Reading Review Sheet

Smith et al. (1998 - UCSB Only)

4 Foundations of Research
• Foundation 1: Television violence contributes to harmful effects on viewers.
• Foundation 2: Three types of harmful effects can occur from viewing televised violence.
◦ learning aggressive attitudes and behaviors
◦ desensitization to violence
◦ increased fear of being victimized by violence
• Foundation 3: Not all violence poses the same degree of risk of these harmful effects.
• Foundation 4: Not all viewers are affected by violence the same way.

Factors in Table 1 (known factor, effect, why)

• Attractive Perpetrator (increases likely income learning aggression)
• Attractive victim (increases likely outcome of fear)
• Justified violence (increases likely outcome of learning aggression)
• Unjustified violence (decreases likely outcome of of learning aggression, increases likely outcome of fear)
• Conventional weapons (increases likely outcome of learning aggression)
• Extensive/Graphic violence (increases likely outcome of learning aggression, increases likely outcome of fear, increases likely outcome of
desensitization)
• Realistic violence (increases likely outcome of learning aggression, increases likely outcome of fear)
• Rewards (increases likely outcome of learning aggression, increases likely outcome of fear)
• Punishments (decreases likely outcome of learning aggression, decreases likely outcome of fear)
• Pain/harm cues (decreases likely outcome of learning aggression)
• Humor (increases likely outcome of learning aggression, increases likely outcome of desensitization)

Definition, Sample, Units of Analysis

• Definition of Violence: Violence is defined as any overt depiction of a credible threat of physical force or the actual use of such force
intended to physically harm an animate being or group of beings. Violence also includes certain depictions of physically harmful
consequences against an animate being or group that occur as a result of unseen violent means.
• Sample: During a nine month period each year from Oct 1994 to June 1997 they randomly selected programs on 23 TV channels to create
a composite week of content for each source. We monitored programs between the hours of 6am and 11pm, a total of 17 hours a day across
seven days of the week, yielding a sum of approximately 119 hours per channel. The 23 channels we studied represent the television
sources most frequently viewed by the American public with the exception that they did not evaluate sports or news and thus omitted
channels such as CNN and ESPN. The channels they assessed can be grouped into five categories: broadcast networks, independent
broadcast, public broadcast, basic cable, and premium cable. In total, they samples nearly 10,000 hours of TV programming over a 3 year
period.
• Units of Analysis: First, they identified each violent incident, or interaction between a perpetrator and a victim. Second, they analyzed
each violent scene, or instance of ongoing, uninterrupted violence. A violent scene, such as a bar fight, often contains several violent
incidents between different types of characters. Finally, they analyzed the entire violent program. Some contextual features of violence
reflect what happens between characters at the most micro-level or portion of the plot, which they labeled the violent incident.

4 findings (*ized)
1. Much of TV violence is still glamorized- Across the three eras of this study, nearly 40% of the violent incidents on television
are initiated by characters who possess qualities that make them attractive role models. More than one third of violent programs
feature "bad" characters who are never punished anywhere in the plot. Fully 71% of violent scenes contain no remorse, criticism,
or penalty for violence at the time that it occurs
2. Most violence on television continues to be sanitized- roughly half of the violent incidents on television show no physical harm
or pain to the victim. Less than 20% of the violent programs portray the long-term damage of violence to the victim's family,
friends, and community
3. Much of the serious physical aggression on television is still trivialized- more than half of the violent incidents feature
[hysical aggression that ould be lethal or incapacitating if it were to occur in real life. At least 40% of the violent scenes on
television include humor
4. Very few programs emphasize an anti-violence theme- Less than 5% of violent programs feature an anti-violence message
across the three years of the study
Prevalence of violence
% of shows w/vio, rate per hour- 60% of TV programs contain violence, or 6 violent incidents are shown per hour
Antiviolence, what is it, how often does it
appear on TV- Antiviolence would occur in a program that is educational rather than harmful for the audience. For example, violence can be
shown to have strong negative consequences to the victim, or alternatives to violence can be emphasized. Less than 5% of violent programs have an
anti-violent theme
High Risk, what is it, how often does it appear on TV, where most likely to be found?
• Certain depictions can be labeled "high risk" because several plot elements that encourage aggressive attitudes and behavoirs are all
featured in one scene. These high risk portrayals include
1. a perpetrator who is an attractive role model
2. violence that seems justified
3. violence that goes unpunished (no remorse, criticism, or penalty)
4. minimal consequences to the victim
5. violence that seems realistic to the viewer
• For young viewers, this type of programming is most likely found in cartoons
• The average american preschooler who watched mostly cartoons is exposed to over 500 high-risk portrayals of violence each year.
Signorielli (1990)
Message System Analysis what is it?
the analysis examines data relating to violence isolated in programs and characters in animals in annual week-long samples of prime-time and
weekend-daytime network dramatic programs broadcast btw 1967 and 1985
definition of violence? violence is defined in a simple and straightforward way as the overt expression of physical force (with or without weapon)
against self or other on pain of being hurt or killed, or actually hurting or killing. Idle threats, verbal abuse, or gestures without credible violent
consequences are not coded as violence.
what is in and what is out?
Any act of violence that fits the definition, regardless of conventional notions about types of violence that may have "serious" effects, is coded. This
includes violence that occurs in realistic, serious, fantasy or humorous contexts. "Accidental" violence and "acts of nature" are recorded because they
are always purposeful in fiction, claim victims, and demonstrate power. Dramatic action is NEVER accidental or "natural". Coders isolate only those
details presented in the particular episode included in the sample. Details of a program's or character's portrayal that may be "well-known" by "fans"
would not be coded unless specifically mentioned in the episode.
sample
the sample consists of 2.134 programs (1.211 in prime time and 923 during the weekend daytime hours) and 6,206 major characters (3,868 in prime
time and 2.338 on Sat and SUn mornings)
findings violence on tv
the analysis shows that the basic structure of themes, characterizations, action, and fate in the world of dramatic television has been remarkably stable
for the last 20 yrs. Cartoons (90%) have been saturated with mostly nonlethal violence. The rate of violent incidents in children's programs is
typically more than three times the rate in prime-time (19 yrs cumm. avg is 21 violent incidents per hr). 73% of this violence is comic or humorous.
The analysis also reveals that violence is used in programming to demonstrate who can get away with what against whom, and who should submit to
whom (tell's us who matters and who doesn't). In prime-time network programs, for every 10 male characters who commit violence there are 11 who
fall victim to it. But for every 10 female perpetrators of violence, there are 16 that fall victim to it. Minority and foreign woman pay the highest
price, no matter how large their role (every 10 perpetrators is to 22 to 21 victims). The only group that is more likely to commit violence is formerly
married woman- for every 10 victimized, 11 commit violence. "BAD" men and woman are equally likely to commit violence as be victimized. It is
clear that woman, young and old people and some minorities are the most vulnerable to victimization on TV.
Bushman & Huesmann (2001)
How widespread is TV Violence?
 when was TV introduced?
effect of WWII
Explosion of Violence in Real World
figure 11.4
do all countries respond to TV vio
like the US? Which ones do/don't?
How researchers study relationship
between TV vio and agg? ALL
Cohen's estimates of correlations
What science says about TV vio
& aggression - ALL
How large is the effect of TV vio on
aggression - All except BESD
Know Figure 11.5
Why does TV vio increase agg? ALL
Moderators - ALL
age, sex, social class, etc.
Counteracting effects of TV Vio - all

