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Saint Marys College of California

LIVING IN A COLOR BLIND WORLD:


A CULTIVATION ANALYSIS OF MODERN TELEVISION

A Thesis
Presented to
The Faculty of the School of Liberal Arts
Department of Communication

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts

Submitted by
Linda A. Smith
Moraga, California
May 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION PAGE

ABSTRACT

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

CHAPTER ONE: THE RESEARCH PROBLEM


Introduction

Statement of the Problem

Purpose of the Study

Relevance to the Discipline

Research Questions

Theoretical Framework

Definition of Terms

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE


Restatement of the Problem

12

Overview of the Available Literature

12

Background for Research Question Number One

13

Background for Research Question Number Two

25

Summary

31

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY


Restatement of the Problem

32

Research Design and Method

32

Method of Data Collection

33

Method of Data Analysis

34

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS


Overview of Findings

36

Results for Research Question One

36

Results for Research Question Two

38

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECCOMMENDATIONS


Overview of the Findings

41

Conclusions Drawn from Research Question One

41

Conclusions Drawn from Research Question Two

43

Reliability of the Study

46

Final Conclusions and Implications

47

Recommendations for Future Research

48

Concluding Remarks

49

REFERENCES

50

APPENDICES
Appendix A: Codebook

52

Appendix B: Codesheet

57

Appendix C: Suvey

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DEDICATION PAGE
This research study was a work of love and a collaboration of my entire family. I
dedicate this to my wonderful fianc, Jeff Newman, who was always willing to listen to
me ramble while I tried to figure out where the research was taking me, sat through each
program I coded and offered a new perspective for me, never once complained as I
analyzed him using the research questions and kept our family in order while I was going
insane. Jeff has supported me through all my educational endeavors and without him, the
completion of my degree wouldnt have been possible.
I dedicate this paper to my daughter, Abbigail, for her wonderful acceptance of
Mommys continual abandonment in favor of school. Waking her up every morning was
a continual reminder of why I have spent the last four years working so hard to graduate.
She is the reason that I study into the wee hours and the reason that I have been so
adamant about graduating with my degree. I hope that someday that she will understand
that everything we have gone through for the last four years has been so that I can
provide a better life for us.
Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their continued support in this
process. I am so proud of being able to finally give them the moment they have been
looking forward to for the last 25 years, me walking across the stage and receiving my
diploma. They have willingly dealt with all the financial strain of supporting both me
and Abbigail for the last eight years and without them I could never have afforded the
opportunities I have had the pleasure of experiencing.

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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the extent that the

media creates a mythical world of color blindness in broadcast primetime television. The
study looks at the attitudes cultivated by college student audiences. The study began with
a message system analysis of prime time television by doing a character content analysis
followed by a survey of St. Marys College of California students. The results of the
study were that the medias portrayal of a color blind world has moved beyond partial
messages to a full message of equality. Characters of all races are shown as having equal
opportunities in education, occupation, and income. Students surveyed showed
recognition that their peers have cultivated media attitudes but are unable to recognize the
same attitudes within themselves. The implications of the study are key to understanding
how social stratification of minorities is reproduced in each generation. The media has
created a story that everyone has the same opportunities, regardless of race, telling
audiences that there is no more work to be done in fixing societal problems.

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
List of Tables

Table 1: Scaled Survey Responses

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Character Careers By Race
Figure 2: Educational Level of Characters By Race
Figure 3: Number of Characters By Race

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43
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CHAPTER ONE:
THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

Introduction
America is a country made up of immigrants from all over the world. Every race
from every location a person could think of has settled in America, making America one
of the most racially diverse countries in the world. Despite this, racial equality in
America is nearly non-existent. Minorities are under-represented in business,
government and media. They are given fewer opportunities to succeed at fulfilling their
American dream, whether it is systematically, structurally or as product of their social
standing.
When Barack Obama was running for President of the United States, Americans
began to believe his message of hope. It was a message of hope of fixing the financial
problems facing the country. It was a message of hope to bring about political reform.
But most importantly it was a message of hope that winning the Presidency would be a
symbol of racial equality in America.
As President Obama begins his second year in office Americans could clearly see
that although his Presidency was a victory for the side of equality, it had done nothing to
change the circumstances of minorities in America. They were still given fewer
opportunities to succeed, were still more likely to need government aid, and were still
less likely to be portrayed fairly in the media.
President Obamas election into office solidifies the message of equality the
media has been pushing since the end of the Jim Crow segregation era. The myth of
color blind society creates a framework that makes it impossible for minorities to claim

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unfair representation and avoids the problems that are facing American minorities.
Audiences are less likely to recognize the racial inequalities in opportunity in America
because the story that is being consistently told by the media is that everyone is equal.
This study investigated the ways the media portrays minorities in America and the
strategies the media uses to create a myth of equality. Through a content analysis of a
small slice of television programming, the study analyzed effects of the strategies
employed by the media. The next section will take a deeper look at the problem.

Statement of the Problem


The problem facing Americans today is the mythical world of equality that the
media has created in its many different genres. Anything that dissents is excluded or
ignored because it is easier to blame anything other than racial issues as being at fault. It
ignores the roots of the problems and creates an environment where minorities are framed
as having equal opportunities as the hegemonic majority.
The mythical world of equality helps to reinforce negative racial stereotypes as
well as continue the social stratification, which doesnt allow for the social mobility of
minority groups. The next section will continue by looking at the purpose of the study.

Purpose of the Study


The purpose of this study was to understand why the above-stated problem exists.
The content analysis section sought to investigate the ways that the media creates a color
blind world. The ethnographic section of the study looked at the effects of the strategies
on the audience.

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This study had a primary goal of describing the myth that is put forth by the

media and the effects that it has upon audiences. After understanding the phenomenon, it
was hoped that this study would be able to make predictions as to the behavior of
audiences in reaction to the strategies of the media as well as explain the effects on its
audience. It was further hoped that the conclusions drawn from the data could also be
generalized to similar populations of those in the sample demographic of this study. This
study while important has a larger relevance to the discipline, which will be explored in
the next section.

Relevance to the Discipline


The study is related to the socio-psychological and critical traditions of media,
which look at the power structures in society and the social or cultural causes. The sociopsychological tradition of communication is focused on individual social behavior,
psychological variables, individual effects, personalities and traits, perception and
cognition (Foss & Littlejohn, 2008, p. 42). Theories in the socio-psyhological tradition
look at the relationship between communication behavior in relation to variables as
personal traits, situational differences and learning (Foss & Littlejohn, 2008, p. 43).
The study is furthered through a critical lens, which looks at how power,
oppression, and privilege are the products of certain forms of communication throughout
society (Foss & Littlejohn, 2008, p. 45). Critical theories have a goal of understanding
the taken-for-granted systems, power structures, and beliefs-or ideologies- that dominate
society, with a particular eye to whose interests are served by those power structures

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(Foss & Littlejohn, 2008, p. 46). The next section will look at the research question
developed to inform the study.

Research Questions
In order to develop the study, two research questions were created. The first
asked: In what ways and to what extent does the media create a mythical world of color
blindness? The second research question asked: In what ways and to what extent does the
color blind discourse of the media effect an audience of college students? The next
section will look at the theoretical framework that guides the study.

Theoretical Framework
The theory that is the guide for the study is George Gerbners Cultivation Theory,
which looks at the strategies of the media over time on culture and particular viewers.
The theory argues that television exposure cultivates the viewers perceptions of reality.
Gerbner uses the term cultivation because television is believed to be a homogenizing
agent in culture, or cultivating a common culture (Foss & Littlejohn, 2008, p. 299).
Cultivation theory regards viewers as passively accepting the ideologies with little to no
interpretation.
Cultivation theory guides the study because it provides a framework for
understanding the effects of the medias strategies on the way the audience perceives
racial relations in America. The next section will highlight key terms and definitions
needed to understand this study.

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Definition of Terms

Aversive Racism:

Covert, subtle expressions of prejudice and


discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities,
often unconscious and unintentional (Marger,
2009).

Color blind:

The way the media decries blatant racial inequality


so as to soothe those in favor of the status quo while
attempting to appear sensitive and objective (Walsh,
2009).

Discrimination:

Negative actions against a group, aimed at denying


its members equal access to societal rewards
(Marger, 2009).

Dominant Ethnic Group:

That group at the top of the ethnic hierarchy, which


receives a disproportionate share of wealth,
exercises predominant political authority, and has
the greatest influence on shaping the societys
cultural system (Marger, 2009).

Dominative Racism:

Actions taken to oppress racial and ethnic


minorities and to keep them in a subservient
position (Marger, 2009).

Ethnic Collectivities:

Groupings of people who have a recognizable


culture, are aware of themselves as a unit, are
recognized as a unit by outsiders, interact with each
other, and feel a sense of obligation to support and
defend the group (Marger, 2009).

Ethnic Group:

A group within a larger society that displays a


unique set of cultural traits and a sense of
community among members (Marger, 2009).

