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'1“ I ‘1 12111 ' “ ‘ 1.1115,;‘1- III": I'I-‘It I ,IIIIII1‘I1'1'1'III.I‘I111111:,I:1'.1:1::1I:II..1111111111"IIF‘ "I1: WillHIWWIIIHWWW mssls 3 1293 00668 288 This is to certify that the thesis entitled Interpersonal And Mass Media Impacts On Beliefs About Race And Race Relations presented by George Blake Armstrong has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for MaSteLQLArLELdegree in Wtion / r 8] ' -' -‘ Mr Date /0//{/5)/ 0-7639 OVERDUE FINES: 25¢ per day per ite- RETUWIIG LIBRARY MATERIALS: Place in book return to remove charge fm circulation records INTERFERSONAL AND MASS MEDIA IMPACTS ON BELIEFS ABOUT RACE AND RACE RELATIONS BY George Blake Armstrong A THESI Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Communication ). v/ ff? :J / Lia" g7// ABSTRACT INTERPERSONAL AND MASS MEDIA IMPACTS ON BELIEFS ABOUT RACE AND RACE RELATIONS BY George Blake Armstrong This study assessed mass media and interpersonal in- fluences on four sorts of beliefs about racial and social inequality: perceptions concerning relative black and white socio-economic outcomes; relative black and white economic inputs; relative favorability of racial stereo- types; and the attribution of observed inequality to i.- dividual or social factors. Questionnaire data was gathered from 197 white Michigan State University fresh- men, and analyzed using correlation and regression analyses. Results showed television entertainment exposure to predict greater (relative) favorability of stereotypes of blacks. TV sports exposure was associated with more negative black stereotypes. Exposure to TV news was re- lated to more negative judgments of both black character traits and economic inputs. The greater the newspaper exPosure, the less the degree to which individual dif- ferences were seen as the cause of social inequality, and the less racial inequality was perceived. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the contributions of my advisor, Dr. Felipe Korzenny, not only in terms of his academdc assistance with this thesis, but also for his support and patience during its process of completion. I would also like to thank Dr. Bradley Greenberg for his considerable help in overcoming several hurdles in the successful completion of this thesis, which went above and beyond the call of a committee member's duty. Dr. Lawrence E. Sarbaugh should also be thanked for his sup- port and valuable criticism. Thanks should also go out to my student interviewers, and to my assistant in the data collection process, Suzanne Terrel, without whose help completing this thesis would have been far more difficult. Finally, thanks also go to my wife, Lynn Armstrong, for her understanding and support during the months while this thesis was being prepared, and for her not incon- siderable financial contribution. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES O O O O O O O I I O O O O O O O 0 LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . Race Relations and Social Theory . . . . . . Social Conflict and Equity Theory . . . . . . Mass Media Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . Television News Coverage and Effects . Television Sports Coverage and Effects . Newspaper Exposure and Effects . . . . . Television Entertainment Exposure and EffeCts O O O O O O O O O O O I O O 0 Control Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A Theoretical Causal Model . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER II - METHODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . Measurement of Control Variables . . . . . . Measurement of Endogenous Variables . . . . . Perceived Relative Rewards . . . . Individual Versus System Responsibility White Versus Black Inputs . . . . . . . Stereotype Favorability . . . . . . . . Independent Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . Newspaper Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . Television Exposure . . . . . . . . . . Interracial Contact . . . . . . . . . . Perceived Reality of Television . . . . AnaIYSiS O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 CHAPTER III - RESULTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . Predictions Concerning Perceived Relative on tc omes C O I O O O O O O I O O O I O 0 Predictions Concerning Individual Versus System Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . Perceived Relative Inputs . . . . . . . . . . Relative Stereotype Favorability . . . . . . Perceived Affluence of Whites . . . . . . . . iii Page vii 17 22 24 25 27 55 56 59 59 61 64 64 67 68 74 78 79 82 84 84 86 93 103 110 110 116 125 132 137 TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) CHAPTER IV - DISCUSSION . Limitations . . . . Implications . . . . FOOTNOTE . . . . . . . REFERENCES . . . . . . APPENDICES . . . . . . . Handout viewers Appendix A Appendix B Used to O C O O O O O O Instruct Inter- on Procedures . . . . . Questionnaire . iv Page 141 150 153 156a 157 165 165 170 Table 10 11 LIST OF TABLES Ratio of White to Black Socio-Economic Status Measures Perceived by Respondents and Compared with Population Figures . . . . Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for White/ Black Outcomes as Perceived by Respondents . Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for Indi- vidual Versus System Responsibility Items Mean Percentages of Blacks and Whites Perceived to be Described by Six Highly- Positive or Highly-Negative Adjectives . . . Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for Interracial Contact Measures . . . . . . . . Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for Perceived Reality (Representativeness) of Black and White Television Outcomes . . . . Factor Structure Matrix for Perceived Reality (Congruence) of Black and White Television Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for Per- ceived Reality (representativeness) of TV Portrayals of Black and White Character Traits (Stereotypes) . . . . . . . . . . . Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for Per- ceived Reality (Congruence) of TV Portrayals of Black and White Character Traits (Stereo- types) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Correlations of Perceived White/Black Outcomes Factors with TV News and Newspaper Exposure 0 O O O O O O O O O I O O O O O I 0 Equations Predicting Perceived White/Black Positive Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Page 70 73 77 81 90 96 98 100 101 111 113 Table 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 LIST OF TABLES (Continued) Equations Predicting Perceived White/Black Negative Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . Correlations of Perceived Individual Responsibility Factors with Hypothesized Predictors O O O O I O O O O O O I I O O O 0 Equations Predicting Perceived Individual Credit for Desirable Socio—Economic Outcomes . Equations Predicting Perceived Individual Blame for Undesirable Socio-Economic Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pearson Correlations of Perceived White/ Black Inputs with Hypothesized Predictors Equations Predicting Perceived White/Black Inputs 0 O I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 Pearson Correlations of Relative Stereotype Favorability with Individual Predictors . . . Equations Predicting Relative White/Black Stereotype Favorability . . . . . . . . . . . Pearson Correlations of TV Entertainment Exposure, PRTV, and Interactions with Four Measures of White Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . vi 118 122 123 127 130 134 136 138 Figure LIST OF FIGURES Hypothesized relationship between white outcomes and TV entertainment exposure at two levels of PRTV . . . . . . . . . . . Predicted model of mass media and inter- racial contact effects on beliefs about race relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . Revised model of mass media and inter- racial contact effects on beliefs about race 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O I vii 54 57 141 Chapter 1 INTRODUCT ION In roughly the past decade, there has occurred con- siderable research concerning minorities, particularly blacks, and the mass media. That this has occurred can be traced less to academic curiosity or theoretical con- cerns than to political and social concern for the role of the media in improving or exacerbating the nation's race relations. The Report of the National Advisory Com— mission on Civil Disorders (1968), written in response to the racial violence of the late 1960's, was highly critical of mass media performance in relation to nonwhites. Similar concern with media impact has prompted research into media portrayals of minorities, minority media use patterns and beliefs about different media, effects of media portrayals on various audiences, and minority parti- cipation in media organizations (Poindexter & Stroman, 1979). It stands to reason that if one's concern is to deter- mine media impact on America's race problem, then what one chooses to study and how one studies it should be conflict. It is important, then, to address explicitly not only the influence of mass media, but also the nature of the social problem itself. This study arises out of a sociological and social- psychological perspective that differs somewhat from that most commonly employed in studies of mass media and racial issues. It employs variables deemed relevant on the basis of a conflict perspective on racial issues in sociology, and equity theory in social psychology. In particular, this approach focuses attention on media impacts on the perceived distribution of rewards (economic and political benefits) between groups, and on factors that may be used to provide justification for that distribution (differ- ential inputs, "blaming the victim", and attributions of negative character traits). This study is concerned mainly with the impact 99 whitewyiewers of differential exposure to television fic- tional entertainment content, although the impact of news- paper exposure, tgfiévision news, and television sports eXposure is also assessed. Television exposure effects are assessed in relation not only to variables such as behavioral stereotyping, which have been of fairly common concern to researchers, but also in relation to audience perceptions of social and material conditions, which have concerned few except those studying entertainment effects from a cultivation analysis perspective. Volgy and Schwarz (1980a) conclude a study of the impact of television news (I. (0 '11 0‘: *4. (3 In r0 exposure on political attitudes and knowledge by suggesting that: the impact of television news may represent only the iceberg of a potentially much more powerful force impacting on the attitudes of the American public. In the long run, television entertainment programming may be an even more crucial socializing agent. (p. 166) The impact of television exposure, rather than exposure to other mass media, is stressed for several reasons. First, television is the preferred medium for most Americans (at least if one excludes radio, which is generally used as a secondary activity). This is particularly true for working-class and poor Americans. Second, television is the most important media socializer of children and young adults. Evidence that children learn a large variety of information and behaviors from watching fictional tele- vision is well-established (Comstock, Chaffee, Katzman, McCombs, & Roberts, 1978). If we believe, as seems rea- sonable, that racial attitudes and perceptions are built over a long period of time during childhood and young adulthood, then the most likely mass medium to influence this process is television. There are reasons, however, for also assessing effects of exposure to newspapers. Newspapers form the other great information medium (in addition to television), and are used as a primary source of news and information about social events for a substantial portion of Americans. Newspaper content is directly relevant to some of the types of information about race with which this study is concerned. For example, newspapers contain information about the relative socio-economic conditions of blacks and whites (of. Blair, 1980). It would constitute a major oversight to ignore possible readership impacts on these sorts of perceptions. A second reason for assessing newspaper impacts on perceptions of race relations is that if one is examining television exposure effects, some control is needed for other media sources of information. The interest is then not in a general tendency toward heavy media consumption, but on the independent effects of exposure to the content of different media. Finally, Gerbner and Signorielli (1979) suggest that news and entertainment media and content may serve different functions in the cultivation effect: Factual description such as news constructs a selective image of what things are. Drama and fiction demonstrate the invisible connections that show how things work and why. (p. 4) Television entertainment effects are presently regarded by most researchers as conditional upon a number of other intervening, contributory, or contingent variables (Com- stock, et al., 1978; McLeod & Reeves, 1980). Two of these are examined in this study. Perceived reality of television portrayals and direct interpersonal contact are assessed for their impact individually and in interaction with television entertainment exposure. However, before specific aspects of media influences can be addressed, it is neces- sary to deal more fully with the sociological and social- psychological perspectives on race relations which help determine the areas in which media impacts are to be assessed. Race Relations and Social Theory On a broad theoretical level, Barklay, Kumar, and Simms (1976) describe two differing perspectives toward conceptualizing the problem of race. These they label the "social system" approach and the "power—conflict" approach. The social system approach, according to Barklay, et a1.: stresses the underlying cultural dimension of racial divisions and identities. The essence of the problem according to this approach lies in the institutionalization of racial norms and values, which come to generate their own momentum.... Since the crux of the racial problem is seen to lie in cultural norms and values, the remedy lies in their eradication and their replacement by new values. (p. 7) This perspective, then, would imply 13mm: media researchers should be most concerned with mass media impact on indi- vidual values, affect, and role expectations in interracial interaction. Under the social system approach, racism tends to be regarded as essentially irrational: an undesirable carryover from the historical past. “The social responsi- _bility P: the mass media is then to re-educate the popu- latignfi(or at least not to reinforce racial stereotypes). This approach is not, however, very persuasive in explaining what should be a surprising persistence and regeneration C). (D IO. In 6 of racism and racial discrimination in the face of official disapproval. The power-conflict approach, on the other hand, does not regard the race problem as primarily or fundamentally a problem of self-perpetuating social norms or irrational individual attitudes. The race problem and racist atti- tudes are seen as rooted in the struggle between groups for limited resources: wealth, political power, and social status. Thus, racist attitudes and behaviors persist begause they are based upon continuing conflict between groups oversocietal resources. . This is not to say that learned norms and affect may not have an enduring quality; rather, it is saying that the meet important causal path is from perceptions of conflicting interests to racist behavior and attitudes, rather than from racist attitudes to racist behavior. The power-conflict approach implies that racism, both as an attitude set and a system of behaviors, can have a rational component, in the sense of being related to the attainment of desirable outcomes for an indiviudal or group. If American racial problems are seen as being based on real issues of the distribution of societal resources between competing groups, it follows that the issue should be examined at least in part as an issue of social strati- fication. Examining the question of race from a Weberian perspective may be useful in this respect. Weber conceived of stratification as occurring at three levels: social status, economic class, and political power. According to Weber, the most important of these in modern market societies is economic class. In Weberian terminology, a "class" is a group of people having the same relationship to a commodity or labor market. Although this implies that the concept of class is based exclusively on economic factors, Weber recognized that in real societies, the economic, political, and status orders interact: The economic order merely defines the way in which economic goods and services are distributed and used. Of course the status order is strongly in- fluenced by it and in turn reacts upon it. (Weber, 1968, p. 928) Black/white relations in the United States can be usefully conceived in terms of a combination of class and status characteristics, in which status considerations are used to restrict the access of blacks to available market opportunities. In a market society, it is in the interests of individuals and groups with access to a set of market Opportunities to restrict the access of others to those opportunities. The less the competition, the more favorable is one's own market position and the greater are the benefits that can be extracted. Whites extract a relative advantage from the exclusion of blacks, by various means, from effective competition in the labor market (and for that matter, from other markets, such as housing). Empirical studies have supported the notion of a split labor market. Clogg (1980) analyzed the nature of the class structure in terms of labor market opportunity, uti- lizing latent structure analysis (a categorical variable analog of factor analysis). It was found that the structure of labor market Opportunity could be described by a system of two classes: a latent marginal class, characterized by the simultaneous experience of multiple forms of underemploy- ment; and a latent nonmarginal class, which is not subject to multiple forms of underemployment. The latent marginal class, thus determined, constitutes 20-25% of the labor force, according to Clogg's findings. Unfortunately, Clogg did not measure racial characteris- tics to provide a direct comparison between blacks and whites in the structure of labor market opportunity. However, infor- mation available from traditional forms of labor and sociolo- gical statistics (unemployment rate, median incomes, percent on public assistance) suggest at least that a considerably higher percentage of blacks than whites find themsevles in the "latent marginal class”. Unemployment rates are much higher for blacks than for whites, even controlling for educa- tional level (Carter & Newman, 1978). According to U.S. De- partment of Commerce statistics, a much smaller percentage of black males were in the active labor force in 1976 than were working in 1948; 87% in 1948, and only 70% in 1976. The median income of black families remains at only 60% of the median income of white families. Except fora small improvement in the period from 1965 to 1970, the data show little or no recent change in the ratio of black to white income or black to white unemployment. In 1974, 24.8% of non- white families in the U.S. received public assistance, compared to only 5.7% of white families (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1977). Overall, these statistics reflect continuing inequality in the distribution of societal rewards between whites and nonwhites. The most recent statistics show a continuation of this trend, if not a regression toward greater inequality (Anderson, 1980). Social Conflict and EquityiTheory According to Oberschall (1973), intergroup conflict results from groups trying to maintain their position in the face of economic, social or political change, or trying to improve their position vis a vis other groups. Factors that increase conflict and make resolution more difficult include: high intragroup identification and a low amount of intergroup social contact; the perception that the conflict is over principles rather than over the application of agreed-upon principles; costs of change that are unclear or uncalculable; the perception that the outcome of the conflict will be irreversible; and the perception that the conflict is a "zero-sum" proposition, in which a gain for one necessitates a loss for the other group. A number of other concepts have also been used to help explain the occurrence of social conflict. In 10 communication research, social psychological concepts such as ”rising frustration" and "relative deprivation" have been considered (Lerner, 1963; Rogers with Svenning, 1969; Hornick, 1977). Researchers involved in development com- munication have expressed concern over the role of Western media in developing countries in building up expectations and demands for a standard of living that cannot be met by the economies of these countries. Mass media are thus seen as serving in some cases to promote social conflict and to destabilize these societies. Equity theory (Walster, Walster, & Berscheid, 1978) supports these concerns, in that it suggests that information about the benefits accruing to others is relevant to fairness judgments and satisfaction with one's own outcomes. The major focus of equity theory is on fairness judg— ments; however, it is not in fundamental conflict with a view of society which sees the social order in terms of individuals and groups in struggle over available re- sources. The first proposition of equity theory is that "individuals will try to maximize their outcomes." (Wal- ster, et al., 1978; p. 6). In any society, equity con— siderations arise out of a process by which, according to Walster, et al., groups try to "maximize collective reward by evolving accepted systems for equitably appor- tioning resources among members." (p. 6) walster, et a1. define an "equitable relationship" as the sort of relationship which exists when "a person 0;, ll“. 