to Louis Althusser, the French Marxist philosopher, there are different “state apparatuses” – the tools of government. The media is an example of ideological state apparatuses. The media is considered to be the most powerful tool through which the government can influence the public, because it is voluntary (people themselves choose what they want to watch, there are many more choices). There are many examples of how media affects people. Almost all American films propagate the idea of ​​the American dream: if you work hard, you will achieve everything. This led to a massive flow of immigration to the United States, including Latinos. This population group is one of the fastest growing. They represent approximately 17% of the American population. However, despite this, there are many stereotypes about this group of people, which a significant part of white people believe. Very often, Latinos are confronted with stereotypes that other nations attribute to them and the vast majority of these stereotypes are negative. So why is this so? This article argues that the media is a powerful government tool that affects the public by portraying Latinos in stereotypical ways and causes prejudice and racism to emerge. The majority of stereotypes about Latinos are represented in Anglo-Saxon media with an audience of white English men. Most media outlets fall into this category and since their audience is English, they try to put Latinos in the public eye. Today, research shows that portrayals of Latinos on television are rare and overwhelmingly unfavorable. Although Latinos are considered the largest minority group in the United States, they still only represent 3% of the television population. But in the past, Latinos were not represented in the media at all. When the national press focused on this fact, they called Latinos and Mexicans the “invisible minority.” Early news and reports about Latinos presented this group in a negative light or labeled with stereotypes because it was a time of problems with immigration policies. There is one example of "stories" about Latinos: in 1967, a Time magazine reporter wrote about East Los Angeles residents: "crass taco restaurants and bustling canteens" smelled "of smell of cheap wine (and)...the fumes from frying tortillas,” and I heard “the crackle of Spanish machine guns.” Since media is a form of socialization and a source of information, such reports in newspapers, radio and television have destroyed understanding between nations and caused more prejudice. The reason articles about Latinos were so biased is because they were underrepresented in jobs such as reporters and editors. Another reason for this negative portrayal in the media is that journalists, reporting on immigration, have used sources such as law enforcement andcivil servants. These types of sources tend to present immigrants as the problem people. Not surprisingly, Latinos have also been portrayed in certain stereotypes in entertainment programming. Typical Latino roles: the Latin lover, the bandit, the faithful servant, the mustachioed and obese redneck, the mamacita, and the woman of loose morals. Latino and Mexican actors are often given stereotypical roles, even if their character is the main character. For example, Spencer Tracy's role in "Tortilla Flat", Wallace Berry's role in Pancho Villa, Marlon Brando's lead role in "Viva Zapata" and Valerie Harper's role in "Freebie and the Bean" depict more stereotypes about Latinos as personal characteristics.of heroes. Often it was also a serious obstacle in an actor's career. For example, Rita Morena, who received an Oscar for the film "West Side Story", refused to act in many films because all the directors offered her stereotypical roles. Additionally, Latinos have often become the butt of jokes in the media due to their inability to speak. English without any accent. This prejudice appeared in the 1950s thanks to the show “I love Lucy”. Obviously, such a representation of a significant part of the population caused discontent and protests. In 1911, the Spanish newspaper "La Cronica" launched a campaign against stereotypes of Mexicans and Native Americans in cowboy films, as these groups were usually depicted as villains or cowards. However, nothing changed and only led to other consequences. In 1966, the Mexican lawyer formally protested to NBC. This example illustrates how influential the media has become and has even affected politics and international relations. Unfortunately, over time the situation has only gotten worse. While civil protests in the 1960s against the misrepresentation of blacks led to positive changes in the media, they also brought a focus on Latinos. According to the data, in 1996, stereotypes about blacks decreased, while Latinos became a new target and the number of negative stereotypes about them increased significantly. Despite the fact that Latino characters appear more and more often on television, their roles remain stereotypical. Except for the roles of villains, Latin actors often play the roles of helpless representatives of the lower or middle class, who cannot cope with problems without the help of the Anglo-Saxon hero. Therefore, constant misrepresentation of a particular population group has led to the emergence of prejudices in the minds of the public. Many researchers have suggested that frequent exposure to the same messages on television affects viewers and causes them to adopt the media's representation of information. Television is a cool medium, it requires little audience participation, so people may pay little attention to it and do not evaluate messages carefully. Additionally, it is proposed that those who watch television more often are more likely to hold the same opinions and ideas as those presented in the media. Another important factor in the impact of television is that, generally, the majority of viewers do not have other sources to verify the validity of the information. Dana Mastro, Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, and Michelle Ortiz conducted an experiment to test how people's opinions about Latinos are influenced by television's stereotypical portrayal of them. 362 communication students were recruited as participants in this experiment. During the first session, theResearchers assessed the following: media consumption, perceptions of portrayals of Latinos on television, and participant demographics. In the second session, they looked at perceptions of Latinos in the United States, interracial contact and demographics. The results confirmed that time spent watching television affects people's relationships with Latinos. This pattern occurred with all stereotypes examined in this experiment: crime, intelligence, work ethic. But people with access to other sources and contact with Latinos were less likely to believe these stereotypes. This research demonstrates how easily people believe information presented to them by the media. White people who watch TV programs learn particular messages about Latinos and because the majority of these lessons are negative, people automatically feel aversion toward this group. The media does not properly inform the public about Latin culture, but they spoil the information and cause racism. In the book "Latin American Images in Cinema: Stereotypes, Subversion and Resistance" by Ramirez Berg C., the author claims that the way Latinos are represented in American media can be described as "Latinism". What does it mean that Latin America and its population are represented in such a way as to justify the superiority and imperialist goals of the United States - domination over the hemisphere and the right to interfere in internal affairs?politics international of Latin America. Thus, confirming what Louis Althusser proposed about “state apparatuses,” politics is involved in the way the media presents certain information. Further strong evidence of this is that Latinos are often associated with immigrants. In recent years, immigration news has focused on Latinos in particular. As a result, viewers became more concerned about Latino immigrants. Thus, media attention to specific groups can help understand people's relationship towards different nations. The data shows that since 1994, the immigration problem has become more important, and that by 2000, Latinos were mentioned much more often than other immigrants. In 2006, debates and mass demonstrations took place regarding the law on border protection, the fight against terrorism and the control of illegal immigration. These protests show the power of the media, by interpreting information and portraying Latinos in a certain way, it has caused a negative attitude towards a particular nation, even aggression. It is important to know how exactly television programs represent Latinos and what techniques they use to encode the specific message. Take the example of the famous television show “Desperate Housewives” created by Marc Cherry for ABC Studious. Its audience is around 21 million people. This series tells the story of four housewives who live in a suburban town and take care of domestic affairs. There are four central characters: Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross), and Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria Parker). Gabrielle and her husband Carlos are two main Latino characters and both have stereotypical characteristics or actions. Gabrielle is a pretty woman, who wears seductive clothes (short skirts, red lips, big earrings, high heels), she was a model and only married her husband for money. At the start of the series, this character already has a lover, but she doesn't love him and uses him for purposes.).