Ethnic Hierarchy:

The structural arrangement of diverse groups of a


multiethnic society in a rank order, from those at the
top, with most of the societys wealth and power, to
those at the bottom, with correspondingly little
(Marger, 2009).

Ethnic Stereotype:

An over-simplistic and exaggerated belief about


members of an ethnic group, generally acquired
secondhand and resistant to change despite contrary
evidence (Marger, 2009).

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Ethnocentrism:

The belief by members of a group that their culture


is superior to others (Marger, 2009).

Ideology:

A set of beliefs and values that explain, rationalize,


and justify inequalities in wealth, power, and
privilege (Marger, 2009).

Institutional Discrimination:

Actions taken against members of particular groups


that are the result of the policies and structures of
organizations and institutions. May be direct, in
which discrimination is based on law or custom, or
indirect, in which it is obscure and often unintended
(Marger, 2009).

Macro Discrimination:

Discrimination against minority groups not limited


to specific cases but firmly incorporated in the
societys normative system (Marger, 2009).

Mertons Paradigm:

A theoretical model explaining that prejudice and


discrimination are variable, depending on a number
of situational factors; hence, attitudes and actions
toward members of minority groups may fluctuate
within different social contexts (Marger, 2009).

Minority Groups:

Groups that, on the basis of their physical or


cultural traits, are given differential and unequal
treatment and receive fewer of the societys rewards
(Marger, 2009).

Model Minority:

A popular characterization of Asian Americans,


recognizing their comparatively successful
adaptation to American society (Marger, 2009).

Multiethnic Society:

A society composed of numerous cultural, racial


and religious groups (Marger, 2009).

Myth:

Those unstated, unquestioned, and unnoticed beliefs


we assume about the world (Gorham, 1999).

Power-conflict Theories:

Theories that view prejudice and discrimination as


emerging from dominant group interests and used to
protect and enhance those interests .

Prejudice:

A generalized belief, usually inflexible and

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unfavorable, applied to members of a particular
group (Marger, 2009).

Race:

A socially constructed category of humans,


classified on the basis of certain arbitrarily selected
hereditary characteristics that differentiate them
from other human groups (Marger, 2009).

Racial-ethnic Group:

An ethnic group whose members are noticeably


different physically from the dominant ethnic group
(Marger, 2009).

Racism:

The belief that humans are subdivided into distinct


hereditary groups that are innately different in their
social behavior and mental capacities and that can
therefore be ranked as superior or inferior (Marger,
2009).

Racial Triangulation:

The pitting of one race against another in order to


remove responsibility from a third party race.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy:

A process in which the false definition of a situation


produces behavior that, in turn, makes real the
originally falsely defined situation (Marger, 2009).

Social Class:

A category of people with approximately similar


incomes and occupations who share similar
lifestyles (Marger, 2009).

Social Darwinism:

A theory, based on the notion of survival of the


fittest holding that ones economic standing is
ultimately the product of ones inherent capabilities
(Marger, 2009).

Social Distance:

The degrees of intimacy members of one ethnic


group are willing to accept with members of other
ethnic groups (Marger, 2009).

Social Mobility:

The movement up or down a societys class or


ethnic hierarchy by individuals or groups (Marger,
2009).

Social Stratification:

A well-established system of structured inequality


in which people and groups receive different
amounts of the societys valued resources, based on

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various social, and sometimes physical,
characteristics (Marger, 2009).

Stereotype:

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image


or idea of a particular type of person or thing
(Marger, 2009).

Yellow Peril:

An anti-Chinese characterization, referring to the


perceived economic and cultural threat of Chinese
immigration to the United States in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Marger,
2009).

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CHAPTER TWO:
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Restatement Of The Problem
Our personality is developed over our lifetime based on our interactions with the

people and things that surround us. Television, or the babysitter, is one of the most
influential factors in developing personality and worldviews in its audiences. It is a
storyteller that provides the narrative for viewers to model and live by. Since the end of
Jim Crow segregation the social ramifications of open racism has created a subversive
myth of color blind discourse within society and the media. The myth of racial equality
within the media is a way for the majority group to maintain their privilege over the
marginalized minorities. In order to create a truly realistic picture of the world and to
create a truly equal world, an understanding of the ways the media uses the myth of color
blindness is essential.
Overview Of The Available Literature
The literature on the issues being looked at in this study is extensive. Researchers
have found that there is a new type of color blind discourse that is being offered by the
media which has a greater negative impact on social issues today. Color blind linguistics
employed heavily and adeptly by youth argue that race is no longer a problem that faces
America. Media portrayals of race have also changed, with numbers of minorities
appearing beginning to match their proportional population numbers. However, as the
media portrays more minorities they are using new tactics to cultivate ideologies similar
to that of Jim Crow segregation. Further research shows that although age and
geographic location may effect how a person reacts to message systems produced by the

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media, most researchers believe that the media is still cultivating audience perspectives
on reality. The next section will look at the literature available for research question two
more in depth.

Background For Research Question One


Color Blind Discourse
One might truly believe that America is a color blind society when only the
surface is scratched. Descriptions of scenes around America include, The young white
male sporting FUBU (African-American owned apparel company For Us By Us) shirt
and his white friend with the tightly set, perfectly braided cornrows blended seamlessly
into the festivities at an all white bar mitzvah celebration. A black model dressed in
yachting attire peddles a New England, yuppie boating look in Nautica advertisements
(Gallagher, 2003, p. 2). Gallagher argues:
Americans are constantly being bombarded by depictions of race relations in the
media which suggest that discriminatory racial barriers have been
dismantledMuch of white America now see a level playing field, while a
majority of black Americans see a field which is still quite uneven. (Gallagher,
2003, p. 2)
The word colorblind first appeared during Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 when U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Harlan claimed, the constitution is colorblindIn respect of civil
rights, all citizens are equal before the law (Kawai, 2005, p. 113). The discourse of
colorblind has been a way for the white hegemony to effectively cut off racial cries of
inequality by claiming racial equality. By ignoring race, the media attempts to neutralize
racial categories and focus on the issues. Any problems that face minorities are clearly
separate from the systemic and structural problems that they face. Critical race theorist
T.J. Yosso found films tend to blame Chicana/o socioacademic failure on their culture,
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language, family, values, cycle of poverty, lack of motivation, inclination to violence, and
proclivity to unplanned pregnancy (Yosso, 2002, p. 2). Walsh argues the importance of
understanding how and why color blind discourse functions within media,
How media outlets discuss or avoid discussions of race tell us something
important about how the media comes to represent race in the social world they
help shape. The argument I make is that the mainstream media, in seeking to
comfort its dominant white audience, engages in colorblind tactics designed to
soothe those who benefit from the statues quo while simultaneously trying to
appear sensitive and objective to the growing audience of those who are cognizant
of the racial hierarchy and unequal access to power, prestige, privilege and
property. (Walsh, 2009, p. 122)
As the media attempts to fix negative racial stereotypes in the media there can be the
problem of the reverse effect: creating a color blind myth. Entman describes this process,
We must acknowledge a normative conundrum: actions taken to ameliorate one
misimpression could heighten another. For example, reducing images of black
crime and victimization could instill among whites an unwarranted sense of black
progress. Similarly, TVs deliberate use of black experts on non-black issues,
while conveying the positive diversity of the black community, could
simultaneously feed the complacency of whites who insist racial discrimination
has ceased. (Entman, 1994, p. 518)
Research on race in children-targeted television commercials revealed that although
character representation by race was generally close to their racial population in America,
such extent of representation may give the casual viewer the impression that childrens
commercials are now multicultural, equitable, and progressive, a deeper examination
suggests that this surface change masks continuing racial biases in the screen presence,
casting, and direction of people of color (Li-Vollmer, 2002, p. 220).
The linguistics of color blind racism have come about because it is no longer
socially acceptable to use racist terminology, Because post-civil rights racial norms
allow the open expression of direct racial views and positions, whites have developed a
concealed way of voicing them (Bonilla-Silva, 2002, p. 46). Solorzano says that the

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linguistics of color blind racism are generally hidden but occasionally people of color get
a glimpse into the world of subtle and unconscious racism and racial stereotyping
(Solorzano, 1997, p. 10). Solorzano lists some examples that are heard often by people
of color,
When I talk about those Blacks, I really wasnt talking about you.
Youre not like the rest of them. Youre different.
If only there were more of them like you.
I dont think of you as a Mexican.
You speak such good English.
But you speak without an accent.
Taken individually, these comments are viewed by most People of Color as
insults. However, many Whites see these statements differently and responded to
People of Color with such retorts as youre being too sensitive about race or
why does everything have to go back to race (Solorzano, 1997, pp. 10-11)
Language for teachers has had to change to fit the more socially acceptable subversive
color blind linguistics, it would be unprofessional for teachers and teach educators to
describe Students of Color as dumb, dirty, or lazy. Instead, some educators and
scholars might use a different terminology such as uneducable, lack hygiene, or lack
motivation (Solorzano, 1997, p. 11). Bonilla-Silva argues that contemporary America
has created a new language that is filled with new ways to discuss race. Some examples
he offers are, I am a little bit for affirmative action, but Yes and no, I mean I
am not prejudiced, but Some of my best friends are black I sort of agree and
disagree(Bonilla-Silva, 2002, p. 41). All are examples how whites in America are
using the slippery, apparently contradictory, and often subtle (Bonilla-Silva, 2002, 42)
contemporary color blind linguistics. In another article Bonilla-Silva and Forman argue,
these discursive maneuvers or semantic moves are usually followed by negative
statements on the general character of minorities (e.g. they are lazy, they have
too many babies) or on government-sponsered policies and programs that
promote racial equality (e.g. affirmative action is reverse discrimination, noone should be forced to integrate). (Bonilla-Silva & Foreman, 2000, p. 50)