1'. (J. .r" ll scrutinizing the relationship concludes that all partici- pants are receiving equal relative gains from the relation- ship." (p. 10) The key concept in this definition is the concept of "relative gains." This term implies that judgments of the equity of a relationship do not require that the absolute gains or outcomes of the participants be equal; rather, outcomes should be proportional to inputs. The worth of various sorts of inputs (or even what is defined as an input to begin with) is socially determined and will thus vary between societies. In the United States, "inputs" are seen more in terms of individual achievement than ascription, and in particular are conceived of most often in terms of occupational achievement, at least when judgments of fairness of different incomes are elicited (Alves & Rossi, 1978). Equity judgments are important because, due to indi- vidual socialization, "individuals who find themselves participating in inequitable relationships...become dis- tressed." (Walster, et al., p. 17). This distress creates pressure on both the individual who believes himself to have benefited from an inequitable relationship and the individual who believes himself to have been harmed by it, to restore equity. The individual is moved either to restore actual equity (through compensation, depriva- tion, or retaliation), or alternatively to restore psycho— logical equity (by exaggerating the inputs of the benefited 12 party, blaming the victim, exaggerating the benefits derived by the victim, or other techniques). Efforts to restore psychological equity are often employed, since they may involve no cost to their employer, whereas restoration of actual equity is rarely achieved without some sacrifice. Walster, et a1. use the term "justification" to refer to the effort of an individual to restore psychological equity. Restoration of psychological equity through justifi- cation is generally inconsistent with efforts to restore actual equity by using "compensation" techniques, since justification involves the denial of the prior existence of any inequitable relationship. Therefore, the strategy of the individual in seeking to restore equity will involve the use of one or the other of these techniques, but rarely both. Which of the two strategies is employed depends upon judgments of its adequacy in restoring exact equity and of the costs of its implementation. A particular type of justification is adequate only to the extent that it is credible; and this is in large part a social judgment. Thus, the less distortion required, and the less contact one expects to have with the victim of the inequitable relationship or with others who will challenge the justification, the more likely it is that justification, rather than compensation, will be used by the benefited party to restore equity. (kuaimplication of this is that we should expect that the use of 13 justification techniques based on distortion in efforts to restore black/white equity will decrease as increased interpersonal contact between blacks and whites occurs. .When people believe themselves to be victims of an inequitable relationship, experiences of ”relative depri- vation” can prompt social conflict. Walster, et al. cite Gurr (1970) as describing three types of relative depri- vation that can lead to upheavals; these are relevant to the discussion of racial conflict in the United States. The first of these is labelled "decremental depriva- tion". This occurs where "individuals feel they deserve the benefits they have traditionally received. Their benefits, however, continue to decline." (p. 53). This may fit the present condition of many working class and poor whites, who see greater labor market competition from blacks occurring as the size of the economic pie decreases. "Aspirational deprivation" occurs when individuals' outcomes remain the same, while they believe they deserve more and more; while "progressive deprivation" occurs when individuals' outcomes decline, while they believe they deserve more and more. These forms of relative depri- vation may describe the situation of many blacks and members of other racial minorities. Thus, we have two conflicting claims to larger proportions of the same pie, with each side convinced of the inequity of its present position vis a vis the other. This suggests the potential for l4 severe racial conflict, especially in a no-growth (zero- sum) economy. ‘ The idea of relative deprivation implies that percep- tions of (1) the size of the available set of rewards, and (2) the outcomes received by others, will be important factors in the perceived equity or inequity of one's own ’situation. One important factor to be examdned in mass media research from this perspective, then is the relation- ship of mass media exposure to the relationship perceived by individuals between the outcomes of different groups. Both equity theory and results of research on fairness judgments indicate that inequality is acceptable if it is perceived to be based upon unequal inputs (Alves & Rossi, 1978). - What counts most strongly as "inputs" depends, as previously noted, on the particular cultural perspective of the society. In considering this, three sorts of justi- fications of unequal distribution of rewards between groups seem likely. First, there may be a direct ascription of greater inputs in terms of economic productivity to whites, thus justifying the perceived difference in out- comes. This. justification has the advantage of being di- rectly and unambiguously related to the type of inequality perceived. A second strategy that may be used by whites for justifying perceived socio-economic inequality is a bit less direct: attributing inequality in society to 15 differences between individuals rather than to social factors. This in fact legitimizes the inequality and implies differences in group inputs, albeit indirectly. If whether one gets rich or gets poor depends almost exclu- sively on the qualities he exhibits as an individual, then differences between groups must occur because one group is superior in terms of its qualifications, motiva- tion, or contribution. Thus, Gurin, et a1. (1980) opera- tionalized perceived legitimacy of inequality in terms of whether "individual" or "system" characteristics were seen as primarily responsible for social inequality. Perceived inequality can also be justified by negative stereotyping: reference to negative personality or charac— ter traits which may then be used to justify low rewards. This is one further step removed from a direct relationship with perceived socio-economic inequality. The belief that members of one group are less hard-working, less intelligent, or less ambitious, for example, may imply that the reason for their unequal condition has less to do with system characteristics (such as racial discrimi- nation) and more to do with their personal weaknesses. This in turn implies that fewer positive inputs are the reason for the less desirable outcome which they have experienced. Thus, equity theory would suggest that information about the relative conditions of blacks and whites is important, and that two main types of beliefs are involved: 16 first, cognitions about the actual distribution of positive and negative outcomes or rewards; and second, beliefs about inputs or other factors which, related to inputs, may be used to justify an inequitable relationship. Three of the latter sorts of beliefs were suggested: perceived differential inputs, in terms of productivity; perception that social inequality is the result of individual differ- ences; and negative stereotyping of blacks in comparison with whites. Equity theory regards attempts at justification as one consequence of perceived inequity. In line with this perspective, the following predictions involving relation- ships among the set of endogenous (dependent) variables exclusively are made: H1: The greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between black and white socio- economic rewards, the greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between the inputs of whites and the inputs of blacks. 2: The greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between black and white socio- economic rewards, the greater the perceived influence of "individual" as opposed to "system" factors in producing social inequality. The greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between black and white socio- l7 economic rewards, the greater the negative stereotyping of blacks in comparison with whites. Mass Media Impact In dealing with possible media impacts on race rela- tions, several issues need to be addressed. First is the question of negative cultural stereotyping of blacks. To what extent do the mass media, particularly television, present blacks as showing undesirable characteristics or in stereotyped roles? What effect should media portrayals have on affect toward and images of black Americans? Second, equity theory considerations suggest that cognitive effects on perceptions of relative social and economic status may be equally or more important than affec- tive responses to stereotypical TV portrayals of blacks. There is a considerable body of research on TV content in relation to demographics, occupational and socioeconomic status portrayals. ‘There has been little research on the effects of such portrayals on cognitions about the relative economic and social conditions of blacks and whites. Most research on political cognitions takes the approach of looking only at news media effects, while ignoring possible impacts of entertainment media portrayals and themes. A third general area relating to TV effects on black/ white relations involves the support dramatic presentations may give to specific sorts of justifications for inequality. 18 In addition to attributions of differing levels of undesir- able character traits (negative stereotyping), these may include portraying a world in which class- and racial- differences in terms of opportunity are submerged, and the focus is on the role of individual differences in accounting for different outcomes. This would lend support for a view which sees stratification as being primarily the result of individual differences. Another justification which may find support in media content is the rationali- zation that blacks and whites make differential inputs, and therefore are entitled to different levels of reward. This research then is concerned with the impact of media exposure on consumer perceptions of several aspects of social reality involving race relations. Research which has addressed the impact of television on viewers' percep- tions of social reality in a number of different areas has been conducted by Gerbner and his associates involved in "Cultural Indicators" research. Having moved away from an exclusive concern with effects of television in promoting violent behavior in children, the Cultural Indicators re— searchers have come to view the most socially significant impact of TV as, "the cultivation of general concepts of social reality...and the amplification of issues particu- larly salient to certain groups of receivers." (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1980, p. 10). Gerbner and associates have studied the impact of tele- vision on viewer perceptions of social reality in a number 19 Of areas. They have found, for example, television expo- sure to be positively related to fear of violence, percep- tions that one is more likely to be a victim Of violence, inflated estimates of rates of violent crime, beliefs in the acceptability of violent behavior, and actions taken due to fear of victimization (Gerbner & Gross, 1976; Gerb- ner, Gross, Jackson-Beeck, Jeffries-Fox, & Signorielli, 1978; Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1980). Tele- vision viewing appears to be related to generalized distrust of others, what Gerbner, et al. have labelled the "mean world syndrome". Viewing has also been positively corre- lated with scores on an index of anomie (Gerbner, et al., 1978) and negatively correlated with political knowledge and interest (Jackson-Beeck, 1979). Gerbner and most other researchers Operating within the cultivation paradigm do not attempt tO assess the impact of specific programs or portrayals; rather, they attempt to identify those repetitive images of the social world which pervade television content, and to assess the extent to which exposure cultivates in viewers images Of the social world that are consistent with the television version. In so doing, they make two important assertions: first, that most viewers watch television habitually and non- selectively; and second, that the symbolic content of tele- vision messages about the nature Of the social world is essentially uniform and forms an internally-consistent whole across the range of dramatic content. Thus, TV 20 effects are best seen as cumulative, in the sense Of the assimilation over time of the dominant images and themes which pervade the gamut Of television content. This leads to an approach which stresses overall TV viewing as an independent variable in the cultivation effect, as Opposed to the viewing of particular networks, programs, or program types. Hawkins and Pingree (1981), however, criticize these assumptions as both unnecessary to the cultivation process and questionable on empirical grounds. Others, such as Hirsch (1980) and Hughes (1980) have criti- cized Gerbner's approach to measurement and testing of cultivation hypotheses. However, the cultivation perspec- tive would seem to provide a good foundation for studying the impact of television viewing on such variables related to race relations as are the concern of this study. Another relevant theoretical perspective is provided by Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977; 1978), which has been used extensively by mass media researchers to predict and explain television effects on behaviors and attitudes of children. Social Learning Theory suggests a number of conditions for maximal observational learning from media models. Learning from television depends on the presence of and exposure to content, and is greatest when the portrayals to which the individual is exposed are persistent.in quantity and consistent in theme. Learn- ing is enhanced when behaviors modeled are seen as having functional value, when models are attractive, when the 21 content is highly salient, and when the content is low in complexity. In addition, what peOple learn from vicar- ious Observation is affected by the perceptual set (formed from past experiences and expectations) with which they observe the modeled behaviors. Television content in general seems especially conducive to Observational learning: Some forms of modeling are so intrinsically rewarding that they hold the attention of people of all ages for extended periods. This is nowhere better illus— trated than in televised modeling.... Models pre— sented in televised form are so effective in cap- turing attention that viewers learn much of what they see without requiring any special incentives to do so. (Bandura, 1977, pp. 24-25) The general economic prospects of one's own and other groups do not become salient issues for most people until they begin to face the prospect of beginning work or em- barking on a career. This suggests that information about economic conditions should be most likely learned at a later stage-—adolescence or young adulthood--when the indi- vidual becomes faced with serious decisions concerning prospective employment and general life chances. In regard to learning about social roles and general relationships between races, Greenberg and Atkin (1978) note that information about the social roles of blacks and whites becomes most salient in adolescence, and suggest that this constitutes the age group on which to concentrate in the search for television effects on learning about minorities. 22 The first step necessary in assessing long-term media impacts on social perceptions is to analyze the nature of media content. To this end, Gerbner and associates have conducted a series of content analyses (or what they call "Message System Analyses") of television content. One aspect of these analyses was the assessment of por- trayals of minorities and women in relation both to news and dramatic programming. This research was summarized by the Cultural Indicators researchers for the U.S. Com- mission on Civil Rights (1977, 1979). This information, along with the results Of content analyses cOnducted by a number of other researchers, will form the basis for predicting media effects on perceptions about race and race relations. Television News Coverage and Effects Most content analysis of television news has focused on network news programs and basically ignored local news, an omission noted by Comstock et a1. (1978) and Roberts (1975). However, several studies of network news are rele- vant. Roberts (1975) reported on a content analysis of newscasts during 1972 and 1973. In less than half of the 30-minute newscasts was any black presented in a speaking situation. The majority of the time blacks were shown, «they were seen and not heard. Blacks were most Often seen in stories having to do with racial issues, and were often shown in blue-collar jobs. Pride and Clarke (1973), 23 sampling stories on network news relating to race relations, found no overall negative treatment Of blacks, although militant blacks were portrayed negatively. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1977, 1979) notes that minorities are underrepresented both as newscasters and in news coverage. Blacks appear less Often as author- ities or experts, especially in stories dealing with non- black issues. This information suggests the possibility of impact in several areas. First, the portrayal of blacks in pre- dominantly blue-collar and lower-status groups would be expected to foster the impression among whites that the gap between black and white status remains relatively large. Second, the finding that networks show a disproportionately small number of blacks in speaking roles, especially as authorities or experts, may lead to a corresponding de- crease in the perception of blacks as making equal inputs with whites. In addition to this, the association of blacks with stories concerning protest, poverty, unemployment, and welfare may help lead to or reinforce negative stereo- types of blacks as lazy, unintelligent, and undermotivated. If this is the case, the following three hypotheses are warranted: H4: The greater the TV news exposure, the greater the perceived difference (in favor Of whites) between black and white socio-economic rewards. 24 H : The greater the TV news exposure, the greater the perceived difference (in favor Of whites) between the inputs of whites and the inputs Of blacks. The greater the TV news exposure, the greater 0‘ the negative stereotyping of blacks in com- parison to whites. Television Sports Coverage and Effects Although sports is one of the few areas in which blacks are over-represented in relation to whites in television content, and in which they are shown as competing success- fully with whites, the effects Of television sports viewing may not be very positive in relation to whites' images of blacks. Rainville and McCormick (1977) found evidence of racial bias in announcers' commentary on black and white football players, with white players disproportionately praised, and black players of equal accomplishment dis- paraged. Prisuta (1979) found that television sports viewing was positively related to measures Of authoritarianism, nationalism, and conservatism, and negatively related to individualism, even when controlling for demographics and sports participation. He argues that this is a result Of underlying themes implicit in sports coverage, such as "strict regulation of activity, emphasis on property and competition, male domination, ethnocentric entertainment themes, and authoritarian structure." (p. 94). 25 It is doubtful that television sports viewing would have any effect on perceptions of black/white differences in rewards, since it would be expected that most viewers would realize that professional athletes are only a small proportion Of either racial group and would be unlikely to generalize their high salaries to others of the same racial group. On the other hand, it is possible that sports viewing will have a negative effect in terms of stereo— typing of blacks, considering the results of Rainville and McCormick. Also, the association of blacks with such sports as football and boxing could reinforce stereotypes of blacks as brutal, violent, and cruel. There is no basis to predict sports exposure effects on perceived relative black/white inputs or on attributions of individual versus system blame. For television sports exposure then, one hypothesis seems justified: H7: The greater the exposure to television sports, the greater the negative stereotyping of blacks in comparison to whites. Newspaper Exposure and Effects Although this study is concerned mainly with the impact of television on variables related to race relations, news- paper exposure is also Of interest, both as a control for a general orientation toward high media use, and as an explanatory variable in its own right. In a review Of literature on media and blacks, Poindexter and Stroman 26 (1979) make several Observations about minorities and news- papers. First, there is minimal minority input On news- paper staffs. Consequently, black views on racial issues do not Often appear. Race-related news in general gets relatively little space, although the race of participants in other sorts of news does not appear to be related to the amount or favorability Of coverage. This gives no reason to hypothesize negative effects of newspaper exposure in terms of racial stereotyping or perceived inputs of different racial groups. Several other things about newspapers, as Opposed to television, may also be relevant. First, print is much more well adapted to presenting complex relationships than is the visual medium. This would make it better adapted for presenting the causes Of social inequality (although this tendency toward relative complexity may be outweighed by a general conservative bias). In particular, the more complete and complex treatment of economic issues that is available in newspapers should lead to greater awareness of economic inequality, especially in relation to factors which get a great deal Of press, such as unemployment, and especially among those readers who read beyond the headlines. Moreover, the structural (system) factors in the creation of such inequality should be more apparent from newspaper coverage than from the simplistic visual treatment usually accorded by TV news. Therefore, the following hypotheses seem justified: 27 H8: The greater the newspaper exposure, the greater the perceived difference between the socio-economic status of whites and the socio-economic status of blacks. H9: The greater the newspaper exposure, the greater the perceived influence of "system" as Opposed to "individual" factors in pro- ducing such inequality. Television Entertainment Exposure and Effects The evidence is strong that peOple learn from dramatic television content at all levels: cognitive, affective, and overtly behavioral, and in particular may use tele- vision to learn about other racial groups (Greenberg & Atkin, 1978). Greenberg (1972) found that white elementary school children who had little personal contact with black people relied primarily on TV for most of their knowledge about blacks. Data presented by Dervin and Greenberg (1973) suggest that the use of TV as a source of information about other groups may be to some degree intentional. Still, conscious intent is not seen as essential to learning from television content under the theoretical perspective pro- vided by Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977, 1978) which underlies much of the research on television entertainment effects. Roberts and Schramm (1971) use the term "incidental learning" to describe the process of acquiring information 28 that is not deliberately sought out. Although chilren and adults may expose themselves to TV content for a variety of other reasons--to be entertained, stimulated, relaxed, kept company, etc.--learning from this content still takes place. This study is concerned with the possibility that individuals may acquire from fictional TV content information in several different areas. In particular, TV may provide information about relative and absolute outcomes Of racial groups, as well as information which may either reinforce or undermine certain sorts of justifications for perceived inequalities. This implies not only a concern with stereo- typing, but also a concern with perceptions concerning the material aspects of race relations. The demographics of the television world and the dominant themes Of tele- vision drama are relevant, along with the personal and cultural portrayals of TV blacks and whites. One aspect of television content about which there is wide agreement is that dramatic (fictional) TV over- estimates the economic affluence and social status Of the average American. Consistent findings of over 20 years of content analyses indicate a strong overrepresentation of upper-middle class professionals and others of high status in television drama (Head, 1954; Defleur, 1964; Seggar & Wheeler, 1973; Greenberg, Simmons, Hogan, & Atkin, 1980). 29 Portrayals of blacks as well as whites have been affected by this high-status bias. Seggar and Wheeler (1973), in an analysis of occupational portrayals of minorities and women in a sample of 1971 network programs, found that in comparison with actual census figures, TV blacks were disproportionately portrayed in high-status occupations, and that the discrepancy between actual census figures and TV portrayals was actually greater for blacks than for whites. A smaller percentage of blacks than whites were actually portrayed in high status professional/tech- nical occupations, however. Moreover, when the breakdown by sex is considered, the results show that the bulk of the discrepancy between census figures and.te1evision por- trayals for blacks is due to the portrayals of black women exclusively. Differences between TV and census figures for professional/technical occupations were given by Seggar and Wheeler as +17.8% for black males and +57.4% for black females, while the corresponding difference score for white males was +23.2% and for white females was +25.l%. Black males (but not black females) were heavily overrepresented (in comparison to census figures) in service occupations. This lends at least some credence to the concern expressed by Pierce, that "when whites choose to 'advance' a black, they seem more willing to push a black female than a black male." (Pierce, 1980; p. 255). Pierce sees this as per— petuating the stereotype of the black male as incapable, unprepared, and undermotivated. 