SOCI 361/BAMS 361
Spring 2008, Dr. Margaret Andersen
Research Project: Due March 6

        In this project, you will do your own research, documenting and interpreting images of race that appear in some form of popular culture. You will use content analysis to do your research and then will write short paper describing the results of your research and interpreting the findings.

      Content analysis is a sociological research method in which the researcher systematically analyzes the contents of some cultural artifact--for example, comic strips, television shows, popular music, etc. How racial-ethnic groups are depicted in these cultural forms has a tremendous influence on how we define ourselves and others, interpret social events, and think about race in society.

      Your research assignment is to do an objective study of some form of popular culture. You will observe and analyze the images of race that appear in the example you choose. You will have to define your topic carefully before you begin so that you will be focused and not overly general. There are some topics suggested below, but you may develop your own. In selecting your topic, you should be careful not to be too general. For example, don't just observe race relations in the news. Be much more specific. For example, who is depicted as perpetrating crime? Who is depicted as victimized? What kinds of crime are shown involving White, Black, and Hispanic perpetrators and victims (i.e., arson, shootings, robberies, rape)? Or, how do sports announcers describe Black and White athletes? Does this differ for women and men athletes (i.e., Black men, Black women, White women, White men, Asian women, etc.)? Where do Latinos/Latinas appear in situation comedies?

      Another way to approach your subject is to take an entire week's worth of programming during a particular time slot (prime time, for example) and count how many Native Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Whites appear in, for example, dramatic roles versus comedy roles. Your subject is up to you; the important thing is to be specific enough that your observations will be meaningful.

      You should make your observations systematically, which means you will have to have a plan for how to proceed before you begin. Suppose you want to study images of who does domestic work on soap operas. Before doing your formal study, watch a soap opera and make a list of the various domestic roles shown during the show (i.e., cleaning, caring for a child or a sick relative, cooking, etc.). Then, with your list in front of you and your eyes open to things you may not have anticipated, watch several episodes of the soap opera and keep a list of who is depicted how. You must be systematic about this or your observations will not be objective. Then, after having completed your observations, think about what you have observed and what it means. The questions below can guide your thinking and analysis.

      Use your imagination in selecting your topic. If necessary, please consult with me or the teaching assistant in choosing your topic and designing your study. Remember that the absence of characters is just as much a sociological phenomenon as how and where specific racial-ethnic groups appear.

      Having made your observations, you should write a short paper (approximately 5 pages) describing and discussing your results. Be sure to describe the method you used to make your observations, report your observations accurately, and interpret what you have seen. The questions below will help you think about your interpretation. You need not answer all of them (in fact, don't!). Not all questions will be applicable to every project.

Suggested Topics:

Sources:

Sports programs or magazines
College newspapers
Textbooks
Comic strips
Children's cartoons, films, or literature
Popular music (use a specific genre)
Video/computer games
Crime shows
News programs
Popular films
Talk shows
Advertisements
Beer commercials

Questions to Consider:

1.  What does the absence of presence of diverse groups communicate to the public about race and ethnicity?
2.  How are group stereotypes supported by popular culture? How are such stereotypes influenced by race and gender?
3.  How do images of race also involve images of poverty, violence, social class, sexuality?
4.  Who produces the images you have seen? How benefits? What advertisers support this product? Do the images benefit them in any way?
5.  Who reads/watches this material? How are their views of race then affected?
6.  How have these images influenced your understanding of race in the United States?
7.  How are cultural stereotypes produced? How do they influence our sense of the possibilities for social change?
8.  What do your findings reveal that you might have taken for granted before?

Here are several research abstracts that give examples from published work using content analyses to study racial images in popular culture. There are taken from Sociological Abstracts, which you can access from the University of Delaware Library Electronic Databases. Your study does not have to be as sophisticated as these examples, but they are provided to help you see how such research is done.