Lauzen & Dozier (1999)

Purpose of the article
§ This article summarizes a stream of research examining the role of women behind the scenes in the film industry and on screen and behind the
scenes in the television industry. Overall, women are underrepresented in TV and film. Also, there is a relationship between women behind the scenes
and women on screen.
Structural approach, auteur approach, ideologies
§ Structural Approach
§ The structural approach considered by Gitlin (1983) and Turow (1984) suggests that the business imperatives of television overwhelm most
creative influence.
§ Suggests that the creative community bows to the greater power of its employers who, in turn, are driven by market forces
§ Dismisses the impact of behind-the-scenes workers. If producers, writers, and others have little influence on the final media product, then the
gender, race, and calss of the behind-the-scenes community is irrelevant and inconsequential to the viewing public.
§ Effects only those workers
§ However, if, in fact, producers, writers, and others directly and significantly influence media content, then these behind-the-scenes employment
issues have implications for viewers.
§ Schiller—challenges the view of the non influential workers
§ Auteur approach
§ “movies are dominated by the personal vision of the director” (Giannetti)
§ directors= central and dominant influence of the final filmed product
§ film= director’s medium, most power. tv= producer-writer’s medium, most power
§ like structural approach, has a narrow conceptualization of the multiple complex forces tht ultimately shape media products
§ ignores business framework and market forces
à a more comprehensive approach: creative community at center of a system of influence, but these people are also
working within a system of constraints defined by the larger business system
§ Ideologies
§ When men tell the story—men are more visible, important, varied, and interesting
§ Male directors—5 ½ times as much screen time allotted to men as to women
§ Female directors—only a 12% difference between genders
§ Not all behind the scenes women hold a similar ideology
§ Some may argue that women must assume a more patriarchal ideology to work in film/ TV
§ Some feminists, some not
§ “women’s voice”—not necessarily a good unique
§ “not big on the whole women thing.. you’re an individual”
§ array of ideologies and complex linkage between micro (auteur) and macro (structural) level forces
Film industry
% of women working as ex prod, dir, writers
§ Career: 1987 1992 1997
§ Exec. Prod 6% 12% 21%
§ Directors 3% 5% 5%
§ Writers 7% 8% 13%
à 1997: only 15% of roles were women
have the numbers changed over time?
§ Women have made substantial advances as exec producers
§ Doubled the figure of writers in 20 years
§ Directors, up slightly
o Some roles have increased, some have remained stagnant
three explanations for under representation
§ 1. Size of the male audience for films significantly overwhelms the female audience
o however, the latest data says no difference in gender
§ 2. Perhaps films made by women earn less at the box office than films made by men, thus justifying the fewer numbers of women working behind
the scenes
o however, no significant difference in amount of money made, sometimes even higher than men
§ 3. Women are simply not interested in working in the film industry and that their numbers are reflected in low enrollment figures in the top US
film schools
o women were underrepresented in graduate schools in 3/ top 6 film schools, but otherwise well represented in 1997
TV industry
samples of shows examined
§ 1995-1996 season: 39 situation comedies, 26 dramas = 65 programs
§ 1997-1998 season: 36 situation comedies, 28 dramas = 64 programs
o programs were coded for characters (major vs. minor, gender, age, race, marital status, occupation) and program (genre)
% of characters women, both samples
§ 39% of all characters in the top-rated series of the 1997-8 prime-time season, up slightly from the 37% in 1995-6 season
women are likely to be what demography
§ tended to be younger than age 40, white, and single
o over represents younger adult women and under represents older adult women from real life numbers
behind the scenes employment for women
§ 1995-6: women compromised 28% of producers, 11% of directors, 22% of writers
§ 1997-8: women compromised 21% of all creators, ex. prod, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography.
§ 29% producers, 20% writers, exec prod 19%, creators 18%, directors 8%, direc of photography 0%
o à women remain underrepresented in key behind-the-scenes roles
Language and gender
differences when woman was EP, P or writer
§ Relation between Number of Major Female Characters on Programs and Presence of Women behind the Scenes
§ Exec producer 1995-6 1997-8
o No women 39% 36%
o One or more 52 42
Producer
§ No women 40 36
§ One or more 48 39
Writer
§ No women 41 37
§ One or more 47 46
in on screen gender portrayals, language use
§ Men and women exhibited similar patterns of powerful language use: first word, last word, and interruptions
§ Men initiated most powerful language—consistent with greater number of major male characters
§ Major male and major female characters manifested similar patterns of powerful language use
§ Programs with women in roles behind the scenes tend to have a larger percentage of major female characters
Linz et al. (1984)
Reason for the study: Wanted to answer the question: What impact does repeated viewing of slasher films have on men? specifically they wanted
to look at 3 things:
1. The participants' perceptions of violence
2. Their emotional reaction to violence- are they more numb & comfortable with the violence?
3. Their perceptions of the victim of violence
Sample: random sample, held a prescreening where they eliminated those w/ high scores on hostility & psychoticism scales because they wanted
to eliminate any one that would ruminate the study or who stated willingness to rape. Those remaining were split into two groups: The control group
which was told they had scheduling difficulties and would not view any movies & the treatment group who were told they would watch 6 films over
5 days and would be compensated.
 Methods & Design: There are 4 Phases: 1. Initial prescreening 2. Film Viewing Session: immediately after viewing films researchers measured
participants: perceptions, emotional reactions, and assesment of victims. 3. Simulated Rape Trial: On the 5th day of the study participants were told
the last film did not arrive and that they would view a documentary rape case for a law school study, after exposure to the tape participants were
asked to judge the verdict of defendant, judge defendant's intentions, and to judge the victim's injury/responsibility 4. Debriefing: three phases--
immediately after, 2 days later, and 2 month follow up
Debriefing-see methods and design
Major findings:study found that in terms of the participants perceptions of violence, they perceived less violence after viewing the
films. Emotional reactions: found films more enjoyable, less depressing, and less anxious. Assessment of victims: saw films as less degrading to
the victims in the film
Implications: trends in the study showed participants felt: 1. greater responsibility to victim 2. resisted assailant less 3. less sympathy for victim
Hetsroni (2007)
Rational for study
- Want to examine the frequency of sexual content on American prime-time network programming
- There are longstanding criticisms that commercial television programming targets its presentation of sexuality. Politicians, educators, academic
experts, and even people who work for the TV industry often express the opinion that the amount of sexual content on the most heavily watched
programs has increased dramatically over the years . As a result, the claim goes, there is too much sex on TV and something should be done about it.
-Television’s portrayal of sexual behavior and its verbal references to such behavior help to shape viewers’ conception of sexuality and—particularly
—the
perception of sex among sexually inexperienced young spectators. The influence is noticed in cultivation, disinhibition, and learning, which is the
most pervasive effect of exposure to sexual content through television.
Type of study
-longitudinal meta analysis: used this to review 25 content analyses that measured frequency of sex content on American prime time network
programming between 1975-2004. The overall sample is composed 2,558 hours of broadcasts from 18 seasons.The frequency per hour of most of the
sexual contents consistently decreased over theyears. This is particularly notable for dialogues about sex and normative heterosexual conduct, but it is
also true for illegal sexual interactions and messages about risks and
responsibilities in sexual behavior. Homosexuality is an exception, as its frequency increased considerably over the past 2 decades.
Research Questions 1, 2, 4 (rational
and question)
Sample, Time Frame Explored
Measures
Results (Especially, figures 1-3)
-there has been a decrease in frequency of sexual content on American prime-time network programming throughout the years.
Most of the normative expressions of sexuality (heterosexual kissing, petting, implied intercourse, and talking about the aforementioned
behaviors) have decreased their presence on the networks screens over the past 3 decades. Explicit intercourse has become slightly more prevalent
since the late 1980s, but it is still a rare sight: According to the most recent measurements, the average viewer would have to watch the networks for
50 hours (not including commercials and promos) in
order to see one explicit presentation of the act. In contrast, intercourse between unmarried partners and illegal sexual interactions, that is,
prostitution and rape, have joined the descending trend over the years. In fact, if we disregard the relatively small increase in the frequency of explicit
intercourse, the only sexual content that
considerably expanded its presence on the networks screens during the prime-time hours is homosexuality.
The numbers lie (all)
People fail to see that (all)
Berg (1990)
Definition of stereotype:
-A psychological mechanism having to do with the creation of categories, which allows people to manage the swirl of data presented to the from the
environment.
-Also states that a stereotype indicates a basic cognitive process by which humans make sense of the world, is a picture in our head, and is an
oversimplification of a group.
Know the six stereotypes of the Hispanic
1. El Bandido-treacherous, shifty, dishonest
2. The Half Breed Harlot-provides as much titillation as current censorship will permit
3. Male Buffoon-simple minded, childish
4. Female Clown-object of comic derision
5. Latin Lover-seduces, is sensual, tender, a sexual danger
6. The Dark Lady-mysterious, virginal, inscrutable, aristocratic; alluring because of it

