First Date Sexual Expectations: The Effects of Who Asked,Who Paid,Date Location,and Gender

This investigation examined the effects of who asked, who paid, date location, and gender on first date sexual expectations and related attitudes. Participants from a large southwestern university in the United States reported that men hold higher first date sexual expectations than women, particularly when men asked and paid for the date and the date occurred at an apartment versus the movies or restaurant. When women asked and paid for the date and the date occurred at her apartment, men hold higher rape myth acceptance beliefs than when the man asked and paid for the date or when either sex asked for the date and the partners “went dutch” on expenses. Additional sexual- and gender-related findings, discussion, and implications follow.     

Family sex communication orientation

The United States leads all industrialized countries in unintended teenage pregnancies, teenage births, teenage abortions. Despite the seriousness of this problem, family communication researchers so far, for all practical purposes, have excluded it from the discipline's research agenda. Our study was designed to consolidate and examine a measure of children's attitudes toward family sex communication on the dimensions of comfort, information, and value — the Family Sex Communication Quotient scale (FSCQ) — and to test this orientation against other potential mediators of sex discussion in the family. Our tentative findings suggest: (1) family sex communication in general is infrequent and ineffective, (2) frequent and effective family sex communication may serve as a contextual model for children's communication patterns, (3) a strong family sex communication orientation, particularly as measured by the FSCQ which tested out to be a reliable measure and a significant and consistent mediator, seems to facilitate children's open discussion with dating partners and with parents and to develop responsible pre‐parenting attitudes, (4) discussing sex in the family does not promote an attitude of sexual license.     

Check That Body! The Effects of Sexually Objectifying Music Videos on College Men's Sexual Beliefs

The present study examined the effects of sexual objectification of female artists in music videos on male undergraduates' sexual beliefs. Findings showed that participants who viewed music videos of highly objectified female artists reported more adversarial sexual beliefs, more acceptance of interpersonal violence, and, at a level of marginal significance, more negative attitudes about sexual harassment than participants assigned to low-sexual objectifying music videos by the same female artists. Path models indicated that adversarial sexual beliefs mediated the relationship between condition, and (1) acceptance of interpersonal violence and (2) negative attitudes regarding sexual harassment.     

Exposure of Taiwanese adolescents to pornographic media and its impact on sexual attitudes and behaviour

This article examines the use of pornographic media by Taiwanese high school students, and explores the effects of exposure to such on their attitudes and behaviour in terms of sexual permissiveness.

The results of this research indicate that more than 90 per cent of the students interviewed had at least some exposure to a variety of pornography, with males reporting significantly higher exposure frequencies than females. The results also show that exposure to pornographic media has significant effects on high school students’ sexual permissiveness and nonexclusive sexual attitudes and behaviour.     

Perceptions of social‐sexual communication at work: The effects of message,situation, and observer characteristics on judgments of sexual harassment

Social‐sexual communication at work may contribute to either the initiation of an organizational romance or sexual harassment. We examined forces that influence perceptions of sexual messages as harassing rather than flirtatious. We presented 94 working adults with questionnaires soliciting workplace attitudes and experiences. Then, participants reviewed newsletters describing male and female coworkers in a fictitious organization. Finally, participants evaluated the degree of sexual harassment evident in six hypothetical interactions wherein one of the employees introduced in the newsletter makes a suggestive remark to his or her coworker. Newsletters and questionnaires manipulated the explicitness of messages, the initiator's status as supervisor versus subordinate, the attractiveness of the message initiator and target, and the initiator's sex. Message explicitness accounted for 88% of the variance in perceptions of harassment. A five‐way interaction among message and situational cues suggested that perceptions of sexual harassment are also influenced by contextual information. Females rated highly explicit messages as more harassing than did males, and individuals who were more accepting of socializing or dating between coworkers rated scenarios as less harassing. Exposure to socializing at work had a curvilinear association with perceptions of harassment such that low to moderate exposure corresponded with perceptions of greater harassment and moderate to high exposure was associated with lower ratings of sexual harassment. The discussion highlights applications for sexual harassment training programs within organizations.     

The Relationship Between Exposure to Sexual Music Videos and Young Adults' Sexual Attitudes

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between exposure to sexual music videos and young people's sexual attitudes (i.e., premarital sexual permissiveness and endorsement of the sexual double standard). Items gauging exposure to 75 music videos ranging in sexual explicitness were used to measure sexual video viewing among a sample of 266 undergraduate students. As expected, exposure to more sexually explicit music videos was associated with more permissive attitudes toward premarital sex and stronger endorsement of the sexual double standard, regardless of gender, overall television viewing, and previous sexual experience. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Do Individual Perceptions Matter in Pornography Effects? How Perceived General Acceptance and Influence of Pornography May Impact Agreement With Sex-Role Attitudes

Pornography use is often associated with less-progressive sex-role attitudes, such as endorsement of a sexual double standard between heterosexual partners, but the process by which this relationship occurs is still largely unexamined. The present study was conducted to examine how perceptions about pornography may play a role in the relationship between pornography use and sex-role attitudes. Perceived general acceptance and perceived influence of pornography on most people partially mediated the relationship between pornography use and sex-role attitudes. The more participants reported using pornography, the more they believed pornography was generally accepted and had a positive influence; however, conversely to what was hypothesized, the more positive they perceived pornography’s influence, the less likely they were to report sex-role attitudes that endorse a sexual double standard.     

The Effects of Sex in Television Drama Shows on Emerging Adults' Sexual Attitudes and Moral Judgments

This study tests the effects of exposure to sexual television content on emerging adults' sexual attitudes and moral judgments. One hundred and ten college freshmen were randomly assigned to view shows that portrayed either positive or negative consequences of sexual intercourse. Results indicate that exposure to shows that portray negative consequences of sex leads to more negative attitudes toward premarital intercourse and to more negative moral judgments of characters engaged in this behavior. Results were observed immediately after the viewing and persisted 2 weeks later. Findings are discussed in light of social cognitive theory and previous media effects research.     

