These judgements are a part of life. and change over time. For example: Smokers used to be the height of sophistication whereas smoking is now a rather lower class thing to indulge in.
Quite often sterotypes are negative. This isn't always the case though because one stereotype is that Asians are good at Mathematics.
Power of Representation
The media can shape the thoughts and beliefs of people.
An Example of this is the way in which the Nazis made the Jewish seem in the Second World War.
This encouraged persecution and prejudice.
Led to the Holocaust that killed over 2 million people.
The media encouraged indifference and this was conveyed through propaganda.
The public came to believe that Jews were undesirable.
Gender Representation
In the 1950's and 1960's Women were almost always portrayed in the same way. Which is where the feminist movement came from.
Women were displayed as: Looking Attractive, Being a supportive role for the husband, being in charge of house work and children.
Representation of Ethnicity
Stuart Hall in the 1970's
Hall studied the representation of black people on British Television in the 1970's
He found that black people were represented in three ways.
The Faithful and Happy Slave.
The primative and cunning natives.
The Clowns and Entertainers
The 3 types of representation helped to reinforce ideologies of the time.
Such as slavery and colonialism is acceptable and that black people embrace and accept this hegemonic position