First Advisor

David Ritchie

Term of Graduation

Spring 1999

Date of Publication

5-24-1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Speech Communication

Department

Speech Communication

Language

English

Subjects

Minorities on television, African Americans on television, Women on television

Physical Description

1 online resource (v, 81 pages)

Abstract

This study updates a 10-year longitudinal study investigating TV's portrayal of minorities and women on prime time television. Prior studies focused on the types of roles held by performers. This study extends prior research, examining not only the types of roles held by performers, but also networks' preference for women and minorities and the genre that most often feature women and minorities.

Data were collected for a consecutive five-week period from February 19, 1997 to March 14,1997. From this sample 40 dramas and 115 situation comedies were recorded and coded. Programming was taken from shows that aired in the Pacific Northwest. Variables coded were: sex, race, role, occupation and age. Minority characters were coded for stereotypical behavior.

The findings in this study show that African Americans have made significant gains in terms of their overall presence in prime time programming. This study also reveals that African Americans had major roles only in situation comedies. In dramas, black males held a minor percentage of major roles; females were absent. Other minorities experienced very few gains over the time period.

In spite of the important gains over the past 10-16 years, this research suggests that TV continues to present a severely distorted image of African Americans who continue to be seen in comedic roles and are absent in central roles in dramas.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44655

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