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Bonilla-Silva found that students used projection as a way of avoiding guilt and

responsibility so that they could place blame elsewhere,


College students projected racial motivations onto blacks as a way of avoiding
responsibility and feeling good about themselves. Their projections appeared on a
variety of issues (e.g. affirmative action, school and residential segregation,
interracial friendship and marriage, and blacks work ethic), but most often on the
hot issue of so-called black self-segregation. (Bonilla-Silva, 2002, p. 54)
Bonilla-Silva found that about half of the students he interviewed used diminutives when
discussing racial issues,
Because maintaining a non-racial, color blind stance is key, whites use
diminutives to soften their racial blows. Hence, when they oppose affirmative
action, few say, I [am] against affirmative action. Instead they say something
such as, I am just a little bit against affirmative action. (Bonilla-Silva, 2002, p.
57)
Bonilla-Silvas preliminary research suggests that younger, educated, middle class
people (Bonilla-Silva, 2002, p. 62) are more likely to use the new color blind linguistics
but says, This does not mean they are less racist. It just means that they are more adept
at navigating the dangerous waters of Americas contemporary racial landscape and
know all the stylistic tools available to save face (Bonilla-Silva, 2002, p. 62). The overarching themes of color blind racism are:
(1) the extension of the principles of liberalism to racial matters in an abstract
manner, (2) cultural rather than biological explanation of minorities inferior
standing and performance in labor and educational markets, (3) naturalization of
racial phenomena such as residential and school segregation, and (4) the claim
that discrimination has all but disappeared. (Bonilla-Silva & Foreman, 2002, p.
42)
Lewis finds that Whites tend to believe that race is about minorities and does not
include Whites, Despite the key role whites have played historically in the original
construction and replication of racial categories, they often claim today to be beyond

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race- to be color-blind and not think about race (Lewis, 2004, p. 624). Lewis argues that
whites are racialized just as much as any minority group,
Because of their social location (as dominants) whites historically have had the
luxury of racializing others without necessarily, except strategically, developing
or invoking a strong racial consciousness. Yet they remain an important racial
collectivity despite their lack of felt groupness. They are a passive social
collectivity that can become, at strategic moments, a self-conscious group (e.g.
race riots, choosing a school for children, hiring a new employee. (Lewis, 2004, p.
626)
Lewis argues, Though the nature of whiteness often enables whites to go through life
without thinking about the racialized nature of their own experiences, it does not mean
they are somehow outside of the system they have created and have projected onto
others (Lewis, 2004, p. 640). Whites ignore their own racial category they as part of a
color-blind ideology that functions to,
Facilitate the disavowal of numerous troubling racial patterns in interactions and
outcomes, but it [also] co-opts a racially progressive aspiration- color-blindessand asserts it as a reality, it also makes other antiracist frames that might allow for
the creation of different outcomes very difficult. Racial ideology generally and
color-blind ideology in particular, at least in part in the claim that whites are not a
social collective, naturalize racialized interactions that privilege whites. (Lewis,
2004, p. 636)
Lewis argues that multiracial children are complicating the landscape of race in America,
As the case of Tiger Woods and others demonstrate- even explicit efforts to
identify as multiracial (or Cablinasian in this case) rarely meet with success
given current racial realities. Woods is touted as a great black golfer (not a great
multiracial golfer); Fuzzy Zoeller did not try to dissuade him from selecting Pad
Thai (i.e. Thai food) for the menu for 1998 Masters, but rather mentioned fried
chicken and greens, cuisine associated with the black southern tradition. On the
other hand, his categorization as black within the United States is complicated by
his placement elsewhere; Woods is esteemed as a great Asian golfer in many
Asian countries. His racial categorization is thus transformed within different
social contexts. (Lewis, 2004, p. 629).

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Race in the Media


The first research question looks at the way the media portrays race on television.
Yosso found that entertainment media are one of the means through which racism
pervades, albeit sometimes in unconscious, subtle, indirect, and covert ways (Yosso,
2002, p. 2). Ramasubramanian found that
due to the ubiquitous nature of media stereotypes, biased information inevitably
becomes incorporated into common knowledge or schemata that viewers form
about stereotyped groups. According to the neo-associationistic model of media
priming, when such cognitive networks are firmly in place, exposure to media
stereotypes can serve as cognitive shortcuts to immediately and easily activate the
cultural stereotypes associated with the group. (Ramasubramanian, 2007, p. 2)
In her study on how the media cultivates moderate perspectives on racial integration
Paula W. Matabane found that Television fiction establishes the social value of an
integrated setting while omitting the social negatives that many blacks may experience in
real-life all-white circumstances (Matabane, 1988, p. 22). Her review of content
analysis found,
Black characters tend to be cast either in all-black settings or as lone black
persons in an otherwise all-white setting. Black settings tend to be low income,
with few socially productive persons concerned about social problems; blacks in
white settings tend to be upscale and productive. Black English is generally used
by low-income characters in all-black settings. Racism is rarely discussed or
portrayed. (Matabane, 1988, p. 22)
Ramasubramanian adds that there are only a few long-standing racial stereotypes in the
media. African Americans are portrayed as criminal, aggressive, and unintelligent. Asian
Americans on the other hand have more positive depictions as being model minorities
who are non-controversial, polite, hard-working, and who do not challenge the existing
system.
Jannette L. Dates review of commercial television finds that,

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American commercial television is a clear reflection of the split in the African
American image in popular culture, and of empowered groups rigid control of
most images presented on the television screenthe mainstream values and
beliefs of African Americans seen on primtime commercial television have not
revealed unique African American experience but rather the perceptions of white
producers, sponsors, writers and owners. (Dates, 1990, p. 253)

Dates argues that over a period of forty years only thirteen weekly dramas featured
African Americans and Over the years, six of the thirteen dramas aired for less than a
year, while six of them were on for just a year (Dates, 1990, p. 255). The dramas
continued the tradition of framing thoughts about the world that said strong, white males
solve the problems generated by social disorder and human bungling, whether the victims
are black or white (Dates, 1990, p. 255).
There have been some interesting attempts at discussing race on commercial
television. In general, television in the 1950s and 1960s featured happy people with
happy problems (Dates, 1990, p. 254) but when All In The Family and its spin-off The
Jeffersons aired, they showed racial issues and racist language which garnered different
reactions by audience members, unprejudiced and minority viewers perceived and
enjoyed the show as satire, while prejudiced viewers perceived and enjoyed the show as
one of the few that was telling it like it is! (Dates, 1990, p. 268).
However Dates notes The Jeffersons appealed to white Americans because
they represented African Americans who had made it. The Jeffersons was the
fulfillment of the American dream (Dates, 1990, p. 272). Columnist William Henry
argued, viewers yearned to believe that a social revolution had been won, and that this
somehow freed white Americans from redressing any more grievances which African
Americans might have said were due (Dates, 1990, p. 272). This is one of the first
examples of the color blind discourse being offered by the media. Later Bill Cosby

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starred on the program I Spy in which Cosbys character did not usually address his
blackness or another characters whiteness, and, like other shows with black characters
on primetime television, he was portrayed in an atmosphere where being black merely
meant having slightly darker skin (Dates, 1990, p. 280).
The most frequent presence of blackness on television was within the role of
entertainer. Dates argues, In the earliest American television programs, black people
were employed with some degree of dignity by Ed Sullivan, Arthur Godfrey, Milton
Berle, Steven Allen, and a few others like them who frequently used African American
performers in their variety shows without cosigning them to stereotypical roles or to the
rigidity of white models (Dates, 1990, p. 284). The portrayal of African Americans on
variety shows and as having equal roles reinforced the idea that
Many believed that the appearance of Negroes on television was a sign that
barriers were coming down. Some believed that the Federal Communications
Commission and advertisers, because of their responsiveness to social forces,
would lead the way to opening up television as a strong medium of black
expression (Dates, 1990, n.p.)
African Americans characters in soap operas however still lacked depth or dimension,
The primarily white writers for soaps developed characters in the context of their own
world experiences. Often they were afraid of offending black viewers and so made the
characters perfect or wooden rather than realistic (Dates, 1990, p. 294). Nancy
Signorielli found in her analysis of prime time television,
Women and minorities have less prestigious jobs than White menWhite
characters of all ages are more likely than minority characters of all ages to be
cast in prestigious jobs. These differences also hold for gender30% of White
men, 25% of White women, 22% of minority men, and 20% of minority women.
(Signorielli, 2004, p. 290)
Further she found that older minority characters are more likely than older White
characters to work outside the home (Signorielli, 2004, p. 289).
!

