Representations of Race in Television Commercials: A Content Analysis of Prime-Time Advertising

Given the paucity of contemporary examinations of racial/ethnic minority portrayals in television advertisements, this study analyzed the frequency, context, and quality of 2,3 15 speaking characters in a one-week sample of prime-time television commercials. Results reveal different patterns of portrayals when African American, Asian American, Latino, Native American, and White characters are featured in television advertisements. The implications of these images are examined from the perspective of social cognitive theory to provide insights into their possible impact on audience members' self-perceptions.     

Food and Beverage Advertising on U.S. Television: A Comparison of Child-Targeted Versus General Audience Commercials

Major advertisers and children's television networks have announced marketing policies designed to combat childhood obesity. A content analysis of food advertising was conducted on programming from broadcast and cable networks most likely to be viewed by children. Unlike previous content analyses, the results show that nutrition appeals are among the most frequently used. However, as in past research, unhealthy foods are most frequently advertised. Further, child-targeted commercials employ production techniques and persuasive appeals that children have found difficult to evaluate critically. The potential impacts of this advertising landscape are discussed on both the individual and social level.     

Television and Social Identity: Race Representation as "White" Accommodation

The influence of race representation on White viewers' feelings, perceptions, and opinions is evaluated. Participants indicate more liking for Black as opposed to White commentators. Participants perceive the least similarity between a Black and a White commentator who disagree with each other, but great Similarity between a Black and a White commentator who agree with each other. Results are discussed with respect to aversive or enlightened racism and the accommodation of White identity.     

The Portrayal of Race and Crime on Television Network News

A content analysis of television network news was conducted to assess the portrayal of race and criminal behavior. Findings revealed that Whites were more likely than African Americans to appear as perpetrators, victims, and officers. Both African Americans and Whites were more likely to appear as perpetrators than as victims and officers. African American and White law-breakers were represented in a way consistent with their perpetration rates. However, Whites were overrepresented while African Americans were underrepresented as victims of violent crime. Furthermore, Whites were over represented and African Americans were under-represented as police officers. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Gender-Differentiated Production Features in Toy Commercials

Twenty years ago researchers found that quite apart from the manifest content of television commercials aimed at children, certain formal features showed a marked tendency to vary according to the sex of the target consumers: in particular certain post-production features (transitions and voice-overs). The current study involved a content analysis of formal features in 117 toy advertisements broadcast on British television. Statistically significant differences were found for the same features and also for camera work.     

The Rise of Consumer Culture in a Chinese Society: A Reading of Banking Television Commercials in Hong Kong During the 1970s

In this article, I analyze 2 case studies of television advertising campaigns for banking services during the 1970s and early 1980s in Hong Kong, those of Hang Seng Bank and HongkongBank. Advertising from this period saw consumer society emerge as traditional values and themes were adjusted to fit the imperatives of capitalism. The earlier Hang Seng Bank campaign focused on the traditional banking practice of saving, encouraging customers to work hard and gradually accumulate wealth. The later HongkongBank campaign encouraged spending, immediate gratification of material desires, and symbolic status achieved through acquisition of goods. As the case studies show, this process entailed the reconfiguration of traditional Chinese values to accommodate the arrival of consumerism in Hong Kong, a Chinese society.     

Race and Ethnicity in local Television News: Framing,Story Assignments,and Source Selections

Because local television has become the primary source for news, this study examined race and ethnicity in news stories, story assignments, and source selections. A content analysis of local newscasts found Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans were virtually invisible as anchors, reporters, and subjects in the news. Although African Americans anchored and reported the news in some markets, overall there was segregation in story assignments. Rarely were Latinos, Asian Americans, or Native Americans interviewed as news sources. African Americans were used as news sources more than other racial and ethnic groups when 2 or more people were interviewed.     

Representations of Interpersonal Interaction and Race/Ethnicity: An Examination of Prime-Time Network Television Programs

Racial and ethnic relations in America are a form of social interaction about which changing perceptions could have important consequences. Current research examining the nature of discrete social interaction situations in entertainment content on television is lacking. This study was conducted with the objective of obtaining an updated account of the state of interpersonal interaction portrayals between characters of different racial/ethnic backgrounds in popular prime time programs on broadcast television. Specifically, we analyzed prime-time television program content on 4 major U.S. broadcast networks. Findings are interpreted via a media priming framework.     