30 Roberts (1970-71) analyzed the racial content of net- work prime-time programs during one week in 1970. He found that regularly scheduled prime-time programs heavily over- estimated the actual percentage Of blacks in professional, technical, and kindred occupations, while overestimating to a lesser degree the percentage Of blacks in service occupations. He also noted that a simple census Of occupa- tional portrayals may actually underestimate the degree to which the socio-economic status of blacks is overesti- mated in TV drama and commercials: If the background settings in which Blacks appear are perceived as indicators of the socio-economic condition of Blacks, then a distortion is even more Obvious.... It seems that the 'humble' dwellings of Blacks are recognized only in television news- casts and documentaries and certain public television programs. (p. 50) Northcott, Seggar, and Hinton (1975) compared content relating to blacks and whites in a 1971 sample with content of a comparable sample of 1973 dramatic television programs. They detected a shift from portraying black males in profes- sional and technical positions to portraying them more in service occupations. The percentage of black TV males in professional and managerial roles decreased from 46.9% in 1971 to 8.9% in 1973, while the percentage in service occupations increased from 12.5% to 64.4% in the same period. The percentage of white males shown in professional and managerial categories also decreased, but only slightly. Baptista-Fernandez and Greenberg (1980) compared blacks and whites in a sample of prime-time and Saturday morning 31 programs in 1977, in which both racial groups appeared. They found that blacks were more likely to be young, less likely to be clearly identified as employed, and less likely to be portrayed as in the professional-technical-managerial occupations than whites. Only 10% of blacks were shown in these occupations in comparison with 25% of whites, consistent with the previous findings of Northcott, et a1. (1975). Even more strikingly, fully 75% of all charac- ters portrayed in the lowest of three S;E.S. levels were black. Greenberg, Simmons, Hogan, and Atkin (1980), in an analysis of three seasons of television content from 1975 through 1978, noted that blacks were consistently under- represented in professional and managerial occupations in proportion to their overall numbers in TV drama. In addition, the prOportion of television professionals who were black had actually declined over the period studied. In the 1977-1978 sample, blacks made up nine percent Of the TV characters overall, but only four percent of those holding professional jobs. These results were echoed by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1979). They reported that between 1975 and 1977, the percentage Of minority professionals of both sexes on TV declined. Minority males were portrayed less Often in occupations of any sort than were white males. Minority males and women in general were less likely to be portrayed in prestigious occupations than were white 32 males, and were more often seen in service occupations. In addition, white males were shown holding a greater variety of different occupations. In recent years the Overall percentage of television characters who are black has remained relatively stable at around ten percent (Greenberg, Simmons, Hogan, & Atkin, 1980). Gerbner and Signorielli (1979) report that the percentage of nonwhite major characters has varied between four and thirteen percent over the period from 1969-1977. In 1979, nonwhites constituted only five percent Of all major characters. . These figures may actually over-represent the propor- tions of black major and minor characters that most viewers actually see. A large proportion Of blacks shown on fic- tional television are presented in essentially all-black situation comedies. Baptista-Fernandez and Greenberg (1980) reported that of their 1977 sample of black characters, 41% were contained in six black sit-coms. Wiegel, Loomis, and Soja (1980) reported that in 1977, 77% of black appear- ances were contained in only 18% of drama and comedy shows, and that blacks were six times as likely to appear in comedy as in dramatic portrayals. A considerable amount of concern has been expressed about possible negative stereotyping of blacks in black situation comedies (Banks, 1975; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1979; Berry, 1980). Banks, in an analysis of por- trayals Of blacks in six 1974 network series containing 33 blacks, found widely differing portrayals depending upon whether the black characters appeared on all-black situation comedies, or in integrated programs with whites. The blacks on black sit-coms showed a large number and frequency of sterertypic characteristics and had low social status. Blacks in integrated settings were portrayed relatively positively, at least from Banks' perspective. On the other hand Lemon (1977) concluded that situation comedies provided a more favorable impression of blacks than did crime shows, when considering which party tended to dominate interracial interactions. Greenberg and Neuendorf (1980) analyzed black family interactions during three seasons of network programming from 1975-1978, and compared these findings about black TV families with data on white portrayals for the same period. They found a number of differences according to race, two of which would seem to reflect common negative stereotypes of blacks. First, fully one third of the inter-' actions engaged in by black wives involved opposing or attacking their (relatively unaggressive) husband. The black husband, on the other hand, is significantly more passive than the white husband, and no such husband-wife relationship is apparent in white families. Second, the black family usually is portrayed as having a single parent, which could be seen as perpetuating further the stereotype Of the matriarchal black family. 34 Fine, Anderson, and Eckles (1979) examined the use of "black English" on black situation comedies. They found that BE was used stereotypically rather than accurately, and tended to be used by characters who were comic, unedu- cated, and bad. Fine, et a1. expressed the concern that television may lead to further negative stereotyping Of black English speakers, and an association of black English with laughter and mockery. The concern expressed by critics and researchers about the effects Of black sitaution comedies on white perceptions may be premature, since there is no convincing body of evidence documenting adverse effects from exposure. Zucker- man, Singer, and Singer (1980) attempted to assess the relationship between the viewing of different types of TV content and children's stereotyping of blacks, control- ling for a large number of possibly-confounding variables. Children's viewing of comedies had no measurable effect on stereotyping. Children who watched more programs with black characters were more likely to positively stereotype blacks as athletic, The only type of television content which was associated with negative stereotyping Of blacks as less competent and less obedient was violent content. The relationship found by Zuckerman, et al. between violent content and negative stereotyping is probably not causal, or at least cannot be attributed to portrayals of blacks in violent programs. Blacks are less likely to be portrayed as "bad" people than whites 35 (Baptista-Fernandez & Greenberg, 1980). Blacks are more likely to be cast as victims of violence than as its per- petrators (Gerbner, et all, 1978). White males are dispro- portionately the perpetrators Of violence. Gerbner, et a1. view the latter as having undesirable social implications in the sense Of reinforcing the stereo- type of white males as the wielders of power and blacks and women as those on whom that power is exerted. From another perspective, however, Comstock, et al. (1978) view these findings as another indication that blacks are being positively portrayed in television drama. ' Weigel, Loomis, and Soja (1980) examined TV portrayals of interracial interactions in a sample of prime-time tele- vision shows from the 1977 season. Cross-racial interac- tions were found to constitute under two percent of prime- time programming, and those interactions which did occur did so disproportionately in job-related institutional contexts. Weigel et a1. found no evidence of any clear pattern Of white dominance Of these interactions. Black characters were found to have the higher status in 21% of the portrayals, and the lower status in 26%. Black/white relationships were characterized by greater formality, were more often exclusively one-dimensional, involved less intimacy and romantic elements, and involved fewer instances in which decisions were arrived at through discussion between participants, in comparison with white/white relationships. 36 Volgy and Schwartz (1980b) in examining themes in- volving treatment of blacks as part of a content analysis of 1975 regularly-scheduled weeknight network entertainment programs, found that: ...blacks on television were most often portrayed as if they were living in'a society largely free Of racial and ethnic bigotry or severe economic disadvantage. Although black lifestyles were shown to be different from the dominant culture, racial problems, or the unique problems of blacks, were seldom explored in these programs, a finding consistent with previous analyses of television. (p. 152) In an accompanying survey, Volgy and Schwartz found a significant negative relationship between exposure to minority programming and concern about racial problems among a sample Of white voters. In summary, fictional TV content overrepresents high S.E.S. positions in comparison with real life. Blacks as well as whites are affected by this bias. However, in comparison with their numbers on TV, blacks are dispro- portionately represented as poor and in service occupations. Blacks are less Often portrayed as upper S.E.S. presently than they were in 1971. Blacks are concentrated in black situation comedies, and the blacks found in these sitcoms are portrayed as poorer, more stereotypic, but more diminant in interactions with whites, than blacks in integrated programs. Blacks are less likely to be clearly portrayed as employed, and are more likely to be portrayed as young and as from single-parent families. However, blacks are 37 also less likely to be portrayed as ”bad" people or as criminals or violent aggressors. Black/white interactions tend to be formal and job-related. Racial issues tend to be downplayed; regular network shows rarely present instances of racial discrimination or portray special prob- lems of black Americans. The literature reveals some dispute over whether the portrayals of blacks on dramatic television are favorable or unfavorable. The Cultural Indicators researchers contend that the portrayals Of black/white relations on television, especially those involving violence, serve to perpetuate existing power differences between blacks and whites. Pierce (1980) expresses concern over what he views as pat- terns of "subtle racism" in TV content. However, the bulk Of the content analysis data would seem to support the conclusions of Hinton, Seggar, Northcott, and Fontes (1973) and Comstock, et a1. (1978) that television drama for the most part portrays blacks in a broadly positive manner. Impacts of exposure to this television content should occur at several levels. Since cumulative effects of expo- sure require consistency in portrayals, a clear impact of TV entertainment exposure on the perceived relative socio-economic status of blacks and whites would not be expected. Both blacks and whites are subjected to an upper S.E.S. bias :hi fictional portrayals; moreover, portrayals of black status are not consistent across program types. However, it should be expected that entertainment exposure 38 be related positively to the perceived affluence of whites, reflecting the overall over-representation of upper-status positions. Within fictional television portrayals, blacks are more likely to be shown in no apparent occupation, in less serious contexts, and in low-status occupations than are whites. This would lead to the prediction that entertain- ment exposure will be related positively to perceptions that the average white contributes more to society than the average black. The underemphasis in TV entertainment cOntent on in- stances Of racial discrimination and the special problems of blacks, and TV's general emphasis on individualism and competition, would lead to the prediction that TV entertain- ment viewing will be positively related to the perception that inequality in society is due primarily to individual differences rather than social factors. Finally, the positiveness of most fictional portrayals Of blacks on TV (at least on all but subtle indicators) should lead to more favorable perceptions of the personal characteristics of blacks in relation to whites, although this effect may be attenuated by selective perception on the part of viewers. Therefore, the following hypotheses about effects of exposure on white viewers seem warranted: 39 10: The greater the exposure to television fictional entertainment content, the greater the level of perceived affluence for whites. H11: The greater the TV entertainment exposure, Othe greater the perceived influence of "individual" as Opposed to "system" factors in accounting for social inequality. 12: The greater the TV entertainment exposure, the greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between the inputs of whites and the inputs of blacks. . 13: The greater the TV entertainment exposure, the less the negative stereotyping of blacks in relation to whites. The extent to which an individual's attitudes and beliefs about race will be affected by exposure to tele- vision portrayals should depend upon several factors, in- cluding the amount of direct (non-mediated) contact one has with members of the other race and the degree to which the television contact is perceived to be an accurate repre- sentation Of the real world. The former will be referred to as interracial contact; the latter is referred to in communication literature as perceived reality of television (PRTV). The impact Of each of these variables needs to be addressed. 40 Interracial Contact Interracial contact is an important variable to con— sider for several reasons. Conflict research and equity theory suggest direct effects of interracial contact on beliefs about race. Indirect effects of interracial contact should also occur, in the sense of modification of the impact of television exposure. The expected direct effects will be treated initially, followed by a discussion of the impact of interracial contact as a conditional variable affecting learning from television content. Conflict research indicates that increaSes in informal interracial contact should tend to promote cognitions that the common interests of the groups in question are greater than their Opposing interests, and in general should serve to make conflict resolution easier. Oberschall (1973) comments that: If...the groups develop a dense network of social relationships such as result from intermarriage, neighborliness, and common memberships in asso- ciations and the labor force...then, shared under- standings, beliefs, and values will create cohe- sion and social bonds in addition to common inter- ests, and the sphere Of common interests itself will eXpand. (pp. 65-66) This does not imply that mere physical proximity is sufficient to reduce tensions and produce positive cogni- tions and affect toward the other group. Studies of school desegregation have supported this distinction; more positive attitudes toward the other racial group are induced in a school desegregation context only when desegregatiOn 41 results in increased interpersonal contact at a fairly intimate level, in equal status contact, and in COOperative interaction between members of the different groups (All- port, 1954; Amir, 1969; Cook, 1972). Stephan and Rosen- field (1978) found that informal interethnic contact was a strong predictor of positive attitudes toward blacks and Mexican Americans for white junior high school students following school desegregation. Thirty-one percent of the variance in racial attitude change following desegre- gation was accounted for by measures Of such behaviors as "been to their house to visit", and "have brought home after school to play". In addition to increases in perceived common interests, increased interpersonal contact with blacks should also result in a reduction of any negative stereotyping involving substantial distortions Of reality: stereotypes which may, from an equity theory perspective, be used to justify perceived inequality. Walster, et al., note that: The more contact the exploiter has had (or anti- cipates having) with the victim or the victim's sym- pathizers, the less likely he will be to justify his harmdoing. Walster, Berscheid, and Barklay (1967) demonstrated that one is more likely to avoid distortions when future objective evidence will be unavailable.... If one engages in a massive distor- tion Of an intimates character, he must anticipate that his friend will have more opportunities...to confront him, challenge his rationalizations, and perhaps retaliate. (1978, pp. 39-40) Thus, it would be expected that increased interracial contact would decrease the likelihood of engaging in most sorts of justification. In particular, it would be expected 42 that interracial contact at a more than superficial level would be negatively related to negative stereotyping Of blacks. In addition, greater interracial contact should lead to a greater awareness Of the role of discrimination and other "system" factors in black/white social inequality. The main concern of this study is the relationship of television exposure to beliefs about race and race rela- tions. In this regard, it would be expected that increased interracial contact would attenuate the effects of tele- vision exposure, while conversely, the lack Of direct inter- ‘racial contact should enhance learning from television. A lack of alternative sources of information is generally recognized as one condition which serves to strengthen the impact of television portrayals on social learning (Comstock, et al., 1978). Greenberg (1972) found that rural white children, who had infrequent or no contact with blacks, reported Obtaining most Of their information about various aspects of black appearance and behavior from television. A smaller percentage of suburban children, and even fewer urban children, cited TV as their primary source for information about blacks. Greenberg and Atkin (1978) in a summary of research on the impact of television on learning about minorities, hypothesized that prior personal experience with minorities will be related to impact such that the greatest TV impact will occur in conditions in which the viewer has had limited or no prior experience. They note that: 43 ...millions of white children are growing up in a nonintegrated environment, in small and medium- sized cities with no appreciable minority pOpula- tion and virtually no minority peers in their schools. It is here that we would expect maximum minority role information to be transmitted by the media, and by television in particular. (p. 24) The effects of eXposure to TV content may be different among those with previous contact with blacks, depending upon whether this content is consistent or inconsistent with previous experience. TV messages that disagree with personal experience or previous perceptions may be dis- counted or processed selectively. TV messages that are congruent with personal experience may exert substantial impact, but this impact will be in the direction of rein- forcing previous beliefs. In the latter case, the impact Of television exposure should only be measurable in terms of conferring resistance to attitude or belief change. In any other case, it would prove impossible to partial out the unique impact of TV exposure from the effects of interracial contact, since both would produce effects in the same direction. This means that in either case (TV content consistent or inconsistent with personal experience) the measurable impact of television exposure in the structuring of beliefs about race should be less among those high in interracial contact than among those low in such contact. This relation— ship would appear as an interaction effect between inter- racial contact and television exposure. Considering this, the following hypotheses are Offered: 44 The greater the interracial contact with 14 blacks, the less the negative stereotyping of blacks in relation to whites. The greater the interracial contact with 15 blacks, the greater the perceived influence of "system" as Opposed to "individual" factors in accounting for social inequality. 