Yes, I definitely believe that negative stereotypes exist in the media today. It is the media that has designed and created them, and it it through the media that we look at others around us and often negatively stereotype them. The media has done an excellent job of creating negative stereotypes of women, elderly people, celebrities, politicians, computer experts, homeless people, smokers, drug-users, and more.
According to our textbook, we learn that socialization is "the process of integrating people within society through the transmission of values, social norms, and knowledge to new members of the group." (p. 91) This idea suggests that we learn what is important and valued in our society from the media.
I wasn't quite sure exactly what stereotypes were and so I googled it. Isn't the internet wonderful? I saw from one website that we often stereotype people by race. Others view Americans in certain ways, and we view different cultures through the stereotype image the media has created for us. The website defined stereotypes as, "generalizations, or assumptions, that people make about the characteristics of all members of a group, based on an image (often wrong) about what people in that group are like." ( http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/problem/stereoty.htm).
From reading on the web I'm learning that there are a lot more negative stereotypes than I realized. There are stereotypes of Iranians, Central American's, Native Americans, lawyers, doctors, public relations people, news writers and reporters, and on and on. I've included some pictures I found by actually searching under the term, "Stereotypical Pictures."
The media has control over stereotypes. People consume media and then view the world around them largely from the eyes of what they have consumed. If the media tells them one thing, they are likely to view people the way the media viewed them. I think that one of the biggest issues we face with this is the degradation of women. With pornography so rampant in the world around us, women are viewed as objects instead of beautiful daughters of God. Men and women treat women differently because of this. We have a stereotypical babe, California beach girl, feminist, etc. 
Here is an example of a typical Asian tourist I found.
Here is an example of a typical Asian tourist I found. 
Here is a picture of a stereotypical German I found online as well. Through all forms of mass media negative stereotypes are created and displayed. We must be wise and not let the media shape the way in which we view our world.
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