Television and Prejudice Reduction: When Does Television as a Vicarious Experience Make a Difference?

Journal of Social Issues, Winter, 1999 by Sherryl Browne Graves

Sherryl Browne Graves [*]

Televised role portrayals and interracial interactions, as sources of vicarious experience, contribute to the development of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination among children. The first section of this article reviews the amount and nature of racial/ethnic content on television, including limited portrayals of racial/ethnic groups and of interracial/ethnic interaction. The second section focuses on theoretical models that help explain television's role in the development, maintenance, and modification of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. The third section addresses research on the effects of television in altering stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination, with particular attention given to media intervention programs specifically designed to address these issues (Sesame Street and Different and the Same). This article concludes with a discussion of suggestions for future research.

Almost all children have a television, with 97% living in households with a VCR and 74% having access to cable or satellite television (Rideout, Foehr, Roberts, & Brodie, 1999). The most recent statistics suggest that children watch almost 3 hr per day of television (Rideout et al., 1999). As a "window on the world" television can be seen as a vehicle for providing children and youth with experiences and information otherwise not available to them, their families or communities. In the case of race relations, television is indeed a key socializing agent. Both non-Hispanic Whites and African Americans are most likely to live in a neighborhood in which most residents are of the same ethnic group (Council of Economic Advisers, 1998). Furthermore, though school segregation is illegal, current statistics suggest that African American and Latino students continue to attend segregated schools in large numbers (Orfield & Monfort, 1992). Televised role portrayals and interracial interactions, as sources of vicarious experience, are relevant to the creation of cognitions about racial groups (stereotypes), the development of negative attitudes toward these groups (prejudice), and the performance of exclusionary behaviors (discrimination). Television could influence children by providing examples of people with or without prejudice, diverse social groups that stimulate positive or negative affect, and settings in which racial discrimination is endorsed or rejected.

To understand how television functions as a source of vicarious racial experiences, this article begins with a review of the amount and nature of racial/ethnic content on television, including its portrayals of different racial and ethnic groups and its presentation of interracial/interethnic interaction. Next, this article focuses on theoretical models that help to explain television's role in the development, maintenance or modification of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Then, a review of research on the effects of television in altering stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination follows, with particular attention directed to media intervention programs specifically designed to address these issues. The article concludes with a discussion of suggestions for future research.

Inclusion or Invisibility? Television Content and Racial/Ethnic Representation

Television programming provides information about social groups in two ways: by inclusion and by exclusion. When diverse groups are included, television content offers specific examples of the physical, psychological, social, cultural, and economic characteristics of each group. However, when groups are absent from the television curriculum, there is the implication that the missing groups are unimportant, inconsequential, and powerless. Both types of information can contribute to the development, maintenance, and modification of children's thoughts, feelings, and actions toward racial/ethnic groups.

Televised Racial and Ethnic Representation

Content analyses of television programming of racial/ethnic group portrayals specify the extent of inclusion and the nature of portrayals assigned to African American, Asian American, European American, Latino, and Native American participants. Television programming is overwhelmingly White, with visible racial and ethnic groups1 underrepresented (Berry, 1980; Bianco, 1999; Calvert, Stolkin, & Lee, 1997; Graves & Ottaviani, 1995; Greenberg & Collette, 1997; Huston et al., 1992; Kubey, Shifflet, Weerakkody, & Ukeiley, 1995; Lichter, Lichter, & Rothman, 1994; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1977; Wilson & Gutierrez, 1995). For example, the diversity profile for the 1999-2000 U.S. prime time television season was initially labeled a "whitewash" until boycott threats from the NAACP and other civil rights organizations led four networks to add minority characters in leading roles to new series (Bianco, 1999; Carter, 1999). The racial trends are similar for cable television, with the exception of ethnic-destinati on channels, like Black Entertainment Television or Spanish-language Univision (Kubey et al., 1995). Generally, children's and educational television provide more diversity than does prime time television (Calvert et al., 1997; Graves, 1996; Neopolitan & Huston, 1994; T. Williams & Cox, 1995). On the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) children's and educational programs, there is more diversity, including variations in language and disability status (Greenberg & Brand, 1993; Neopolitan & Huston, 1994). Children's programming on cable, particularly Nickelodeon, has included diverse characters.