"*!
The Asian American community is one that is plagued by a strange ambivalent

nature when viewed through stereotypes. Kawai points out that,


On one hand, Asian Americans as the yellow peril embody foreignness and
masculinity that threaten U.S. identity as a White, Christian nation; on the other
hand, Asian Americans who make efforts to succeed silently and diligently
without demanding or protesting anything-symbolize the model minority and
docility or femininity and confirm colorblind ideology. (Kawai, 2005, p. 115)
In other words, Asian Americans have the positive image of being self-sufficient and a
model group among the minorities as long as they are not a threat to the white hegemony.
But as soon as they embody that threat whether it is through economic or academic
achievement they become part of the yellow peril. Kawai also points out that, in the
world of Hollywood films, Fu Manchu served to enhance the yellow peril stereotype: a
person who possessed a superhuman intellect and ambition and also was subhuman in
his immortality and ruthlessness(Kawai, 2005, p. 113).
In the media the Kawai shows that Latina/Hispanic women are also
contradictory stereotyped as both the halfbreed harlot and the female clown that
neutralizes the overt sexual threat posed by the former in Hollywood films (Kawai,
2005, p. 118). Yosso goes on to say mainstream Hollywood films often portray whites
as successful in school and in life, whereas Chicanas/os and African Americans are more
generally characterized as failures in education and society (Yosso, 2002, p. 1).
The stereotypes of these groups can help to maintain the hegemonic white group
power by creating a triangulation among minorities, which pits one group against the
other while white groups are portrayed as neutral (Kawai, 2005, p. 124). This is
especially evidenced by the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict, in which a notguilty verdict was given to white policemen accused of beating an African American
man (Kawai, 2005, p. 124). Although Rodney King was African American and the
!

""!

policemen were white, Kawai claims, mainstream media are believed to be responsible
for turning the Rodney King case, a White racial issue, into an Asian-Black racial
issuethe media framed the riot as an inter-racial conflict between Asians and Blacks
because such a portrayal resonates with underlying American ideological currents, which
pit Asian Americans, as a model minority, against African Americans, as an urban
underclass (Kawai, 2005, 124). There has been a historical framing of Asian Americans
as superior to African Americans while being inferior to whites (Kawai, 2005, pp. 110,
114-115). In the end Kawai argues, by valorizing Korean immigrants and defending
them against Black agitators, the media once again used Asian Americans and the
norms of colorblindness to protect White privilege from a Black Power challenge and
that the Rodney King case, which was undoubtedly motivated by White racism, was recontextualized as an inter-minority conflict in which urban underclass African
Americans attacked model minority Asian Americans, and White Americans
disappeared from the scene (Kawai, 2005, p. 124).
In 2008, the first Black man was elected President of the United States despite a
strong discourse on the impossibility of such an event. Fullbright places the
responsibility on this discourse on the media, the idea that Americans would not be able
to get past racism and elect a black president was a myth largely perpetuated by the
media (Fullbright, 2009, p. B3). Fullbright asserts that this is largely due to the financial
benefits created by portraying a racial division among Americans, a vote for Hilary was
not a vote against Obama or against an African Americanbut promoting the idea that
we dont get along sells papers (Fullbright, 2009, p. B3). The media even used racial
triangulation between African Americans, Latinos and Whites to downplay Hilarys part

"#!

in the race while playing up a racial division between the African Americans and Latinos.
Fullbright quotes, Sylvia Manzano, an assistant professor of political science at Texas
A&M University, said the media generated the idea that Latinos wouldnt vote for an
African American man even though surveys proved that wasnt the case (Fullbright,
2009, p. B3). The historic race between Obama and Hilary, both representing first for
their respective categories of female and Black, left the media with a dilemma of how to
pit them against one another. Walsh describes both categories as having a history of
repression with Black men given the vote a half-century before women of any race were
allowed to mark a ballot, and generally have ascended to positions of power, from the
military to the boardroom, before any women (Walsh, 2009, p. 126). To attempt to push
herself above the Black privilege over women Walsh explains Hilarys strategy, in the
beginning of the campaign to demonstrate her ability to lead the country Clinton marked
herself not only as a strong woman, albeit one occupying the unmarked category of
white, with race rendered invisible. In response, the press consistently portrayed Hillary
Clinton as a mythical man-attributing to her those characteristics of hegemonic
masculinity: tough, self-sufficient, stoic (Walsh, 2009, p. 124). Obama was much
harder for the press to categorize and eventually they settled on emasculating him. Walsh
describes the media discussion,
After the press and pundits settled during the Fall 2007 on the debate about
whether or not Barack Obama was black enough (they determined he was Black
using both the historic rule of hypo-descent and some arbitrary cultural litmus
test), their next project was to find a category which he could occupy that fit
commonsense for the audience. (Walsh, 2009, p. 127)
The response Walsh says was to at every opportunity Obama was painted not only as the
antithetical persona to the Black buck stereotype, but as a poor substitute for the
hegemonic masculinity that has been preferred by the public in selecting a candidate for
!

"$!

the Oval Office (Walsh, 2009, p. 127). The media often displayed mixed messages
regarding his race, while one project during the primary sought to portray Obama as less
than Black, another project operated frequently to remind audiences that the candidate
did not fit within the category of normative whiteness (Walsh, 2009, p. 127). Overall
the general depiction of Obama in contrast to Hilary served to comfort white, middleclass normative values so that if Obama did succeed in creating a miracle win, white
power wouldnt be challenged. Walsh sums it up,
In recasting the Black man candidate both as less than Black, and less than
manly, the ideological work of the white supremacy remains in tack: should this
man succeed to capture the nomination and perhaps the White House, his race and
his masculinity have been diminished: he is seen as not quite Black but also not
quite manly. This recasting of race and gender renders white supremacy if not
intact, at least less threatened than the social order would be if a stereotypical
Black masculinity had won the election. (Walsh, 2009, p. 129)
In research on how race is portrayed in television commercials, Li-Vollmer found
In commercials that utilized a product spokesperson, African Americans were rarely cast
in the spokesperson role and other racial minorities never served this function. In
contrast, White characters were the most visible spokespeople (Li-Vollmer, 2002, p.
217). Occupations by race within commercials revealed stereotypical roles for racial
minorities,
Among the 499 White primary characters with an identifiable role, the largest
number appeared as humans with supernatural powers and as parents or
grandparents. African Americans had much narrower representation among the
role categories; out of the 90 African American characters in specific roles, the
largest number appeared as laborers. Only 9 other minority characters were
identified with a specific role with the largest number portrayed as service
workers. (Li-Vollmer, 2002, p. 218)
The next section will look at the literature available for research question two more in
depth.

"%!
Background For Research Question Two

Television Cultivation
Cultivation analysis is a way of looking at the narrative of the message systems
within the media and their long-term effects on the viewers. Most of what we know, or
think we know, we have never personally experienced. We live in a world erected by the
stories we hear and see and tell (Gerbner, 1996). The person telling the story isnt a
family member or close friend. Its not even an institution that is a part of the
community.
Television stories show and tell us about life- its people, places, power, and fate
as well as how things work and how to solve problems. Characterizations
represent the good and bad, the happy and sad, successes and failures, show
whos on the top and whos on the bottom of the economic ladder and/or pecking
order. (Signorielli, 2004, p. 279).
These stories have three primary roles in life 1) they reveal how things work; 2) they
describe what things are, and 3) they tell us what to do about them (Gerbner, 1996,
Foreward). Stories that reveal how things work, illuminate the all-important but
invisible relationships of life. They help us perceive the insivisible and hidden dynamics
of daily reality (Gerbner, 1996, Foreward). The second kind of stories, which depict
what things are provide the descriptions, expositions, and reports from total
situtations, which fill in with facts the gaps in the fantasies conjured up by the stories of
the first kind (Gerbner, 1996, Foreward). The stories of the third kind work to bring
together the first two kinds of stories. They are the stories
which tell us what to do-clinch the lessons of the first two and turn them into
action. They typically present us with a valued objective or suggest a need or
desire- and then offer a product, service, candidate, institution, or action to help us
attain it. (Gerbner, 1996, Foreward)

"&!