TI: The Perpetuation of Subtle Prejudice: Race and Gender Imagery in 1990s Television Advertising
AU: Coltrane,-Scott; Messineo,-Melinda
IN: Dept Sociology, U California, Riverside
SO: Sex-Roles; 2000, 42, 5-6, Mar, 363-389.
DT: aja Abstract-of-Journal-Article
AB: Reports a content analysis of TV commercials (N = 1,699) aired on programs with high ratings for specific target audiences, 1992-1994. Characters in the commercials are shown to enjoy more prominence &exercise more authority if they are white or male. Logistic regression analyses indicate that images of romantic & domestic fulfillment also differ by race & gender, with women & whites disproportionately shown in family settings & in cross-sex interactions. In general, 1990s TV commercials tend to portray white men as powerful, white women as sex objects, African American men as aggressive, & African American women as inconsequential. It is suggested that these commercial images contribute to the perpetuation of subtle prejudice against African Americans by exaggerating cultural differences & denying positive emotions.

TI: Gendered Construction of the American Indian in Popular Media
AU: Bird,-S.-Elizabeth.
IN: Dept Anthropology, U South Florida, Tampa
SO: Journal-of-Communication; 1999, 49, 3, summer, 61-83.
DT: aja Abstract-of-Journal-Article
AB: Contemporary popular culture is permeated with images of Native Americans, who have become symbols of wisdom, beauty, peace, & nostalgia. Here, the changes in this imagery over time are traced, with particular emphasis on the role of gender & how Native American men & women have become sexualized in relation to the white gaze, which is an important component of colonial domination. Many other Americans never encounter a Native American, & media fill a knowledge vacuum with outmoded & limited stereotypes. The 1990s lovely princess & Native American stud may be more benign images than the earlier squaw or crazed savage, but they are equally unreal & dehumanizing. 62 References.

TI: Poverty as We Know It: Media Portrayals of the Poor
AU: Clawson,-Rosalee-A.; Trice,-Rakuya
IN: Purdue U, West Lafayette, IN
SO: Public-Opinion-Quarterly; 2000, 64, 1, spring, 53-64.
DT: aja Abstract-of-Journal-Article
AB: How the media portrayed the poor in the early 1990s is discussed, analyzing 149 photographs accompanying 74 news stories about the poor from five magazines, 1993-1998. White, black, Hispanic, & as well as persons whose race was indeterminable, were identified, as were the photograph subjects' genders, ages, residences & work status. Findings indicate that many Americans overestimate the number of black poor; photographs tend to overrepresent blacks & underrepresent whites.Hispanics are described as also being underrepresented; however, no portrayals of poor Asian Americans were located. It is argued that media portrayals of the poor influence public opinion, particularly negative images of blacks. The disparity between the facts on poverty & media-provided pictures is highlighted.

TI: Race and the Problem of Crime in Time and Newsweek Cover Stories, 1946 to 1995
AU: Barlow,-Melissa-Hickman
IN: Criminal Justice Programs, U Wisconsin, Milwaukee [e-mail: mhbarlow@csd.uwm.edu]
SO: Social-Justice; 1998, 25, 2(72), summer, 149-183.
DT: aja Abstract-of-Journal-Article
AB: It is asserted that US media constructions of crime are largely responsible for the mainstream contempt of urban racial minorities in the post-civil rights era. Cover stories on crime in Time & Newsweek, (total N = 44, 1946-1995), were analyzed to determine whether crime is attributed to African Americans, at what point crime was connected with young African American males, & differences between traditional & modern racism. Findings reveal that stories during the 1940s & 1950s connected criminal behavior to white mob violence, with crime becoming connected with young African American males during the 1960s. In addition, stories published 1970-1995 further solidified African American males' symbolic association with crime. Analysis illustrates the shift from traditional to modern racism in the late-20th-century US.

