Ethnicity/Race, Stereotyping

Portrayals of Race/Ethnicity

The inclusion of people of color in media programming has undergone dramatic changes over the decades; some racial groups now appear in numbers that approximate population percentages, yet other groups continue to be largely nonexistent in the television landscape. For example, Robert Kubey's content analysis of characters on network and cable stations found that white characters accounted for 81% of all appearances, African Americans, 11%, and Latina/os, 7%. Asian and American Indian characters continue to be vastly underrepresented.

Similar patterns in portrayals are observed in media content directed specifically to children, with many cartoons featuring few or no minority characters. These patterns are also observed in other types of content, including comic strips, commercials aired during children's programming, and video games, in which minority characters are atypical or are included as only minor characters or in background roles.

In addition to noting the frequency of minority portrayals, researchers have examined demographic characteristics, behaviors, and traits associated with depictions of race. For example, earlier research reported that entertainment television tended to [Page 303]characterize minorities as impoverished, uneducated, and lower class. However, more recent content analyses have reported fewer differences between black and white characters in terms of portrayed income. In addition, other researchers have suggested that Asian characters now tend to be portrayed as “model minorities,” working in such fields as law, education, and health care. Despite these findings for entertainment, however, content analyses of news portrayals have reported that African Americans continue to be disproportionately associated with poverty.

The distinction between entertainment and news programming is also evident in terms of portrayals of crime. That is, whereas content analyses of fictional programming have tended to report small or nonexistent differences in crime involvement or antisocial behaviors between different minority groups, analyses of news programs or “reality-based” police programming report that minorities (and particularly African Americans) are disproportionately shown as criminal suspects and are portrayed in ways that imply that they are particularly dangerous or aggressive.

Surprisingly little research has explored the nature of stereotypical portrayals of child characters or of programming content aimed specifically at child audiences. Arguably, the greatest research attention in this regard has focused on commercials and advertising, with recent analyses suggesting that this content continues to feature stereotypical portrayals. For example, Meredith Li-Vollmer's analysis of television commercials targeted to children reported that white characters were more likely than minorities to be shown as professionals; African Americans as service workers, athletes, or musicians; Asian characters as associated with high-tech products; and Latina/os as workers in restaurants. Of the little research that has been conducted on entertainment programming specifically, one general conclusion is that, when minority characters are prominently featured, they tend to be on shows that feature casts of primarily a single race (e.g., Fat Albert). One implication of this pattern is that media content rarely features interactions between white and minority characters.

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