Saturday, December 8, 2007
Negativity in Media Rant
The media places too much emphasis on the negative side of the events that take place in todays society. One thing to consider is that Americans are addicted to knowing about drama and negativity in each other's personal lives. No one seems to care about the good deeds. Take for instance Britney Spears. Who cares about her successes. Everyone is waiting to see her fall down on stage during her comeback performance. The media employs a "rubbernecking" effect on their stories to gather up veiwers.People cannot help to look at a tragic car wreck while driving by. With the technological advances in today's society, there is rapid growth of various mediums like online news sites, blogs, and other avenues for media broadcasts such as myspace and facebook. All forms of media are in competition to grasp the attention of the reader. They exploit the negative news because it gets the attention of the average American faster than the good.
Dolce & Gabana Ads
Dolce & Gabana ads use homoeroticism. I saw an ad in a magazine where a young, hip guy was being seduced by an older, well dressed businessman. There is also a popular ad running on television that shows a young man and woman in separate camera shots. They appear to be walking towards each other, but when they finally reach their destination and are shown in the same frame, the man is with another man and the woman with another woman. I have never really seen an ad depicting gays in a positive light on television. Personally, I think its a step in the right direction for homosexual rights. We should be shown as sexy, hip individuals on TV instead of just the occasional queen-y man.
Final Project Report
White Characters are the most prominent on video game covers
The number of white characters on video game covers outweighs all the other types by at least 2:1. Out of five possible categories, only one had even half of the number of white people depicted.
My corpus is made up of a random selection of twenty-eight of the top video games of all time according to Gamespot.com. The method is quantitative content analysis, in which the characters on each video game cover was coded first as white, black, other race, creature/robot, or inanimate objects.
The previous study was found in Chapter Four of the Sex in Consumer Culture textbook. It was conducted by Smith, Pieper, and Choueiti (“Video game packaging and ad copy: Are gaming publishers in compliance with the ARC,” 2004, Previously Unpublished Raw Data). This study looked at 74 games that were US best sellers in 2003. It first categorized the games according to their intended console, i.e. Xbox, PlayStation. The researchers then took note of the rating assigned to each game. After that, the covers were tallied according to gender distribution, degrees of nudity, and sexually revealing clothing. The researchers found that males are 89% more likely to be shown on covers than females. When females are shown, they are shown partially nude or in revealing clothing 73% of the time. Less than a third of the males were pictured in that way.
There are two relevant studies used by Smith, Pieper, and Choueiti. The first is a study by Children Now (“Girls and gaming: A console video game content analysis,” 2000, http://childrennow.org). This study looked at how often females were portrayed on video game covers and also noted if they were shown in a provocative light. It looked at 24 video game covers and found that 54% had main female characters, but only two covers had females on them. Both were shown provocatively. The second study was performed by E.F. Provenzo (“Video kids: Making sense of Nintendo,” 1991, Harvard University Press). This study looked at the jackets of 47 top selling Nintendo games and found that males outnumbered females by a ratio of 13 to 1. Provenzo also found that figures with no identifiable gender were more likely to be shown than females.
Of the twenty-eight video game covers sampled, twelve depicted white characters. Whites were shown in a variety of different genres, ranging from games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 to Resident Evil 4. Only four covers featured black characters. It is interesting to note that of those four, three were on the cover of NFL related games. One black man was shown on the cover of a game where one must complete illegal missions for different crime lords. Two of the covers were placed in the other race category. Both were martial arts games depicting Asians as the main characters. Six of the twenty-eight covers were coded into the creature/robot category. This category was for characters whose race was difficult to ascertain. It included characters from Halo, Metroid Prime, and Banjo-tooie. The last category was for inanimate objects. Of the four covers in this category, two pictured designs (Elder Scrolls IV, Diablo), one portrayed weaponry (Zelda), and one was a racing game that depicted cars on the cover.
This mini-study used the same methods employed by the three previous studies shown. Rather than looking at gender or sexualized content, this study focused on the portrayal of race on top selling video game covers. Whites are the most likely to be pictured, followed by characters with no race identity (creatures/robots). Blacks and inanimate objects are depicted with about the same frequency, and the category with the least amount of tallies is other race (seen as Asians). This study could be enlarged by also nothing the specific genre that certain races are more likely to be found on. For example, could Blacks be shown more often on violent or sports games? Are whites most prominently shown on fantasy video games? The rating of each game in correlation with the race of the figure on the cover could also be taken into account.
The number of white characters on video game covers outweighs all the other types by at least 2:1. Out of five possible categories, only one had even half of the number of white people depicted.
My corpus is made up of a random selection of twenty-eight of the top video games of all time according to Gamespot.com. The method is quantitative content analysis, in which the characters on each video game cover was coded first as white, black, other race, creature/robot, or inanimate objects.
