African American Family Media Assignment

African American Family Media Assignment

Over the course of this week I was able to observe and analyze various portrayals of African American Family in the media. I watch a lot of television as it is so this wasn’t very hard at all. The following shows and media occurrences are what I based my reflection on:

• Wednesday March 25, 2009
o Family Matters
 Season 2 DVD
o Television Comedy
o African American Family
 The Winslow Family consists of two parents, Carl and Harriette, two teenagers, Eddie and Laura, and a grandmother.
o This family was portrayed positively.

• Wednesday March 25,2009
o Run’s House
 MTV
o Reality Television
o African American Family
 This show featured Reverend Run’s family which consists of three teenage children and two younger kids, a mother, and a father.
o This family was portrayed positively.

• Thursday March 26, 2009
o Fox News
 Channel 12
o Live News Telecast
o African American Family
 The Obama family was featured on this news cast. This family of course consists of President Barrack Obama, his wife Michelle, and their two daughters.
o This family was portrayed positively.

• Thursday March 26, 2009
o Chicago Tribune
 Chicagoland newspaper
o Public Interest Article
o African American Family
 The Obama family was again featured in this newspaper article. It involved Barrack and Michelle Obama and their two kids returning to their home in Chicago.
o This family was portrayed positively

• Thursday March 26, 2009
o Drumline
 Movie about a drummer who attends a Southern University.
o Motion Picture film
o African American Family
 This movie portrays an African American family that consists of mainly a mother and her teenage son. The father is there but he isn’t in the picture
o The family was portrayed negatively in the beginning and slowly transforms to positive towards the end.

• Friday March 27, 2009
o Article about Michelle Obama
 Article featured on Chicagotribune.com about Michelle Obama’s hairstyles, mentions the family.
o Internet News Source
o African American Family
 This article was a public interest piece that portrayed mainly Michelle Obama with snippets featuring her daughters and husband.
o This family was portrayed positively

• Friday March 27, 2009
o ATL
 Film about a group of kids growing up in Atlanta
o Motion Picture film
o African American Family
 This film consists of a family that is unconventional which includes two brothers that live with their Uncle.
o The sense of family was portrayed negatively.

When presented with this assignment I was very excited because I enjoy studying and trying to get a glimpse of the family life in other cultures. In regards to the images I found I found them to be much of the same song but with a different beat every time.
I normally don’t watch the news just because of the negative pictures and images they give of the world, but in the past three days I’ve watched it all three times. I found that most images of African American families shown on the news all seem to have a negative connotation, except for the Obama family. It seems as if the media portrays them as somewhat of an uplifting image to African Americans, and all Americans for that matter.
When it comes to broadcast television, I feel that African American families are portrayed predominantly positively. The two families I chose to observe were the Winslows and the Simmons. The Winslows feature a middle class family that really do well and have a very strong sense of family. The Simmons are from a much wealthier financial background, but also have a strong sense of family and are portrayed positively.
The only media form where I found African American families portrayed as broken, or struggling was in American cinema. They both told a story about how these black teens have a very hard upbringing but surpass a very climatic moment in their lives.