Fiske (2008); Briscoe-Smith (2008)

Know "gist" of each
Fiske
People can identify another persons apparent race, gender and age in a matter of milliseconds and start making up stereotypes for each. White people
associate other white faces more as true faces as opposed to black faces; black people associate black faces as a true face more than white faces.
People automatically favor their own group over others. People favor those of their own race or ethnicity. We rely on physical characteristics to
determine whether someone is in or out of our group. Messages from generations back are absorbed, accepted, and perpetuated, often unconsciously
by our culture’s members or institutions. This is how prejudices become so widespread and automatic. People who exhibit more prejudices attitudes
or behaviors exhibit more amygdala, a section of the brain which is involved in feelings of vigilance. Among whites, black faces trigger more
amygdala activity only when they see the faces for a time so short (30 milliseconds) that it amounts to subconscious exposure. Looking at black
faces for a bit longer (525 milliseconds) and processing them consciously, their amygdala was not unusually high, but instead showed inhibition and
self control. When people placed others into social category the saw white faces differently than black faces, but the gray dot on the face allowed
whites to look at black faces differently. If people think beyond peoples appearance, their brain reacts differently towards them. The environment
can interact with human conditions for good or ill. Social conditions can reduce prejudice, but it can also exacerbate it. People will act towards
prejudices when put under stress, pressured by peers, or receive approval from authority figures to do so. Putting people in the same team helps
people overcome prejudices. People judge beyond peoples appearance and usual stereotypes when they are benefiting from being with them. Under
the right conditions, contact between members of different groups can reduce conflicts and prejudices. We have to learn about each other in order to
stop the stereotyping. Our biases are not so hardwired after all, given the right social engineering. If we are informed and persistent, this is a fight
we can win.
Briscoe-Smith
Kids notice racial differences from a very young age. Children grasp these differences by gazing at faces of people of different color longer than
faces of their own color. By the age of three children start choosing to play with people of their own race more than people of a different race.
Children who recognize racial differences show a stronger general ability to identify the subtle differences between categories like color, shape, size.
Children noticing differences between races are undergoing a healthy development. Kids views only become prejudice when they start linking these
physical traits to flaws in character or behavior. Children ages four to seven who have the ability to identify and recognize these differences are less
prejudiced. If a child is taught about racial differences, they are more able to identify racism, and are more likely to have positive views about ethnic
minorities. Not talking to children about racial differences only confuses them and makes them believe that it is wrong to talk about racial
differences. Teaching children about racial pride and how to make sense of the differences around them can serve as an act of teaching and
supporting tolerance.
Bogel (2008)
Know the following prototypes (define, give
examples from Bogel): Tom, Coon, Tragic
Mulatto, Mammy, Buck & Birth of a Nation
· Toms – Socially acceptable “Good Negro” character.
o Usually chased, harassed, hounded, flogged, enslaved, insulted and are submissive to the white masses. They endear
themselves to the white audiences.
o Example
§ For Massa’s Sake (1911)
· Former slave is attached to his master that he sells himself back into slavery to help his
master through financial hardship
§ Confederate Spy (1910)
· Uncle Daniel is a negro spy for the south that dies before a firing squad but is happy that
he did it for massa
· Coons – Harmless, little screwball creation whose eyes popped whose antics were pleasant and diverting. Developed into the
most blatantly degrading of all black stereotypes. Pure coons emerged as no-account niggers, unreliable, crazy, lazy or subhuman
creatures
o Comic fool
o Example
§ Pickaninines and Watermelon
§ Chicken Thief
§ How Rastus Got his turkey – slapstick comedy centering on the antics of Rastus
· Mulattoes – The white man and black mistresses child.
o Used as a tragic character ruined by the fact she has “black blood”
o Would try to pass as white
o Example
 § The Debt – White mans wife and his black mistress have children at the same time. The son and mulatto
daughter fall in love but is revealed they are brother and sister. Their lives are ruined because of their
relation and of her Mulatto blood
· Mammies – Related to the coon. She is distinguished by her sex and fierce independence. She is usually big, fat and cantankerous.
o Servant position
o Examples
§ Coon town Suffragette – Group of washroom mammies who organize a militant movement to keep their
good for nothing husbands at home.
· Bucks
o Black Brutes
§ Barbaric black out to raise havoc. Characterized by physical violence
§ Rebellious slaves, subhuman and feral
§ Examples
· Birth of a Nation – Brutes flog the camerons faithful servant
· So the Red Rose
· Uptight
o Black Buck
§ Big, baaad niggers, over sexed and savage, violent and frenzied as they lust for white flesh.
§ Examples
· Birth of a Nation – Lydia is a strong but violent woman in the movie that is hostile to the
white world.

