The Media

Children’s books

First window into the world beyond small environment

• Children learn about: how people look like (dress, gender/racial differences), what activities they engage in, how to behave/react in situations

Analyzing gendered content in childrens books

2 dimensions

1. % of male and female characters (in text, titles, illustrations)

2. Stereotyped portrayal (dress, location, characteristics)

Gender-representation in children’s books during 1970s

• Human characters: 11 males for every female

• Animal characters: 95 male for every female

• Unidentified characters usually referred to as male by parents

• Stereotypes: males have more occupational roles, require more skill and education whereas females mostly at home, serving others

• Boys were active/outdoors

• Girls were passive, needed assistance, and indoors

Change in gender-representation in children’s book since the 80s

• 2 male characters for every female character

• Girls are shown in more instrumental roles, more active, in more occupations

• Counter-stereotypical portrayals are more common (i.e a girl who rescues a boy)

• Female portrayals have changed but males have not (i.e fathers absent/uninvolved, boys don’t engage in feminine activities)

Television-watching patterns of children

• Children spend more time watching television than they do anything else (after sleep/school)

• 1st grade: 40% of television time is spent watching content for adults, 80% by 6th grade

• Boys watch more violent shows/sports, girls prefer comedies/family drama

Children’s programming: public television

Has the most educational and balanced shows

• 80% of Sesame Street characters were male

• Male characters still outnumber females

• Stereotypical portrayals sometimes occur

• Recent focus on girls representation especially in math and science

Children’s programming: cartoons

Many more male than female characters

• Rationale: girls will watch shows about boys but boys won’t watch shows about girls

• Girls more likely to be helpless, dependent, complaining, nuturing, and indoors

• Boys more likely to be indepdent, assertive, competent, athletic, brave, aggressive, violent

Commericals

Children are exposed to 20k commericals per year

• Children don’t recognize the intent of commericals is to sell products (fully believe what they’re seeing)

• More males show stereotypical content

• Voice-overs are predominantly male (70%)

• Often inappropriate content for children (flirty, violent behavior)

What is the typical content of commericals?

• Toy commercials increase children’s asking for toys: reducing ammount of television decreases asking for toys

• Stereotypical portrayal of girls and boys

• More violent than TV programming: aggresion followed by positive consequences

What are the patterns of gender representation in adult programming?

• Ratio of 3:1 or 2:1 (males to females)

• Women more likely to be in minor roles and males in central roles

• Women more common in comedies than other programming

• Women tend to be younger (20s and 30s), blonde/red hair, likely to be thin/attractive

• Older men (over 60) have jobs but women often don’t

Invisible women: the news and sports

• 15-25% of newspaper articles are about women

• 20% of reporters of stories related to the economy, politics, international issues

• 20% of sportscasters

• Women’s sports make up 9% of total sports coverage

Invisible women: television

• Older women: nonexistence of over 40

• Poor women: most middle class/wealthy, black women more likely to be presented as poor but white women receive majority of food stamps

• WOC: latinas, asians, native americans

Invisible women: the use of bodies

• Bigger women uncommon: preponderance of thin women but large men are common

• Women’s bodies portrayed unrealistically

What are the patterns of violence on TV?

• TV more violent than the world we live in

• 300 characters on TV per day, 7 murdered

• By adolescence: 8k murders and 10k actions of violence

• Children’s programming even more violent

• Male characters engage in violence, boys/men more interested in watching violence: socialization of violence

Video games

40% of games have no female characters at all

• Female characters present: victims, sex symbols, evil obstacles

• Violence is rewarded by advancing further in the game

• Video games geared more towards boys: improved spatial ability

What are the trends of social media (SM) consumption?

• 13-17 y/o: 95% use at least one SM platform, 1/3 saying they use it almost constantly

• 8-12 y/o: 40% use

• Adolescents: 64% exposed to hate-based content on social media

• Girls of color exposed to racist content/language on SM monthly

What are the effects of the media on stereotyped attitudes?

Watching more television is correlated with having more gender-stereotyped attitudes: correlational research

• Children who watch educational television are less stereotypical than those who watch cable

• Experimental study: wathcing more “sexy” TV programs makes adolescents more likely to endors views of women as sex objects

What studies are used as evidence for the effects of media on stereotyped attitudes?

Mid-1980s study looked at gender attitudes in three canadian communities

• No TV, limited TV, extensive TV

• Children (especially girls) in the no-TV community were the least stereotypical

• When TVs were introduced, children became more stereotypical

What are the effects of media on self-esteem and appearance?

• Hearing stories about one’s sex contributes to higher self-esteem: case of underrepresentation

• Adolescents who watch more TV and read more magazines more likely to have eating disorders: correlational research

Experimental study on self-esteem and appearance

Study 1: Looked at adolescents body image with/without teen fashion magazines over 15 months

• Girls who started out more vulnerable reported higher body dissatisfaction and dieting behavior

Study 2: 3 years after TV was introduced in Fiji islands

• 60% of girls dietied at some point, rare prior

• 11% of girls induced vomiting to control weight

• 80% acknowledged that watching TV made them want to change appearance

Natural experiment on social media and mental health

Looked at introduction of Facebook on college campuses and effects on mental health and academic performance

• Used surveys

• Compared baseline (before FB) students reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, and academic performance was negatively affected

• Estimated that the intro of social media contributed to 300k new cases of depression on college campuses

Longitudinal study on social media and mental health

Adolescents who spend 3+ per day on social media:

• Heightened risk for mental health problems

• Internalize problems/symptoms of depression/anxiety

Experimental study on social media and mental health

Limited the use of social media to 30 min per day for 3 weeks for group of college students (used baseline data and control group)

• Limited-use group: reduction in loneliness and depression

• Both groups: significant decrease in anxiety and FOMO

• Benefits of increased self-monitoring

Negative effects of social media consumption

• Cyberbullying-related depression

• Body image and disordered eating behaviors

• Poor sleep quality

• Low self-esteem

• Larger association for girls than boys