16: Interracial contact will interact with tele- vision exposure, such that the less the amount Of interpersonal contact with blacks, the greater the impact Of television pOrtrayals (in the direction previously predicted). Perceived Reality of Television A considerable amount of research on television effects, particularly effects on children and adolescents of exposure to television violence, has been concerned with the variable of perceived reality of television (PRTV). Violent TV content is seen as having a greater effect in promoting aggressive behavior among viewers when such content is perceived as accurately reflecting real life. Studies employing both experimental and survey methodologies have found the perception that television content either is real or accurately represents real life to be positively related to aggressive behavior in response to viewing vio- lent programming (Feshback, 1972; McLeod, Atkin, & Chaffee, 1972; Noble, 1973; Berkowitz & Alioto, 1973; Reeves, 1978), 45 and to the perception that such behavior is acceptable, appropriate, or useful (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1963; Berko- witz & Alioto, 1973; Greenberg & Gordon, 1972; Greenberg, 1974). However, Korzenny (1976) found that for a sample of Mexican children, PRTV had no consistent relationship with aggression, which may call into question the cross— cultural generalizability of the findings on PRTV and vio- lence. To generalize from the results of studies of PRTV and violence, learning from television content may in general depend to some degree on the perception of the receiver that such content is in some way representative Of the real world and may for that reason have some special utility. Reeves (1974) suggests that, "Whether or not audiences perceive television to be 'telling it like it is' could affect the medium's ability to form and change attitudes concerning interpersonal relations, violence and aggression, minority groups, and other social issues." (p. 2). Hawkins, Morelli, Pingree, and Wilson (1977) and Pin- gree (1978) examined the impact of perceived reality in the areacfif sex-role stereotypes, with mixed results. Haw- kins, et al., in a correlational study employing multidimen- sional scaling to evaluate the dimensionality of children's perceptions of both real and television women, found that PRTV in no way predicted individual differences in the salience ascribed to different dimensions. On the other 46 hand, Pingree, in an eXperimental study, found that percep- tions that they were viewing real people rather than actors in a film depicting women in traditional roles led children to express more traditional attitudes about women in a post-test. PRTV has often been treated as a unidimensional vari- able reflecting a general orientation toward media content. However, Reeves (1974) and Greenberg and Reeves (1976) found differences between children's perceptions of the reality of TV in general, specific types of TV content, and specific television characters. Not only did re— spondents have difficulty making reality judgments at the highest abstraction level, leading to a clustering of re- sponses around the scale midpoints, but it was the less abstract measures which were found to show the strongest relationships with predictor variables such as interpersonal influence, age, and frequency of TV exposure. It may be that PRTV operates less on a general "orien- tation toward TV content" level and more on a level Of orientation toward specific sorts Of content and specific portrayals. Greenberg (1972) found differences in how PRTV related to demographic variables depending upon whether subjects were asked about TV in general or TV blacks in particular. While black respondents were more likely to judge TV in general to be realistic, there were no differ- ences found between blacks and whites in the perceived reality of television portrayals of blacks. The pattern 47 found among white groups also differed according to whether PRTV in general or in relation to blacks in particular was measured. Urban white children were most likely to view TV in general as realistic, and rural children were least likely to do so. However, when it came to the per- ceived reality of black portrayals, suburban whites were most likely to view TV as realistic. Reeves (1978) found differences in effects depending on the specific content of the PRTV measures. He found no relationship between PRTV and three social behavior variables relating to aggression and altruism when using a summated PRTV measure. However, when the PRTV measures were subjected to a principal components factor analysis, two factors, pro- and anti-social reality, emerged, each of which significantly predicted different domains of be- havior. This indicates that PRTV effects may be dependent upon PRTV in relation to specific content areas, rather than on PRTV as a general orientation toward television. From another perspective, Hawkins (1977) proposed that PRTV, rather than being a unidimensional construct, had at least two meaningful dimensions. A distinction was made between "Magic Window" reality, or the perception that one is viewing real rather than fictional people and situations, and "Social Expectations" reality, or the per- ception that fictional TV content accurately represents, or is consistent with one's expectations about, people and events in the real world. A factor analysis of 48 children's responses to PRTV measures supported this dis- tinction. Two major dimensions were found, corresponding to the Magic Window/Social Expectations dichotomy. Subordi- nate dimensions reflected content areas--peop1e, events, families, and police--and perceived usefulness of TV infor- mation. Two additional aspects to Hawkins' study are especially worth noting. First, while Magic Window reality showed a linear decline with age, suggesting limited usefulness for this dimension as a predictor of TV effects beyond an early grade level, Social Expectations reality showed no simple linear relationship with age, suggesting that this may indeed remain a useful predictor beyond early childhood. The finding that Social Expectations was strongly related to perceptions Of usefulness of TV informa- tion would lead to a Social Learning Theory explanation for the assOciation of PRTV with learning from TV. Second, the finding of secondary dimensions according to content areas is consistent with the previous discussion suggesting that perceived reality is less a general orien- tation toward TV than it is an orientation toward specific types of TV content. Within the domain of Social Expectations reality, there is still more than one way in which an individual may perceive a fictional portrayal to accurately represent real life. Two different relationships may be involved: (1) the degree to which TV content is seen as corresponding 49 to one's personal experiences; or (2) the degree to which TV content is perceived to be more broadly representative of the real world. For example, TV blacks may be seen as dissimilar to those particular blacks whom one has known, while being seen as accurately depicting black people in general. The first of these may be termed the perceived "representativeness" of TV portrayals; the second, the perceived "congruence" of such portrayals with personal experience. However, if TV portrayals are perceived to be "real" in either respect, the information contained in these portrayals may be perceived as useful, and thus be more likely assimilated than in cases in which the con- tent is perceived to be neither representative nor con- gruent. Perceived reality of television is often treated in the literature as an intervening variable between exposure to TV content and learning. However, PRTV is not usually treated as an intervening variable in the causal sense of a variable that occurs after an independent variable and intervenes between it and the dependent variable (as, for instance, interpersonal discussion intervenes between exposure to televised debates and changes in political attitudes). Rather, PRTV is more Often treated as a dif— ferent sort Of conditional variable: either as a contingent or contributory condition (McLeod & Reeves, 1980). The effect of media exposure depends on the level of PRTV with which the viewer processes the media input. The causal 50 path, then, is not from TV exposure to PRTV to TV effect, but from TV exposure under a given level of PRTV to TV effect. The appropriate analogy is that of a catalyst. This suggests that PRTV should have an effect solely in interaction with television exposure, although there have been studies (Reeves, 1978; Pingree, 1978), which have appeared to support a simple additive role for PRTV. It is difficult at a theoretical level to see why PRTV should exert direct additive effects, while failing tO show significant effects in interaction with television exposure. Two possibilities suggest themeselves. First, the interaction between perceived reality and exposure as tested in these studies may have been misspecified, leading to a spurious negative result (cf. Southwood, 1978). Second, it may be, as Williams (1981) suggests, that tele- vision exposure effects are themselves in most cases most appropriately modeled by a threshold- or other nonlinear model, rather than by a simple linear model in'which suc- cessive increments of exposure produce equal increments Of effect across the whole range of television exposure. A threshold model is plausible, considering the well-docu- mented pervasiveness Of television in American life, and therefore the degree to which nearly everyone is exposed to television content containing common themes and por- trayals. If a threshold or other nonlinear model of TV effects is correct, then the appearance of direct PRTV effects at the levels Of telelvision exposure that we 51 typically measure would be expected, even if perceived reality is in fact a conditional variable that acts in interaction with television exposure. Moreover, even if television effects continue to be exerted in a generally linear fashion in the exposure ranges we would typically find among samples of Americans, PRTV may still appear . statistically to have an additive effect, since there is no zero-exposure level, and since greater learning from television would occur in the high perceived reality condi- tion at all non-zero levels of contact. In summary, perceived reality Of television does not appear to be a generalized orientation toward TV content as much as an orientation toward specific content or spe- cific types of content. It serves theoretically the role of a conditional or contingent variable, acting in inter- action with television eXposure. However, since TV exposure is reasonably high for nearly all Americans, PRTV may appear to exert an independent (additive) effect. The major dimen- sion of PRTV which is relevant to studies of television effects on Older children and adults is Social Expectations reality. It was suggested that either the perception that TV content was broadly representative Of the real world, or that it was congruent with personal experience, would enhance learning from television. .In considering the particular dependent variables in this study, it would seem that relevant TV entertainment effects would involve the perceived reality of two types 52 of television content: portrayals of black and white material conditions (perceived rewards and inputs); and character portrayals of blacks and whites (stereotyping). The PRTV Of each of these content areas should impact only those dependent variables directly associated with it. Therefore, the following hypotheses are Offered. H17: 18‘ 19‘ 20‘ 21‘ The greater the perceived reality of TV portrayals Of black and white material conditions, the greater the level of perceived affluence of whites. The greater the perceived reality Of TV portrayals of black and white material conditions, the greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between the inputs of whites and the inputs of blacks. The greater the perceived reality of TV portrayals of black and white mateiral conditions, the greater the perceived influence of "individual" as opposed to "system" factors in accounting for social inequality. The greater the perceived reality of TV portrayals of black and white character traits, the less the negative stereotyping Of blacks in relation to whites. The perceived reality of television portrayals Of black and white material conditions will interact with television entertainment exposure, 22‘ 23‘ 24‘ 53 such that the greater the PRTV, the greater the impact of TV on the perceived affluence of whites, in the direction previously predicted for TV entertainment effects. The perceived reality of television portrayals of black and white material conditions will inter- act with television entertainment exposure, such that the greater the PRTV, the greater the impact of television exposure on perceptions of the relative importance of "system" and "individual" factors in accounting for social inequality. The perceived reality of television portrayals of black and white material conditions will inter- act with television entertainment exposure such that the greater the PRTV, the greater the impact of television exposure on the perceived difference between black and white inputs, in the direction previously predicted for TV entertainment effects. The perceived reality of television portrayals of black and white character traits will interact with television entertainment exposure, such that the greater the PRTV, the greater the impact of television exposure on negative stereotyping of blacks in relation to whites, in the direction previously predicted for TV entertainment effects. 54 Hypotheses 17 through 20 concern main effects of PRTV, while hypotheses 21 through 24 involve interactions Of PRTV with TV entertainment exposure. Figure 1 illustrates the nature of the predicted interaction from hypothesis 21. Recall in this instance that TV entertainment exposure had been previously predicted to relate positively to per- ceived white rewards. High . High PRTV ‘8’ :3 a O m E4 E O a . Low PRTV m > ./ H B a: m m Low in l I 1 Low High TV ENTERTAINMENT EXPOSURE Figure 1. Hypothesized relationship between white outcomes and TV entertainment exposure at two levels of PRTV. Hypotheses 22 and 23 may be similarly diagrammed. Hypothesis 24 involves a (predicted) relationship between 55 TV entertainment exposure and the dependent variable which is negative; in this case, the slopes of both the high- and low-PRTV lines would be negative, with the high-PRTV line exhibiting the steeper slope. Control Variables There are several variables which potentially may confound the relationship between media exposure and beliefs about race and race relations. The most important of these are socio-economic status and race. The present study concerns itself exclusively with the perceptions of whites, and leaves the assessment of parallel media impacts on blacks to later research. However, S.E.S. must still be assessed in order that its effects may be controlled for statistically. S.E.S. can be expected to relate consistently to a number Of the variables in this study. S.E.S. is a major predictor Of media use patterns, and should be expected also to correlate strongly with opportunities for inter- racial contact. Moreover, from an equity theory perspec- tive, the S.E.S. of a respondent should affect his or her perception of the size of the economic pie, and thus percep- tions of relative gains. Furthermore, S.E.S. can also be expected to be related to pressures to engage in various types of justification, particularly those involving the belief in individual rather than system responsibility for inequality. 56 In addition to S.E.S. and race, variables typically controlled for in correlational studies include age and sex. In the present study, the variance in age should be so small as to preclude any measurable effect. Since sex Of respondent is related to media exposure patterns, sex should be entered into the analysis as a control variable. A Theoretical Causal Model The relationships between variables which have been discussed previously are summarized in a causal model which is shown in Figure 2. There are ten exogenous variables in the model, including three theoretically-derived inter- actions and two control variables. The control variables are S.E.S. and sex. The six true independent variables are newspaper exposure, TV news exposure, TV sports exposure, interracial contact, and TV (fictional) entertainment expo- sure. The three interactions are TV-entertainment by PRTV (material conditions), TV-entertainment by PRTV (stereo- types), and TV-entertainment by interracial contact. There are four endogenous variables: perceived relative outcomes (i.e., relative rewards in terms of wealth, status, and power), plus three variables which may serve as justifi- cations for inequality. The latter are: perceived relative inputs Of blacks and whites; perceived relative favorability of black and white character traits (stereotyping), and per- ceived individual versus system responsibility for inequality. 57 .uommse Omuemwsuom>c mo cOeuomwec on“ On Hmmmu mcucm m>onc madam .mmabceuc> msocwmoccw 0:» mo some on wucneuucoo on cmacmmm mum cOAuoecwwm mo mnouwm .>MM>OO Ou owuuefiumm mum meancflnc> Aucwccmmmccev mcocwmoxm .maumm acmcmo ucwmmumwh m30HH4 .muoz .mcoaucamu mosh uconc mmwflawn :0 muommwm uomucoo Haeocuumuce was capes mmcE mo HOOOE chOflpme .N mucmflm muwawnflmcommwm Hmcpw>fiocH $3388an >95 x >9 Smewmuczv >9: x >9 \.UH x >9 mmmhuowuwuml>emm . ‘0. ‘7 1 an? ‘s‘a’ 1“ newsreauwmucm >9 mucmcH vanillunlhhunfn messages}. uocucou w>aucawm 1' .\ “generics y ’/ HmeomwwcucH " It) )”unh'v muuomm >9 . ’[ficdxm mz i / .m.m.m mcemmuoouwum . m>flucamm . xwm 58 Lines with arrows represent hypothesized causal paths. The three "justification" variables, it should be noted, are shown as being predicted by perceived relative rewards, as well as by the relevant exogenous variables. The model allows the exogenous variables to covary. Chapter II METHODS Subjects Subjects were Michigan State University male and female freshmen. Two hundred fifteen freshmen partici- pated by completing a questionnaire assessing their media behavior, interracial contact, demographic background, and beliefs relevant to race relations. Of these, 197 responses were from whites and were used in the analysis. Although efforts were made to ensure a relatively equal number of men and women, the final sample had a somewhat higher number of males than females. One hundred twelve male students were included, compared to 84 female students. A population of university freshmen has a number of disadvantages, including problems associated with a gener- ally higher S.E.S. than peOple of a similar age who are not in college. However, this group does have several advantages. First, students at Michigan State come from all areas of the state of Michigan, as well as other states. This means that there should be a large amount Of variance in the amount Of interracial contact that different indi- viduals will have had prior to arrival at M.S.U. Respon- dents from rural areas and the Upper Peninsual Of Michigan 59 60 will have had little opportunity for interracial contact, whereas subjects from downstate urban areas will have had extensive opportunities for such contact. To acquire another sample with a similarly wide range on the inter- racial contact variable would require data collection at a number of widely—scattered geographical locations. The use of this sample implies that positive results can be expected only if learning that is believed to have occurred through media exposure results in perceptions that are to some degree resistant to change. It is assumed that overall the beliefs about race with which subjects entered the University have not been substantially altered by contact with other racial groups that will have occurred since their arrival. Considering what is known about the resistance of established attitudes to change, this is not an unreasonable assumption. Restricting the sample to freshmen serves to help minimize the Opportunity for subjects' attitudes to have become contaminated by interracial experiences at the Uni- versity. In addition, freshmen are at a good age range for testing the hypotheses of this study. They are still fairly close to adolescence, the time of life at which Greenberg and Atkin (1978) suggest that the greatest learn- ing about minorities from television should take place. They are in addition at an age in which information con- cerning economic conditions, and consequent life chances, should achieve greater salience. Finally, the sample was 61 restricted to freshmen in part because the questionnaire included a number of items concerning the respondent's habitual behaviors prior to coming to the University. It was felt that these items would be too difficult for stu- dents who had been at college for more than a year to complete. Procedure Pretests of the instrument were conducted on Feb- ruary 12, 1981, and March 6, 1981, using as subjects small groups of undergraduate student volunteers from introduc- tory communication classes at Michigan State University. Students completed versions of the questionnaire individ- ually, and were then brought together into small groups for debriefing. In the debriefing, students were led through the instrument question by question, in order to identify ambiguous, overly difficult, or racially-Offensive wording. Twenty students participated in this process, and a revised questionnaire resulted. The revised questionnaire was administered to respond- ents in their dormitory rooms during the period from April 10, 1981, to May 7, 1981. The questionnaire was administered by a group of 31 undergraduate communication students, who received extra credit in a communication class in exchange for their participation as interviewers. Prior to administering any questionnaires, each inter- viewer attended a small group orientation and training 62 session, which lasted approximately one hour. At the orien- tation sessions, the interviewers were given a detailed handout describing the correct procedure to follow in get- ting the questionnaires completed (Appendix A). They were also given a separate sheet on which to record their attempts at administering the questionnaire. The procedures for conducting the data collection which were specified in the instructions handout were also gone over verbally, in full detail, during the orien- tation session. In addition, students were warned about the forging of data. They were told that random callbacks would be conducted, and that anyone found forging data would be reported to their section instructor and charged with academic misconduct. Students were reminded that they were not required to conduct any interviews, and that they would receive a minimal amount of extra credit for having attended the orientation session, even if they chose to conduct no interviews. This did appear to be effective at discouraging forgery. The researcher and an assistant did in fact call back at least one re- spondent Obtained by each interviewer, and failed to find any evidence of forgery. Each interviewer was assigned to a particular floor or floors of a particular dormitory, and given a systematic procedure (every third door) with which to choose respond- ents. Approximately equal numbers of male and female floors were assigned to interviewers, although as has 63 already been noted, this was not successful at producing equal numbers of male and female respondents. Interviewers experienced differing levels of diffi- culty in Obtaining subjects, due for the most part to differing prOportions of freshmen in the different dormi- tories on campus. Among freshmen approached, the refusal rate was reasonably low: 21 out of 236 freshmen were recorded as refusing to participate (8.9%). As an incentive to complete the rather lengthy survey, the opportunity to participate in a prize drawing was Offered to all respondents. Respondents filled out forms for the drawing after they had completed their question- naires. The completed forms were kept separate from the completed questionnaires, in order to maintain the anonymity of responses. Respondents were instructed not to put their names on the questionnaire itself. The information from the record drawing forms provided the information that was used in making the callbacks that were conducted to check for data forgery. The questionnaire took the average respondent approxi- mately 25 minutes to complete. When an interviewer had completed all of his or her interviews, he or she was required to return the completed questionnaires at a group meeting, during which interviewers were questioned concerning problems which may have arisen in following interviewing procedures. No 64 problems affecting the validity of the study were found in these sessions. Instrument The instrument consisted of a 12-page questionnaire, which was introduced on the cover as a survey on the per- ceived reality of TV portrayals of black and white Ameri- cans. This minor deception was used to help distract respondents from the overt racial judgments called for in the questionnaire, since a pretest had shown that some respondents reacted in a hostile and defensive manner to the focus on racial attitudes that was perceived to occur in earlier versions of the instrument. The questionnaire was organized by sections in the following order: media exposure; demographics and S.E.S.; individual versus system responsibility items; perceptions of black and white social status, with associated per— ceived reality items; perceived inputs of blacks and whites and the related PRTV measures; perceived positive and negative character traits (stereotyping) of blacks and whites, and the associated perceived reality items; and interracial contact. Measurement of Control Variables Items were included in the instrument to measure the respondent's race, sex, and socio-economic status. Of these, sex and race presented no real measurement 65 problems. The race measure was used only to exclude non— whites from the analysis and was not entered into any analyses as a statistical control. S.E.S. is measured traditionally in sociology in two main ways: in terms of objective indicators and in terms of subjective class identification. This study relied on objective indicators. The most common Objec- tive indicators that are used to measure socio-economic status are occupation, education, and income. Since the respondents in this study were students, the occupations and educational levels of both parents were assessed, along with family income. TO measure family income, respondents were asked to place their families in one Of eight income categories of equal width (except for the highest category). These categories ranged from "under $5000" to "over $50,000". TO measure parents' educations, respondents were asked to circle the number of years of grade school and high school each parent had completed, and the number of years of college or trade school. These were summed to produce separate "years of schooling" scores for each parent. For parents' occupations, subjects were simply asked to report their mothers' and fathers' occupations. These were then given numerical status ratings using NORC pres- tige scores. The occupation with the higher prestige score in each case was used as the measure of occupational prestige in later analyses. 