PRSSA LONG BEACH
  • Home
  • About
    • What is PRSSA?
    • Our Roles
    • Chapter History
    • Advisers
  • Membership
    • Become a Member
    • Benefits >
      • Events
      • Partners
      • Mentorship program
      • Conferences
  • Executive Board
    • Meet our Executive Board >
      • About our Board
  • PRSSA LB Bateman Team
    • PRSSA LB Bateman Team
    • 2023 Know Your News LB Bateman Team
  • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Media
    • Know Your News LB
    • Newsroom
    • Gallery
  • Contact

Colorism in Media

12/6/2019

0 Comments

 
How Far We've Come and How Far We Need to Go
​By: Autumn Lewis  
Picture
Colorism, also known as skin color stratification, is discrimination based on the shade of one’s skin tone. It usually happens within the same ethnic or racial group, specifically minorities. Colorism usually favors those of lighter shades, giving them access to more resources, job opportunities and all-around better treatment than their darker skinned counterparts. It is a socially constructed hierarchy of sorts that exists due to the perpetuation of Eurocentric beauty standards within all forms of media. 

Company promotion via the main stream media used to completely lack representation of people with darker skin when it came to marketing products and services. One would see this lack of representation mainly with beauty companies not featuring diverse skin tones in their commercials or including diverse shades in their products. 

But in the past few years, there has been a large shift when it comes to the inclusivity of different shades of skin color. One of the most prominent examples of this shift was when singer/actress Rihanna released her make up line Fenty Beauty. It had an array of foundations that included over 40 different shades. The brand itself is known for embracing the nature of all skin tones and gender. 

Not only did Fenty Beauty draw international acclaim for its diversity, it inspired other brands to start marketing with a broader range of shades of people. Even movies started to include more darker skinned people in lead roles.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the movie Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, grossed $1.29 billion to date and currently ranks as the top-grossing movie title of all time. The notable part of this success when it came to marketing and colorism, is the numerous darker skinned actors that had lead roles in the movie. The world of media and equal representation has come pretty far when it comes to inclusion of darker shades of people.

However there is still more work to be done. Brands, entertainment and influencers must opt for all skin shades when it comes to representing brands and products in the media. Lead roles for movies must be equally distributed among all shades of people. Product and service marketing must always feature darker skinned individuals as well as lighter skinned individuals when they are able. Colorism is a social construct and it can be obliterated by the main medium that continues to perpetuate it; the media.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    BLOG

    Looking to get published on our blog?

    Email your topics (or drafts) to prssalb@gmail.com to get started. The publishing deadline for Fall 2022 is November 10.
    DRAFTS must be submitted before this deadline.
    ​Drafts submitted after the deadline will NOT be published.

    Categories

    All
    Content Creation
    Instagram
    Internship
    Journalism Major
    Marketing
    Mental Health
    Public Relations Major
    Social Media
    Twitter

    Archives

    December 2022
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    May 2017
    December 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015

    RSS Feed

Picture
CONNECT​
DISCOVER
ADDRESS
ABOUT | EXECUTIVE BOARD | BLOG | CONTACT | JOIN
Department of Journalism  ​& Public Relations
1250 Bellflower Blvd., LA4-106
Long Beach, CA 90840
© COPYRIGHT 2019 PR​SSA LB. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
DISCLAIMER: By attending our meetings and events, you are releasing your consent to being photographed and filmed. 
​Your presence is consent to the release of your likeness to be posted and used on any of our marketing materials.
PRSSA Long Beach reserves the right to use any photograph/video taken at any event.
  • Home
  • About
    • What is PRSSA?
    • Our Roles
    • Chapter History
    • Advisers
  • Membership
    • Become a Member
    • Benefits >
      • Events
      • Partners
      • Mentorship program
      • Conferences
  • Executive Board
    • Meet our Executive Board >
      • About our Board
  • PRSSA LB Bateman Team
    • PRSSA LB Bateman Team
    • 2023 Know Your News LB Bateman Team
  • Calendar
  • Blog
  • Media
    • Know Your News LB
    • Newsroom
    • Gallery
  • Contact