Portrayals of women in popular media

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Portrayals of women in popular media

• Content and effects

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NOW analysis of 2002 primetime
1. Gender Composition and Diversity Analysts
provided a tally of lead, supporting and guest
characters by gender and race, with notation of
positive role models and negative stereotypes
among women and people of color.
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• 2. Violence Analysts recorded the number and
  type of violent, threatening or hostile acts,
  also noting the gender of the victims and an
  interpretation of whether the presentation of
  violence was gratuitous or integral to the story.

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• 3. Sexual Exploitation Analysts noted how the
  male and female characters interacted and whether
  women/girls were respected and valued
  participants in the storyline, existed primarily
  as sex objects to seduce/complement the male
  characters, or were peripheral to the action
  driving the plot.

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• 4. Social Responsibility Analysts commented on
  the relevance of subject matter to everyday
  people's lives.
• Shows were examined for attention to issues such
  as economics, childcare and birth control the
  consequences of characters' actions and the
  inclusion of characters of varying age, size,
  sexual orientation, ability, marital status,
  religion, etc.

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• In the third year of producing the Watch Out,
  Listen Up! report, our field analysts observed a
  continued lack of gender and racial diversity on
  TV. Outdated and negative stereotypes were common
  where diversity did exist.
• In our official tally, the six broadcast networks
  employed 134 more men than women in regular
  primetime roles.
• Programs told from a male point-of-view
  outnumbered those with a female point-of-view
  more than two-to-one.

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• The gap between shows that portray female
  characters with dignity and respect, and programs
  that sexually exploit women appears to have
  widened. On one end of the spectrum the networks
  give us Judging Amy, Law Order and The West
  Wing where women are smart, resourceful and in
  charge. Way on the other end of that spectrum,
  the networks offer Fear Factor, The Bachelor, WWE
  Smackdown! and The Drew Carey Show where women
  exist to be ogled, used and demeaned.

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• If you are a middle-aged woman, a lesbian, a
  Latina, a woman with a disability, a woman of
  size, a low-income mom struggling to get by . . .
  good luck finding programming that even pretends
  to reflect your life.

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• Media Tenor (www.mediatenor.com) looked at the
  evening news programs on CBS, ABC and NBC to
  determine the percentage of female protagonists
  in news stories in 2002.

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• All three programs came in with an average
  percentage of 14 female protagonists, compared
  to 86 males. There were no significant
  differences among the networks in this regard.
  National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice led the
  top 10 with 45 appearances, followed by Senator
  Hillary Clinton (27) and the First Lady, Laura
  Bush (20). It took EPA Administrator Christine
  Todd Whitman a mere three appearances to make it
  into the top 10.

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• The picture looks even worse considering the
  issues about which the top female protagonists
  were consulted or to which they were connected In
  the context of the top issues, foreign affairs,
  out of 4,234 appearances of individuals, only 208
  were women, an equally low 5 on all three
  networks.

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• Similarly, out of 1845 individual appearances in
  the context of political issues, women appeared
  only 115 times. In fact, the only top five issues
  in which women consistently beat the network
  average of 14 were crime (often as victims) and,
  surprisingly, business -- though with a 21
  share, women in this context are still far from
  achieving parity.

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Longitudinal Analysis of Gender in Network
Commercials How Advertisers Portray Gender

• The researchers videotaped 21-hour constructed
  week primetime samples (Sunday through Saturday)
  for each network from 700 -1000 p.m. CDT in
  1998, 1999, and 2000. In 1998 the sample included
  ABC, CBS and NBC in 1999 the sample was ABC,
  FOX and in 2000, it was ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. A
  total of 189 hours of television programming was
  collected during the February "sweeps" rating
  period each year.

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• Age is as misrepresented in primetime, network
  commercials as gender. . . .After 51 years of
  age, when a person has generally achieved
  financial security and independence, both genders
  were disregarded as target prospects by
  advertisers.

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• This study confirmed earlier studies' findings
  that the male voice is overwhelmingly the voice
  of authority in most commercials. We now know
  this is also true of commercials for
  traditionally female products. Perhaps it
  shouldn't have been surprising that male voices
  were also featured in longer commercials, while
  female voices were relegated to shorter
  commercials, but it was. Simply, women were
  usually featured in shorter commercials both as
  characters and voice-overs.

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Employment in broadcast media

• The latest figures from the 2003 RTNDA/Ball State
  University Annual Survey of women and minorities
  show that although the number of minorities
  working in local radio and television news rose
  slightly last year, the percentage of minorities
  dropped. At the same time, the number of women
  news directors and the percentage of women in the
  workforce have grown in television newsrooms.