Gerbner and associates relate television to religion, Television provides, perhaps for the
first time since preindustrial religion, a daily ritual that elites share with many other
publics (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994, p. 18).
Cultivation framework is made up of two parts: the message system analysis and
the cultivation analysis. Gerbner says, The most popular products of mass-produced
culture provide special opportunities for the study of socially potent message systems. In
these systems- popular fiction, drama, and news- aspects of life are recreated in
significant associations with total human situations (Gerbner, 1977, p. 203). A message
system creates its own synthetic world, all that exists in that world is represented in it.
Facts reflect not opaque reality but palpable design (Gerbner, 1977, p. 203). The
world of a message system is much like that of reality, The world has its own time,
space, geography, demography, and ethnography, bent to institutional purpose and rules
of social morality (Gerbner, 1977, p. 203). The point of content indicators of message
system analysis is not to tell us what individuals think or do, but rather what most
people think or do something about in common (Gerbner, 1977, p. 204).
The second part of cultivation framework is the cultivation anaylsis. In this
researchers are not looking for what the effects of television make us do but what they
contribute to the meaning of all that is done (or accepted or avoided)- a more
fundamental and ultimately more decisive process (Gerbner, 1977, p. 205). Cultivation
is not focused on the short-term because What is most likely to cultivate stable and
common conceptions of reality is, therefore, the overall pattern of programming to which
total communities are regularly exposed over long periods of time (Gerbner, Gross,
Morgan, &Signorielli, 1994, p. 20).

"'!
In research on response times to positive or negative word associations after

viewing African American stereotypes, Ramasubramanian found that after viewing


movie clips depicting African American women in stereotypical roles, participants
responded faster to negative words than positive words in a reaction-time task
(Ramasubramanian, 2007, p. 3). Entman found that the network news does produce
images of blacks that may, in more subtle ways than is true of the locals, reinforce
whites antagonism toward blacks, especially among audience members already
predisposed toward hostility and resentment (Entman, 1994, p. 516). The cultivation of
the negative view of minorities works easier on the majority group,
For the majority group, blacks in the news may represent or symbolize all blacks
in a way that singular whites do not stand for all whites. Since news presents
itself as a kind of sample survey of the worlds events, white audience members,
especially those having limited personal contact or hostile predispositions toward
blacks, may assume those blacks who appear in TV news are representative and
thus generalize from them (Entman, 1994, p. 517)
Entman warns that the news needs to be aware of the problem that the news presents
which is unique because of the way that it categorizes its presentation as truth and versus
the fiction of primetime television. He suggests that newsmakers need to be aware of
their part in the cultivation of audiences,
This mental disposition means many white audience members may over time
combine news images of blacks that are individually accurate into stereotyped
cognition. If the ultimate goal of journalism is establishing truthful audience
cognitions, news organizations might bear in mind this tendency toward
prejudiced stereotyping when assessing and refining their newsmaking practices.
(Entman, 1994, p. 17)
Matabane found that the audience members demographics and community participation
effected the cultivation influence of the media,
Television seems to be a more important factor in the construction of racial
integration perceptions for young respondents, high-income respondents, women,

"(!
churchgoers, those with low community participation, and those with medium
length of residency in one neighborhoodwe observe a consistent influence of
television among all these groups in the direction of a more mainstream
perception of racial integration. (Matabane, 1988, pp. 26-27)

However Matabane found that the age group of over 57 was effected by cultivation
differently than other age ranges, For older respondents, the amount of television
viewing appears to be of little consequence in the formation of some of their racial
beliefs, but even these distinctions in the perceptions of the degree of integration are
blurred or absent for heavy viewers overall (Matabane, 1988, p. 29). In general
Matabane concluded that age was a factor because, Each generation has had a different
social experience in race relations, ranging from segregation to civil rights, and varying
modes of protest (Matabane, 1988, p. 28). Matabane has serious worries about the way
the media cultivates perceptions of race, The illusion of well-being among the oppressed
may lead to reduced political activity and less demand for social justice and equality
(Matabane, 1988, p. 30).
Grabe and Drew found in their research on the cultivation effects of crime dramas
found little evidence of cultivation effects associated with televised crime drama,
whereas nonfiction did produce cultivation outcomes (Grabe & Drew, 2007, p. 163).
This is consistent with Entmans theory that the news is taken more as truth than fiction
programs. Their research results showed cultivation aspects in that, after controlling for
the influence of demographic items, exposure to reality programs alone predicted almost
2% of gun ownership, showing a notable association between watching reality crime
programs and owning a gun (Grabe & Drew, 2007, p. 164).
Research on the cultivation of violence has formed three main conclusions; First,
viewing television violence is related to increased aggression toward others by viewers.

")!

A second conclusion in the report is that viewing violence is related to desensitization


by which viewers end to become indifferent to real-world violence. And, third, viewers
tend to become fearful of the real world (Larson, 2003, p. 67). Researcher Li-Vollmer
argues that because children watch 30,000-40,000 commercials each year they provide a
good way to judge the cultivation effects on children, television advertisements targeted
at children present stable patterns of race representation, these messages about race will
be repeated many times over to a relatively receptive audience (Li-Vollmer, 2002, p.
208). Larsons uses the same reasoning but applies it to research on violence in
childrens television commercials, in the significant two-way interaction of aggression x
race, commercials that featured White boys and boys of Color together exhibited less
fortuitous aggression than expected (Larson, 2003, p. 71). Larsons research also found
that object aggression was higher in commercials that featured only White boys. Larson
concludes that the cultivation effects of commercial violence for White boys may be high
for several reasons,
White boys are given a wealth of models of object aggression such as the
destruction of property in video games and attacks on action figures. White boys
also have many models for physical aggression such as arm twisting on a
playground or shooting a stringy, gooey substance at people. (Larson, 2003, p. 73)
Li-Vollmer is concerned that children with little access to alternative means of
socializing beyond their television may assimilate the messages in commercials more
easily, children with few opportunities to interact with people from diverse backgrounds
are more likely to assimilate television commercials cues about race into their role
schemas, which in turn inform their later judgments and interactions (Li-Vollmer, 2002,
p. 224). The effect of the television commercials is especially great because,

#+!
The messages about race that are embedded in television commercials may have
a greater likelihood of assimilation into schemas not only because of their
repetitive nature, but also because the racial stereotyping is not blatant to the
average viewer. Few adults, let alone children, are likely to analyze the
differences in the distribution of race in various kinds of product commercials, or
the settings in which various characters appear, or even the occupational roles
assigned; as a result, both adults and children would be hard pressed to even
consciously recognize the racial biases, no matter how sensitive they are to such
issues. (Li-Vollmer, 2002, p. 224)

Understanding how television commercials portray race is key to cultivation because,


By exposing children to this worldview through stable and repetitive images,
television commercials have the ability to shape more than product preferences:
They have the potential to shape childrens definitions and attitudes about race
according to the racial biases projected by the media industry. (Li-Vollmer, 2002,
p. 225)
In contrast to sources that acknowledge the cultivation effects of the media
Gorham argues,
Media do not reflect the world in any empirical sense, but instead help construct
and maintain it by re-presenting particular meanings and understandings of
reality. The media are part of the larger social process that constructs and
encourages some meanings (generally those of dominant social groups) over
others (generally socially suborinate groups), and it does this via discourse
(language that is infused with particular meanings [and myths] and not others).
Yet despite their clear connections with the dominant groups of society, media
texts are not necessarily dominating (Gorham, 1999, p. 240)
Gorham argues that individuals create the meaning for the information that is provided by
the media and therefore they shape their own perceptions of reality. In a study on the
way audiences respond to local and international social conflict in news, Cohen, Adoni,
and Bantz found, people perceived, made sense, and in some instances might even have
been critical of the way television presented social conflicts in the news (Cohen, Adoni
& Bantz, 1990, p. 172). To some extent their respondents still formed their opinions of
reality based on the news, people tended to be less dependent on the media portrayal of
reality when evaluating local conflicts with which it could be assumed they were more

#*!

familiar, while they were more dependent upon the media when dealing with
international conflicts that were more remote from their immediate environment and
zones of relevance (Cohen, Adoni & Bantz, 1990, p. 190).

Summary
This chapter has looked at color blind discourse, race in the media and the
cultivation effects of television. Color blind discourse is the new way of allowing those
in the majority to use racist linguistics and perpetuate their dominance over minorities
while maintaining that the world provides equal opportunities for all. Researchers have
found that Whites use a diminutive language and hide behind comments that appear to
support equality while essentially spouting racist remarks similar to those found in the era
of Jim Crow segregation. Researchers have found that race in the media tends to be
stereotypical with disparities in racial representation and actual populations in reality.
Further some researchers have found that while race is occasionally represented equally
based on their population, they are still likely to be shown in under-privileged ways.
Theorists have shown that cultivation of worldviews that are similar to those portrayed on
television are especially high with viewers who are heavy viewers and that age and/or
geographic location can factor into how much an audience is cultivated. The next chapter
will look at the experimental design for this study.

#"!
CHAPTER THREE:
METHODOLOGY
Restatement Of The Problem
The issue that this paper looks at is the way the media creates a mythical world of

equality and imposes that ideology upon its audiences. The mythical world created by
the media encourages the cultivation of an environment of disguised racism and
discrimination to which many are blind. The next section will look at the method for
understanding in what ways and to what extent the media has created this mythical world
to marginalize minorities.