试述电视媒体广告的营销

电视台作为大众媒体,主要以信息的形式向社会提供服务,广告收入是生存和发展的重要资金来源。过去,凭借电视台多年来的垄断地位,广告价格年年增高,广告收入迅猛增加,1990年-1996年,广告收入每年以40％以上的速度增长。进入20世纪90年代后期,电视台的外部环境发生了极大的变化,互联网蓬勃兴起,其它媒体日益发展,电视频道资源从短缺到丰富,电视媒体从垄断到竞争。加上部分地区经济增长速度放慢,企业广告费用的支出更加理性,这些都抑制了广告收入的增长速度。以中央电视台为例,1991年广告收入2.8亿.1 995年广告收入22.9亿,五年平均增长90％以上。但到了1998年,中央电视台广告收入第一次出现了负增长。     

Race and Gender: An Analysis of the Sources and Reporters in Local Television Coverage of the 2002 Michigan Gubernatorial Campaign

This study examined how race and gender of reporters and community diversity influenced use of women and minority sources in local television coverage of the 2002 governor's race in Michigan. Content analysis of campaign stories broadcasted by four local television stations revealed that women reporters were more likely than their male colleagues to use women and nonpartisan sources such as experts and ordinary citizens. But minority journalists were only slightly more likely to use minority sources and were less likely than nonminorities to use nonpartisan sources.     

Television

Erik Barnouw's The Sponsor: Notes on a Modern Potentate (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978—$10.00)

Bert Randolph Sugar's “The Thrill of Victory”: The Inside Story of ABC Sports (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1978—$12.00)

David L. Wolper and Quincy Troupe's The Inside Story of TV's “Roots” (New York: Warner Books, 1978—$2.25, paper)

James Robert Parish and Mark Trost's Actors' Television Credits, Supplement 1 (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1978—$16.00)

Jerry Mender's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (New York: Wm. Morrow, 1978—$11.95/4.95)

Mary Lewis Coakley's Rated X: The Moral Case Against TV (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, l978—$9.95)

TV and Elections: Proceedings of the Meeting (Prix Italia Secretariat, c/o RAI, Radiotelevisione Italiana, Viale Mazzini, 14, Rome—price not provided, paper)

FTC Staff Report on Television Advertising to Children (Federal Trade Commission, Washington D.C. 20580—free on request, paper)

The CoEvolution Quarterly (Winter 1977/78, Issue 16 available from Box 428, Sausalito, Calif. 94965—$3.50, paper)     

Television

PLAYING DOCTOR: TELEVISION, STORYTELLING, AND MEDICAL POWER by Joseph Turow (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989—$24.95, ISBN 0-19-504490-8)

COMIC VISIONS: TELEVISION COMEDY AND AMERICAN CULTURE by David Marc (Winchester, MA: Unwin Hyman [formerly Allen & Unwin], 1989—$10.95, paper, ISBN 0-04-445285-3)

NERVOUS LAUGHTER: TELEVISION SITUATION COMEDY AND LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC IDEOLOGY by Darrell Y. Hamamoto (New York: Praeger, 1989—$39.95, ISBN 0-275-92861-6)

INSIDE GILUGANS ISLAND: FROM CREATION TO SYNDICATION by Sherwood Schwartz (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1988—$29.95, ISBN 0-89950-339-X)

THE CRITICS' CHOICE-THE BEST OF TV SITCOMS by John Javna (New York: Harmony Books, 1988—$8.95, paper, ISBN 0-517-56922-1)

TELEVISION STUDIES: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS edited by Gary Bums and Robert Thompson (New York: Praeger, 1989—$39.95, ISBN 0-275-92745-8)

THE USE AND ABUSE OF TELEVISION: A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CHANGING SCREEN by J. Mallory Wober (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988—$34.50, ISBN 0-89859-662-9)

