The media we consume helps us construct our opinions of the world we live in. But what happens when our view is distorted through underrepresentation, ethnic stereotyping and prejudice? To promote more accurate portrayals and hold the media accountable, Brendesha Tynes, an entrepreneur and a professor at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, launched Rate My Media. The website is the first of its kind and it allows the public to rate and review all forms of media for inclusivity and diversity.
Speaking to TakePart, Tynes said that the website is meant “to be the place that people who care about equity and inclusion go to, to find out—whether it’s something they’re potentially going to buy or go and see—how [the media is] doing on these issues.”
The public can access the website search for or add the form of media they’d like to review. From books to websites to film and television, the website helps the user decide whether or not they will move forward and engage with whatever form of media it is, based on what they find on our site, explains Tynes.
Functioning like Yelp and other popular rating websites, Rate My Media lets users know whether their form of media has accurately represented people of colour or if they’ve been unbiased in their portrayal of marginalised groups and more.
“A clear example of historical inaccuracies would be the movie Exodus that was supposed to be about ancient Egypt, but most of the actors were white,” Tynes said. “There has been a long history of depicting Egyptians as white, but you just need to read historical texts like UNESCO’s General History of Africa to know that Egyptians were black- and brown-skinned.”