Linking Exposure to Outcomes: Early Adolescents' Consumption of Sexual Content in Six Media

A media-use questionnaire was completed by 3,261 7th and 8th graders and a subsample of 1,074 respondents was interviewed about their sexual attitudes and behaviors. Based on results from the media survey, respondents' top television shows, movies, music, Internet sites, and newspapers were content analyzed for portrayals or references to pubertal development, romantic relationships, body exposure or nudity, sexual innuendo, touching and kissing, and sexual intercourse. Overall, 11% of the media used by respondents contained sexual content. A measure called the Sexual Media Diet (SMD) was developed to assess each individual's exposure to sexual content in the media, based on the combination of media consumption and content. The SMD measure showed a statistically significant association with adolescents' sexual activity and future intentions to be sexually active, with measures of movie and music exposure showing the strongest associations.     

Love is all you need: A content analysis of romantic scenes in Chinese entertainment television

A large sample of entertainment television programs that were aired on 28 channels in China in 2004 was analyzed for romantic and sexual content. Romantic scenes, typically portraying men and women already in committed relationships, appeared in 80% of the 196 programs analyzed. The analysis suggested that, according to Chinese television in the early part of the twenty-first century, emotional love was more important than physical sexual interaction in romantic relationships. More than half of the 1112 romantic scenes analyzed depicted love between the partners without any discussion or display of physical sexual behavior. Only 8% of scenes included discussion or depiction of sexual behavior (e.g., touching, kissing, and intercourse) without some sense that the partners were in a loving, committed relationship. Sexual intercourse was implied or depicted in fewer than 2% of the romantic scenes. Findings are discussed in light of the Chinese government's periodic regulation of sexually suggestive media content and attempts to filter Internet content. The extent to which such content may affect young viewers' perceptions of romantic relationships and sexual behavior is also discussed.     

Collecting Sex Materials for Libraries

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes data gathered over a year-long survey of library employees' opinions of sexually related materials in library collections. Surveys generally examine patron attitudes rather than the attitudes of library employees, whose attitudes and beliefs can have a strong effect on the collection. The researchers discovered themes in the data, such as varying definitions and differences between pornography and erotica, legality issues and misconceptions, differing perceptions of censorship dependent on library type, and a possible lack of acceptance of non-heteronormative material. The survey and analysis serve as a contribution to the ongoing discussion of appropriateness of sexually related materials in libraries.     

论高职院校学生性健康教育

中国传统性观念和西方“性解放”和“性自由”的思想之间存在的差异。高职学校的性健康教育已经越来越受到来自社会各界的广泛关注．但是在针对学生性健康教育方面却是相对滞后。如何做好高职学生性健康教育将是本文重点论述的问题。     

Media's influence on immigration attitudes: An intergroup threat theory approach

The current study tests the influence of threatening-mediated intergroup contact on intergroup relations. A 2 (Immigration: Threat, No-threat) × 2 (Ingroup Group Exemplar: Present, Absent)?+?1 (Control Condition) experimental design was used to examine both the direct and indirect influence of news exposure on attitudes toward immigration. The moderating role of previous local news consumption was also investigated. Results indicate that exposure to a threatening news story about immigration directly affected attitudes toward immigrants’ human rights, but not attitudes toward immigration policy. News exposure also indirectly influenced both types of immigration attitudes through feelings of intergroup anxiety, particularly for heavy news consumers. The discussion highlights the implications for both intergroup threat theory and cultivation research.     

Sex as an Intergroup Arena: How Women and Gender Minorities Conceptualize Sex,Sexuality, and Sexual Health

We present a qualitative analysis of 186 women and gender minorities’ definitions of sex, sexuality, and sexual health, as well as their accounts of how those concepts changed for them over time. Participants describe these phenomena as communicative, layered, and related to identity. Definitions of sex produced themes of intimacy, consent, and who is involved; definitions of sexuality involved sexual orientation, sexual expression, and personal identity; definitions of sexual health included communication skills, an emphasis on physical and emotional health, and prevention and maintenance. Using the Communication Theory of Identity as a lens to guide our analysis and discussion, we argue that sex, sexuality, and sexual health are intergroup arenas that require an acknowledgment of group membership.     

The Demise of Live Radio Entertainment in the Heartland: A Case Study

The use of live entertainers is well-documented on radio networks, but not for local stations in rural America. This study examines the period of decline in the use of live entertainers starting in 1940 and the pinnacle of live performance on WDZ, an independent broadcaster in central Illinois that featured folk and hillbilly style entertainment. World War II, the FCC's tolerance for recordings, union struggles, and changing management emphasis from programming to sales were factors in the live performance decline. Management transitioned from emphasizing local interests to maximizing economic return with less expensive programming while relocating to a larger market.     

BREAKING NEWS OR BROKEN NEWS?

Television news directors increasingly utilize live shots in their newscasts for reasons other than journalistic value. Reporters and viewers alike react negatively to such “black hole” live shots. Nine news directors and nine senior reporters participated in this qualitative study designed to reveal their differing attitudes toward various aspects of live reporting. Analysis revealed significant tensions between the two groups. The news directors, who are responsible for the news program as a whole, include non-journalistic reasons such as presentation and station identity for including remote live shots. Senior reporters are chiefly concerned with their own contributions to the overall news program. They claim to understand these justifications but often disagree with how they are asked to execute them. The data also reveal one station violating the Radio Television Digital News Association Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct by allowing sponsors to determine editorial content.