What is representation? Why is it Important?

 

According to Race to a Cure, representation is how societal aspects such as race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, and social issues are presented. The importance of representation especially in mass media lies in the educational impact as it exposes people to unique experiences beyond their own and broadens our perspectives of society. In the forever diversifying, multicultural, and diverse world is of utmost importance to amplify the voices and stories of persons, especially the Latinx Community. But it is important to note that poor representation is as harmful as no representation.

 

Representation is of utmost importance especially in Hollywood and in media because a movement for representation has allowed different types of stories to emerge, and a trickle of Afro-Latina stories has been brought to the big screen (Chow). Furthermore, contemporary mass media has the power to steer attention to and from public issues and determines which problems will be tackled or ignored by media, good representation that gains publicity has the potential to make people think about social and political ramifications beyond their immediate experiences (Fursch).

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