CONSTRUCTING OTHERNESS: SOCIALLY EMBEDDED MECHANISMS OF CREATING AND SUSTAINING STEREOTYPES AND PREJUDICES IN THE MEDIA. THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

PURPOSE: Negative stereotypes and prejudices towards stigmatised social Others have always existed in macrosocial discourses, created and proliferated by popular narratives, macrosocial institutions and scientific discourses. The invention of the mass media provided an optimised version of the previous mechanism for their mainstreaming and enhanced processes of marginalisation, stigmatisation and social exclusion. The paper aims to propose an analytical framework for the analysis of media stereotypes and construction of the image of the Other. METHODS discuss a possible synergy between Discourse Studies, Critical Media Political Economy and Critical Media Cultural Studies for deconstructing media stereotypes, analysing language, the social context and socially embedded relations of ideological and economic power. RESULTS focus on the mechanisms of Othering, involving different theories of prejudice, stereotyping and stigmatisation, as means and strategies of justification, as well as how they relate to media ownership and socio-economic performance. CONCLUSIONS further advance the proposed theoretical synergy and its possible application to fill in certain gaps in Economic Sociology.

Keywords

• othering
• negative media stereotypes
• prejudices
• theoretical synergy
• discourse studies
• critical media political economy
• critical media cultural studies