TI: Domestic Violence in the Hyperreal: An Examination of Race and Ethnicity in "Real Life" Police Drama
AU: Monson,-Melissa-J..
IN: U Nevada, Las Vegas
SO: Dissertation-Abstracts-International,-A:-The-Humanities-and-Social-Sciences; 2000, 60, 9, Mar, 3542-A..
NT: Available from UMI, Ann Arbor, MI. Order No. DA9946527.
DT: dis Dissertation
AB: This project investigates public representations of domestic violence by highlighting televised reality-based police dramas (e.g., COPS, L.A.P.D.: Life on the Beat, Real Stories of the Highway Patrol, etc.). Specifically, it focuses on the intersection of race, class, and gender in the portrayal of police treatment of victims and suspects of domestic violence. The data for this research were gathered through the use of latent and manifest content analysis. Seventy-two hours (including commercials) of reality based programing were recorded for analysis, making 144 total individual shows and 48 episodes of each program. In general, police officers were portrayed as treating domestic violence cases with lower levels of seriousness than other types of crime. Officers were more likely to express frustration with crime victims and greater levels of futility in their efforts to stop domestic assaults from reoccurring than other types of crime. And they were more likely to express the opinion that domestic violence was the result of individual dysfunction (alcohol, nature of love, culture of poverty, masochism), than they were to express the opinion that there were contributing structural economic factors. On average, crime committed by Non-White suspects was taken more seriously by police than crime committed by White suspects. When controlling for domestic violence, quantitative differences in police reaction between White and Non-white suspects and victims disappeared. Few race differences emerged in latent content analysis of police dialogue and lectures in domestic violence scenarios. However, important distinctions were present. People of Color were portrayed as being more out of control and belligerent toward police officers than were White suspects and victims. Police were shown lecturing non-whites on U.S. law and exhibited greater amounts of frustration and less patience with those that spoke little or no English.

TI: Minority Presence and Portrayal in Mainstream Magazine Advertising: An Update
AU: Bowen,-Lawrence; Schmid,-Jill
IN: School Communications U Washington, Seattle 98195
SO: Journalism-and-Mass-Communication-Quarterly; 1997, 74, 1, spring, 134-146.
DT: aja Abstract-of-Journal-Article
AB: Examines inclusion, portrayal, & integration of minorities in mainstream magazine advertising, drawing on analysis of 1,969 "populated" advertisements found in 72 issues of nine magazines published 1987 & 1992. Each ad was examined for minority presence, gender, age, occupation, & product category. When minorities & whites appeared in an ad, the relationship depicted was also coded. Overall, when compared with earlier studies, the number of black models used in magazine advertisements has increased. The use of Hispanic & Asian models was extremely small. There were few differences in portrayal by gender or age. Blacks were more likely to appear as athletes or musicians & to be featured in public-service or government-sponsored ads. In mixed-ethnic ads, whites typically outnumbered minorities, & the relationships depicted were set in formal or work settings with very little face-to-face interaction. 5 Tables.

TI: The Presentation of Minorities in Marriage and Family Textbooks
AU: Shaw-Taylor,-Yoku; Benokraitis,-Nijole-V.
IN: c/o Benokraitis-Dept Sociology U Baltimore MD 21201
SO: Teaching-Sociology; 1995, 23, 2, Apr, 122-135.
DT: aja Abstract-of-Journal-Article
AB: An attempt to update & extend the analysis by L. Bryant & M. Coleman (1988) of the portrayal of the black family in US marriage & family textbooks. Best-selling marriage & family textbooks published 1986-1990 (N = 20) were examined for their descriptions of 4 minority groups: African, Asian, Latino, & Native Americans. Results show that marriage & family textbooks still devote very little attention to minorities. Overall, 2.1% of the space was devoted to racial-ethnic families, even though people of color constitute more than 25% of the population. Some groups, such as Native Americans, received almost no coverage at all. Finally, although much of the material was presented from a culturally equivalent approach, textbook authors discussed minority families from a culturally deviant perspective.