In my opinion, the single biggest issue in mass media today is the misrepresentation of people who do not fall into the white, cisgender male category. This includes women, members of the LGBTQ community, people of color (and specifically women of color), and many more. To me, this is a representation of a much larger issue than just what we see on television, hear on the radio, read online or in the newspaper. In fact, this is an issue of who holds power in our society and how those groups in power exert this on other underrepresented groups. It is blatantly obvious that the group in power is white cisgender men. This is incredibly important in the media industry, though, because of the massive impact it has on all consumers of media.
Media classifies people in a wide variety, albeit very specific, way. For example, Gray discusses the underrepresentation of African American’s in all fields of media. One of the biggest issues with this fact is that, it has been this way for so long, that the general population doesn’t quite grasp that it’s an issue. White men dominate the movie industry, and not just because they get more acting roles or play a major role in the production side of things, but also in the way that they are compensated for their work. This goes for women and members of the LGBTQ community as well. Recently, people have become more outspoken about this, but it has not made that much of a change in the industry. In the grand scheme of things, this affects the way people who absorb media, see themselves. If you are part of the underrepresented group, and you see someone who looks/acts/feels the way you do in a marginalized role, you start to see yourself in that way in your personal life. For so long, women were considered second class citizens (and I would argue that this is still the case in many ways today), that women tend to let that permeate their lives. In Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In she discusses how this idea is front and center in the business world as well. Women tend not to ask for raises as often as men do, etc.
If the media industry did a better job of representing all types of people, I believe that we wouldn’t see this impact our culture the way it does. As an audience member, perhaps we wouldn’t see ourselves in a certain way because we wouldn’t be portrayed in a marginalized way in all forms of media. I see this as a major issue that affects a person’s self-worth and self-esteem. Perhaps more women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community would go after jobs that they perhaps wouldn’t, if it was represented evenly in the media.
Media Theory (Thur) 
You made an interesting point about underrepresented groups seeking jobs. It’s entirely possible that since the media portrays them as second class citizens, that mindset may creep into the subconscious and make people feel like they do not fit into mainstream society. It’s almost like the panopticon principle we discussed last week regarding the idea of correcting and deviants from the norm. In this case, media identifies what type of classifications fit the norm and assigns stereotypes to those that do not.
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Like you say, lack of representation or misrepresentation, are huge issues for all the groups you mention. I think also that we should acknowledge the way media ties in to all other spheres of human life, and how oppression is distributed across politics, education, healthcare, and the corporate sphere. The skewed representation in media can be found in all those places, and is reinforced by the synchronicity of that oppression. Misrepresentation comes from society where it is the norm, and is reinforced in the media, which is why, like you said, changing media would have a positive impact on society at large.
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