66 The four S.E.S. measures (father's education, mother's education, family income, and the occupational prestige of the parent with the higher NORC score) were submitted to a one-factor confirmatory factor analysis using SPSS subprogram JFACTOR (Burns, 1977). In addition to the normal output and statistics given in other SPSS factor analysis programs, JFACTOR provides several widely accepted tests of factorability, as well as a Chi-square test of the hypothesis that the number of factors extracted is sufficient to account for all systematic (non-unique and non-random) variation in the correlation matrix of the input variables. Variables submitted to factor analysis should meet minimal standards of psychometric adequacy (Tucker & Chase, 1975). The test of factorability that was used in this study was Bartlett's Test of Sphericity, which is used to determine if there is more than random variation in the correlation matrix of variables to be factored. The value of the Bartlett test statistic for the S.E.S. vari- able set was 177.93, with a probability less than .000, which indicates that this set of variables is indeed mean- ingfully factorable. JFACTOR allows the option of choosing either a Gener- alized Least Squares (GLS) or Maximum Likelihood (ML) factor solution. The GLS solution was used in this analysis, due to the property of least squares estimators of being less sensitive to departures of the data from normality 67 than are ML estimators (Hanushek & Jackson, 1977; Johnston, 1963). The single-factor solution for the S.E.S. variables proved adequate in accounting for all systematic variance in the variable set. The single factor accounted for 45.9% of the total variance in the variable set, with an eigenvalue of 1.837. The internal consistency reli- ability of the variable set was calculated using coeffi- cient omega (Heise & Bohrnstedt, 1970), and was found equal to .762. Father's education was the variable most closely associated with the single factor, with a factor loading of .8704, followed by occupational prestige (.7264), mother's eduCation (.5520), and family income (.4979). A Chi-square test was conducted on the residual corre- lation matrix. Chi-square with 2 df. was 2.28, p = .320, indicating that there was no significant systematic variance left among the S.E.S. measures after the extraction of one factor. Consequently, factor score coefficients from the single-factor solution were used to construct a com- posite measure of socio-economic status. Measurement of Endogenous Variables There were conceptually four endogenous variables in this study, of which three acted exclusively as dependent variables, and a fourth as a dependent variable in some contexts and as a predictor in others. The three exclu— sively-dependent variables were: perceived individual 68 (versus system) responsibility for inequality; relative favorability of black and white stereotypes; and perceived relative inputs of blacks and whites. The variable which acted in some cases as predictor and in others as predicted was perceived relative rewards (outcomes) of blacks and whites. Perceived Relative Rewards Relative rewards were measured both in terms of economi- cally-related rewards and perceived political influence. In the first category, four sorts of economically-oriented differences were assessed: differences in (l) perceived wealth of blacks and whites; (2) perceived economic security of blacks and whites; (3) perceived educational attainment of blacks and whites; and (4) perceived social class member- ships of blacks and whites. To assess these, respondents were asked to estimate the average yearly incomes of black and white families; the percentage of each group who are presently unemployed; the percentage of each group who have achieved middle-class status (or higher), and the average level of schooling completed by black and white Americans. These are variables of the sort typically used in sociology to compare relative stati of different social groups (cf. U.S. Department of Commerce, 1977; Williams, 1980). Since the focus of this study was primarily on relative rewards, a ratio was calculated for each of the perceived 69 economic status measures; this ratio was the estimated "white" value for the variable divided by the estimated "black" value. The means of each of these different ratios are as follows: white income/black income, 1.45; white unemployment/black unemployment, .66; white years of school- ing/black years of schooling, 1.18; and percentage of whites who are middle class or higher/percentage of blacks who are middle class, 2.14. It is interesting to compare these estimates of the sample of M.S.U. students with the actual population figures reported by the U.S. Government (U.S. Department of Com- merce, 1977). According to the perceptions of the student sample, average black income is 68.8% of average white income, while according to 1976 government figures, the actual figure is closer to 60%. Blacks were 1.5 times as likely as whites to be unem— ployed, according to the students surveyed. Pre-recession figures (1975) show blacks almost twice as likely as whites to be unemployed. The students slightly underestimated the white/black years of schooling ratio as approximately 1.18, compared to 1.24 using government figures. It is more difficult to make a direct comparison between the "middle class" ratio according to the student sample and actual figures, since what is perceived to constitute membership in the middle class is heavily sub- jective. If, however, we take having a yearly income over $15,000 (in 1975 dollars) as the criterion for middle 70 class membership, it appears that the student respondents estimated this ratio fairly accurately. The sample esti- mate was 2.14, as compared to 2.17 using government income figures. The white/black ratios for the different economic outcome measures are summarized and compared to the popu- lation statistics in Table 1. Table 1 Ratio of White to Black Socio-Economic Status Measures Perceived by Respondents and Compared with Population Figures Respondents'b Populationa Measure Estimates Figures Income 1.45 1.53 Unemployment .66 .53 Percent Middle Class 2.14 2.17 Years of Schooling 1.18 1.24 aUnited States Department of Commerce figures. bBased on mean responses of the sample of Michigan State University freshmen. Overall, it appears the sample overestimated by a small degree the relative affluence of blacks in comparison to whites. However, it is notable that the sample correctly estimated the rank order of the ratio scores, and in all cases came up with a mean ratio close to the actual figures. 71 This can be seen as evidence in support of the validity of the measures employed. Perceived political influence of blacks and whites was measured by a single item. Respondents were asked: "In the U.S. as it really is, what percentage of elected government officials (at any level of government) are members of the following groups?" The choices were "white Americans", "black Americans", and "others". Since the use of a simple white/black ratio with this item would have led to numerous instances of ratios with denominators of zero, the ratio that was employed in this case was percentage of government officials who were whites over the percentage who were black plus the percentage who were white. The mean response on this ratio was .84, indicating the perception of respondents that there are over five times as many white elected officials as black elected officials. This item, together with the four economically oriented items, was submitted to a confirmatory (one-factor) factor analysis using SPSS subprogram JFACTOR. The set of items met minimum conditions for factorability. Bartlett’s test of sphericity statistic was 36.52, p = .000 with 10 df. However, the single factor solution proved inade- quate, accounting for only 15.2% of the variance and lead- ing to several very small communalities. A two-factor model was then estimated and proved adequate. The two factors accounted for 35.6% of the 72 total variance. A test of the residual correlation matrix yielded a Chi-square with one df. equal to 1.99, p = .158, indicating no significant systematic variance left to be extracted from the correlation matrix. The two factors were rotated to a final solution using the SPSS oblique rotation option. According to Kim (1975), "the oblique rotation method is more flexible because the factor axes need not be orthogonal (uncorre- lated) and is more realistic because the theoretically important underlying dimensions are not assumed to be unrelated to each other." (p. 483) The oblique rotation procedure is also useful in determining the degree to which the underlying factors are indeed correlated. The oblique rotated factor structure matrix is pre- sented in Table 2, along with communality estimates, eigen- values, and percentages of total variance associated with each factor. The loadings of the variables on the factors in the factor structure matrix suggests either (1) differences in perceptions of respondents according to whether the perceived outcomes are positive or negative, or (2) a single true underlying factor being contaminated by a methods (response bias) factor. Zeller and Carmines (1980) suggest that to decide between two such explanations for the appearance of additional factors, one should examine the patterns of correlations between the factors and other variables believed to be associated with the theoretical 73 Table 2 Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for White/Black Outcomes as Perceived by Respondents Variable Factor I Factor II Communality Income -.0861 .3062 .1145 Unemployment .9990 -.1000 .9990 Percent of Elected Officials .0722 .4120 .1883 Years in School .0073 .6107 .3785 Percent Middle -.1036 .3483 .1388 Class Eigenvalue 1.024 .758 Percent variance 20.5 15.2 underlying variable. If the two factors show similar patterns of correlation with other variables, then the two- factor structure is likely to be the spurious result of method variance. If, however, the factors appear to be associated differently with other variables, then it is more likely that the factor structure reflects a genuine underlying multidimensionality. The latter appears to be the case with this solution. The first factor (relative negative outcomes) is the only one of the two factors showing any correlation with S.E.S. or newspaper exposure. On the other hand, only the second 74 factor (perceived relative positive outcomes) appears to be related to perceived differences in black and white inputs, respondent sex, and interpersonal contact with blacks. If both factors are valid in terms of reflecting underlying dimensions rather than method variance, the mean per item validity of the measures in the factor solu- tion is .357. Omega reliability is .520. The correlation between the two extracted factors in -.098, indicating that the underlying factors are essentially orthogonal. Factor score coefficients were used to construct measures of the two factors derived: perceived relative positive outcomes and perceived relative negative outcomes. Individual Versus System Responsibility The extent to which individual differences rather than the social system is perceived to be responsible for social inequality was measured by five items. The respondent was asked to estimate relatively how much in- fluence individual differences had, compared with social differences in determining (1) how much money a person makes in his or her life, (2) what sort of occupation he or she ends up with, and (3) the level of schooling he or she completes. The following is an example of one such item: 75 "The amount of money a person makes in his or her life depends:" % on the special advantages or disadvantages he or she receives because of social class, race, sex, the occupations of parents, or the region of the country he or she comes from. % on the person's individual qualities, such as ambition, ability, and motivation. % on other factors (please specify) _1_og_% TOTAL The category "other" was included to accommodate random factors or general fatalism (luck or fate). In rsome cases, the percentages given under "other factors" were redistributed to system or individual answers. This occurred when the answer seemed unambiguously to fall within one or the other category. For example, the answer "being Northern European" was categorized as a system answer. The most common use of the "other" category occur- red when subjects responded to the question about the amount of money an individual makes by referring to his "education". A percentage given to "other factors" and specified as referring to the influence of "education" was redistributed according to the percentages accorded to individual and system answers to the question asking about what factors determine an individual's level of schooling. In addition to these three items, respondents were asked to estimate what percentage of people who are un- employed "can't help being unemployed" and for what 76 percentage is it "their own fault". A similar item was included involving percentages of people on welfare who are "truly needy" or who "don't want to work". The relative influence of individual factors versus system factors was determdned for the first three items by summing the individual and system responsibility per-. centages and dividing this into the individual respon- sibility percentage. The unemployment aux} welfare items did not include an "other factors" category, so the indi- vidual responsibility percentage was used as it stood. The five items were submitted to a JFACTOR factor analysis. Minimum conditions for factorability were met. Bartlett's test of sphericity was 24.99, p = .000. As was the case with the perceived relative outcomes variable, a single factor solution was inadequate and a two-factor solution with oblique rotation was employed. The resulting factors were correlated .148. The factor structure matrix, communalities, and eigenvalues are presented in Table 3. As occurred with the perceived relative outcomes variable, a pattern emerges in which negative socio-economic outcomes seem to be involved in a separate factor from positive socio-economic items. The unemployment and welfare items load heavily on the first factor, while the income, occupation, and education items load on the second factor. The first factor then can be labelled individual blame (for undesirable outcomes); the second, individual credit (for desirable outcomes). 77 Table 3 Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for Individual Versus System Responsibility Items Variable Factor I Factor II Communality Money .1043 .7817 .6127 Occupation .0121 .7136 .5142 Education .1202 .5986 .3653 Unemployment .9585 .1545 .9207 Welfare .6899 .0497 .4818 £§;;;;;I£;"'""'ITZES""""'ITZSI """""""""""" Percent variance 29.1 28.6 Once again the question needs to be raised whether the apparent two-dimensional structure is "real" or arti- factual. In this regard, there are several instances in which the two factors correlate differently with third variables. Individual credit correlates with the per— ceived inputs index and with one perceived reality factor, neither of which is related to individual blame factor. Individual blame is correlated with newspaper exposure and'the stereotyping index. Individual credit shows no such correlations. Thus, from the criterion proposed previously, there would. seem to be evidence that the extrac— tion of two factors is not purely artifactually-based. 78 The Chi-square test performed on the residual matrix yielded a statiStic of 1.01 with 1 df., p = .316, indi- cating that all significant systematic variance had been extracted, and no more factors were needed to summarize the data. Reliability using the omega statistic was found to be .789. The mean item validity, assuming two valid factors, was .577. Factor score coefficients were used to construct indices of the individual blame and individual credit factors. White Versus Black Inputs To measure the perceived relative inputs of blacks and whites, respondents were asked to estimate, on a 0 to 100 scale, the value of the goods and services produced by the average member of each group, "where 0 means a person produces nothing and 100 means he or she produces an extremely large amount." The inputs ratio was the input score for whites over the input score for blacks. Where blacks were given a score of 0, the white score over one was substituted. Although as a single indicator, the reliability (in terms of the contribution of random error) of this measure cannot be estimated, the patterns of correlations involving it do provide evidence in support of its (construct) validity. The theoretical perspectives addressed in the first chapter implied that inputs should be correlated with perceived rewards, which in fact this measure is 79 (r = .273, p = .001). The same is true of the hypothesized relationship with TV news exposure and perceived reality factors. The mean value of the inputs ratio was 1.45 indicating that respondents perceived the average white to produce almost one and one half times what the average black pro- duces. Stereotype Favorability There were several criteria for a measure of relative favorability of black and white stereotypes., First, it was necessary to have an individual (rather than group) and quantitative measure. This ruled out the common stereo- type checklist approach. Second, the relevant variable from an equity theory perspective was not favorability or unfavorability of white or black character traits in isolation, but rather the relative favorability of white and black stereotypes. Third, while it was desired to sample from the range of favorable and unfavorable traits, the final result was to be a quantitative measure of over- all favorability or unfavorability. To create a measure meeting these criteria, the following procedures were employed. Six common traits derived from the stereotype (adjec- tive) checklist were chosen and respondents were asked to estimate the percentage of members of each racial group each adjective described. This is essentially the procedure 8O McCauley and Stitt (1978) used to construct their "stereo— type ratio" measure. The particular adjectives used were chosen using the following criteria: first, they had to exhibit a strong positive or negative valence. Karlins, Coffman, and Walters (1969) reported mean favorableness scores for each of the items on the Katz and Braly stereo- type checklist, as rated by 150 Princeton University fresh- men and sophomores. These scores were used to determine which adjectives were viewed highly positively and which highly negatively. A second criterion that was employed was that the adjectives used had to tap subStantively different attributes. Jones and Ashmore (1973) used non- metric multidimensional scaling to derive a two dimensional configuration of 49 adjectives, upon which six significant properties were plotted as axes. In constructing the favorability index for the present study, no two adjec- tives were chosen which fell in close proximity in this MDS space, or which fell along the same axis. This effec- tively eliminated polar Opposites as well as essentially synonomous terms. Six adjectives were chosen under these criteria. These six, the mean percentages of blacks and whites per- ceived by respondents to be described by each, and the six associated favorability scores are shown in Table 4. It will be noticed that this set of adjectives is not balanced evenly between positively and negatively-valenced items. Although it was recognized that it is generally 81 Table 4 Mean Percentages of Blacks and Whites Perceived to be Described by Six Highly—Positive or Highly-Negative Adjectives Favorabilitya Adjective % Blacks % Whites Score Intelligent 57.1 66.3 +1.61 Hard-workingb 55.9 62.5 +1.32 Honest 51.1 55.4 +1.56 Cruel 31.6 29.2 -l.77 Ambitious 50.8 59.8 +1.06 Rude 41.1 39.2 -1.67 aFrom Karlins, et a1. (1969). Scores are on a scale from -2.0 to +2.0. bWas substituted for "industrious" based on pretest results. desirable to have equal numbers of positively and negatively worded items in attitude scales, pretest results indicated that to do this would introduce problems in this study. Pretest respondents reacted defensively and, upon occasion, with considerable hostility when asked to estimate racial percentages involving highly unfavorable adjectives. Typi— cal responses were to either refuse to make the estimates or to estimate identical percentages for each racial group. Indeed, among the items chosen for the final instrument, 82 the only adjectives for which the mean percentage of whites perceived to be described by the particular trait failed to differ significantly from the corresponding mean per- centage for blacks were the two unfavorable adjectives: cruel and rude. Indices of the overall favorability of white and black stereotypes were constructed by multiplying the per- centage estimates for each adjective by the appropriate favorability score, and summing across adjectives. The comparison between white stereotype favorability and black stereotype favorability was accomplished by subtracting the black composite favorability score from the white composite-favorability score. The correlation matrix gives some evidence of con- struct validity for the measure of relative stereotype favorability. There are positive relationships between the stereotype favorability difference and TV news and sports exposure, individual blame, and perceived differences in inputs. There are negative relationships with viewing of black programs and interpersonal contact with blacks. Independent Variables There were six independent variables to be measured in this study. Of these, the media exposure variables were: newspaper exposure; TV news exposure; TV sports exposure; and TV entertainment exposure. The other inde— pendent variables were perceived reality of television 83 (material conditions), perceived reality of television (stereotypes), and interracial contact. The perspective on media effects adapted for this study views effects as cumulative and occurring over a relatively long period of time. It was, therefore, desired to obtain measures of habitual exposure patterns. However, the transition of a young adult from home to college life carries with it the potential for disruping lifetime pat- terns of media exposure. There is to be considered the. impact of a free campus newspaper, as well as the influence of dormitory and campus social events and standards. It was felt that a better measure of long-term media use would be attained if information could be acquired about behavior patterns of respondents prior to their arrival at college. Although there is always greater unreliability to be expected with measures which rely on long-term recall, it was felt that to risk that unreliability in order to achieve greater validity for whatever systematic variance that could indeed be extracted was a justifiable tradeoff.l It has been shown that in at least some other categories of habitual behavior, that retrOSpective data could be relied upon. For instance, Ferber and Birnbaum (1979) found that recall of earnings data was not substantially less accurate than data obtained on current salaries, in a sample of 238 University employees. In addition, respondents questioned during the pretest for the present 84 study reported no special difficulty with the retrospec- tive nature of the media exposure questions. Newspaper Exposure Newspaper exposure was assessed using two questions. The first asked respondents to report, on the average, how many days out of the week they read some part of a daily newspaper during their last year in high school. The second question asked for an estimate of the average number of minutes per day they spent reading the news- paper. The newspaper exposure index was obtained by multi- plying the days-per—week measure by the minutes-per-day measure . Television Exposure As noted previously, the cultivation perspective involves the assessment of the cumulative impacts of the whole gamut of television content, and cultivation effects are therefore usually assessed in relation to total TV viewing. In addition, equity theory suggests that infor- mation about white outcomes and behaviors is as relevant to race relations as information about black behaviors and outcomes. Therefore, two measures of television enter- tainment exposure were employed: the first was an overall measure of hours Spent watching entertainment television, and the second was a measure of exposure to TV blacks. For the overall entertainment exposure measure, re- spondents were asked to estimate, on the average, their 85 hours of weekday, Saturday, and Sunday entertainment view- ing during their last year in high school. Each question asked for hours of exposure according to periods of time during the day (as a memory aid). A total hours-per- week measure was constructed by multiplying the number of weekday hours reported by five and adding this to the number of Saturday and Sunday hours. The mean number of viewing hours per week that was reported was 20.36. This compares to a 1976 population estimate of total viewing for teenagers 13-17 of 21.9 hours (Neilson figures, reported by Comstock et al., 1978, p. 97). For exposure to TV blacks in entertainment programs, respondents were asked to report how many television pro- grams they watched regularly during their last year in high school which had a black star or co-star. Choices were provided ranging from "0" to "10 or more." The mean response was 2.06. TV sports exposure was assessed by three items. Re- spondents were asked to estimate the average number of hours per day they watched TV sports programs on weekdays, Saturday, and Sunday, while they were in their last year in high school. These items were summed in the same way as the entertainment exposure items to provide a measure of hours spent watching sports programming per week. The mean number of hours reported was 8.25, although it should be noted that the distribution of this variable was posi- tively skewed. The median value was a more moderate 5.02. 