Research Design And Method


The purpose of this study is to understand the strategies employed by the media as
well as the effects upon their audiences. In order to fully understand all sides of the
issue, the design of the study must look at both the perspective of the media as well as the
perspective of the audience. Thus the methodology is a mixed methodology of a
character content analysis and a survey. The content analysis was designed to look for
evidence of color blind discourse, the way race is portrayed and the demographics of the
characters. The survey helped in understanding the way the audience reacts to the
message and mythical world being portrayed by the media. The first eight questions
were designed to gain an understanding of the demographics of the audience being
studied. The questions regarding how those surveyed self-identify for race, religion and
political views were designed as opened-ended in the hopes of seeing a unique pattern.
Following the demographic section was a six-question Likert scale section. The scale

##!

was designed with only four responses (1) not at all, (2) some, (3) often, (4) always so
that respondents were forced to choose a side. The final section was an open-ended
section in which respondents were asked to identify positive and negative stereotypes
displayed on television. Further the respondents were asked to discuss any changes in the
portrayal of race on television within the last ten years and how their own views on race
have changed in this time period. The next section will break down how the data
collection will be organized.

Method Of Data Collection


The combination of content analysis and survey provides rounded information for
understanding the ideology of the media and the reaction of their audiences. The content
analysis focused on the programs most watched by the audience being studied. It looked
at the top five most watched broadcast programs for the demographic age range of 18-49,
as determined by the reliable tracking company Nielsen and published by
www.tvbythenumbers.com. Broadcast programs are used because they are available to
all TV watchers where as cable programs are only available for a monthly fee. For the
week of Monday April 26th, 2010 to Sunday May 2, 2010 the top five programs were (1)
American Idol-Tuesday, (2) American Idol- Wednesday, (3) Glee, (4) Dancing With the
Stars, (5) House (Seidman, 2010). Because the top two programs were from the same
show but with one being the results show, the number one program for the week was
disregarded in favor of the number six program, Modern Family. By expanding the
programs within the content analysis the study was able to look at the overarching themes
over shows that were all different.

#$!
The coding for the content analysis was organized into two different sections

within the codebook (see Appendix A) as well as the codesheet (see Appendix B)
The survey section of the data collection was distributed to St. Marys College of
California students through the website SurveyMonkey. The survey was linked through
the researchers Facebook profile, an email notification to professors asking that they
distribute the survey to their students, and by passing out a printed copy (see Appendix
C) within a class on campus. The next section will look at how the data that was
collected was analyzed.

Method Of Data Analysis


In an attempt to fully understand all the data that was available there was a mixed
methodology in breaking down the data. First the website SurveyMonkey broke down all
the information into the purely numerical values for the Likert scale questions. Further
the researcher grouped open-ended questions with a limited number of responses into
categories; for example, respondents were asked to self-identify their religion. The
researcher grouped responses that were similar together under one category so that the
rest of the data could show if there was a pattern present within a certain religion.
Further data was crosschecked to find out if certain racial minorities felt something
different than the hegemonic majority regarding the effects of racial stereotypes.
The content analysis was designed to focus on the characters within the programs
that were coded. The coding afterwards look for educational, socio-economic, and
participation disparities within the programs. Further the researched looked at age and
gender issues within the programs to find out if there were any disparities that would go

#%!

along with anything else that was found in the programs. The research findings will be
discussed in depth in the next chapter.

#&!

CHAPTER FOUR:
FINDINGS

Overview Of The Findings


The findings from the research found that in general races within the media are
portrayed similarly although minorities are still highly under-represented as both
principal and supporting characters. The characters in programs are shown as having
equal opportunities and life-styles. The audience watching the programs found that
although they believe that the media influences the opinions of their friends and peers
they dont believe that the media influences their own opinions. Respondents generally
listed negative racial stereotypes that have been found to be present in the past but had a
hard time listing positive racial stereotypes in the media. The next section will look at the
findings for research question one more in depth.

Results For Research Question One


The character content analysis looked at the top five broadcast programs from the
week of Monday April 26, 2010 to Sunday May 2, 2010. The five programs were (1)
American Idol- Wednesday, (2) Glee, (3) Dancing With the Stars, (4) House and (5)
Modern Family for a total of five hours of television. Within the five programs there
were 84 characters that could be analyzed, 45 men and 39 females. The characters were
all those who had a principal, support or extra role that furthered the plot line and
consisted of more than two sentences. Of the 84 characters 3 were Asian, 9 African
American, 7 Hispanic, 63 Caucasian and 2 which the researcher could not determine a

#'!

race. The most interesting fact found in the research was that not a single character,
whether principal, support or extra was from a socio-economic status lower than middle
class. Every single character had all necessities and some luxuries if not completely free
from monetary worries.
The three Asian characters portrayed ranged in age from 0-2 years old to 20-39
years old and were all female. Two of the characters had principal roles while one was
solely there for support. This was the baby Lily from the show Modern Family, which
utilized her presence so that her adoptive father could use her as an excuse to visit family
members.
The seven Hispanics portrayed ranged in age from 3-12 years old to 40-54 years
old with three being men and four females. This was the only race portrayed in which the
females outnumbered the males, although it was by a small margin. Further with only
two of the Hispanics being portrayed taking center stage as principal characters, their role
as support and extras was double their appearance as principal characters. The
educational level of the characters was similar to the other races portrayed in that one had
less than a high school education (although he was also the child between the ages of 312 years old and would not be expected to have a higher education), two were in high
school and four their education was unclear. This is consistent with the data from the
other races in which 44% of African Americans, 66% of Caucasians, and 33% of Asians
were unclearly portrayed as to their educational level.
The nine African Americans that were portrayed fell were the closest to those of
the Caucasian characters in that they were the only other group to have careers which
required a Ph.D. Both African Americans and Caucasians were portrayed around 44%

#(!

of the time as holding jobs within the entertainment industry. Note that coding for
personality traits were factored into the final analysis of the content analysis, due to
determination that the data set yielded no useful information. Next section will look at the
findings for research question two more in depth.

Results For Research Question Two


The surveys were completed by a group of 35 students from St. Marys College,
ranging in age from 18 to 31 years old. Respondents answering the survey were found to
be 68.6% female and 31.4%% male. Further 14 of the respondents self-identified as
Catholic while 17 others self-identified as eight other religions and four declined to state.
The political make-up of the respondents was that 16 self-identified as Democrat, two
Republican, seven declined to state and the rest were other. Of the respondents 21 were
Caucasian, four Hispanic, two Asian, one African American, one Indian and six selfdescribed as a mix of two races. The majority of the respondents would be classified as
light viewers with 67% of them watching five or less hours of television.
Of the 35 respondents 28.6% claimed to have been a victim of racial
discrimination within the last five years. This is especially interesting being that the
minority make up of the sample only 40% of the group surveyed and that a majority of
those who said they were victims of racial discrimination self-identified as Caucasian.
Respondents were asked in question nine the extent that racial stereotypes were
portrayed accurately in the media (see Table 1).

#)!

Table 1: Scaled Survey Responses

SURVEY QUESTIONS

RESP 1

RESP 2

RESP 3

RESP 4

QUEST 09
QUEST 10
QUEST 11
QUEST 12
QUEST 13
QUEST 14

2.9% (n=1)
11.4% (n=4)
25.7% (n=9)
37.1 (n= 13)
0% (n= 0)
42.9% (n= 15)

62.9% (n=22)
51.4% (n=18)
51.4% (n= 18)
54.3 (n=19)
48.6% (n= 17)
51.4% (n=18)

20% (n=7)
28.6% (n=10)
20% (n= 7)
5.7 (n= 2)
45.7% (n= 16)
5.7% (n= 2)

14.3% (n=5)
8.6% (n=3)
2.9% (n=1)
2.9% (n= 1)
5.7% (n= 2)
0% (n=0)

Response 1 = Not At All


Response 2 = Some
Response 3 = Often
Response 4 = Always
A majority of the respondents felt that the media only portrays race in the media
accurately some of the time. Further 89% of the respondents recognized that the media
influences the opinions of their peers regarding racial stereotypes at least some of the
time. In regards to the medias influence over the respondents opinions 25% claimed that
the media never had an effect on their ideas of racial stereotypes. Interestingly, 51% of
the respondents claimed to have exhibited some racist behaviors within the last 10 years.
Respondents were very closely divided on the issue of how much the media has
changed in the way that they portray race. Forty-eight percent of respondents thought
that the media has changed some, where as 45% thought that the media had changed
often within the last 10 years.
The open-ended questions revealed that most respondents recall the typical
negative racial stereotypes that have been portrayed within the media in the past. Some
of the most common negative racial stereotypes that were recalled by respondents were:
African Americans as thugs/criminals, poor, and violent; Hispanics as illegal immigrants,
!

