THE BRIEF
The purpose of this research study is to find out if the media influences children by portraying gender stereotypes in programming. More specifically, this study focuses on television and movies, holding a content analysis of three popular films and three popular television shows. shows boys between the ages of eight and 17. Previous research on the subject found a pair of analyzes that provided support for gender stereotyping on television and movies. Some limitations of the study include a small research sample, few programs used, and only one event was evaluated in each television series to find specific characteristics such as masculinity and leadership.
INTRODUCTION
Today’s media dictates the way people live their lives. Over time, those media permeate how people make decisions or go about their daily lives. It starts with planning your day around your favorite programming to identify your favorite character to your life from what is in they see television. At most, this can be the result of potentially inaccurate misconceptions about the ways of people, or how they act in the world. This leads to the concept of stereotyping and categorization. Many studies have been conducted to understand how stereotyping occurs in the media? This research study is one that addresses the issue of stereotyping and the way in which today’s media influence children in their daily life and behavior. As a child, there is one thing that they admire the most. Hours of typical children behind television are rising every year and it is important to know if what they are watching is imprinting their ideas about stereotypes. More specifically, genres. There has been equality between men and women on the streets since 1900, but inequality still lurks in shows meant especially for children. By understanding this, whatever negative can be removed from that programming, so that our balance with those children can be strengthened. the future This study finds that gender stereotypes are still present in our society today and children are exposed to it. surprisingly prudently
REVIEW THE LITERATURE
Preface
In today’s media, stereotypes seem very prominent among various programming. A stereotype is defined as conforming to a pattern or idea that many people think about a subject, either false or partially true. A lot of research has been done over the years on stereotyping with the media and it seems that a significant amount of that research has been done in the last five or so years. In the literature reviewed, the majority of their studies focus on gender, body image, and racial stereotypes. Gender stereotyping is shown by the fact that the male is more powerful than the female. Body image stereotyping is shown by the fact that everyone should be thin with perfect hair and a perfect body. Racial stereotypes are shown by showing minorities as subordinate to the majority.
Media priming theory comes together with the topic of stereotyping and categorization. This reason agrees with the results of how the research came out in these studies. Television and movies have the power to shape people’s way of thinking, and that’s why today’s stereotypes are so prominent because of the growing attention of these media.
Content Analysis
Content analysis has been the chosen form of research in the following sources of media effects and stereotyping. In those four sources three types of media were exposed which were newspapers, films and television. All of the texts were similar in that their particular tools of analysis related to stereotypes and self-image or images of others. Haddock and Lund (2003) compared 26 Disney feature films to identify topics for families and couples. This is similar to the analysis of Gokee-Larose and Herbozo (2004) in which they also watched popular Disney movies. report on their relationship to body image. Those messages are presented with body image such as the perfect body, or the ability to attract the perfect mate. These two studies then found that the films that were viewed represented the ideal, whether it was the body or the relationship.
Parallel to Disney’s observations, Shields and Heinecken (2002) compared television advertisements against the notion of a gender stereotype, where the tough man is a virtue and the woman is subordinate. They found that a common stereotype of men dominating women is held with women, especially in advertisements shown for products that are domestic. cleaning. Also, women are shown to be less talented than men, and are shown on the charts in an entirely smaller percentage than men.
On the other hand, Jarvis (2001) found that the following television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer did not always portray positive ideal stereotypes. This study has created death and destruction in the world compared to the aforementioned studies of the perfect Disney< /a> stories. Although, Jarvis still saw a certain stereotype, but in reverse. This program went against the passive girl stereotype. It showed a teenage girl who could stand on her own two feet without a male dominating her for help.
These sources were examples of how programming to teach children involves stereotypes. With the exception of Jarvis (2001), a good majority of the media out there today, targeting young audiences, have ideals of the perfect body or the perfect self in their subjects. They also show that gender stereotypes are found in certain areas of the media.
Experiments
Experiments are very prominent in research related to stereotypes and media. These studies had their own actual experiments. In the literature listed primarily in the category of experiments, there are some very different experimental methods, but they all have a common concept of stereotyping and their effects in general.
Ettema and Johnston (1982) contributed to the research with an innovative idea. They created a television program when they try to create prosocial benefits for children. The experiment was quite simple, just to explain the children’s school program. Although it was a simple experiment, some fundamental results were obtained. It was found to be the most effective evaluator of the discussion program after the first inspection. This is when the greatest positive benefits were shown in the children who watched the program. Those benefits were such that the material was discussed and understood in the classroom atmosphere so that the children left knowing exactly how things were. It was argued that without discussion, the results could be obscured.
McCoy and Thompson (2001) feel that women’s beauty and fashion magazines have a great influence on how women see themselves compared to ideals of their perfect self. depicted in this instrument. In the study, the focus is on interviews with anorexic outpatients and how they see a positive correlation between reading these magazines and being pushed into their disorder.
In contrast, McGee and Nathanson (2004) also acknowledge that female stereotypes are enforced in our society. The stereotype is the typical woman who is dependent on the masculine, very feminine, or passive in nature. An experiment focused on a group sample of children between kindergarten and sixth grade. Children exposed to active mediation were followed to see if the stereotyping effect could be reversed. The conclusion was found that the strategy was only true for sounding children who were critically vulnerable to the effects of negative media.