86 TV news exposure was assessed using five questions. Respondents were asked to report how many days per week on the average they watched different types of news pro- grams: the network evening news, the local evening news, the late news (11 p.m. or later), and early morning news shows. In addition, subjects were also asked to report how many hours per week they spent watching news related programs like "60 Minutes", "MacNeil-Lehrer", and "20-20". These five items were then summed to form a news viewing index. All television exposure measures (TV—entertainment, TV-sports, TV—blacks, and TV-news) were positively cor- related, which would be expected. In addition, TV-enter- tainment was negatively related to subject's socio-economic level, consistent with previous research. TV-sports is negatively correlated with being female, also consistent with previous research. TV news viewing is also negatively related to female status, which is consistent with research showing males to more often be regular news viewers than females, especially of network evening news (Comstock et al., 1978). Together these relationships provide evi- dence for the construct validity of the television exposure measures employed. Interracial Contact Research in the area of racial attitudes suggested some considerations that needed to be addressed in measuring 87 interracial contact. Bogardus (1933) presented a scale for measuring "social distance". This scale measured the racial attitudes of individuals in terms of the willing- ness of a person to be in contact with members of other ethnic groups at varying levels of intimacy, ranging from expressing a desire to exclude members of the group from one's country, to expressing a willingness to accept a member of that group as a family member by marriage. The approach pioneered by Bogardus inspired research into what Triandis (1964) called "the behavioral component of social attitudes". Assessing the degree of intimacy involved is even more important when considering the effects of actual interpersonal contact than when considering the expressed willingness to engage in such contact. It is important to measure both qualitative and quantitative aspects of interracial contact. This was the approach used by Stephan and Rosenfield (1978), who measured interethnic contact among school children by asking how frequently they had engaged in eight different kinds of contact with members of a given racial group. Selltiz, Christ, Havel, and Cook (1963) measured both frequency of types of inter- cultural contact engaged in by foreign students in the United States, and the numbers of different Americans with whom they engaged in such contact. Although there is evidence that physical integration without informal social contact has little effect on 88 interracial affect, the relationship between levels of . intimacy and cognitive effects is not completely clear. Therefore, it was decided to measure interracial contact at several levels, including the mere physical proximity of persons of other racial groups. There were two measures of physical proximity or mere opportunity for interracial contact: the estimated percentage of blacks reported as living in the respondent's neighborhood; and the estimated percentage of blacks re- ported attending the respondent's high school. The mean percentage for the first measure was 3.98, but the distri- bution was positively skewed and the modal response was 0. The mean percentage of blacks in subjects' high schools was 7.98. This measure was also positively skewed, with a mode of 0. These two measures were summed to provide a simple index of opportunity for interracial contact. Contact at more intimate levels was measured in two ways: in terms of numbers of black friends, and in terms of frequencies with which the respondent reported engaging in seven types of interracial contact. In measuring number of black friends, respondents were asked to report how many out of their 10 closest same-sex friends, their 10 closest opposite-sex friends, and their five closest friends of either sex that they had in high school were white, black, or members of other groups. Only the scores for black friends were actually used in any analyses. 89 In terms of frequencies of interracial interactions, subjects were asked to report on how many days in an aver— age month they engaged in the following types of activities with whites and with blacks while they were in high school: going to social events; eating at the same table; getting into disputes or serious arguments; going over to someone's house; having someone come over to one's own house; dis-> cussing intimate personal affairs; and participating in a sports team or other organized group. Only data about contactwith blacks was used. The number of friends measures were submitted, along with the frequency of contact measures to a series of Generalized Least Squares factor analyses using SPSS sub- program JFACTOR. The data met minimum conditions for factorability. Bartlett's sphericity statistic was equal to 942.14, p = .000 with 36 df. One measure, frequency of team participation, was eliminated due to low communal— ities and a generally weak relationship with the other measures. Two, three, four, and five factor oblique solutions were examined. According to the nonsignificant Chi-square criterion, a minimum of four factors were needed to account for all of the systematic variance in the correlation matrix of the interpersonal contact measures. However, in the four and five factor solutions, the fourth and fifth factors which emerged were essentially "garbage" factors, with no variables loading substantially on either. 90 Neither factor had an associated eigenvalue even approach- ing 1.0. It was decided therefore to use the more easily interpretable three-factor solution. The oblique rotated factor solution is shown in Table 5. Table 5 Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for Interracial Contact Measures Variable Factor I Factor II Factor III Communality SS Friends .3864 .9180 .2413 .8506 OS Friends .2112 .7876 .1225 .6611 Close Friends .3298 .8340 .2519 .7134 Visit Blacks .4550 . .2783 .9559 .9950 Blacks Visit .7444 .2420 .8252 .8813 Social Events .9061 .3488 .4472 .7813 Eating .4878 .4310 .3866 .4276 Arguing .4816 .1201 .1491 .2621 Intimate .8450 .5021 .3594 .7313 £2;;;;;IE;"""'ZZES"""2'T3I6""""IT631 """""""""" % variance 27.4 27.9 12.1 The first factor seems to involve socializing with blacks, intimate communication with blacks, and having blacks as guests in one's home. The second factor is clearly associated with having friends who are black. The 91 third factor seems to involve respondents visiting the homes of black friends, and in turn being visited by them. Together, the factors account for 67.4% of the total vari— ance in the variable set. The mean item reliability is .674. Omega reliability, based on three reliable factors, is calculated at .918. The factors show reasonably strong intercorrelations, as would be expected from examining the loadings in the factor structure matrix. The highest interfactor correlation (.501) is between the first and third factors. The lowest (.272) is between the first and second factors. As would be expected from highly correlated factors, the first and third factors show very similar patterns of correlation with other variables. As Zeller and Carmins (1980) note, however, failure to find differences between factors in their relationships with third variables can be regarded as evidence that the additional factor(s) repre- sents a reliable, but invalid, source of variance. It would seem unsafe to regard the second and third factors as representing valid variance; the second factor appears to represent method variance, while the third factor for the most part closely parallels the behavior of the first. All factors not only were moderately or moderately- highly correlated with all other factors, but also showed substantial degress of correlation with the measures of physical proximity of blacks. It seemed likely that these inter-item correlations would seriously attenuate the 92 measurable effects of interracial contact in regression and similar analyses. However, the intercorrelations also suggested the potential for re-factoring the previously- obtained factors, along with the physical proximdty measure. This was an especially attractive Option, considering the dubious validity of the second and third interracial contact factors. Consequently, a single—factor confirmatory factor analysis was conducted of the three interracial contact factors and the physical integration index. The set of input variables met minimum conditions for factorability. Bartlett's sphericity statistic was 210.33, with 6 df., p = .000. The strongest individual factor loading was .867. This was the loading of inter- racial contact Factor I on the new factor. Other loadings were .650 for Factor II from the previous analysis; .646 for Factor III; and .517 for the physical proximity index. The single factor accounted for 46.5% of the variance in the set of predictors. Factor score coefficients from this analysis were used to create an overall composite measure of the inter- racial contact variable. While for completeness all of the interracial contact factors were entered into the corre- lation analysis that was subsequently performed, the single summary factor was used as the measure of interracial con- tact in regression and other analyses for which multico- linearity posed a problem in estimation and significance testing. In addition, the single summary factor was used 93 in the creation of a multiplicative interaction term with television entertainment exposure. Perceived Reality of Television Measures of perceived reality of television were devised with the following properties in mind: (1) that they measure social expectations reality, in the sense of the degree to which fictional television is perceived to realistically portray different aspects of the social world; (2) that they deal with specific domains of TV con- tent relevant to the dependent variables under study; and (3) that they allow for the measurement of both the degree to which television content is seen as broadly represen- tative of the real world (perceived "representativeness"), and the degree to which it is seen as corresponding to one's personal experiences (perceived "congruence"). In the questionnaire section asking respondents to rate the percentage of blacks and whites described by stereo- type adjectives, subjects were also asked to estimate the percentages of TV blacks and whites, and blacks and whites they knew personally, who were described by these adjec— tives. A similar procedure was followed in relation to the perceived black and white outcomes and inputs measures. However, in relation to perceived inputs, respondents were asked about television- and American blacks and whites, but not about blacks and whites they knew personally. 94 A perceived reality (representativeness) score was created for each measure by taking the absolute value of the difference between the "TV" estimate and the subject's estimate of the ”real life" answer. This was done to tap the degree to which television was perceived to be unreal- istic, regardless of the direction of that perceived un- realism. A perceived reality (congruence) score was ob- tained by taking the absolute value of the difference between the "TV" estimate and the estimate describing the people the subject "knew personally". Since it was predicted that the effects of PRTV would vary by content type, and since it was also desired to examine whether the perceived congruence and perceived representativeness items related differently to the vari- ables of interest, factor analyses were conducted on four separate sets of variables. These were: perceived reality (representativeness) of stereotypes; perceived reality (representativeness) of black and white outcomes; perceived reality (congruence) of stereotypes; and perceived reality (congruence) of black and white outcomes. Since there were only two perceived reality of black and white inputs items, there were not submitted to factor analysis but were merely summed. Within these sets of variables, it was thought that two or more factors were possible, reflecting either dif- ferences in the perceived reality of black and white por- trayals, or differences in the content of particular sets 95 of items. It was thought unlikely that the factors which emerged would be uncorrelated; therefore, the analyses were conducted with oblique rotation. The oblique rotation option in SPSS does not force a given level of correlation between factors; rather, it "provides us with information about the amount of actual correlation between the factors." (Kim, 1975; p. 284). All four sets of variables met empirical conditions for factorability. Bartlett's test of sphericity was em- ployed to determine if sufficient common variance existed to justify factor analysis. In all cases, the Bartlett test statistic was significant at p = .000. For perceived reality (representativeness) of black and white outcomes, a meaningful three factor solution was obtained, accounting for a cumulative 43.8% of the variance in the data set. Chi-square with 18 df. was 25.20, p = .119, indicating no significant systematic variance left unaccounted for. The three factors reflected the types of outcomes measured, rather than black/white differ- ences. The first factor involved the perceived reality of TV portrayals of black and white political power. The second factor reflected the positive economic items, while the third reflected the group unemployment items. The ‘ three-factor solution is printed in Table 6. The loadings reflect the correlations between the variables and the factor. 96 Table 6 Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for Perceived Reality (Representativeness) of Black and White Television Outcomes Variable Factor I Factor II Factor III Communality Income-BL .0027 .4972 .0160 .2197 Income-WH .0066 .4786 -.1042 .2140 Unemploy-BL .0621 .0479 .7808 .2268 Unemploy-WH .0513 -.0110 .5654 .2141 M-Class-BL -.0474 .7550 .0301 .3534 M—Class-WH -.0248 .6240 .0744 .2851 Schooling-BL .1018 .3636 .1692 .1504 Schooling-WH .0057 .1733 .2108 .0815 Govt.-BL .8847 .0060 .0750 .7624 Govt.-WH .9845 -.0185 .0722 .7637 EEQQQIEZW'TEE""'ITESB"""’ITSIZ ”””””””” % variance 17.8 15.9 10.1 The three factors turn out, surprisingly, to be nearly orthogonal. The maximum inter-factor correlation is .091 between the first and second factors. Of the three factors, the third shows practically no variation independent of the previous two factors, when examined in relation to correlations with other variables in the study. In cases in which it does differ from the behavior of the other two 97 factors, it is in the direction of a zero correlation. Together, these facts suggest that the third factor taps a reliable, but invalid source of variance: most likely methods variance. Factor I (perceived representativeness-government) and Factor II (perceived representativeness-positive economic) do show differing patterns of correlations with a number of other variables in the model, suggesting that they indeed tap different sources of variance relevant to the theoretical construct of perceived reality. The strongest cases for construct validity can be made for the second factor, PRTV-positive economic. This factor showed significant (.05) correlations with three concep- tually-related dependent variables (perceived positive outcomes, perceived individual credit, and perceived rela- tive inputs), plus correlations of borderline signifi- cance (.05-.10) with several other variables. Using formulas from Zeller and Carmines (1980, p. 99), mean item reliability, based on three reliable factors, is .438. Mean item validity, based on two valid factors, is .337. Omega reliability is .651. For perceived congruence with personal experience of black and white outcomes, an analysis using SPSS subpro- gram JFACTOR determined that a single factor would account for all the significant structure in the correlation matrix of measures. Chi-square with 20 df. was 20.44, p = .429. However, the single factor accounted for only 15% of the 98 variance in the set of predictors. This was due to a relatively smaller amount of systematic variance (in com- parison with other sets of variables submitted to factor analysis) in the correlation matrix of input variables. The single factor solution is shown in Table 7. As can be seen, a greater number of the black outcome items loaded substantially on the factor; however, the factor cannot be interpreted as strictly a black-outcomes factor, considering the degree to which percent middle-class for whites loaded on it. Mean item reliability for this set was a relatively low .152. Omega reliability was .545. Table 7 Factor Structure Matrix for Perceived Reality (Congruence) of Black and White Television Outcomes Variable Factor I ' Communality Income-BL .2864 .1511 Income-WE .0558 .0870 Unemployment-BL .4251 .2178 Unemployment-WH .1631 .1960 M-Class-BL .6329 .4464 M-Class-WH .4530 .2228 Schooling-BL .5607 .3450 Schooling-WH .0750 .0350 £1;;;;;I;;""""""""7315 """"""""""""" % variance 15.2 99 For both PRTV (representativeness) and PRTV (con- gruence) in relation to black and white stereotype items, more than three factors were required to account for all systematic variance in the input matrix. However, all factors beyond the first three were "garbage" factors with no primary loadings, accounting for only small per- centages of variance. It was therefore decided to use the more parsimonious three-factor solution in each case. Since there was expected to be some amount of corre- lation between factors, oblique rotations were employed for both sets of stereotype factors. Table 8 shows the oblique rotated factor solution for the PRTV (represen— tativeness) measures. Table 9 shows the oblique rotated factor solution for the PRTV (congruence) measures. The mean item reliability for the representativeness items was .468. For perceived congruence, mean item reliability was .522. Omega reliability for the representativeness solution was .881. Omega reliabiility for the congruence isolution was .871. Although moderate correlations between perceived reality factors were expected, the three-factor oblique solutions actually resulted in factors which were highly intercorrelated, both for perceived representativeness and perceived congruence analyses. For the representative- ness solution, the maximum between-factors correlation was .713 between factors I and III. The minimum correla- tion was between factors II and III: .387. For the 100 perceived congruence factors, the oblique solution resulted in inter-factor correlations ranging from .454 to .666. Table 8 Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for Perceived Reality (Representativeness) of TV Portrayals of Black and White Character Traits (Stereotypes) Factor Factor Factor Variable I II III Communality Intelligent-WH —.0182 .1658 .0770 .4488 Hard-Working-WH .0093 .4685 -.O401 .5633 Honest-WH .1191 .1756 -.1598 .5414 Cruel-WH -.0542 .0533 .3562 .3755 Ambitious-WH .1284 .2291 .1498 .3586 Rude-WH .1717 2569 .4917 .4607 Intelligent-BL -.0680 .0878 .4897 .6360 Hard-Working-BL .3620 .0413 —.1429 .7716 Honest-BL .1285 -.0199 .5494 .4341 Curel-BL .6345 .0569 .1011 .3401 Ambitious—BL .1463 .4696 .0365 .3938 Rude-BL .6703 .6681 .5720 .9950 535355;"”m"ETEITMITE36""‘1339 """""""" % variance 20.9 15.6 10.3 101 Table 9 Oblique Rotated Factor Structure for Perceived Reality (Congruence) of TV Portrayals of Black and White Character Traits (Stereotypes) Factor Factor Factor Variable I II III Communality Intelligent-WH .1095 .2509 .0816 .3652 Hard-Working-WH .0536 .3694 .2002 .4353 Honest-WH -.0212 3147 .3013 .3387 Cruel-WH -.0178 .1949 .2686 .3348 Ambitious-WH .0736 .3988 .2699 .3056 Rude-WH .0493 .2584 .4492 .3072 Intelligent—BL .2320 .4295 .5965 .5979 Hard-Working-BL .6048 .1504 .1142 .6312 Honest-BL .1827 .1717 .7371 .4934 Cruel-BL .3609 .4979 .5975 .5202 Ambitious-BL .2476 .3259 .3321 .4791 Rude-BL .7043 .8913 .5908 .5148 EZQQQQIEE""m";TESE""'ET633"'"ITE63 """""""" % variance 21.8 17.0 13.4 The high intercorrelations among factors suggested that the factors themselves could (and should) marized. direction. be sum- Two other considerations pointed in the same First, there was little evidence of multi-factor 102 validity in terms of differing patterns of correlations between different perceived reality factors and other variables in the study. Second, if the factors were not summarized, the high intercorrelations would attenuate estimates of PRTV effects in regressions and other analyses involving partialling of effects between variables. The six perceived reality of stereotypes factors were themselves entered into a two-factor factor analysis. The factors which emerged accounted for 64% of the vari- ance in set. The three perceived representativeness factors loaded on one factor and the perceived congruence factors loaded on the other factor. Separate analyses of the perceived congruence and perceived representativeness factors revealed that for each set a single one of the original three factors account- ed for the bulk of the variance in the entire set. For the perceived congruence items, this was the first factor. For the perceived representativeness items, it was the third factor. Therefore, it was decided to use the first perceived congruence factor and the third perceived repre- sentativeness factor in all analyses involving partialling of variance. However, all variables were retained for the correlation analysis. All perceived reality factors, both for outcomes and stereotypes, were multipled by -1 to make a higher score indicate greater perceived reality and a lower score less perceived reality. Multiplicative interaction terms 103 were then