$+!

lazy, and in service oriented occupations; Asians as nerd and cheap; and Caucasians as
superior racists. Respondents had a harder time recalling positive racial stereotypes but
the few that were listed were: Asians as smart, African Americans can dance well, and
minorities in general are hardworking. The next section will discuss the interpretation of
the results from the content analysis and surveys.

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CHAPTER FIVE:
CONCLUSIONS AND RECCOMMENDATIONS

Overview Of The Findings


The content analysis portion of the study revealed that characters on television are
portrayed equally no matter what their race. There are still disparities in the number of
minorities being portrayed but in general when they are portrayed they are done so as
equal to that of their majority counterparts. The survey section of the study revealed that
students have a hard time recognizing the cultivation effects of television on themselves
despite their ability to see the effect in their friends and peers. In the next section,
conclusions drawn from data for research question one will be discussed.

Conclusions Drawn From Research Question One


The content analysis had surprising results in that of all 84 characters that were
coded, not a single one exhibited any kind of racial signifiers. Racial signifiers that the
researcher was looking for were things like clothing, hair, accessories or anything else
external to the character that would signify a relationship with a specific racial category.
Further all 84 characters were fully integrated with all the others within the program. The
conclusions that can be drawn from this is that the color blind discourse is much more
pervasive than previously thought. It was expected that some examples of racism or
inequalities of the races would have been portrayed but in general all characters were
either middle class or upper middle class.
The occupations of the characters reflect a similar trend in which all characters
have similar careers, with the most prominent being that of the entertainment industry

$"!

(see Figure 1). This is further proof that the color blind discourse is prevalent across all
the genres looked at within the study. Also when looking a comparison of the education
levels of the characters it easy to see that no matter the race the characters all fall within
the same educational levels (see Figure 2).
The essence of color blind discourse is the equalization of race in all matters
regarding life. Although there are obvious disparities in the equal number of characters
of different races being portrayed on television (see Figure 3), the characters that are
being portrayed are done so in equal levels.
Figure 1: Character Careers by Race

In the next section, conclusions drawn from data for research question two will be
discussed.

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Figure 2: Educational Level of Characters By Race

Figure 3: Number of Characters by Race

Conclusions Drawn From Research Question Two


The data collected regarding research question two was inconclusive as to the
effects of the media on college students. Students recognized that their friends and peers
!

$$!

were influenced by the medias portray of racial stereotypes but were unable to describe
the influence of the media on themselves. Of those who responded to the open-ended
questions, four felt that they could recognize stereotypes in the media but were willing to
admit that they were still somewhat influenced by them. Respondent 13 says,
I recognize the stereotypes, therefore my opinions of different races remains
predominantly unchanged. However, I will admit that the portrayal of African
Americans as criminals on TV has triggered a minor sense of racism.
Respondent 13 doesnt say why they have the ability to recognize stereotypes on
television but Respondent 16 attributes their ability to do so to their own identity as a
racial minority,
Being Indian, I feel as if Im very critical on how people of colored [skin] are
portrayed in the media. I rely on my own personal interactions with people to
make up my opinions of race on them.
Respondent 16 goes beyond acknowledging the difference in perceived racial portrayals
on television to understanding that there is a definite need to form opinions separate from
that in the message system being offered.
Respondents for their second open-ended question were asked to describe any
changes they may have noticed regarding the portrayal of race on television. Although
62% of the respondents felt that race in the media is only portrayed accurately some of
the time, seven of the respondents recognized examples of the color blind myth in the
media. However, although they recognized examples of the color blind myth not one
mentioned that this could be a new form of subversive racism. Most seem genuinely
pleased with the way the color blind myth portrayed by the media. Respondent 13 who
self-identified as Asian and Caucasian says,
It seems as though television has become a more diverse landscape in context to
accurate representations of races. In older television shows foreign ethnicities
have thick stereotypical accents, and are represented by a white character.
!

$%!

Respondent 13 can recognize that there has been effort made by the media to change the
way that they portray races but fails to recognize the harm that can be caused by
generalizing races by giving them a more typical American portrayal. Respondent 10,
a self-identified Hispanic agrees with Respondent 13 saying,
I think [race] is portrayed in a more accurate and inoffensive way. My reasoning
behind this is that people are less tolerant of Racial misuse. Because of this, I
believe people are becoming more cautious about what they put on TV.
Respondent 10 has unknowingly recognized the color blind myth and the reasons for its
creation but like Respondent 13 fails to recognize the problems with color blind
discourse. Respondent 9, a self-identified mix of Caucasian and Hispanic, agrees with
Respondent 10 and further argues that such color blind portrayals are not only accurate
but empowering,
They have shows now that are very empowering for minorities. They show them
in nice areas with the luxuries of life.
It is implied that the portrayal of minorities as having access to luxuries can be use to
inspire those in lower income areas to build a better life for themselves. Respondent 9
doesnt acknowledge the systematic and structural problems that face many minorities in
their efforts to better themselves. Respondent 9 echoes that of researchers who says the
linguistics of color blind discourse include language which shows that audience members
feel that if anyone who works hard enough will have the same opportunities of those of
the dominant majority (Bonilla-Silva, 2002). The next section will look at the reliability
of the study.

$&!
Reliability Of The Study

Generalizability
One of the major problems that face this study is that it cannot be generalized out
to a larger population. The sample size was relatively small with a total of 35 survey
respondents who were all students at St. Marys College of California. The unique
homogenous nature of the population of St. Marys College students limits the
generalizability of the study to students from suburban, liberal arts colleges outside San
Francisco. As it is unlikely that anyone could find another such population, this study is
limited solely to the students who currently attend St. Marys College.
Another issue facing the study was the relatively small selection of programs used
for coding. A cultivation framework looks at the overarching themes of the media over a
long-term time period and many different genres. This study looked at only a small
snapshot of programs available for viewing and within only a one-week period of time.
Researcher Bias
The researcher bias of the study is great as the researcher was responsible for
developing the survey questions, distribution of the surveys, and analysis of the data
collected from the surveys. Further the researcher developed the content analysis matrix
including all data that was coded for and all definitions of data being coded.
Technical Issues
The main technical issue of the study was that there was a mixed distribution of
the survey. Originally the researched contacted professors at St. Marys College of
California and asked for the link to the survey on SurveyMonkey to be distributed to their
students. When a relatively small sample number was collected the researched switched
to posting the link to the survey on their Facebook profile, asking that only St. Marys
!

$'!

College of California students participate. Again, a relatively small number of students


responded, so a final printed version of the SurveyMonkey survey was distributed by
hand during a class.

Conclusions and implications of the study will be discussed in the

next section.

Final Conclusions And Implications


The study proved that the medias creation of the color blind world myth is much
more extensive than what had previously been thought. The programs analyzed clearly
showed that all characters were created color blind and equal, which is not a true
reflection of reality. In reality America is still very much a racist country in which
minorities are marginalized with few opportunities to better themselves. The
implications of a color blind discourse that is so pervasive in prime time television is that
the cultivation of audiences can create a new form of color blind racism with a new kind
of color blind language. Researchers have found that there is a new language of racism
which tells a story which is being repeated by the media. It is a story of the ability of
anyone to achieve the American dream as long as they work hard and do their best. It
ignores the structural and systemic issues that face minorities and allows for those in the
hegemonic majority to reassure themselves that they play no part in the problems.
The data regarding the cultivation effects on students was inconclusive and
reveals a need to study the problem much more in-depth. It is key to understanding how
effective the media has been in creating an understanding within their audiences the
discourse that is being presented. Further if researchers can determine the level of the
effect upon the audience there may be a way to mitigate the problem and attempt to

$(!

change the message systems to a truly equal discourse. Next is the discussion on how to
further study this issue given the reliability of this study.

Recommendations For Future Research


One of the key problems regarding this study was the methodology or collecting
data on cultivation effects on students. Students often seemed to have a hard time
recognizing their own racist behaviors and an even harder time relaying them to the
researcher. Future research would do well to conduct individual interviews looking
carefully for linguistics of color blind racism and following up on key questions in the
moment.
The first problem with this study was that it couldnt be generalized out to a larger
population because of the homogenous nature of the sample. Future research needs to
look at a larger, more random sample size across many different demographic
backgrounds. Further, the study was limited by the sample size of the content analysis.
In future research it is recommended that analysts code for many more programs over a
much longer period of time.
Secondly, the research of this study was biased because the researcher developed
all parts of the survey and content analysis. For future research products it is
recommended that questions for the survey, coding themes and definitions, and the
coding matrix be checked by a group of individuals independently as part of a validity
panel. Also future researchers should have a team of no less than 10 research assistants
who have been properly trained to assist in coding data and collecting surveys.
Finally, a single method of distribution would eliminate any variables that are

$)!

outside those that are being looked for in particular and guarantee that any results are
based on the data being collected.

