Whether watching TV has a positive or negative impact on children depends on their gender and race. A new study published in Communication Research reveals that in the long run, watching TV can make white and black girl or black boys feel worse about themselves, whilst the opposite is true for white boys.
Study leader Nicole Martins, an assistant professor of telecommunications in the IU College of Arts and Sciences together with Kristen Harrison, a professor of communication studies at Michigan University also found that black children watched on average 10 more hours per week of television compared to white children.
Martins stated: “We can’t deny the fact that media has an influence when they’re spending most of their time — when they’re not in school — with the television.”
Harrison explained: “Children who are not doing other things besides watching television cannot help but compare themselves to what they see on the screen.”
The team conducted a year-long survey in the Midwest, which included around 400 black and white pre-adolescent students in order to assess what impact watching TV has on the children’s self-esteem regardless of what shows or genres they watched. Martins explained:
“Regardless of what show you’re watching, if you’re a white male, things in life are pretty good for you. You tend to be in positions of power, you have prestigious occupations, high education, glamorous houses, a beautiful wife, with very little portrayals of how hard you worked to get there.”
“If you are a girl or a woman, what you see is that women on television are not given a variety of roles. The roles that they see are pretty simplistic; they’re almost always one-dimensional and focused on the success they have because of how they look, not what they do or what they think or how they got there. This sexualization of women presumably leads to this negative impact on girls.”
Black boys are often portrayed as the ‘baddies’ in many programs. They are frequently portrayed as criminals or the ‘underdog’ and in many cases seem to be stereotyped to these roles.
Martins said: “Young black boys are getting the opposite message: that there is not lots of good things that you can aspire to. If we think about those kinds of messages, that’s what’s responsible for the impact. If we think just about the sheer amount of time they’re spending, and not the messages, these kids are spending so much time with the media that they’re not given a chance to explore other things they’re good at, that could boost their self-esteem.”
TV producers claim they have progressed in terms of not depicting under-represented populations. However, according to Martins, the study demonstrates that this is simply not true. She refers to a study they conducted previously, in which they demonstrated that video games “are the worst offenders when it comes to representation of ethnicity and gender.”
The impact of various other entertainment sources, such as video games and hand-held devices are also starting to emerge in other studies, showing that youngsters are getting more creative at ‘media multitasking.’
Martins commented: “Even though these new technologies are becoming more available, kids still spend more time with TV than anything else.”
When questioned about their consumption of print media, the responses proved statistically insignificant.
Written By Petra Rattue