Sparks (Chap 5)
1) The Research of Brandon Centerwall:
His analysis of crime statistics paints a very disturbing picture. In 1945, just before TV emerged on scene in US, statistics show 3 homicides per
100,000 people. By 1974, that figure had doubled. Similar data emerged for Canada. One can argue that during these years, many changes occurred
in addition to the introduction of TV. Centerwall claims that the data do really point to TV as the major culprit in the rise of homicides.
He selected other countries that were very similar to the United States in a number of ways.
2) The Catharsis Hypothesis:
Seymore Feshbach thought, however, that viewing TV could actually be therapeutic for a person filled with nger or frustration. TV could help purge
those pent-up emotions. He borrowed this idea from the ancient Greeks. The idea of catharsis (to cleanse, or to get rid of) goes back to the Greek
culture, which thrived on good drama. The Greeks believed that a person could get rid of grief and misery by going to a play that featured other
characters who were grieving.
Feshbach simply extended the idea of catharsis to media violence. He reasoned that a person could cleanse pent up feelings of anger by watching
other people act aggressively. He said it could tend to lower the amount of aggressive behavior that might occur if angry people couldn’t release their
frustrations by watching others act out violence on TV.
(pg 82 - evidence, lesson from his research)
3) A Priming Analysis of the Effect of media violence: [ pg 83-84]

Sparks (Chap 6)
1) Sorting out definitions and terms
• Over time, the term pornography seems to have become associated with material that features explicit sexual behavior and nudity in a
context frequently characterized by depictions of one character exerting physical or psychological dominance over another. Often, this type
of material contains explicit violence that is shown at the same time as the explicit sexuality.
The term erotic media seems to be more associated with material that features explicit sexual content in the absence of violence and without the overt
power dynamics that appear in pornography.
2) The Commission on Obscenity and Pornography:
In 19 ommission on Obscenity and Pornography. Formed under the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, the commission was put in place because of
the growing concern about the role of pornography in crime and juvenile delinquency. Part of the charge of the commission was to study existing
laws pertaining to pornography and to arrive at a better understanding of the distribution of this material. Media effects scholars were most interested
in another aspect of the commission’s charge- to study the effects of pornography on the public. Studies were conducted. Although the term
pornography did not have the same connotations then as it does today, the report that was issued in 1970 was the most comprehensive document on
the topic up to that time.
[ Read page 93 - 95 for Findings]
3) Research following the Commission Report [ page 95 - 98 ]
Content Available
Perceptual consequences of viewing
Behavioral consequences of viewing
4) The Meese Commission Report on Pornography
[ page 99-100 ]
5) Excitation Transfer
Definition: According to this theory, general arousal from any source can intensify an emotional experience and make it much more prominent than it
would be ordinarily without the arousal.
The implication of this theory is that if people become aroused from watching sex on television, whatever emotions they experience immediately
after viewing may be much more intense than they would be ordinarily.
Sparks Ch. 7
Developmental Theory
• children pass through a series of stages in their cognitive development
• children 2-7 yrs old tend to think perceptually
◦ the concrete, visual appearance of things tends to dominate the child’s interpretation of and reaction to the world
◦ tend to show fright in response to characters and scenes that looked grotesque/menacing [Incredible Hulk, Wicked Witch of the
West, etc]... the fact that they could never occur in the real world doesn’t make a difference; young child can’t focus on more
conceptual or abstract observation
• children older than 7 begin to make shift toward conceptual or abstract thought
◦ report fright from movies/tv shows with events that could actually occur in the real world
◦ fear tends to involve scenes depicting violence or that could happen in real world
Experimenting with Incredible Hulk
• segment of cartoon began with David Banner [Hulk as a human] rescues another guy from an explosion and fire; Banner gets thrown
against the wall by explosion, makes him angry, he turns into Hulk
◦ older children experience fear at the beginning; realistic [fire, explosion, etc]
■ they discard that fear once Banner turns into Hulk; fantasy, unrealistic
◦ younger children experience fear in the second half, when Banner turns into Hulk
■ the beginning fire and explosion are over their head; they get scared when he turns into the “monster” that Hulk is;
they can’t comprehend that Hulk is actually a good guy
• confirms that:
◦ for younger kids, if it looks scary, it probably is
◦ for older kids, if the depiction could really happen/consequences are physically threatening, it will probably generate fear
Why do some fears linger so long?
• explicit memories
◦ concern particular details of an event; memories more susceptible to change and decay
◦ stored in the hippocampus
• implicit memories
◦ designed to be recalled quickly
◦ in the case of fear, the memory might simple contain a negative association with a certain object
■ when we encounter that object years later, negative feeling is activated
◦ stored in amygdala
Sexual dynamic in viewing scary films
• Why might males enjoy scary movies more than females?
◦ Ancient ritual tribal practice of male initiation rites [Zillman]
◦ for thousands of years, society has socialized males to conquer threatening stimuli and act as protector
• Males can test their masculinity by exposing themselves
• Females display appropriate signs of discomfort and their need for protection
• this idea is referred to as gender role socialization

Sparks (Chap 10)

Effect of sex role stereotypes
• “construction of social reality”
• study of over 1,300 adolescents showed that those who were heavy tv viewers tended to have beliefs about the world that were consistent
with the messages of tv
 • Canada study
◦ Notel=town that initially had no access to tv, then received access to 1 channel
◦ Hypotheses both proven true
■ 1] Children who lived in Notel would hold fewer stereotypical attitudes about the appropriateness of various behaviors
than would children who lived in towns with access to tv
■ administered Sex Role Differentiation Scale to 6th and 9th graders
■ 2] When town did gain more access to tv..
■ 2 years later, administered same scale and found that results changed
■ dramatic increase in stereotyped attitudes as result of watching tv
◦ As exposure to gender stereotyping increases, sex-typed behaviors and sex-role stereotyped attitudes increase
Media images of thin bodies
• Prime time analysis
◦ found that females were more likely to be judged as ‘under weight’ as opposed to average or above average
◦ the higher the weight of the female character depicted, the more likely it was that negative comments were made about or directly
to her
• if young girls internalize the idea that females should be thing, then the media might have some role in creating body dissatisfaction or
body-image disturbance among females
◦ because of their natural tendency to engage in social comparison, young female viewers may compare their own bodies with the
ones that are enforced in the media
• to summarize research on this topic:
◦ overly thin, stereotypical females portrayed in media have negative effects on males and females
◦ females will strive to attain this image despite possible consequences
◦ males are encouraged to reinforce the image; social pressure for females
• researchers suggest:
◦ teaching students critical media consumption
◦ so that they will become more sensitive to media stereotypes and their effects
Lecture Review Sheet
Television Violence
Context of Concern
• TV diffuses rapidly in 2nd half of 20th century (rapid growth of television in homes)
◦ 9% of homes in 1950 had television
◦ 65% of homes in 1955 had television
◦ 93% of homes in 1965 had television
• Time spent with TV also continues increasing
• Simultaneously, US crime rate increases (people began drawing a crude correlation between TV viewing and crime rate)
• There is lots of concern concerning whether television plays a role in day-to-day and horrific crimes
• Examination of “effect”
◦ 1954 Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency
◦ 1968 National Commission on Causes and Prevention of Violence
◦ 1972 Surgeon General Report of TV and Social Behavior
◦ 1982 Television and Behavior: 10 Years of Progress
◦ 1992: American Psychological American Task Force on TV and Society
◦ All of these groups began researching TV violence
Five General Questions
◦ Five General Questions asked to figure out if relationship between TV and violence exist
Cuts across scholarship:
• How much violence is on TV?
• What is the relationship between viewing and negative effects? (this would most likely be a correlation study)
• What explains the negative effects? (theoretical mechanisms---what are the theories that explain what happens when you watch
TV)
• What moderates the effects? (a moderator is like a third variable; moderator is what changes the strength or the direction of the
relationship between media and violence; an example of a moderator would be gender, empathy, etc.)
• What can be done about the negative effects?
UCSB Study
• UCSB Study
◦ Looking at Violence on American TV
■ Review previous research (harmful fx)
■ Limitation
■ Didn’t focus on attributes/characteristics of violence that might contribute to ‘harm’
■ Coding scheme sensitive to assessing context
■ 3 harmful effects of exposure
■ Fear of becoming violent
■ Desensitization (becoming emotionally numb with ~real world aggression~)
■ Learning aggressive behavior
◦ Three effects
■ Increases in negative outcome ^
■ Decreases in negative ougcome v
■ Fantasy in first clip (Termintaor)
■ Reality in second clip (~gangz~)
■ limitation of chart: it doesn’t take into account the viewers of the violence; justified vs. unjustified violence is hard to
define…found that many people judge justified vs. unjustified on Fuzzy Logic (viewers know what is justified or not
justified but can’t explain WHY something is justified or not justified); there could be a lot of other effects that aren’t
accounted for
Who funded it? Why? << this i do not know :(
Television Violence
Contextual features:
Definition of violence (stipulations)
what is in and out of definition?
Three units of analysis mSample & Coder Training
Four "ized" findings & what they mmcm
Prevelance findings
What is a high risk portrayal? Where
are they most likely to be found?
Television Violence:

Contextual features and Influence of each contextual feature on aggression, fear, and desensitization:

Contextual Aggression Fear Desensitization

feature
Attractive Increase Increase
Perpetrator
Attractive Increase
Target
Justified Increase
Violence
Unjustified Decrease
Violence
Weapons Increase
Extensiveness/ Increase Increase Increase
Graphicness
Realism Increase Increase
Rewards Increase
Punishment Decrease
Pain/Harm Cues Decrease
Humor Increase Increase

Definition of Violence:

Violence is defined as “…any overt depiction of a credible threat of physical force or the actual use of such force intended to physically harm
an animate being or group of being. Violence also includes certain depictions of physically harmful consequences against an animate being
that occur as a result of unseen violent means.”

What is in and out of definition? (???)

• there has to be an intentional act

• only focused on physical harm or injury
• did not look at emotional violence
• did not look at animal vs. animal violence or accidents

Three units of analysis:

· Violent Incident
· Violent Scene
· Violent Program (fantasy, program, reality, live-action, what time of day, broadcast)

Sample & Coder Training:

Sample:

· Randomly Compiled
o Can’t just pick one week out of the year and study that week.
o You want to generalize to the greater population.
o Every program has to have an equal opportunity of being chosen.
· 23 channels
o 6:00 am to 11:00 pm (No late night)
o Broadcast, independent, public, basic, premium.
o Shows selected across 9 months.
o 3,000 shows per year, three seasons.

Coder Training:

· Classroom
o Roughly 150 students across 3 years.
o Students received about 15 weeks of instruction
o 40 hours in the lab
o Most variables, acceptable agreement.

Four "ized" Findings:

“Violence is pervasive on American Television.”

Year 1 [’94-‘95]: 58% featured violence

Year 2 [’95-‘96]: 61% featured violence

Year 3 [’96-‘97]: 61% featured violence

· 18,000 violent interactions (across 1 week, 6am-11pm, 23 channels)

· 8,000 violent scenes (Marco)(in 1 week)
· 6 violent exchanges/interactions per hour.
· Violence is often Glamorized.
o Almost 40% of violent perpetrators are attractive.
 o 44% of all violent interactions are justified. (retaliation, police officers, defense, etc.)

Violence is Sanitized on American T.V.

Year 1: 58% NO PAIN; 35% UNREALISTIC HARM; 15% LONG-TERM PAIN.

Year 2: 55% NO PAIN; 40% UNREALISTIC HARM; 13% LONG-TERM PAIN.

Year 3: 51% NO PAIN; 34% UNREALISTIC HARM; 15% LONG -TERM PAIN.

(Unrealistic harm= harm on screen is lower than the harm that would be depicted in the real world. Ex:) Home Alone film, bricks hitting his
head; cartoons.

Violence is often not published; not Chastised.

No punishment: Bad characters not punished

Year 1: 73% Year 1: 37%

Year 2: 75% Year 2: 39%

Years 3: 71% Year 3: 45%

Violence is often Trivialized.

· 40% of all violent scenes feature humor.

· Less than 14% of violent scenes show blood and gore.

High Risk:

· Multivariate approach
o A perpetrator with attractive qualities.
o Violence that appears justified.
o Violence that goes unpunished.
o Minimal consequences to victim.
o Violence had to seem realistic; 7 and younger=cartoons.

Effects of TV Violence Research

Bandura (1965) study
Three conditions (how are they similar
& how are they different?)
what is the dependent measure of aggression?
know results for performance and acquistion
Aggression Machine
(all information pertaining to)
Critiques surrounding aggression research
Surveys of TV violence and aggression (results)
limitations with surveys

1. Three conditions: three clips- one with aggression with no consequence, one with aggression with rewards, one with aggression with
punishment
2. Dependent measure:
a. Performance (immediately after exposure)
i. 6 Findings: performance in response to clip with reward and no
punishment was the same: increased aggressive behavior
a. Acquisition: equivalent amount of learning across all three groups (all three clips)
3. Aggression Machine (1960s experiment)
a. Goal: measures willingness to aggress against another individual (using aggression or machine)
i. Subject are given pretext for giving shocks to another individual
ii. Pretext: study will measure effect of punishment on learning, the
subject is the teacher, and can select intensity and duration of administering a shock to a learner when the
learner gives the wrong answer
a. Findings:
i. When you show the subject media violence, he/she will select a
greater intensity and duration for the shock
ii. Using electric shocks provoked criticism as an ethical issue
a. Critiques
i. The experiment employs unrealistic measures (unrealistic to
aggress against someone else by administering shocks in real life)
ii. Conducted in an unrealistic context
iii. Content shown is taken out of its original context
iv. TV violence and experimental context shows violence in a way
that might condone aggression
v. Only measures short term effects- this area of study would benefit
from longitudinal experiments
a. Surveys of TV Violence and Aggression
i. Some surveys show a positive relationship between TV violence
and aggressive behavior
ii. 1972 Surgeon’s General Repot indicates that results are
statistically significant despite 3rd variables (ie: absence of discussion about TV violence)
a. Survey research has its limitations in the following ways:
i. 3rd variables need to be accounted for (ie: education level or
other psychological variables)
ii. Direction, in other words, do aggressive kids seek out violent
exposure or does exposure lead to aggressive behavior?
iii. Time order (goes hand in hand with direction)

