Provides in-depth content analysis of six 1985-86 prime-time television shows which featured single professional women sharing the lead with a male partner in a working relationship. Concludes that these programs show a less stereotypical portrayal of working women than in the past and demonstrate a serious attempt to present the problems of…

Noting that previous research has shown that television content influences attitudes and behavior, a content analysis of 269 television commercials broadcast during prime time was conducted to examine whether male sex role stereotyping existed in the commercials and, if it did, to determine the characteristics of that stereotyping and whether the…

To understand how children respond to and make use of portrayals of the sexes on television, 192 third and eighth grade students participated in a study to determine what they notice and how important these distinctions are to them. The study obtained children's same/different paired comparisons of eight concepts--me, my mother, an average woman,…

The problem of sex-role stereotyping on television has been studied by trying to develop television materials that are explicitly counter-stereotypic in terms of sex-roles. The development of a new television series "Freestyle," aimed at 9-12 year old children and their families, has led to some important observations about children's perceptions…

The mass media appear to have an influential role in the socialization of children by exposing them to a world far beyond the limits of their immediate experience. Because children must depend on mass media models for learning about adult sexual intimacy, a content analysis of daytime soap operas, to which many children are exposed daily without…

Televised sexuality is examined in the context of gender stereotypes for three recent, "new adult" programs which have been billed as departures from traditional treatments of sex roles and/or sexuality: "All That Glitters,""Soap," and "We've Got Each Other." Using these examples, the paper focuses on three main areas: (1) characters and settings…

In order to investigate the nature of character portrayals in U.S. television commercials, a content analysis was done on a random sample of 2,604 U.S. television commercials which were videotaped in March 1981. This analysis included both demographic characteristics and more subtle aspects of gender differences, such as concerns, relationships…

This study examined the effects of heavy versus light television viewing on the degree to which children possess sex role stereotypes. Reference was made to content analyses of children's television programs, prime time dramatic programs, and commercials, to show that traditional sex role stereotypes are present in most aspects of television…

This study, a part of a larger project, investigated what children learn about gender roles from cartoons and how these cartoons might color the children's view of the world. A total of 89 children ranging in age from four to nine were sampled from three different locations (a university-affiliated day-care center and two parochial schools near…

A review of 19 studies in 17 articles on sex-role stereotyping and television has revealed some common characteristics. Three types of research can be classified: content, effect, and correlation. Content analysis was the most popular. Even though various types of TV programs were studied, each research study investigated only one type of program…

The frequencies of specific types of verbal attractiveness stereotypes portrayed on television commercials and regular programs were determined in two studies. In the first, the 4,294 commercials aired between 8 and 10 p.m. on the 3 major networks were observed during a 7-day period in the spring of 1982. Statements related to attractiveness were…

Although the cultural stereotypes which the mass media disseminate about the roles of men and women are often discussed in general terms, the actual nature of these stereotypes in the present American culture has not been fully or systematically explored. This study examined part of the system of cultural stereotypes relating to men and women on…

A study compared the two television series, "The Lone Ranger" and "The Equalizer" to see whether the protagonists conform to the American archetype of the justice hero--defined as the hero who deals with crime in society. A formula analysis of the two television texts reveals that both heroes are male, scrupulous, independent,…

This analysis of the British domestic situation comedy (sitcom) as a genre begins by noting that it is considered basically taxonomical, using the categories of character, narrative, and theme to develop understanding of its discursive strategies. Considered to be preliminary and tentative, the results of this analysis suggest that: (1) the sitcom…

Findings from analysis of television coverage of women in sport during the 1970's and early 1980's suggested that coverage was considerably less than for men's televised sport, and that coverage of women athletes was characterized by stereotypical images and limited information. Trends reported by researchers who examined the status of women…