ABSTRACT

It has been estimated (Gerbner, 1997) that the average U.S. child encounters over 350 different characters in television drama each week. Never before have people been exposed to such a huge variety of different types of human beings, and often television is the first (and maybe only) time we encounter certain social and occupational groups. In chapter 7, we saw how the mere presence of different ethnic groups on television might foster more positive attitudes among viewers; however, the reverse effect may also be present, which is that our dependency on media representations of those groups may, in some circumstances, force us to rely on stereotypes.