Concluding Remarks
This study was one that was a lot of fun to do and was really interesting to me.
Race is something that most people dont want to talk about and when it is discussed it is
usually in politically correct terms. This forced me to look at race through a lens that
isnt familiar and one that wasnt always comfortable. Although my data on the
cultivation of students was inconclusive there was some really interesting data on
experiences that students have had. It was surprising the number of White students at St.
Marys who have experienced racial discrimination within the last five years and it would
have been interesting to talk with them more about what happened, how they felt about it
and why they think it occurred. Overall I am very pleased with the research done and
look forward to reading other researchers works on the subject.

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REFERENCES

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Bonilla-Silva, E. (2002). The linguistics of color blind racism: How to talk nasty about
blacks without sounding racist. Critical Sociology, 28(1/2), 41-64.
Cohen, A.A., Adoni, H., & Bantz, C.R. (1990). Social conflict and television news.
Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications
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americans in the mass media (pp. 253-302). Washington, D.C.: Howard
University Press
Entman, R.M. (1994). Representations and reality in the portrayal of blacks on network
television news. Journalism Quarterly, 71(3), 509-520.
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Gallagher, C.A. (2003). Color-blind privilege: The social and political functions of
erasing the color line in post race america. Race Gender and Class, 10, 22-37.
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Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., & Signorielli, N. (1994). Growing up with
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Larson, M.S. (2003). Gender, race, and aggression in television commercials that feature
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Lewis, A.E. (2004). What group? Studying whites and whiteness in the era of colorblindness. Sociological Theory, 22(4), 623-646.
Littlejohn, S.W., & Foss, K.A. (2008). Theories of human communication. Belmont, CA:
Thomson Wadsworth
Li-Vollmer, M. (2002). Race representation in child-targets television commercials. Mass
Communication & Society, 5(2), 207-228.
Marger, M. (2009). Race and ethnic relations: Americans and global perspectives.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Matabane, P.W. (1988). Television and the black audience: Cultivating moderate
perspectives on racial integration. Journal of Communication, 38(4), 21-31.
Ramasubramanian, S. (2007). Media-based strategies to reduce racial stereotypes.
Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 84(2), 249-264.
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with viewers TV ratings, nielsen ratings, television show ratings. Retrieved May
4, 2010, from St. Marys College of California Website:
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Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race media literacy: Challenging deficit discourse about
chicanas/os. The Journal of Popular Film and Television, 30, 52-62.

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APPENDIX A: CODEBOOK

%#!
CODEBOOK

Television Program:
1. Race
01. Caucasian
02. African-American
03. Asian
04. Hispanic
05. Native-American
06. Middle Eastern
07. Other (and write in)
08. Does not apply
09. Cannot tell
2. Age
01. Infant, 0-2 years old
02. Child, 3-12 years old
03. Adolescent, 13-19 years old
04. Young Adult, 20-39 years old
05. Middle-Age Adult, 40-54 years old
06. Mature Adult, 55-64 years old
07. Senior Adult, >65 years old
3. Gender
01. Female
02. Male
4. Marital Status
01. Single
02. Married
03. Separated
04. Divorced
05. Widowed
06. Domestic Partnership
07. Does not apply
08. Cannot tell
5. Socio-economic Status
01. Upper/upper middle class: well-to-do, high-level job or no job, not
dependent on monthly income to live.
02. Middle class: works for a living, has all necessities and some luxuries
03. Working class/lower class: does not have all necessities, does not possess
luxuries, may be unemployed, and/or on public assistance.
04. Does not apply
05. Cannot tell
6. Occupation
01. None identified
02. Athlete
03. Attorney

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04. Business Person
05. Educator
06. Entertainment Industry
07. Factory Worker
08. Farmer
09. Homemaker
10. Law Enforcement
11. Physician/Medical
12. Restaurant Business (owner, waiter/waitress, bartender)
13. Sales
14. Secretarial/Clerical
15. Student
16. Writer
17. Artist
18. Hotel/Hospitality Management
19. Spy/Government Agent
20. Independently Wealthy (does not need to work)
21. Unemployed
22. Criminal/Convict
23. Prostitute
24. Military
25. Service-Orientated (Any other occupation not listed which is customer
focused. For example, a flight attendant, hairdresser, consultant. Write in
occupation)
26. Retired
27. Other (and write in)
28. Does not apply
7. Education
01. Less than High School
02. Some High School
03. High School Graduate
04. Some College
05. College Graduate
06. Graduate (Masters, Ph.D, Judicial)
07. Does not apply
08. Cannot tell (if the characters level of education is not obviously observed
or stated)
8. Characters Parents Socio-economic Status
01. Upper/upper middle class: well-to-do, high-level job or no job, not
dependent on monthly income to live.
02. Middle class: works for a living, has all necessities and some luxuries
03. Working class/lower class: does not have all necessities, does not possess
luxuries, may be unemployed, and/or on public assistance.
04. Does not apply
05. Cannot tell

%%!
9. Ethnic Identity Clues: the physical, verbal, and external clues as to the racial
group of the character
01. One clue
02. Two clues
03. Three clues
04. Four clues
05. Five clues
06. None
07. Unable to tell
10. Racial Segregation
01. Full Segregation: total segregation from other characters
02. Part Segregation: interacts with other characters, but remains mostly
segregated
03. Some Integration: interacts with other characters, but only a little
segregation remains
04. Full integration: fully integrated with entire cast
11. Principal or Supporting Character
01. Principal: key character in particular episode
02. Supporting: supports key characters in particular episode
03. Extra: peripheral character used to further plot

Personality Traits
Not Present At All 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 Strongly Present
Extraversion-Introversion Traits
A. Sociable: Inclined by nature to companionship with others of the same species.
Likes to be around other people
B. Lively: Briskly alert and energetic
C. Active: Expressing action as distinct from mere existence or state. Likes to
participate and has an interest in surroundings.
D. Assertive: Disposed to or characterized by bold confident assertion. Assert
oneself- to compel recognition especially of ones rights. Stands up for
themselves and their rights.
E. Sensation Seeking: Seeking out a state of excited interest or feeling. This includes
hedonistic activities, alcohol consumption and illicit drug use.
Neuroticism Traits
F. Anxious: Characterized by extreme uneasiness of mind usually over an impending
or anticipated ill; fearful concern or interest. Nervous.
G. Depressed: Low in spirits; sad.
H. Guilt: The state of mind of one who has committed an offense, consciously as
well as imagined.
I. Low Self-Esteem: Low level of confidence and satisfaction in oneself.
J. Tense: Marked by strain or suspense

!
Psychoticism Traits
K. Aggressive: Tendency toward or practicing aggression, defined as, a forceful
action or procedure (as an unprovoked attacked) especially when intended to
dominate or master. Hostile, injurious, or destructive behavior or outlook
especially when caused by frustration. Aggression can be physical or verbal.
L. Cold: Marked by lack of sympathy, interest of sensitivity.
M. Egocentric: Concerned with the individual rather than society. Selfish.
N. Impersonal: Not engaging the human personality or emotions. Not emotional in
relationship to others.
O. Impulsive: Prone to act on impulsive; acting momentarily; spontaneous.

%&!

%'!

APPENDIX B: CODESHEET

%(!
CODESHEET

Telvision Program:
Character
Race
Age
Gender
Marital
Status
Socioeconomic
Status
Occupation
Education
Characters
Parents SES
Ethnic
Identity
Clues
Racial
Segregation
Principle or
Supporting
Character
Personality
Traits
Sociable
Lively
Active
Assertive
Sensation

Character

Character

Character

Character

%)!
Character

Anxious
Depressed
Guilt
Low-Self
Esteem
Tense
Aggressive
Cold
Egocentric
Impersonal
Impulsive

Character

Character

Character

Character

&+!

APPENDIX C: SURVEY

1. Male or Female?
Male
Female
2. How old are you?
3. What is your racial identity?
4. What is your political affiliation?
5. What is your religious affiliation?
6. What is your hometown of origin?
City/Town:
State:
7. How many hours of television do you watch per week?
0-2
3-5
6-8
8-10
over 11
8. In the last five years have you been a victim of racial
discrimination?
Yes
No
9. To what extent does race get adequately portrayed in the
media?
!

&*!

Not at all
Some
Often
Always
10. To what extent do you think television racial stereotypes
influence the development of your friends and peers?
Not at all
Some
Often
Always

11. To what extent do television racial stereotypes influence


your views of the world?
Not at all
Some
Often
Always
!

&"!

12. To what extent do you think television racial stereotypes


influence the development of your personality?
Not at all
Some
Often
Always
13. To what extent have racial stereotypes on television
changed in the last 10 years?
Not at all
Some
Often
Always
14. To what extent have you exhibited racist behavior in the
last 10 years?
Not at all
Some
Often
Always
15. Describe up to 5 negative racial traits portrayed on
!

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&$!

television:
16. Describe up to 5 positive racial traits portrayed on
television:
17. In your own words, describe any changes you have noticed
regarding the portrayal of race on television.
18. In your own words, how has your opinion of race issues
changed based upon the portrayals of race on television.

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