The previous study was found in Chapter Four of the Sex in Consumer Culture textbook. It was conducted by Smith, Pieper, and Choueiti (“Video game packaging and ad copy: Are gaming publishers in compliance with the ARC,” 2004, Previously Unpublished Raw Data). This study looked at 74 games that were US best sellers in 2003. It first categorized the games according to their intended console, i.e. Xbox, PlayStation. The researchers then took note of the rating assigned to each game. After that, the covers were tallied according to gender distribution, degrees of nudity, and sexually revealing clothing. The researchers found that males are 89% more likely to be shown on covers than females. When females are shown, they are shown partially nude or in revealing clothing 73% of the time. Less than a third of the males were pictured in that way.
There are two relevant studies used by Smith, Pieper, and Choueiti. The first is a study by Children Now (“Girls and gaming: A console video game content analysis,” 2000, http://childrennow.org). This study looked at how often females were portrayed on video game covers and also noted if they were shown in a provocative light. It looked at 24 video game covers and found that 54% had main female characters, but only two covers had females on them. Both were shown provocatively. The second study was performed by E.F. Provenzo (“Video kids: Making sense of Nintendo,” 1991, Harvard University Press). This study looked at the jackets of 47 top selling Nintendo games and found that males outnumbered females by a ratio of 13 to 1. Provenzo also found that figures with no identifiable gender were more likely to be shown than females.
Of the twenty-eight video game covers sampled, twelve depicted white characters. Whites were shown in a variety of different genres, ranging from games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 to Resident Evil 4. Only four covers featured black characters. It is interesting to note that of those four, three were on the cover of NFL related games. One black man was shown on the cover of a game where one must complete illegal missions for different crime lords. Two of the covers were placed in the other race category. Both were martial arts games depicting Asians as the main characters. Six of the twenty-eight covers were coded into the creature/robot category. This category was for characters whose race was difficult to ascertain. It included characters from Halo, Metroid Prime, and Banjo-tooie. The last category was for inanimate objects. Of the four covers in this category, two pictured designs (Elder Scrolls IV, Diablo), one portrayed weaponry (Zelda), and one was a racing game that depicted cars on the cover.
This mini-study used the same methods employed by the three previous studies shown. Rather than looking at gender or sexualized content, this study focused on the portrayal of race on top selling video game covers. Whites are the most likely to be pictured, followed by characters with no race identity (creatures/robots). Blacks and inanimate objects are depicted with about the same frequency, and the category with the least amount of tallies is other race (seen as Asians). This study could be enlarged by also nothing the specific genre that certain races are more likely to be found on. For example, could Blacks be shown more often on violent or sports games? Are whites most prominently shown on fantasy video games? The rating of each game in correlation with the race of the figure on the cover could also be taken into account.
Final Project Idea
For my final project, I want to examine the covers of top selling video games. I'll look at a random sampling of covers in that category. Then I will code each according to the race of the character depicted on the cover. I'm interested to see what race is shown most often. This could be improved upon by noting the specific genre that certain races are more likely to be found on. For example, could Blacks be shown more often on violent or sports games? Are whites most prominently shown on fantasy video games? The rating of each game in correlation with the race of the figure on the cover would also be very interesting to research.
Asians
Asians are very stereotyped in todays media. They are often shown in movies as the intelligent nerds who are extremely skilled in math and science but lack in basic social functions. In real life, many people view Asians as highly motivated and ambitious bussinessmen/engineers. Statistics show that they are actually about average earners and that Asian immigrants to the US struggle slightly getting set up. The packet we got in class backed those facts up. Asian women are also stereotyped in a slightly different way. Some media uses exotic looking women in provocative positions in order to lure readers in. This is called the "Lotus Blossom Stereotype."
Hip-Hop Music Videos
I think hip-hop music videos portray women in a demeaning light. Almost every video shows the male rapper surrounded by many scantily clad women dancing provocatively. Some of these videos also show homoerotic content, with women being sexual with each other as well as the main artist. It seems like the videos have three things in common: a single man shown in each shot, crowds of partially nude women, and displays of wealth.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Stereotyping Murders
Murderers as well as murder victims have long been stereotyped by the news media. The packet we looked at in class showed two teenage girls first as innocent victims betrayed by fate. After some facts came out that showed them in a slightly less naive light, they were depicted as lesbian drug dealers that deserved death. Also, in the link posted in the class blog on 10/19, a reporter discussed her propensity to stereotype killers according to their victims. For example, a semi-wealthy real estate agent was found stabbed multiple times in a model home. Because of the extent of her injuries and glamorous reputation, the agent was speculated to have been killed by a jilted lover. In reality, she was brutally murdered by a common thief that wanted her jewelry.
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