Media Messages about Ethnic/Racial Representation: Findings from Children’s Television Project at Tufts University

• In Event: Children’s Media and Technology: What Context and Content Reveal about children’s development and learning.

Abstract

Abstract: Representation in children’s television matters. Ideally, characters in children’s cartoons should reflect positive and non-stereotyped portrayals of people from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds. As they consume media, children perceptively distinguish characters that look like them from those that don’t. In doing so, children learn powerful messages about which people (including themselves) are valued and devalued by society. Borrowing Bishop’s (1990) metaphors about the lack of diversity in children’s books, children’s television can also be viewed as mirrors or windows. On one hand, like a mirror, television can reflect the lives of children in which they see their own identities and experiences. On the other hand, television can function as a window through which children learn narratives about other people. Who is represented and missing in children’s television influences what messages are received by children. Several researchers have found inequities in the ethnic and racial makeup of children's television (Hamlen & Imbesi, 2020; Klein & Shiffman, 2006, 2009). Because most U.S. children spend a significant amount of time watching television on various screens (Rideout, 2020), it is now more important than ever that we understand the messages conveyed through the representation of race and ethnicity in children’s television.
Our content analysis of 1120 characters from 120 episodes of 40 children’s animated shows provided information about the ethnic and racial demography of the cartoon world. Between 2019 and 2020, trained undergraduate and graduate students conducted a content analysis documenting differences between characters representing ethnic/racial groups in terms of dramatic role (major hero/heroine, minor sidekick, walk-on role, etc.), social status (elite: king/queen, princess/prince, middle class, working class etc.), and personality (being warm, kind, courteous, etc.) and physical (being beautiful, well-dressed, active etc.) attributes. Our initial analysis demonstrates differences between ethnic and racial groups of cartoon characters. Generally, we found that White characters consisted of the majority of the characters and being White was associated with positively perceived personality and physical associations valued by society.

Authors

• Rumeysa Ozturk, Tufts University
  Presenting Author

• Kathleen Manning Robinson, Tufts University

• Julie Dobrow, Tufts University

• Calvin Gidney

• Mary Casey, Tufts University