Effects of TV Violence Research

Longitudinal research on TV violence and aggression (all)
Huesmann, Eron et al.
Subjects
• All of the third grade (began in 1955)
• 875 children
• 557 parent dyads
• private and public schools
Measures
• Aggression major criterion (DV criterion)
o Peer nomination
o Child items (items kids responded to, level of popularity, who they identified with, masculine feminine)
o Parents’ socialization practices
• TV viewing major predictor (IV predictor)
o Ratings of popular shows, coded for violence
Results
• Positive relationship!
o Peer nomination of aggression and exposure to television violence
Follow-up
• 10 yrs later
o 52% of children still in NY (Mode=19yrs)
o 463 re-interviewed
o Similar measures, include criminal records
Results: early exposure to media violence positive predictor of adult aggressive tendencies at age 19 after introduction of many third variables
• Relationship between being aggressive at age 8 did not seek out more media violence relative to non-aggressive kids at age 19
22 yr follow-up
• Predicted aggressive tendencies 22 yrs later in boys, aggressive habits seem to be learned early in life
• GOLD STANDARD of longitudinal work
Meta analysis (what is on? What is the relationship between
violence and aggression? Know correlation)
Meta-Analysis
Summary of research
• Statistical, not subjective
Paik and Comstock (200 studies)
• .10 , .30 , .50 = small, medium, large
• Antisocial behavior & TV violence viewing; r = .31 (medium effect)
o Smoking and lung cancer = .40
• CHART IN HUESMANN READING!
Theoretical Perspectives
Observational Learning of Behaviors:
• Bandura (2001) Social Cognitive Theory
◦ attention - must grab viewers' attention
◦ retention - do you remember it?
◦ production - viewer must be able to reproduce action
◦ motivation - must be sufficiently motivated
• Huesmann (1986) Social Developmental Model
◦ scripts or plans for social problem solving: when kids are younger, they don't have many scripts or schemes for solving problems,
but media may provide them.
■ e.g., scripts or plans for getting to class, going to a restaurant
◦ Model: encounter social problem ---> evaluate cues ---> search memory for script ---> evaluate generated script --->
■ IF UNACCEPTABLE, return to search memory for script
■ IF ACCEPTABLE, behave according to script
(how is Bandura different from Huesmann) NOT SURE HOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT
Observational Learning of Beliefs/Attitudes
• a) Hostile World View: more pessimistic outlook than is normally the case; the world is a very mean and scary place
◦ cultivation theory (Gerbner et al., 2001)
■ heavy vs. light viewers
■ less trust, more anxiety, perceive mean world
◦ hostile attribution bias (Crick and Dodge, 1994)
■ misinterpret intent
Desensitization
• a) Cognitive
• b) Affective
• c) Arousal
Priming or Cueing (short term affects only)
• Memory Model
◦ networks of pathways
◦ thoughts, feeling, action tendencies
◦ spreading activiation
Arousal
• engine
• heightens dominant responses
• contingent on interpretation
◦ hostile!
Greek Definitions: stereos= solid, typos= the mark of a blow
Definitional Disagreement- scholars have argued if the definition of the stereotype needs to be accurate. Some stereotypes are accurate, and
some are not (some stereotypes are bad, and some are beneficial). Who is to say what stereotype is accurate? There has been a lot of
disagreement on what are the qualities, attributes and valence (good or bad) of a beneficial stereotype.
2 ways of researching;
quantitative- method of research that is interested in numbers. All data is reduced to numbers, then complied into tallies, then converted to
percentages. (bar charts, graphs etc. . .)
qualitative- method of research that steps away from numbers. Includes information that numbers fail to convey regarding “richness of
character”. Think of prototypical characters (bad-boy, prince charming. . .). Also looks at the themes or attributes that are similar across
TV and movies.
Patterns of Exposure In terms of Tv viewing
White Black Hispanic
TV 2:45 4:05 3:23
Videos/DVD 0:45 1:00 0:44
Movies 0:17 0:48 0:29
All 3:47 5:53 4:37

Representation
Prime time portrayals (all)
Smith et al. (2008) all
Smith & Lee (2009) all
Film (all)
TV Employment by Minority Status 03-07
Film Employment by Min. Status 03-07
Earnings Gap for Minorities: TV
Earnings Gap for Minorities: Film
News (all)

Representation
Prime Time Content
• Characters
◦ 73-80% of characters are white
◦ 14-17% are black
◦ white characters take up lime light of portrayals- leaves little room for other ethnics
• Common black genres
◦ Crime dramas, situation comedies
■ Misinformation and underrepresentation of group
■ Problem in how viewers makes sense of diff groups
• Roles
◦ Law enforcer, police officer more provocatively ad less professionally dressed
◦ Fall along gender lines- law enforcer police male, provocative females
Smith Study
• Children’s shows
◦ Might show best portrayal because people are concerned about what young people might be learning
◦ 1,034 randomly sampled Aug 2005
◦ 12 broadcast, cable, public ,independent channels
◦ 6am to 8pm
◦ FOUND-
■ 75% of characters white
■ 13% are black
■ 5.4 hispanic
■ 4.6 asians
■ 2% of others
■ *problematic
■ Push to diversify content because kids but still mostly white
• Content Analyses
◦ Film – still problematic
◦ Smith and Lee
■ 400 top growing, box office films
■ what is the racial ratio of characters of blockbuster films from 1990 to 2006
■ coded ethnicity of speaking characters
■ 83% over more than 12,000 characters are white9.5 black
■ 2.5 hispanic
■ 3 asian
■ 1.5 mid E
■ 2 others-NA, pacific islanders…
■ MOST ARE WHITE CHARACTERS-Caucasian
■ Things haven’t changed!!!
■ No change – percent of blacks in movies decr
■ 10.1% in1990-95
■ 9.9 1986-00
■ 9.4 2001-06

Jacket Covers
• Smith et al 2008
◦ Point of Purchase and advertising
◦ Front, back covers
• Distribution of Ethnicity on covers is consistent on what we see on films
◦ 85.1% white
◦ 8.7 black
◦ 2.4 asian
◦ 3.9 other

Film
• Smith and Lee (2009)
• Genre Mattes
◦ Across 200 films rated PG or G, 0% of black characters were represented as parents/partner
◦ Problematic
• Gender Matters
◦ Black Females less than males, prevalence
◦ black females are more likely to be over sexualized than black males
• Black males versus black females
◦ 6% v 21.3% in SRC
◦ 8.2 vs 19.2 with small waist
◦ 5.6 vs 12.3 with unreal idea-hourglass fig, men muscular
◦ 12.5 vs 29.7 are thin
◦ ***same as with white females and males! As a whole of trends, not %
•
Whose writing the Stories??
• TV writers 90 % from 2003-07 are white (91 in 06 and 07)
◦ rest are clumped as minority
◦ self reports of ethnicity
• Film writers
◦ 94% white
◦ 6 minority
• Earning Gap for Minorities TV
◦ Minority writers earn 8-9 thousand less
◦ Males*
◦ 2003-07
• Earning gap for Film
◦ White male have 40 thousand dollar diff to minority
■ 2003-07
■ gap has incr
• Greer 2002
◦ Under rep hasn’t been solved, no black faces among studio execs
■ They are needed to change the industry
■ DIVERSIFICATION must take place