created betweenfnlentertainment exposure and the four PRTV-outcomes factors, Factor I of the perceived- congruence (stereotypes) solution, and Factor III of the perceived-representativeness (stereotypes) analysis. Analysis To evaluate individual hypotheses and to estimate the model as a whole, two statistical procedures were employed: Pearson Product-Moment correlations, and mul- tiple regression analyses with hierarchical inclusion. All analyses were conducted using the SPSS computer package (Nie, et al., 1975). Pearson correlation coeffi- cients and associated significance levels were obtained for all variable pairs in the analysis. Hierarchical regressions were conducted for each endogenous variable. A hierarchical estimation approach was used in the regression analysis in preference to either simultaneous estimation or stepwise estimation methods. Simultaneous estimation was rejected due to the substantial degree of multicollinearity found among the predictor variables. Cohen and Cohen (1975) note that: When some or all of the IVs are substantially correlated with each other, the coefficients obtained by the simultaneous model for the entire set may be highly misleading.... Since all other IVs have been partialled from the relationship between each IV and Y, when two or more IVs have highly redundant associations with Y, none of them may show nontrivial unique relationships, that is, all may show very small sri. (p. 100) 104 Although stepwise solutions are often employed to deal with problems associated with multicollinearity in regression analysis, Cohen and Cohen (1975) note that several serious problems obtain with stepwise procedures as they are are commonly used. First, there is the poten- tial for seriously capitalizing on chance, with the result that, "neither the Statistical significance tests for each variable nor the overall tests on the multiple R2 at each step are valid." (Cohen & Cohen, 1975; p. 103). Second, the results may be highly sample-specific, even among samples drawn from the same population. Third, since variables are entered and removed from the equation based on the size of their unique contributions to the dependent variable, the problems associated with multicol- linearity in simultaneous estimation may in fact obtain in stepwise analysis as well. Variables are especially likely to be falsely excluded from the equation or have their effects underestimated in cases in which suppression effects exist between correlated predictors. Thus, although step- wise analysis can be a useful tool under certain conditions, especially for purely exploratory and practical-predictive research, it would seem to be a less-than-optimal approach for estimating and testing the relationships hypothesized in this study. Hierarchical regression models deal with the problem of multicollinearity by including variables in a regression equation in an a-priori specified order. This ordering 105 should be made according to the theoretical, causal, or logical priorities of the different independent variables. Coefficient estimates and significance levels are obtained controlling only for the variables entered previously into the equation. This procedure allows for obtaining maximal power in significance tests while maintaining confidence in the significance level obtained for each statistic. The SPSS version of hierarchical regression provides the equivalent of x number of separate regressions, where x is the number of inclusion levels the user specifies. This allows not only for the estimation of the hierarchical equation and the testing of hierarchical predictions, but also for the assessment of the variables as they would appear if estimated simultaneously (in which the estimate of each regression coefficient is made controlling for all other variables in the equation). Variables were entered into the regression equations in the following order. First, the control variables (sex, S.E.S) were entered. On the second step, newspaper exposure, television news exposure, and television sports exposure were entered. The coefficients thus obtained provide estimates of the contribution of each of the mass media variables, controlling for the sex and S.E.S. of respondents and the impact of the other media variables entered in this step. The significance level associated with each coefficient provides an estimate of the probability 106 that the impact of each respective media variable is non- zero in the population, when controlling for sex, S.E.S., and exposure to other media. As logically—prior demo- graphic variables, sex, and S.E.S. were entered first in each regression equation, and thus were controlled for in estimates of the impacts of all hypothesized predic- tors. Newspaper exposure, television news exposure, and television sports exposure were entered in a single step (giving estimates of the impacts of each of these inde- pendent of the others) since the hypotheses of this study concerned not the correlates of a tendency toward overall high levels of media consumption, but rather the impacts of exposure to particular media and types of media content. Interracial contact was seen, for reasons noted pre- viosuly, as especially likely to affect how individuals responded to portrayals contained in fictional television content. For this reason, interracial contact was entered as the third stage of the hierarchical regression, prior to the assessment of TV entertainment impact. In dealing with TV entertainment exposure, it was expected that the general entertainment exposure measure would correlate strongly with the measure of exposure to TV blacks, with the consequent potential for attenuation of coefficient estimates for each measure, if both were entered in the same step. Therefore, it was decided to enter these measures in two separate steps, immediately following interracial contact. It seemed possible, in 107 view of the evidence that portrayals of blacks in inte- grated shows differ substantially from portrayals in essen- tially all-black shows, that the Black-TV measures would exhibit impacts different from those associated with ex- posure to TV entertainment in general. The possibility of detecting such effects if they indeed existed would, however, depend on removing the potentially-suppressing influence of general television viewing. For this reason, exposure to TV blacks was entered after overall entertain- ment exposure in the hierarchical regression. A signifi- cant coefficient for (general) television entertainment exposure, then, would indicate an effect of such exposure controlling for sex, S.E.S., previously-entered media variables, and interracial contact. A significant coeffi- cient for exposure to TV blacks would indicate an effect controlling for each of these variables, plus general .TV entertainment exposure. All of these variables (sex, S.E.S., newspaper expo- sure, TV news exposure, TV sports exposure, interracial contact, TV entertainment exposure, and exposure to TV blacks) were included, in the same order, in each of the regression equations. Even in cases in which one or more of these were not hypothesized predictors, they were in- cluded as controls, in order to provide more conservative tests of the relationships actually hypothesized. After the media items, the additional effects of the endogenous predictors (the two perceived relative 108 outcomes factors) were assessed, in the equations in which this was appropriate. In the next stage, the additive contribution of PRTV in addition to the variables pre- viously entered was examined. PRTV was added after all other media variables, since perceived reality effects are considered to be contingent upon prior exposure, and the ability to make meaningful judgments of PRTV depends upon exposure to the relevant television content. On the next-to-last step, the interracial contact by TV-entertainment interaction was entered, and on the final step, the PRTV by TV interactions were included. This is consistent with common practice. Interaction terms are typically entered last in regression models, since, as Cohen and Cohen (1975) note, an interaction involving two independent variables can be said to occur only, "when over and above any additive combination of their separate effects, they have a joint effect" (p. 292). Two sets of hierarchical regressions were conducted: one using the perceived reality (representativeness) mea- sures as an indicator of PRTV; the other using the per- ceived congruence measures. Since perceived congruence was not assessed for black and white inputs, the perceived- representativeness score was used in both sets. Two sets of regressions were done for two reasons. First, it allow- ed for the examination of the influence of each sort of PRTV measure without the confounding effect of excessive 109 colinearity. Second, the wording of the perceived con- gruence items required respondents to estimate character- istics of blacks they knew personally.. A portion of re- spondents were unable to complete these items for the very good reason that they knew no blacks. Any regression .which included the perceived congruence items would exclude this group of respondents. It has potentially serious implications for the other variables in the model, parti- cularly interracial contact, if those respondents with no personal knowledge of blacks are excluded. The analysis that does not include the perceived congruence measures is therefore seen as more useful in providing estimates of the contributions of other variables in the model, since it does not exclude a theoretically important seg- ment of the sample. Chapter III RESULTS Results are divided into five sections. In each of the sections, the relationships of a set of hypothe- sized predictors to each of the dependent variables will be examined. For each dependent variable, the set of hypotheses will first be listed, and then the extent to which the data support these hypotheses will be evaluated. Predictions Concerning Perceived Relative Outcomes H4: The greater the TV news exposure, the greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between black and white socio-economic rewards. H8: The greater the newspaper exposure, the greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between the socio-economic status of whites and the socio-economic status of blacks. Table 10 shows the correlations of the two relative outcomes factors with TV news exposure and newspaper expo- sure. 110 111 Table 10 Correlations of Perceived White/Black Outcomes Factors with TV News and Newspaper Exposure Positive Negative Media Variables Outcomesa Outcomes Newspaper Exposure -.03l (181)C ‘ .228**(l8l) TV News Exposure .099 (181) . .039 aThe positive outcomes factor is a composite white/black ratio based on estimates of average incomes, average years of schooling, percentages of American elected officials from each group, and percentages of each group with middle-class (or higher) standing. bThe negative outcomes factor relies most strongly on one item: perceived white unemployment/perceived black unemployment. CNumbers in parentheses are n of cases. **p s .001 Recall that the positive outcomes factor is a com- posite which taps the following four items (in order of importance), scored as white/black ratios: estimated average years of schooling; estimated percentage of Ameri— can elected officials provided by each group; estimated percentage of each group who are of middle-class or higher status; and estimated average income for each group. Thus, the greater the score on the "positive outcomes" factor, the wggge off blacks were seen as being, when compared to whites. The factor labelled "negative outcomes" is CO) 112 composed primarily of an estimate of the ratio of the (perceived) rate Of white unemployment over the (per- ceived) rate of black unemployment. The greater the "nega- tive outcomes" score, the better off blacks were perceived to be, when compared to whites. There is no measurable relationship between TV news viewing and perceived relative outcomes of blacks and whites. Hypothesis 4 is not supported. Newspaper exposure shows no relationship with relative positive outcomes, but shows a significant positive correlation with per- ceived relative negative outcomes; i.e., the greater the newspaper exposure, the lower the perceived black unemploy- ment rate, in comparison to white unemployment. However, since the direction of this relationship is opposite to that predicted, hypothesis 8 is also rejected. The two hierarchical regressions predicting the per- ceived positive Outcomes factor are shown in Table 11. The two regressions predicting the perceived negative outcomes factor are presented in Table 12. For the positive outcomes equation, using the per- ceived representativeness items as measures of PRTV, the overall equation accounted for 20.0% of the variance in perceived relative outcomes, F = 2.064, p = .011. Four variables showed significant regression weights at inclu- sion. Sex, interracial contact, and the PRTV-positive economic factor related negatively to the perceived white/ black outcomes ratio. Since sex was scored as a dummy 113 Table 11 Equations Predicting Perceived White/Black . . a POSltlve Outcomes Equation I II (represen- Variable tativeness) (congruence) Sex -.1972* -.l949* S.E.S. .0546 -.0320 N.P. Exposure -.0925 -.0840 TV News Exposure .0596 .0980 TV Sports Exposure .0409 .0176 Interracial Contact (IC) -.2142** -.l980* TV Entertainment Exposure (TV) .0014 -.0053 Exposure to TV Blacks -.1010 -.l457 PRTV-Positive Economic (+) -.l732* PRTV-Government .1850* PRTV-Negative Economic (-) -.0969 PRTV-Congruence -.0876 PRTV-Inputs -.0803 -.1076 IC X TV .0722 .0543 PRTV (+) X TV .0418 PRTV-Government X TV .0391 PRTV (-) X TV -.0197 PRTV-Congruence X TV -.0044 BBEY:£28255_§-EY;--_-___-____-_--__:;922§__-__-_:;93}§--__ R2=.2004 R2=.l338 F—2.064 F=l.533 p = .011 p = .114 N = 158 N = 143 Note. This table contains hierarchical regression esti- mates of standardized B weights. aPositive Outcomes includes measures of perceived income, schooling, social class, and governmental influences. *p s .05 **p g .01 SSNTTITEPPFI.ET.I]]-... 114 Table 12 Equations Predicting Perceived White/Black Negative Outcomesa Equation I II (represen- Variable tativeness) (congruence) Sex -.0414 -.0426 S.E.S -.1255 -.1594 N.P. Exposure .2419** .2420** TV News Exposure -.Ol7l -.0271 TV Sports Exposure .0060 .0165 Interracial Contact (IC) -.0689 -.0590 TV Entertainment Exposure (TV) -.0377 -.0135 Exposure to TV Blacks .0835 .0840 PRTV-Positive Economic (+) -.0990 PRTV-Government .0456 PRTV-Negative Economic (-) -.1024 PRTV-Congruence .0306 PRTV-Inputs .0458 .0058 IC X TV .0844 .1076 PRTV (+) X TV -.0010 PRTV-Government X TV .0851 PRTV (-) X TV —.0558 PRTV-Congruence X TV -.0143 PRTV-Inputs X TV -.0767 -.0420 R2=.1238 R2=.1062 F=l.l64 F=l.l79 p = .302 p = .302 N = 158 N = 143 Note. This table contains hierarchical regression esti- mates of standardized B weights. aOne item, perceived unemployment, contributed most to this measure. **p s .01 115 variable with male = 0 and female = l, the equation indi- cates that males perceive a smaller degree of white advan- tage than do females. Respondents also saw fewer differ- ences between black and white outcomes if they had more contact with blacks and perceived TV (positive) economic portrayals as accurate. Relative positive outcomes were related positively to perceived reality of TV portrayals of proportions of blacks and whites in government; that is, the more accurate TV was seen to be in reflecting the relative numbers of black and white elected officials, the greater the advan- tage whites were believed to enjoy in the real world in terms of income, schooling, social class, and governmental influence. No interaction terms had significant coeffi- cients associated with them. The equation predicting perceived positive outcomes which used PR-congruence as its measure of PRTV showed the same pattern, with two differences. First, the coeffi- cient estimate for interracial contact was attenuated; and second, PRTV no longer showed significant effects. This, coupled with a reduction in N from 158 to 143, re- sulted in a nonsignificant overall F for the equation. For perceived relative negative outcomes, the repre- sentativeness and congruence equations were very similar. There was only one predictor with a significant B in each equation, which was newspaper exposure. Controlling for sex, S.E.S., and TV news and sports exposure, the greater 116 the newspaper exposure, the lower the perceived black unemployment rate, when compared to white unemployment. This is consistent with the results of the correlational analysis. However, both regression equations have nonsig- nificant F's when all variables are included. Predictions Concerning Individual Versus System Responsibility H2: 11‘ 12‘ 16‘ The greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between black and white socio- economic rewards, the greater the perceived influence of "individual" as opposed to "system" factors in producing social inequality. The greater the newspaper exposure, the greater the perceived influence of "system" as opposed to "individual" factors in pro- ducing...inequality. The greater the TV entertainment exposure, the greater the perceived influence of "individual" versus "system" factors in accounting for social inequality. The greater the interracial contact with blacks, the greater the perceived influence of "system" as opposed to "individual" factors in accounting for social inequality. Interracial contact will interact with tele- vision exposure, such that the less the amount 117 of interracial contact with blacks, the greater the impact of television portrayals. H19: The greater the perceived reality of TV portrayals of black and white material con- ditions, the greater the perceived influence of ”individual" as opposed to "system" factors in accounting for social inequality. H22: The perceived reality of television portrayals of black and white material conditions will interact with television entertainment exposure, such that the greater the PRTV, the greater the impact of television exposure on percep- tions of the relative importance of "system" and "individual" factors in accounting for social inequality . The zero-order correlations of the two individual responsibility factors (individual credit and individual blame) with the hypothesized predictors are presented in Table 13. Recall that the "individual blame" factor taps primarily two items: the percentage of unemployed persons who are perceived to bear responsibility for their own joblessness; and the percentage of welfare recipients for whom laziness or an unwillingness to work are believed to be the causes of their condition. Individual credit, on the other hand, involves the degree to which individual differences are seen as accounting for differences in income, occupation, and educational achievement. 118 Table 13 Correlations of Perceived Individual Responsibility a Factors with Hypothesized Predictors Individual Responsibility Factors Individual Individual Predictors Creditb BlameC vPerceived Outcomes (+) .012 (183) .067 (183) Perceived Outcomes (-) -.027 (183) -.086 (183) N.P. Exposure -.121 (183)* -.l74 (183)* TV Entertainmgnt Exposure .049 (190) -.073 (190) I.C. Factor I -.033 (183) -.013 (183) I.C. Factor II .018 (183) -.047 (183) I.C. Factor III .022 (183) -.073 (183) Integration -.115 (185) -.130 (185)* I.C. (Summary) -.031 (183) -.044 (183) PRTV-Positive Economic(+) .203 (177)** -.020 (177) PRTV-Government -.041 (177) .052 (177) PRTV-Negative Economic(-) —.006 (177) -.006 (177) PRTV-Congruence .035 (156) .043 (156) PRTV-Inputs .025 (182) .007 (182) PRTV (+) X TV -.116 (174) -.007 (174) PRTV-Government X TV -.017 (174) .090 (174) PRTV (-) X TV .081 (174) -.017 (174) PRTV-Congruence X TV -.053 (143) —.076 (143) PRTV-Inputs X TV .018 (179) -.108 (179) 1C X TV -.024 (180) .083 (180) aThe greater the score on these factors, the greater the degree to which individual differences (in intelligence, ambition, motivation, etc.) are used to explain inequality, and the lesser the degree to which such inequality is seen as arising from "system" factors (i.e., unequal Oppor- tunities due to race, class, religion, etc.) bIndividual Credit involves individual responsibility for primarily three types of outcomes: income, occupational attainment, and educational attainment. cIndividual Blame involves the degree to which the indi- vidual is seen as responsible for primarily two types of outcomes: being unemployed, and being on welfare. d *p 3 .05 **p 5 .01 I.C. stands for interracial contact. 119 Hypothesis 2 predicts a correlation between perceived relative outcomes (in favor of whites) and the perception that individual differences account for social inequality. Neither perceived outcomes factor correlates significantly with either individual responsibility factor. The hypo- thesis is not supported. Hypothesis 9 posits a negative correlation between newspaper eXposure and perceived individual responsibility for inequality. The data support this hypothesis for both individual responsibility factors. The more the newspaper exposure, the greater the degree to which "system" factors, such as parents' race, social class, and religion, are seen as influencing one's income, occu- pational, and educational attainment, and the greater the degree to which being unemployed or on welfare is seen as resulting from social forces outside the individ— ual's control. Hypothesis ll predicts a positive correlation between TV entertainment exposure and perceived individual respon- sibility. Hypothesis l6 and 22 predict interactions between TV-entertainment exposure and interracial contact and PRTV respectively in accounting for variance in per- ceived individual responsibility. (However, TV entertain- ment exposure shows no significant relationship with indi- vidual credit or individual blame factors, either alone or in interaction with any of the perceived reality factors. Hypotheses 11, 16 and 22 are not supported. 120 Hypothesis 12 predicts that interracial contact will be negatively associated with the individual responsi- bility factors. The correlations of three interracial contact factors, physical integration, and the summary measure of interracial contact were calculated. Of these, only physical integration showed any relationship with the individual responsibility factors. Integration showed a correlation in the direction predicted with the indi- vidual blame factor that was significant at the .05 level. The correlation of integration with the individual credit factor was of borderline significance (.059). The results for Hypothesis 12 show only limited support for the relation- ship between interracial contact and individual respon- sibility. Hypothesis 19 predicts that the greater the perceived reality of the presentations of material conditions of blacks and whites on TV, the greater the perceived indi- vidual responsibility for inequality. Five perceived reality indices were examined: perceiVed representative- ness of economic outcomes (positive), perceived represen- tativeness of political portrayals, perceived represen- tativeness of economic outcomes (negative), perceived representativeness of black and white inputs, and perceived congruence of black and white outcomes. Only one of these, perceived representativeness of economic outcomes, showed a significant correlation with either responsibility factor (.2033, p= .01, with individual credit). It should be 121 noted that this perceived reality factor is the factor most directly concerned with the type of information in- volved in the perceived credit factor, since it is involved with judgments of income levels, educational levels, and middle class status. Still, the correlations provide inconsistent support for the hypothesis. Two hierarchical regressions, one using the perceived representativeness items as predictors and the other using the parallel perceived congruence items, were run for each individual responsibility factor. The two regressions for the individual credit factor are presented in Table 14. The regression results for the individual blame factor are shown in Table 15. None of the regressions achieved a strong level of prediction. For the individual credit equation, the only significant coefficient was for Perceived Reality (repre- sentativeness) of positive economic outcomes. This is consistent with the correlations. In neither equation was an appreciable proportion of variance accounted for: .1057 for the equation including the perceived represen- tativeness items, and .0634 for the perceived congruence equation. In both cases, the overall F was nonsignificant. For perceived individual blame, the equations account for a slightly greater proportion of variance: R2 was .1203 in the equation including PRTV—representativeness, and .1319 in the perceived congruence equation. The overall F for both equations was still nonsignificant. 