AMERICA'S WATCHING: 30TH ANNIVERSARY 1959-1989 actually issued by the now-defunct Television Information Office, but distributed through NAB)

TELEVISION IN TRANSITION: THE VALUE OF BROADCAST TELEVISION IN A CHANGING MARKETPLACE by Philip Jursek and Norman Hecht (1989—price not given, paper, ISBN 0-89-324-067-2)

NAB GUIDE TO ADVANCED TELEVISION SYSTEMS

TELEVISION STATION OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT edited by Robert Hilliard (Stoneham, MA: Focal Press, 1989—$24.95, paper, ISBN 0-240-80027-3)

THE BEST OF SCIENCE FICTION TV by John Javna (New York: Harmony Books, 1989—$8.95, paper, ISBN 0-517-56650-8)

CATALYST IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST is the name of the 1988 CPB annual report (Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1111 Sixteenth St. NW, Washington DC 20036—free on request, paper)

EXPLORING CAREERS IN VIDEO by Paul Allman (New York: Rosen, 1989—price not given, ISBN 0-8239-1018-0)     

Cable Television

CABLE PROGRAMMING RESOURCE DIRECTORY 1987 edited by Gregory Epler-Wood and Paul D'ari (Washington, DC: Broadcasting Publications, 1987—$34.95, paper)

SYMPOSIUM: CABLE TELEVISION by the editors of the Federal Communications Law Journal (UCLA School of Law, University of California, Los Angeles, 90024—price not given, paper)     

Television History

SATURDAY MIGHT: A BACKSTAGE HISTORY OF SATURDAY MIGHT LIVE by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad (New York: Beech Tree Books/Morrow, 1986—$17.95)

THE SOAP OPERA ENCYCLOPEDIA by Christopher Schemering (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985—$8.95, paper)

WARNER BROS. TELEVISION: EVERY SHOW OF THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES EPISODE-BYEPISODE by Lynn Woolley, et al. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1985—$25.95)

THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN BANDSTAND by Michael Shore with Dick Clark (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985—$12.95, paper)

A COLLECTOR'S GUIDE TO TV MEMORABILIA by Anthony Slide (Wallace-Homestead Book Co., 580 Waters Edge, Lombard, IL 60148—$13.95, paper)     

Ritual Television

As in other southern European countries, television was introduced in Portugal in the second half of the 1950s through the founding of a public broadcasting station. Reception was implemented very gradually over the 1960s, by conspicuously developing collective ways of viewing. In this text, we draw on oral history in order to retrace relevant habits, events and content especially for women, a particular type of audience in the markedly patriarchal context of the Estado Novo dictatorship. Within the context of collective reception of early television in Portugal, we highlight a type of experience that was particularly significant for some female audiences: the reception of Catholic transmissions. The concepts of hegemony, ritual and everyday practices assist in the analysis of such memories. These conspicuous television rituals seemed to regulate female practices, but they could also offer women some opportunities for new experiences.     

Visual Framing,Stigmatization, Race,and Obesity: Examining Television News Presentation of Stories about Obesity and Stories about Health

This study conducted a content analysis to examine how weight and race/ethnicity impacted how people were portrayed in the imagery accompanying broadcast and cable television news stories about obesity compared to stories about health. Five hundred and seven people were analyzed in 135 stories. Results showed that people who were overweight were often shown as an isolated body part, but their portrayal was not entirely stigmatizing. Overweight people were often shown exercising, which combats weight stereotypes. Additionally, race/ethnicity did not make the portrayal more stigmatizing. The results of the content analysis are discussed with an emphasis on the larger implications of the findings.     

Television Entertainment

Robert Metz' The Today Show: An Inside Look at 25 Tumultuous Years...and the Colorful and Controversial People Behind the Scenes (New York: Playboy Press, 1977—$10.00)

Jeff Rovin's The Great Television Series (South Brunswick, N.J.: A.S. Barnes, 1977—$17.50)

Gregg Lewis, Telegarbage: What You Can do about Sex and Violence on TV (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1977—$2.95, paper)

Richard Meyers, Super TV Stars (160 pp.)

Richard Meyers, The Illustrated Soap Opera Companion (159 pp.)