Television, Occupational Portrayals on

Television is an important source of information about occupations for children. Children learn about jobs not only from interacting with people in various occupations but also from the portrayals of the occupations they see in the media. Television's portrayal of occupations, however, is governed by dramatic rather than educational considerations. Only those jobs that serve a dramatic or useful function in a story or are part of a program's action are regularly portrayed on prime time. The work of law enforcement officers, doctors, and lawyers is often more exciting, suspenseful, interesting, and prestigious than that of farmers and laborers. Consequently, television consistently overrepresents these types of occupations while it underrepresents blue-collar occupations.

Children often want to emulate television characters who are shown working in glamorous jobs that pay well, yet are not too demanding. In a cultivation theory study using data from the Monitoring the Future Survey, Nancy Signorielli (1993) found that [Page 816]those high school seniors who watched more television wanted to have glamorous and exciting jobs that would pay them handsomely. At the same time, these same students did not want to work very hard, and they sought jobs with lots of built-in vacation time. In short, these high school seniors reported visions of their future employment that mirrored the way occupations and work are presented in broadcast, network, prime-time television programs.

A consistent finding is that the television world of work is dominated by male characters and that fewer women than men can be categorized by occupation. In prime-time programs of the 1990s, Nancy Signorielli and Aaron Bacue (1999) found that 4 out of 10 female characters either did not work or were in an unspecified occupation. By comparison, fewer than one quarter of the male characters could not be classified in an occupation or were portrayed as not working.

Early content analyses consistently found that occupational role portrayals were stereotyped in terms of who was cast in the roles. Male characters were frequently found in various high-status professional or law enforcement jobs. Their female counterparts, on the other hand, were found in a narrower range of occupations often perceived as less prestigious, glamorous, and interesting—roles such as secretaries, nurses, teachers, and household workers.

More recent content analyses have found more equal representations of men and women in occupations. For example, David Atkin (1991), in an analysis of television series broadcast between 1966 and 1990, found more single women in professional and managerial positions and fewer in secretarial jobs. In the early 1990s, on broadcast prime-time television, about one fourth of the women were in professional and white-collar jobs (including entertainment) and one fifth in blue-collar positions. Yet, at the same time, women are still cast in roles as homemakers, home care workers, and unskilled laborers to a greater degree. Men, on the other hand, are typically portrayed as professionals and managers or in jobs relating to police work.

Content studies of programs seen in the 1970s found that race was an important predictor of employment and occupation. Minority characters were less likely than whites to have an identifiable job. Regardless of gender, white characters were more likely than minority characters to be portrayed as working outside the home. In addition, white male characters were more likely than female and minority characters to be portrayed as professionals and white-collar workers. Minorities, on the other hand, are seen in less prestigious, blue-collar jobs with many in service occupations. Moreover, male characters, regardless of race, are most frequently portrayed in police and criminal roles. Minorities, regardless of gender, were most frequently cast in service or clerical positions.

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