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• According to the survey, minorities now comprise
  18.1 percent of local television news staffs,
  down from 20.6 percent last year. In local radio,
  minorities hold 6.5 percent of the jobs, down
  from 8 percent. Because the overall number of
  employees is up this year, the number of
  minorities in TV newsrooms actually rose, but did
  not keep up percentage-wise. Bob Papper of Ball
  State University, who conducted the study for the
  Radio-Television News Directors Association,
  reports that the number of minorities working in
  local broadcast newsrooms rose by about 60 jobs
  overall.

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• Women are gradually increasing their
  representation in TV news management, holding a
  record 26.5 percent of the news director jobs
  women hold 39.3 percent of all television news
  jobs
• In radio, women hold 14.4 percent of the news
  director slots and constitute 24 percent of the
  workforce.

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Lifetime and WE channels

• An examination of scheduling was conducted for
  both channels during two weeks in October
  (October 7 through October 13 and October 21
  through October 27) and one week in November
  (November 4 through November 10) 2002. All the
  programs that aired during this three-week period
  were included, with the exception of paid
  programming.

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• Genre The groups in this category included
  drama, comedy, talk, contest and
  documentary/reality. These labels cover the
  different genres available on entertainment
  television.
• Primary theme The options here were romance,
  family, physical appearance, fashion/style,
  victimization and other (a non-stereotypical
  theme).

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Women's Role in Popular Video Games Stripped
Down and Killed Off

• The National Institute on Media and the Family, a
  leading resource on the effects of video games on
  children, released its Seventh Annual MediaWise
  Video Game Report Card in December in Washington,
  D.C.
• The Seventh Annual MediaWise Video Game Report
  Card gave its first ever overall failing grade.
  Areas of special concern include
• violence against women
• growing levels of video game addiction
• inaccuracy of ratings
• parental lack of awareness regarding content
• and the failure of many retailers to restrict
  children from mature-rated games.
• The MediaWise Video Game Report Card also
  analyzes recent research, showing that violent
  video games are linked to aggressive, violent
  behavior.

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Women working in entertainment

• Men wrote and created approximately 8 of 10
  situation comedies and dramas airing on the
  broadcast networks in the 2001-2002 prime-time
  season.
• Overall, women constituted 23 of all creators,
  executive producers, directors, writers, editors
  and directors of photography. This percentage has
  remained virtually unchanged for three seasons.

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• However, the representation of women writers
  declined from 27 in 2000-2001 to 19 in
  2001-2002.
• Source Martha Lauzen
• Boxed In Women on Screen and Behind the Scenes
  in Prime-Time TV

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Women in entertainment industry
(Glascock, 2001)
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Network News Women Less Than a Fifth of Sources
Quoted Most Often as 'Ordinary Citizens'

• Media Tenor Ltd. (www.mediatenor.com), a media
  analysis firm, in its study of U.S. network
  newscasts in 2001, found women at the margins of
  public debate.
• For each report on ABC World News Tonight, NBC
  Nightly News and CBS Evening News, Media Tenor
  coded the topic, time period, location,
  personalities involved and source information
  (including gender, among other characteristics).
  Media Tenor profiled 14,632 sources in 18,765
  individual reports airing between January 1 and
  December 31.

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• In general, the analysis showed that selection of
  sources favored "elite interests" prominent
  politicians, particularly those in the current
  political administration, and persons with
  considerable economic influence.
• In terms of gender representation of sources,
  women were 19 of total sources. However, they
  accounted for 40 of "ordinary citizens" quoted,
  indicating that they were less likely to be
  contacted for expert opinion.

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Cultural Indicators
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Primetime, 1969-1985
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Primetime, 1990-1998
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Gender-typed jobs, 1990-1998
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Primetime, 1969-1985
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Marriage patterns, major characters, primetime
1969-1985
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Domestic responsibilities
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Sexual orientation
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Romantic involvement
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• Overall, Lifetime and WE used stereotypical
  approaches to target their audience a majority of
  the time. Lifetime devoted 76.3 percent of its
  three weeks of programming to stereotypical
  "women's themes." Meanwhile, 71.5 percent of WE's
  programs over a three-week period focused on
  stereotypical issues.
• WE focused heavily on romance. The final total
  for programs featuring romantic themes was 53.9
  percent. In other words, more than half of WE's
  programming revolved around romance of some kind
  (primarily heterosexual romance).

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• Lifetime, in comparison, spent 17.3 percent of
  its time on romance. Furthermore, many of WE's
  program descriptions began with the romantic part
  of a program (in other words, featured it as the
  most important focus), using phrases like
  "romance blooms," "love blossoms," etc.
• Lifetime's primary focus was victimization, which
  served as a theme for 35.6 percent of its
  programs. In contrast, WE focused on
  victimization for only 1.6 percent of its
  programs. Furthermore, many of Lifetime's
  original dramatic movies focused solely on
  victimization, with titles such as A Murderous
  Affair, With Harmful Intent and Stalking Back.

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NOW analysis, 2001-2002 2002-2003 primetime
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