Understanding the effects of and being able to identify media bias is a skill that is not only valuable for politicians, but for every American. Noam Chomsky is a 97 year old professor at the University of Pennsylvania who phrased it best: “the elite media sets a framework within which others operate.” Not only can the mainstream media distort the sincerity of current events, but it has created resentment for foreign countries.

I say this from personal experience. As much as I wish to deny it, the media that I have consumed over the years led me to have prejudiced beliefs against other cultures. It was only until recent years that I came to the realization that American media purposely villainizes the rest of the world.

Mostly through entertainment, I found that the “bad guys” in most movies had a thick foreign accent, or had darker colored skin. One of the most well known examples of this would have to sadly be one of my personal favorites: Rocky V’s Drago. Ivan Drago was a violent emotionless character that, of course, had a thick Russian accent and was unremorseful for the death of the beloved American character, Apollo Creed.

Other examples include entertainment companies such as WWE, Marvel, or classic American movies. To set the record straight, I am not specifically calling out these examples for any reason other than the fact that I grew up rooting against these characters that are depicted as evil. While I understand that some of these productions were made after major events that caused the American people to have hatred towards specific people or organizations, the ones that are truly paying the price for the depictions are the innocent.

In regards to WWE, there used to be one specific wrestler, Rusev, who was from Bulgaria and was always depicted as beastly and barbaric. As a kid growing up rooting against him, I found myself having resentment towards Russian culture. I thought of Russians as the “bad guys” who were emotionless. Now, I realize how wrong that assumption truly was, and how it was influenced by the entertainment industry.

While the entertainment industry has started to lean in the right direction, there are still characters within WWE to this day that misrepresent non-American cultures. For example, the “Ring General” Gunther is a German wrestler who is violent and angry. He makes an entrance to an opera-style German song and donning a long trench coat to intimidate his opponent. As a German-American myself, it is mildly upsetting to still see German culture be depicted as abrasive and aggressive.

However, I have no problem giving credit where credit is due. WWE has moved in the right direction through their stars. The Mexican representation has exploded in WWE, and they are getting better at celebrating cultural differences rather than pinning them as the “bad guys”. I also think that Marvel has gotten way better at this too. In the earlier days of Marvel movies, the villains in movies such as “Iron Man” or “Captain America” tended to be characters of foreign nationality, but now they have expanded to include a large number of cultures. I understand that some of the villains’ culture is crucial to the plot, but it causes viewers to start to think of that culture differently. It’s mostly involuntary, but it’s human nature. Media has a huge impact on the way we view current events and even our neighbors, so it is important that the American people can recognize when someone or a group of people are being distorted.