Mass media is a powerful factor which influences our beliefs, attitudes, and the values we have of ourselves. It is said that today's mass media is just as influential as religion was 500-600 years ago (Brym, Lie 103). The average American spends 39.3% of their time interacting with some component of mass media (Brym, Lie 103). With the advent of TV, digital media, and the Internet, Americans have become more reliant than ever on these and other forms of mass media for news and entertainment. TV can now be found in over 98% of American households (Brym, Lie 103). Today's youth are constantly exposed to the images they see on TV, and from it they form a sense of reality. From the TV and mass media children are learning about gender roles, and ethnic and racial identification; the result of this self-socialization is that children are learning from a skewed sense of reality. This raises the question, "What effects do racial, ethnic, and gender stereotyping in the mass media have on society today?"
             The media have the main influence on our notions of ethnic groups. When turning on the TV for a daily dose of channel surfing, the ethnic stereotypes that are presented to the viewer create an expectation of different group members. In one study done at a racially diverse public high school in New York City, the majority of students felt that fictional TV characters were typical of their respective ethnic or racial group (Robert, Lichter). One third of the students surveyed said that the characters they view on TV affect their attitude towards the respective racial and ethnic groups in real life (Robert, Lichter). The hit cable show, The Sopranos, which is a fictionalized account of a New Jersey mafia family shows Italian Americans in a light that might be offensive and degrading to many well-to-do Italian American families. If one didn't know any better, after watching the show The Sopranos they might conclude that I...