In relation to the self-category and any stereotypes involved, Bromnick and Hirundo (2001) found that young people have an ideal situation where everything is perfect for them in the future, such as a large business with a spouse and 2.5 children. The experiment was conducted with 244 children between the ages of 11-16. Four open-ended questions were proposed regarding philosophies of life, fears, and any underlying values. Tasted girls try to focus mainly on relationships between peers, family and children. But on the other hand, boys mainly focus on sports.
Analyses
Analyzes related to stereotyping and media are among the researches that have been done on the subject over the years. After reviewing the literature, the following sources arrived at their conclusions by investigating previous research related to stereotypes. Pain (2001) deals with various debates about race, age, gender and fear of the state. A race is defined as a race where men are to be feared and women to be feared. Young people are shown as either directly threatening or non-threatening. People of color are either victims or harmed. Urban areas seem like dangerous places. Pain examines how these ideas are in general. A statistical overview of various things is compared to show that these ideas are stereotypes and that they still persist today in today’s society.
McGarty (2002) has a similar approach to studying how these ideas can come about and discusses the art of stereotyping. Some situations are described in such a way that untrained people are seen to be so lazy and also how these categorizations can be further dissected into consequences. . After evaluating the research, McGarty concludes by defining stereotyping as a process that narrows group recognition, the use of labels for group members, and the perceived equivalence of group members.
Dispute
Looking at this literature, it is found that stereotypes and media have been the focus of literary research since the 1980s. There have been several sources reviewed since the early 2000s, including Johnston and Ettema from 1982. The results show that stereotyping is prominent in the media today, especially in television and movies. The programming seems to hit people at a very young age, reinforce stereotypes and influence their decisions years into adulthood. Although they discuss the stereotypes found in some areas of the media such as a series of films or television shows, it can be felt that some aspects of the media cannot be properly represented. The studies reviewed certainly address gender stereotyping, but are lacking in the area of more than one age group. This study will focus on two broad areas of children’s development. By way of content analysis, the study of television and film will reveal three distinct stages in rational thinking and childhood. In this way, television and cinema must be considered in relation to each other, while trying not to remain in one and narrow medium, as in so many other studies.
WAYS
Content analysis was done on three movie rentals and three popular shows among children and teenagers. The three film programs developed were “Harry Potter 3: Prisoner of Azkaban “” Shrek 2,” and “Sleeping.” The three television shows he developed were “Even Stevens,” “Gilmore Girls” and “The O.C.” Films or programs are rated according to some of their four to five main characteristics. Those criteria were whether they were masculine, feminine, passive, aggressive, leaders, followers, independent, dependent, or adventure seekers. They also had the categories “part” and “part” for passive and aggressive, because in some cases they were known both parties pointed out. of the characteristic The same applies whether they are leaders or followers, because in the beginning they were followers and in the end they were leaders.
The known characteristics are defined in their obvious definitions. Masculine and feminine were defined as actions of man-like power and actions related to woman-like conformity. Leaders and followers are defined as the first initiative and the others as the first initiative. Independent and dependent were defined as not relying on others and relying on others. Adventurous seeking is defined as the tendency to have an urge or desire to do something inappropriate.
Results
The results of the analysis were that male characters tended to higher percentages belonging to the male stereotype. Table (1) shows the overall result in percentage form In the passive-aggressive category, females were shown to be more passive than males, while they were more aggressive. In both categories, females tended to show a higher percentage than males as being passive/aggressive. In the leader and follower categories, males once again showed dominance while females dominated in the follower category. Both the leader and follower categories had a small percentage of women, which both showed in the program. As for the independent and dependent categories, males showed the most independence, while females showed more than half of the characters as independent. Masculine and feminine genders were most important with males being 86% masculine and females 80% feminine. The last category of adventure seekers held that male characters were the most adventure seekers by the closest percentage. Women tended to be less than 60% of the searchers.
ASSESSMENT
Looking at the results, they follow along with the idea that men and women are still not shown in equal media. When contrasting genders, male characters had higher percentages that conformed to the masculine stereotype and female characters had higher percentages that conformed to the feminine stereotype. Although, when looking at the results in only the categories, the numbers in the female category seem to be quite close. Males also had the same results, but the numbers were not as close as the female numbers.
CONCLUSION
The results of the content analysis show that although the percentage is in favor of the stereotypes with the sexes, there seems to be an almost equal distribution of different characteristics in the female form. Although this study shows that the media is on the road to equality, children need television and film adaptations. Stereotypes are included in their confirmatory programming of stereotypical thinking.
Some limitations to this study are the small sample size. Also, only three choices of each medium were used. On television, only one episode of each program was seen to feature the show’s characters.
For future research, a larger sample size should be used. More programs should be considered in order to reach more precise conclusions. For a different perspective, a content analysis of programming from years ago compared to the present helps to better understand how stereotypes have changed over time. Likewise, an analysis of different TV stations would be a way to measure if one TV station is more stereotypical than another.
REFERENCES
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