Like the title says- Are Asian-Americans underrepresented in media? And If so, do you think this is, I guess, a just action by the companies that mostly run the media? Is it a social injustice?


I ask because I have had some "intense conversation" recently with a friend. I am middle class white, and she is asian, and probably more knowledgeable about said industry. I disagreed with her, and now I'm searching for more opinons. etc

 

Depends upon the part of the country you are in. In the DFW area I'd say they are not underrepresented, in LA I'm not so sure.

 

Under represented in that there are aren't a proportional number of Asian reporters or that there aren't enough Asian special interest feel-good sympathy pieces? If it's the former 3.6% of America is Asian. No idea how many Asian's work in media, there's a few reporters in my area that are Asian but then I live in one of those few parts of the country which has a pretty high percentage of Asians living in it. Subjectively, I'd say they are underrepresented in that there aren't an equal number of Asians in front of the camera as there are living around here.

Social injustice? Dunno. Almost half my graduating class was Asian. I'll admit that not being a communications type major I didn't have a whole lot of interaction with those sorts, but to me it certainly seemed like most Asians did not stray far from the "real" majors; you know, math, engineering, hard sciences, and biology. If they did end up in the liberal arts it was more sociology, political science, or economics and not communications or studies of some disenfranchised segment of the population. In other words, I think there's a hell of a lot of self-selection going on there. I don't think it's necessarily an injustice that being underrepresented in the media and overrepresented in medicine and engineering is a social injustice.

 

If you go to Hawaii, you'd retract that statement haha.

 

What kind of media? I just spent an hour youtubing S13 drift videos and saw nothing but azns.

 

What about Trisha Takanawa?

 

There are Asian news reporters all over my TV.

Also, it depends on the area. If you're from Middle-of-Nowhere, Mississippi, you're not likely to have ever seen an Asian in person or on TV; but if San Francisco,

 

she was bbq'd already

 

Asians represent 4-5% of the American population, I live in a city with an abnormally high amount of asian immigrants, they are pretty badass when they aren't worrying too much about their future. Better to live in today and not look more than a year ahead...

 

i think there are LOTS of "token Asians" in media today.