News
• Comparisons
◦ Whites and Blacks
◦ Similar numb of stories unrelated to crime
◦ Dissimilar numb of stories related to crime
◦ *Blacks have 2 times as man crime related stories as stories featrueing white indiv
◦ blacks are more likely t o be shown as perpetrators than white individuals
• Appearance
◦ Nameless, disheveled, threatening
◦ REACTION is often fear
• Real world stats
◦ Inconsistent
◦ Black adults overrepresented as perpetrators
◦ White adults under represented as perpetrators
◦ 39% of juvenile perpetrators are black 18% of DEp of Jsutice
◦ 24% are white-22%in DEp of Justice Stats
Color Adjustment (all)
Documentary
“Color Adjustment” – traces history of African Americans on television
• Ways in which there’s a dominant order in the media that isn’t challenged, is perpetuated and often doesn’t make sense economically
• Only 3.6% of over 12,000 characters were African American females
• Four stages that groups go through when being shown on tv
◦ Non-recognition – don’t really exist on tv; not represented though they exist in the world we live in
■ Who don’t we see? Native Americans, African Americans,
◦ Ridicule
■ As soon as different characters appear, often presented in a way as to be the buffoon, the comedic portrayal
◦ Regulators
■ Protectors
■ May serve as lawyers, police officers, firemen, etc
■ Roles that protect other individuals
• Respect
◦ Commands full range of roles, journeys on film or tv
◦ Not quite there for African Americans
◦ Only 2/100 African American directors
• Mythic American family – the dream
◦ African American Family has become part of the myth
◦ Key to inclusion of African Americans to American dream of family?
• 1948-68
• blacks became more determined to be recognized after they risked life to fight in war à military had just been integrated
• still caution about racial hostility
◦ Great deal of anticipation on part of soldiers returning from WWII but as well as women and men who worked in defense
industry during war à had opportunity that had been unavailable to them prior to the war
■ Highly trained ex-military class
■ People who were formerly domestics who’d experienced industrial life
◦ Poised for a new type of life
• New technology in America à Television
◦ Race relations in tv formed a critical link
◦ “no room for prejudice” television was trying to find itself, perched to make a difference but what difference it could make would
yet to be seen
◦ Took the radio stories that were told and put pictures to them à this determined how blacks were represented in tv
■ In radio, white people would impersonate the black characters à tv had to be different
• TV was primitive in its use of stereotypes and clichés
◦ Lazy black men; opportunistic black men; second class citizens
◦ Portrayal was taken for granted, pleasing for the audience
◦ Ex: Amos and Andy – all black cast
■ Some African Americans watched it and found it funny though they knew it was extremely racist
■ Greeted with images of a fully autonomous, separated community of all African Americans (no integration)
◦ Amos and Andy showed that blacks would always aspire to great success but would always have an inevitable, comedic failure to
achieve it
◦ Sued by NAACP
■ Every character is either a clown or crook
■ Millions see it and think entire race is the same
◦ Never considered race relations, stereotyping, etc – just trying to present an amusing set of characters with an amusing
background, in an amusing situation that would entice viewers to watch again next week
• Beulah
◦ Idealized for what every person wanted for characteristics of their housekeeper
◦ Unaware of her own children, and very aware of other children
■ Hollywood portrayal
◦ Dream of race relations and freedom continued to clash
◦ Most of the 50s television retreated from the conflict
• 1951 12% of homes had televisions
◦ Lassie, I Love Lucy, à white culture tv shows, always something so good and wholesome about the white culture, troublefree,
where the beauty was, good thing and pleasure
• 1955 67% had television
◦ explosion of new baby boom television neatly packaged in images of what the dream American family should be, what dream
household should have
◦ African Americans were rarely part of this vision
◦ Almost as if black people didn’t exist in 50s
◦ Occasionally a black superstar would perform, everyone in black community would know when a black person would be on
■ If a black person was on screen, everyone would call each other
■ Source of pride for the generation that had grown up in 30s and 40s
◦ So rare for African Americans to be depicted anywhere that it was a treat for them
• Nat King Cole
◦ Sang Love ballads
◦ Had own show on Primetime television
◦ Positive/negative binary important?
■ “Had to constantly make adjustments in our mind in order to stay away from anger and what’s wrong with me”
◦ Cole was a “gentleman” the kind of guy you could welcome into your home
◦ Cole was “the model of assimilation”
◦ Would primetime America open the door and let him in?
◦ Little Rock, Arkansas 1957
■ Same time Cole was on tv, black children were trying to go to school and meeting great resistance
◦ Cole show ended after one season after not being able to find sponsorship
• Turning point
◦ People started seeing black people as actual flesh and blood for the first time
◦ White community started to support black
◦ Wonder about the absence of black representation on television
• East Side West Side – tv show
◦ Dramatizing not America’s dream but nightmare of realities
■ No jobs, baby attacked by rat and no one stopping to help
◦ No happy endings, no resolutions
◦ Undercut myth of American progress
◦ Cancelled after one season
• Primetime
◦ Could it represent black community while still portraying success of American Dream
• Julia
◦ Apology for a lot of things they’d done that was offensive
◦ Nurse who had a job and a family and she lived in an integrated family
◦ Created and produced by Hal Kanter
◦ She wasn’t overly grateful or overly subservient, she felt like she belonged there
◦ It “Felt like a step above the grinning domestic who had to be very stout, very dark, preferably with large eyes and a wide grin.
And I guess we were…tired of being so inundated with that imagery that we accepted Julia as a breath of fresh air”
◦ She was the perfect mom
◦ “What we had to do was to find a kind of ‘acceptable’ area that broke down some barriers and then we were able to move on
from their” actress who played Julia
• I Spy
◦ He was a hero, a Rhodes scholar, so articulate
■ Much more articulate then his sidekick (who was white)
◦ Sheldon Leonard, producer of I Spy
■ White sidekick’s “acceptance was immediate and overwhelming”
◦ Male bonding, no division because of race
◦ Alexander Scot from I Spy and Julia were designed to overcome the stereotypes that had previously been portrayed by the media
■ “Full assimilable black people, people who could move into your neighborhood and not disserve you at all”
◦ Almost had to over endow the black character with characteristics that were acceptable to white community
■ Because of this, Julia got some scathing criticism
■ Probably a white woman with dark make up, no black woman is that pretty
■ Caused a great deal of anger among black community saying she’s a sell out, an “oreo cookie”, why can’t she
represent what my life is like? I don’t want to be pushed into middleclass
■ Julia was severed from the black community, a black woman with no black men in the show (husband had been
‘conveniently’ killed in military service)
• Archie – “In the Family”
◦ Addressed controversial subjects
◦ “Norman Lear’s programming represented the first step towards reality in depicting American households”
◦ Primetime family had been a sanctuary away from reality, Lear adjusted this theory
◦ Archie Bunker was racist, depicted how most families actually were à racist and open about it
◦ Issues could be resolved all in the family
• Good Times
◦ Originally written for a mother and three children, actress who played wife insisted on having a husband in the show
◦ Good Times was first primetime series to feature a black family with both mother and father
◦ Set in heart of black south side community in Chicago
◦ Replicate “all in the family” but make it more relevant to black families and what was going on in the country
◦ Represented the greatest potential and the greatest failure
◦ Greatest potential because it was a black family in south side, openly poor
■ Talked about real world issues and how a real black family deals with those and discrimination
◦ Greatest failure – elevated JJ’s role (son) to that of a buffoon
■ Erred by not stopping that character, falling back on familiar way of making white people laugh at black shows
(buffoon) and very easy to fall back on this
■ Minstrel character
■ Positive - His character was to deflate/let off a lot of the build up
 ■ Cleverly robbed the show of the political bite it might’ve had
◦ Many applauded these because inner-city black life was being represented but they represented the hell holes of the ghetto as
places where humans could survive
• Made ghetto palatable to society
◦ War on poverty was dying down and people said let it end, these people are living fine
◦ Humor and comedy for black Americans has always had a sort of double edge to it
• Roots
◦ Edward Asner, OJ Simpson, Ralph Waite, Maya Angelou
◦ David Wolper “thing that attracted me was that it showed two things. Number 1 the power of the underdog to overcome and
succeed, number 2 the power of the family”
◦ Didn’t want to scare away white audience before they saw the show
◦ Never had so many white viewers watch anything black in the history of tv
◦ Opened conversations and dialogues among whites and blacks
• Frank's Place- didnt have steady viewership because show time kept moving around
• Cosby Show
Vast Waist Land
Schneider's definition
says nothing about valence or accuracy (purposely leaves the definition broad)
three attributes that make it unique: qualities, accuracy, valence
Smith et al. (2008)
: Schneider DEFINITION: Stereotyping “are qualities to be associated with particular groups or categories of people” -qualities?
Smith et al. (2008)
Sample: The Top Grossing films (1990-2006) (Rated G-R)
4 Trends:
1. Gender Equity is not existent
a. 15,000 characters
b. 73% male, 27% female
c. 2.71: 1
2. Females function as eye candy
a. Thin, small waist, unrealistic body, sexually revealing clothing xMore than men
b. Females in G rated clothes just as likely to show as in R rated films
c. More thin in R rated then G Duality: -“looksism” females younger than males -‘traditional’ females are parents, relational partners
more than males
3. Animated females, Abnormal in shape, Sexy in Appearance
a. Animated females more in SRC, small waist, large chest, thin in comparison to live action counterparts
4. Female Tales are anything but Fantastic
a. Qualitative Analysis of 13 films
b. “Themes”: - 92% pursue romance, silence, social presentations/extreme makeovers
i. wizard of oz only film (1/13) without love being central feature
ii. 3 paths to romance: 1)love at 1st sight 2)communication 3)deception
Vast Waist Land
what is the duality of how females are
featured in film?
Duality:
-"Looksism"=Females are younger than males
-Traditional=Females are parents, relational partners more than males
how do animated and live action
females differ in G-rated films?
-Animated characters have smaller waists, larger chests, thinner, and unreal ideal body images than live
action character females
-Study based on 13 films (Disney princess movies, animated and not)
what were the qualitative findings?
-*Themes*
-92% pursue romance!
-Three paths to romance:
1. Love at first sight
2. Communication
3. Deception
-Social presentations, extreme makeovers
-Silence
TV findings on gender balance &
type of portrayal
Television
• Similar to Film!
-Slightly more balanced (40%)
-TV G = Females > Males
-More female characters than males
-Portrayals:
-Females are younger than Males
-Females more hypersexualized, relationships, parents, than Males
Who are the significant gate keepers
in TV, film?
• Gatekeepers
-Differ by medium
-Film = Director
-TV = Writer/Producer
-Behind-the-Scenes Workers MOSTLY men (15% men vs. 88% women)
-Women most saturated are producers; could explain issues of representation on screen
Smith et al. (2008)
academy award study (all)
• Academy Awards
-Sample
-1977 to 2006 (n=150)
-Nominated Best Picture Films
-Characters, Behind the Scenes Workers – Director, producer, writer category (gender)
-Above the line
Findings
1.Lacks Balance
-2.9 males to every 1 female in films
-72-75% males vs. 25-29% females
2. Behind the Scenes Skewed
-Director: 96% Male, 4% Female
-Writer: 86% Male; 13% Female
-Producer: 84% Male, 16% Female
-TOTAL: 87% Male, 13% Female
3. Biological Sex Behind the Scenes Matters
-41.2% (F director) vs. 26.8% (M Director)
-When you have a female director, 41% of the characters in the film are female speaking roles.
know specific % of females in
female directed vs. male directed
films
Biological Sex Behind the Scenes Matters
-41.2% (F director) vs. 26.8% (M Director)
-When you have a female director, 41% of the characters in the film are female speaking roles.
Two effects of viewing stereotyped
portrayals (all)
• 2 Major Outcomes
1. Sex Typing
-Presented in traditionally masculine or traditionally feminine ways on television
-Cultivation= People who watch TV think that is how the real world is
-Psychological characteristics or social behaviors associated with societal roles for males and females
-Survey Evidence
-Heavy TV viewers have more stereotypical beliefs than light viewers about males and females
-Experimental Evidence
-Meta-Analytic
 -Effect is smaller than exposure to media violence and aggressive tendencies
-Amount of TV exposure on psychological Sex Typing is decreasing over time
-More roles on TV for both men and women
-More gay and lesbian roles
-TV is the more socially progressive medium over TV & film
2. Occupations
-Limits Possibilities
-Meta-analytic
-r=.22

