Minority Youth Television Exposure

Findings

1. Black households watch 23 hours more television than other households each week (Nielsen Media Research 1988)
2. Brown and her colleagues studied samples 0f 1200 teens (two-third White and one third Black)

Following television viewing pattern observed: Ethnic difference was significant

White females: 25 hours

While Males: 27 hours

Black females: 32 hours

Black males: 31 hours

(The overall level of television viewing consisted of 3.6 hours per day at low end & 4.6 hours at the high end)

In second study (1987) Brown and colleagues studied 1800 (12-14 years):

1. They found even higher overall TV viewing levels

. White averaging more than 5 hours per day

. Blacks more than 7 hours per day

1. Television viewing decreased between 13 and 14 years old
2. Drop occurred because of increased use of Radio

This study matched those of Greenberg and Heeter (1987)

1. Balck high school students had a stronger preference for Black television show e.g. “Good Times” as compared to White youngsters
2. The viewing of White situation comedies did not differ by race
3. Black youngsters rated Black characters more positively
4. They rated white characters equally with White students

Black perception about both black and white characters was same. Among Blacks the correlation was NIL

Among Whites: there tended to be a positive relationship between racial attitudes and Black character evaluation

Black and White Television Newscasters Evaluation in New York City

1. Black high school students rated the newscasters of both races the same
2. White students rated the same-race newscasters higher on all attributes
3. Experimental work supports the Rating Date:
4. Minority viewers watch more minority programming when available
5. Blacks watched the Black situation comedy
6. Whites watched the white sitcom available
7. Brown observed that Balck and White females prefer sitcoms, White males prefer action-adventure shows and Black males prefer both program types equally
8. Study of Preferences
9. Hispanic youths showed a consistent preference for Spanish-relevant content on television in movies, on radio and newspapers
10. Hispanic youth read newspapers for social learning purposes
11. A Chicago Study of Blacks, Hispanics and Anglos (1987) on portrayals of minorities on television
12. Blacks say there were too few Black on TV
13. Blacks and Hispanics both perceived they were under represented
14. In fair representation, contradiction was found
15. Heavy viewing Anglos were more likely to perceive that the representation of Hispanics were fair
16. Heavy viewing Hispanics expressed the opposite perception
17. For Blacks there was no correlation between viewing and perceived fairness of a different minority, However they said there were too few Blacks on television
18. Reality Perception:
19. Black youths consistently believe that the television portrayals of Blacks and non-Blacks are more real-to-life than Whites believe
20. 40% of the Blacks would agree that television’s presentation of Black men, women, teenagers, dress and language are realistic, compared to 30% for Whites
21. An early study by Greenberg in 1972 indicated that White youngsters depend on television as a major source of information about Black youth
22. Whites learn more about Blacks from television; Blacks claim to learn about both Whites and themselves
23. White youth learning from television
    1. How different people talk, dress, behave and look
24. Most recent attempts to link media exposure to beliefs about Blacks and Whites suggest
    1. Heavier exposure to television entertainment by White university students is associated with beliefs that Blacks enjoy a relatively higher income, social class, and educational achievement than census data reveal.
    2. Whereasnjhbn heavy exposure to TV news is associated with the belief that Blacks are worse off than Whites
25. Similarly portrayals of handicappers affected participants’ attitudes toward this minority.
26. TV content was center of content analysis of minority portrayals in media:
    1. Berry suggested (1980) that there were three stages in television’s portrayals of Blacks:
27. The first stage embodied the most basic stereotypes of laziness, stupidity, and incompetence, it ended in the mid-1960s
28. The second, from mid 1960s through the early 1970s, Blacks were given positive traits
29. The third reflected a period of stabilization when Blacks were presented in a more realistic manner in Black-cast shows