Where can I find credible information on the medias effects and portrayals of sexual orientation?

Question

If you know any reliable websites or books on the topic, I would love to know about them.

Answer 1

I would check out the National Lesbian Gay Journalists Association website: www.nlgja.org.

Answer 2

Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.

But stereotypes can be problematic. They can:
• reduce a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations

• transform assumptions about particular groups of people into "realities"

• be used to justify the position of those in power

• perpetuate social prejudice and inequality

More often than not, the groups being stereotyped have little to say about how they are represented.

Any discussion of the portrayal of gays and lesbians on television must consider the commercial demands of the medium. In her article "Gay Activists and the Networks", Kathleen Montgomery discusses the process involved in creating a made-for-television movie that featured a gay character in a prominent role. Since the main objective of the movie was to reach as wide an audience as possible, various compromises were necessary:

• the story had to be told within the constraints of a popular television genre: the crime-drama

• the narrative had to focus on the heterosexual lead character and his interactions with gay characters

• the movie could not depict any scenes of affection between characters of the same sex

Montgomery concludes that "these requirements served as a filter through which the issue of homosexuality was processed, resulting in a televised picture of gay life designed to be acceptable to the gay community and still palatable to a mass audience."

If you actually presented it, as it really is it would cause way to many people to question there own relationships and this would be bad for revenue
So is far easier to jump to what is palatable by the wider audience.

If they really showed the diversity of gay people it would shock many that he could be the tow truck driver that took your car away the woman who granted you a loan at the bank ...its easier to see the stereotype but it will change in time as people get better educated.

Answer 3

WWW.GLAAD.org

Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation