Representation of Minorities Displayed on College Webpages

Advertisements play an important role in nearly everyone's life. Every single day people view a wide range of advertisements. With the population of America becoming more and more diverse in terms of race it would make sense that advertisements would reflect that same concept. However, it does not appear that advertisements actually reflect this idea. In the 2010 ads for the Super Bowl, only four out of the sixty-seven featured an African American in an ad. (Lapchick, 2010) Not only are minorities not being adequately represented in advertisements but they also only get featured for certain ads. African Americans find themselves featured in ads for beauty whereas Asians are found more in ads for technology. (Sheehan, 2014) There is obviously a misrepresentation of minorities in ads however, what is currently unknown is if this is true when it comes to college ads. Nearly every college, if not all, are advertising their schools so that more and more people will attend their school. The true question is whether or not college ads have continued with the mainstream ideals of advertising. A way to analyze this is by selecting 3 universities and 3 community or junior colleges by random and then looking at students presented on their website front page. Students who were being showcased on the website are students interacting with each other and are singled out for a variety of reasons. By comparing how many times a minority student appears in an advertisement versus what the overall percentage that minority group makes up at that specific school, one could determine whether or not that minority group is being adequately represented in ads. This is important because schools could possibly not be representing what their student demographics show. Just in all types of other advertisements this could affect how someone views a school and potentially how someone selects a school. This deeply impacts both the students and the schools.