SLASHER FILMS
· Youth concern
o Rent at video store
o Popular!
o Greenberg et al. (1993)
§ Examples:
ú Halloween
ú Friday the 13th
ú Nightmare on elm street
§ Central question:
ú What impact does repeated viewing of slasher films have on men?
· Perceptions of violence
· Emotional reactions to violence
· Perceptions of the victims of violence
· Desensitization (lintz et al. 1984)
o Men’s perceptions may be altered, would they notice less violence over time?
o Men’s emotional reactions may be altered
o Will it “spill over” and affect judgments of the real world?
· Four phases
o Initial prescreening
§ Goal: eliminate those with high scores on hostility psychoticism scales (If we eliminate these hostile people the results will be tenuated,
underestimated effects)àremove the people with predisposition for aggression, anyone who would ruminate or stated willingness to rape
§ Remainder informedàview 6 films in 5 days, compensated!
§ Scheduling difficulties-control group (one group does not watch horror films)
o Film viewing session
§ Two groups
ú Control (view nothing)
ú Treatment (view films)
§ Measures
ú Immediately after viewing assessed perceptions, emotional reactions, assessment of victims
o Simulated tape trial
§ 5th day of study- told the last film didn’t arrive
§ law school study (documentary rape case)
§ rape case derived from a real trial
§ after exposure
ú judged verdict of defendant
ú judged defendants intentions
ú judged victims injury/responsibility
o debriefing
§ three phases
ú immediately after
ú two days later
ú two month follow up
o short term results
§ perceptions of violence
ú # of violent scenes? Decreased from day 1 to 5
ú violence became less graphic, bloody and gory across the films over the course of the five days
ú became more enjoyable and entertaining, less depressed, less anxious with increased exposure
ú assessed it as less degrading to women (takes women about 3x longer to die than men)
o spill over effects- found that men in the slasher group indicated the female was less injured and less worthy, attributed greater
responsibility to victim, she resisted her assailant less, less sympathy for the victim (significant)
o ESSAY QUESTION
Sex in the Media
Kaiser Family Foundation (1999)
• Survey
◦ 348 children from 10 to 15 years of age
◦ Talked to children and parents
◦ Asked about tough subjects
• Results
◦ Children 10 to 12 years of age said they personally want information on:
■ How to protect against HIV and AIDS (50% kids)- implies children wanting to seek more information on more mature
topics
■ What to do if someone brings a gun to school (50% of kids)
■ How to handle pressure to have sex (44% of kids)
■ How to know when you are ready to have sex (43% of kids)
■ How alcohol & drugs might affect decisions to have sex (43% of kids)
• Parents interviewed showed that the majority of them steered clear of discussing the subjects that children wanted to have more information
on
• Competition: where are they seeking out information if their parents are not giving them answers
◦ Preteens (10-12 years old)
■ Moms, teachers, TV, movies= 38%
■ Fathers= 34%
◦ Teens (13-15 years old)
■ 64% friends
■ 61% TV movies
■ 44% schools, teachers
■ 39% internet
■ 38% mom
Evidence
• Surveys
◦ Only handful of studies- experimentally difficult to do, difficult to get parent consent
◦ Positive relationship between sexy media and adolescent intercourse
◦ Problem:
■ Time order- what comes first (children seeking sexual media BECAUSE they are already sexually active?)
■ Third variables
• Longtudinal findings:
◦ (some studies) Mixed! No relationship (Peterson)
■ They used crude estimates of exposure!
■ They only have one single item of sexual behaviour- very unstable
◦ (some studies) Positive over time relationship
■ Brown, Collins
■ Had control for third variables
■ Rigorous in comparison to Peterson research