122 Table 14 Equations Predicting Perceived Individual Credit for Desirable Socio-Economic Outcomesa Equation I II (represen- Variable tativeness) (congruence) Sex -.0430 -.0387 S.E.S .0977 .0748 N.P. Exposure -.ll79 -.l456 TV News Exposure .0671 .0272 TV Sports Exposure .0644 .0531 Interracial Contact (IC) -.0926 -.0972 TV Entertainment Exposure (TV) .0494 y .0650 Exposure to TV Blacks -.0409 -.0281 Perceived Outcome (-) .0134 -.0042 Perceived Outcome (+) -.0025 .0049 PRTV-Positive Economic (+) .2382** PRTV-Government -.0011 PRTV-Negative Economic (-) -.0410 PRTV-Congruence .0847 PRTV-Inputs .0097 IC X TV -.0358 -.0174 PRTV (+) X TV -.0762 PRTV-Government X TV -.0260 PRTV (-) X TV . .0706 PRTV-Congruence X TV -.1121 PRTV-Inputs X TV .0290 R2=.1057 R2=.0634 =.8584 =.5545 p = .634 p = .875 N = 158 N = 143 Note. This table contains hierarchical regression estimates of standardized B weights. - aIndividual Credit involves individual responsibility for primarily three types of outcomes: income, occupation, and education. The greater the score, the greater the degree to which individual differences are seen as responsible for inequality involving these outcomes. *p s .05 **p s .01 123 Table 15 Equations Predicting Perceived Individual Blame O . U C a for UndeSirable Scolo-Economic Outcomes Equation I II (represen- Variable tativeness) (congruence) Sex .1433 .1214 S.E.S .0875 .0206 N.P. Exposure —.1844* -.1864* TV News Exposure .1062 .0916 TV Sports Exposure -.0133 -.0686 Interracial Contact (IC) -.1740* -.l453 TV Entertainment Exposure (TV) -.0423 -.0057 Exposure to TV Blacks .0571 .0887 Perceived Outcome (-) -.0819 -.1187 Perceived Outcome (+) .0515 .0244 PRTV-Positive Economic (+) -.0457 PRTV-Government -.0135 PRTV-Negative Economic (-) -.0207 PRTV-Congruence .0731 PRTV-Inputs -.0126 -.0582 IC X TV .0707 .0733 PRTV (+) X TV -.Ol98 PRTV-Government X TV .0416 PRTV (-) X TV -.0069 PRTV-Congruence X TV -.1295 PRTV-Inputs X TV -.0676 -.0725 R2=.1203 R2=.1319 =.9934 F=l.2870 p = .249 p = .220 N = 158 N = 143 Note. This table contains hierarchical regression esti- mates of standardized B weights. aIndividual Blame involves individual responsibility for primarily two types of outcomes: being unemployed, and being on welfare. The greater the score, the greater the degree to which individual differences are seen as respon- sible for inequality involving these outcomes. *p g .05 **p s .01 124 Newspaper exposure was the strongest predictor in both individual blame equations at the time of inclusion: con- trolling for sex, S.E.S., and TV news and sports exposure, the greater the newspaper exposure, the less the tendency to blame the individual for being unemployed or on welfare. Interracial contact was the only other significant pre- dictor in the "representativeness" equation: controlling for sex, S.E.S., TV news and sports exposure, and news- paper exposure, the greater the interracial contact, the less the degree to which the individual is perceived to bear responsibility for unemployment or welfare-recipient status. The coefficient for interracial contact was atten- uated to borderline significance (.087) in the "congruence" equation. If the cases on which the “representativeness" equa- tion was estimated were used in an equation including only the first six variables entered, the result would be a significant prediction equation (R2 = -0947, F = 2.634, p = .019). The overall equation is nonsignificant because of a lack of contribution from the final 15 pre- dictors. The significant contribution of interracial contact in the regression equation predicting individual blame, in spite of the nonsignificant correlation between the interracial contact summary measure and this factor, sug- gests that correlations with one or more of the first five variables (Sex, S.E.S., NP exposure, TV news exposure, 125 and TV sports exposure) are serving to suppress the nega- tive relationship between interracial contact and indi- vidual blame.. The regression results then, provide addi- tional support for hypotheses 9 and 12. Perceived Relative Inputs H1: 12‘ 16‘ 18' The greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between black and white socio-economic rewards, the greater the per- ceived difference (in favor of whites) between the inputs of whites and the inputs of blacks. The greater the TV news exposure, the greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between the inputs of whites and the inputs of blacks. The greater the TV entertainment exposure, the greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between the inputs of whites and the inputs of blacks. Interracial contact will interact with tele- vision exposure, such that the less the amount of interpersonal contact with blacks, the greater the impact of television portrayals. The greater the perceived reality of TV por— trayals of black and white material conditions, the greater the perceived difference (in favor 126 of whites) between the inputs of whites and the inputs of blacks. H23: The perceived reality of television portrayals of black and white material conditions will interact with television entertainment expo- sure such that the greater the PRTV, the greater the impact of television exposure on the perceived difference between black and white inputs. Table 16 shows the correlations of the set of pre- dictors implied by hypotheses l, 5, 12, 16, 18, and 23, with the perceived relative inputs measures. Recall that the inputs measure was a ratio of the value of goods and services perceived to be produced by the average white, over the value of goods and services believed to be pro- duced by the average black. The greater an individual's score on this measure, therefore, the less he or she sees blacks as contributing to the economy when compared to white contributions. Hypothesis 1 predicts that perceived relative (white/ black) outcomes should correlate positively with perceived white/black inputs. This hypothesis is supported for the perceived positive outcomes factor, but not for the perceived negative outcomes factor. The belief that whites received more than blacks (in terms of income and educa- tional levels, political influence, and social class mem- bership) seemed to be associated with a corresponding 127 Table 16 Pearson Correlations of Perceived White/Black Inputsa with Hypothesized Predictors Perceived Predictors White/Black Inputs Perceived Outcomes (+)b .287 (180)** Perceived Outcomes (-) .024 (180) TV News Exposure .118 (182) TV Entertainment Exposure (TV) -.035 (182) Exposure to TV Blacks -.121 (182)* 1c Factor 1° -.055 (178) IC Factor II -.066 (178) IC Factor III -.052 (178) Integration -.088 (180) IC (Summary) -.073 (178) PRTV-Positive Economic (+) -.397 (l74)** PRTV-Government .049 (174) PRTV-Negative Economic (-) .077 (174) PRTV-Congruence -.041 (156) PRTV-Inputs .130 (183)* PRTV (+) X TV .442 (l7l)** PRTV-Government X TV -.043 (171) PRTV (—) X TV -.119 (171) PRTV-Congruence X TV .074 (143) PRTV-Inputs X TV -.018 (180) IC X TV .087 (175) aThe Perceived Inputs variable is measured as the (per- ceived) value of goods and services produced by the average white, divided by the (perceived) value of goods and services produced by the average black. score, then, reflects a relatively more favorable view A higher of white inputs and a less favorable view of black inputs. bThe Positive Outcomes factor involves measures of (per- ceived) government influence, income, schooling, and class membership. Since it is scored as a white/black ratio, the higher the score, the less favorable are perceived black outcomes, relative to white outcomes. CIC stands for interracial contact. *P s .05 **p s .01 128 perception that whites also contributed more than blacks. Hypothesis 12 is not supported by the results of the zero-order correlation analysis. TV entertainment exposure shows no measurable relationship with perceived relative inputs. Exposure to TV blacks shows a signifi- cant correlation with perceived white/black inputs, but in the opposite direction from that predicted for enter- tainment exposure in hypothesis 12. The greater the expo- sure to TV blacks, the smaller the ratio of white over black inputs. Exposure to programs featuring black stars seems from this to be associated with legs racism in the evaluation of the contributions of blacks and whites. The correlation between TV news exposure and perceived relative inputs of blacks and whites is in the direction hypothesized, but of borderline significance (p = .057). The results do not suggest strong support for Hypothesis 5. Hypothesis 16 concerns an interaction effect between interracial contact and TV entertainment exposure. There are no significant correlations between interracial con- tact and perceived relative inputs, and no detectable interaction effect with television exposure. Hypothesis 18 and Hypothesis 23 concern PRTV effects. Two significant correlations are found.between PRTV measures and perceived relative inputs. However, only the smaller correlation, that for perceived reality of black and white ,inputs, is in the direction hypothesized. The greater the perceived reality of inputs, the greater the perceived 129 difference (in favor of whites) between the inputs of blacks and the inputs of whites. The opposite relation- ship appears for the perceived reality of black and white material conditions and perceived relative inputs. In addition, there is an interaction effect between the PRTV- positive-economic factor and television entertainment expo- sure. This is the strongest zero-order relationship in- volving perceived relative inputs. Table 17 shows the results of the two hierarchical regression analyses predicting perceived relative inputs of blacks and whites. In both regression equations, significant F statis- tics were obtained. Each set of predictors predicted perceived white/black inputs at significantly better than chance levels. In terms of specific predictors, TV news exposure was significantly positively related to perceived white/black inputs, controlling for sex, S.E.S., newspaper exposure, and TV sports exposure. TV entertainment expo- sure contributed a significant increment of variance when added to the other media, interracial contact, and control variables, at least in the equation using perceived con- gruence as the measure of PRTV. It was of borderline significance in the equation including representativeness items. Exposure to TV blacks failed to contribute signifi- cantly in addition to the general measures of TV-entertain- ment exposure. Perceived positive outcomes positively 130 Table 17 Equations Predicting Perceived White/Black Inputsa Equation I II (represen- Variable tativeness) (congruence) Sex -.0474 -.0436 S.E.S .1089 .1070 N.P. Exposure -.0432 -.0364 TV News Exposure .1991* .2024* TV Sports Exposure -.0426 -.0363 Interracial Contact (IC) -.0856 -.0780 TV Entertainment Exposure (TV) -.1659 -.l840* Exposure to TV Blacks -.1028 -.0957 Perceived Outcome (-) .0910 .1094 Perceived Outcome (+) .2530** .2547** PRTV-Positive Economic (+) -.4294** PRTV-Government .0123 PRTV-Negative Economic (-) .0970 PRTV-Congruence -.1l97 PRTV-Inputs .1623* .1647 IC X TV .0845 .0534 PRTV (+) X TV .3325** PRTV-Government X TV -.0348 PRTV (-) X TV -.1372* PRTV-Congruence X TV .0806 PRTV-Inputs X TV -.0024 -.0120 R2=.4329 R2=.l969 F=5.544 F=2.076 p = .000 p = .015 N = 158 N = 143 Note. This table contains hierarchical regression esti- mates of standardized B weights. aPerceived Inputs is measured as perceived white inputs divided by perceived black inputs. A higher score, then, reflects a relatively more favorable view of white contri- butions, and a less favorable view of black contributions. bPerceived Positive Outcomes is measured as a white/black ratio. The higher the score, the less income, education, . governmental influence, and access to middle-class stand- ing are perceived to accrue to blacks, when compared to whites. *p s .05 **p s .01 131 predicted perceived white/black inputs, as hypothesized, when controlling for media exposure, sex, S.E.S., and interracial contact. That is, the perception that whites receive more predicts a perception that whites produce more. There were two significant predictors among the set of PRTV variables, both of which were "representativeness" measures. PRTV-positive economic outcomes related strongly and negatively to the criterion variable, while PRTV- inputs showed a smaller positive impact, controlling for all previously—entered variables and other perceived reality measures. Two PRTV X TV interactions showed significant effects, controlling for all other variables in the equation. The PRTV-positive outcome by TV-entertainment interaction and the PRTV-negative outcomes by TV interaction were both significant. An examination of later stages of the SPSS hierarchical regression output was revealing in regardtxaTV-entertainment effects. What is noteworthy is that the introduction of the PRTV X TV interaction terms results, when a simul- taneous estimation model is employed, in the practical disappearance of the TV-entertainment main effect. It . would seem then that what earlier appeared to be the main effect of TV exposure on perceived relative inputs was in fact due entirely to the interaction of PRTV with tele- vision exposure. 132 Relative Stereotype Favorability H3: 13‘ 14‘ 20‘ 24‘ The greater the perceived difference (in favor of whites) between black and white socio-economic rewards, the greater the negative stereotyping of blacks in comparison to whites. The greater the TV news exposure, the greater the negative stereotyping of blacks in compari- son to whites. The greater the exposure to television sports, the greater the negative stereotyping of blacks in comparison to whites. The greater the TV entertainment exposure, the less the negative stereotyping of blacks in relation to whites. The greater the interracial contact with blacks, the less the negative stereotyping of blacks in relation to whites. The greater the perceived reality of TV por- trayals of black and white character traits, the less the negative stereotyping of blacks in relation to whites. ' The perceived reality of television portrayals of black and white character traits will interact with television entertainment exposure, such that the greater the PRTV, the greater the impact of television exposure. 133 Table 18 shows the correlations between relative favorability of stereotypes and the individual hypothe- sized predictors. Recall that the stereotype favorability measure was a composite of scores on six adjectives-- intelligent, hard-working, honest, cruel, ambitious, and rude--each of which was weighted by a coefficient reflect- ing its favorability or unfavorability. Since the stereo- type index was a difference score--white minus black favorability--the higher the score, the greater the ten- dency to view whites more favorably than blacks. In other words, a higher score can be seen as reflecting a more racist attitude. Significant zero-order relationships were found for TV news exposure, TV sports exposure, the summary measure of interracial contact, and exposure to TV blacks. All significant correlations were in the direction predicted. Support is therefore given to hypotheses 6, 7, and 14. Hypothesis l3, relating TV entertainment exposure to rela- tive stereotype favorability is not supported in relation- ship to the overall index of TV exposure, but is supported in relation to exposure to content featuring blacks. No support is shown for Hypothesis 3. There is no zero-order relationship between perceived relative outcomes of whites and blacks and relative favorability of stereo- types. The relationships between PRTV and stereotype favorability are nonsignificant, but borderline in the direction predicted. 134 Table 18 Pearson Correlations of Relative Stereotype Favorabilitya with Individual Predictors Predictors Wh-Bl ST-Favorability Perceived Outcomes (+) .047 (181) Perceived Outcomes (-) -.085 (181) TV News Exposure .140 (184)* TV Sports Exposure .152 (187)* TV Entertainmgnt Exposure -.004 (185) I.C. Factor I -.103 (182) I.C. Factor II -.097 (182) I.C. Factor III -.065 (182) Integration -.055 (184) I.C. (Summary) -.116 (182)* PRTV-Stereotypes -.105 (186) (representativeness) PRTV-Stereotypes -.011 (180) (congruence) PRTV-ST Representativeness X TV -.112 (183) PRTV-ST Congruence X TV .101 (177) Exposure to TV Blacks -.131 (185)* aStereotype favorability was measured in terms of percen- tages of blacks and whites believed to be described by six adjectives: intelligent, hard-working, honest, cruel, ambitious, and rude. Since white-black difference scores were used, a higher score on the stereotype favorability variable would reflect a less favorable opinion of blacks, when compared to whites. bI.C. stands for interracial contact. *p < .05 **p < .01 135 Table 19 presents the results from the regression analyses with hierarchical inclusion predicting perceived relative stereotype favorability. Both regression analyses are significant to a high, and similar, degree. This similarity is no doubt due to an absence of PRTV effects in both equations. The major differences between the two equations were higher coefficient estimates for TV news and sports exposure in the analysis using the perceived congruence factor. Also seen is the attenuation of interracial contact effects in the perceived congruence equation. There are no signi- ficant interaction effects in either equation. All regression results are consistent with the find- ings for zero-order correlations except one: the signifi- cant incremental impact of TV entertainment exposure, controlling for sex, S.E.S., interracial contact, and newspaper, TV news, and TV sports exposure. It is likely that correlations with other variables are suppressing the TV-entertainment/stereotyping relationship in the correlation analysis, and the partialling process in the regression analysis allows the suppressed relationship to surface. Exposure to TV blacks is of borderline (.06) significance as a predictor of relative stereotype favor- ability when entered after the overall entertainment index. It should be noted that the removal of cases in the 3congruence" equation with no contact with blacks not only attenuated the Beta estimate for interracial contact, 136 Table 19 Equations Predicting Relative White/Black Stereotype Favorabilitya Equation I II (represen- Variable tativeness) (congruence) Sex .0972 .0251 S.E.S. .1166 .1394 N.P. EXposure .-.0212 .0144 TV News Exposure .1997* .2681** TV Sports Exposure .1893* .2136* Interracial Contact (IC) -.l606* -.1297 TV Entertainment Exposure (TV) -.2046* -.1956* Exposure to TV Blacks -.l444 -.0820 Perceived Outcomes (-) -.0746 -.0652 Perceived Outcomes (+) -.0260 -.0362 PRTV Stereotypes .0011 (representativeness) PRTV Stereotypes .0353 (congruence) IC X TV .0008 -.0255 PRTV-Representativeness X TV - 0622 PRTV-Congruence X TV -.0240 R2=.l773 R2-.l907 F=2.388 F-2 339 p = .006 p = .008 N = 158 N = 143 Note. This table contains hierarchical regression esti- mates of standardized B weights. aStereotype favorability was measured in terms of percen- tages of blacks and whites believed to be described by six adjectives: intelligent, hard-working, honest, cruel, ambitious, and rude. Since white-black difference scores were used, a higher score on the stereotype favorability variable would reflect a less favorable opinion of blacks, when compared to whites. *p 5 .05 **p < .01 137 but also reduced the size of coefficients for both TV entertainment variables. This provides indirect support for the prediction of greater TV effects among those indi- viduals with no interracial contact. Perceived Affluence of Whites H10: The greater the exposure to television fictional entertainment content, the greater the level of perceived affluence of whites. H17: The greater the perceived reality of TV portrayals of black and white material condi— tions, the greater the level of perceived affluence of whites. H21: The perceived reality of television portrayals of black and white material conditions will interact with television entertainment exposure, such that the greater the PRTV, the greater the impact of TV on the perceived affluence of whites. Pearson correlations of TV entertainment eXposure, perceived reality of television measures and interactions with four measures of the perceived affluence of whites are presented in Table 20. The four measures of perceived white affluence are: perceived mean white income; per- ceived percentage of whites who are in the middle-class or higher; perceived percentage of whites who are unemployed; and estimated average number of years of schoolingifinrwhites. 138 Table 20 Pearson Correlations of TV Entertainment Exposure, PRTV, and Interactions with Four Measures of White Outcomes Perceived White Outcomes % Middle- Unemploy- Predictors Class Schooling Income ment TV-Entertainment .107 -.039 .011 -.066 PRTV-Pos Econ .210** .008 .010 .049 PRTV-Neg Econ —.062 -.029 .101 -.536** PRTV-Govt -.019 -.071 -.133 -.199* PRTV-Inputs .108 .027 .027 .057 PR (+ Econ) X TV -.l78* -.117 -.079 -.039 PR (- Econ) X TV —.014 —.215** -.011 -.205** PR (Govt) X TV -.010 .065 .091 .143 PR-Inputs X TV -.019 .071 -.050 -.064 *p .<. .05 **p g .01 N = 159 TV entertainment exposure shows no significant corre- lations with any of the perceived white outcomes measures. Hypothesis 10 is not supported. Hypothesis 17 is supported in two cases (perceived percent middle class, and perceived percent unemployed). It fails to be supported for years of schooling and mean income measures. Significant inter- actions are found in three of the cases: for percent 139 middle class, years of schooling, and percent unemployed. Multiple regression analyses were conducted for all four criterion variables. For the sake of brevity, tables for these four analyses are not shown, although they are available. HierarchiCal inclusion was employed, as in previously reported regression analyses. The results of the regressions are summarized below. The overall F for the equation predicting the per- ceived percentage of whites who were middle class or higher was 1.434, p = .129, R2 was .147. The overall equation was nonsignificant, and only one significant Beta was found at time of inclusion: perceived reality of black and white positive outcomes was related positively to the criterion, consistent with the hypothesized relation- ship between PRTV and white outcomes. For the equation predicting perceived white income, the overall equation was also nonsignificant: F = 1.290, p = .207, R2 = .135. The only significant predictor was respondent sex, which was related positively to perceived income. Newspaper exposure had a positive coefficient of borderline (.06) significance. No television, PRTV, or interaction variable had any predictive power. The equation for white unemployment did show a signi- ficant F. R2 was .404. F was 5.627, p = .000. Signifi- cant positive predictors at time of inclusion were sex, and the interaction between TV entertainment exposure and PRTV-government. Significant negative predictors 140 were PRTV-negative economic outcomes, and PRTV—government. The equation for white years of schooling was non- significant: R2 = .143, F = 1.388, p = .151., There were three significant predictors at time of inclusion: subject S.E.S., the interracial contact by TV interaction, and the PRTV-negative economic outcomes by TV interaction. S.E.S. and the I.C. by TV interaction were positively related to perceived white years of schooling, while the PRTV by TV interaction was negatively related to the de- pendent variable. Overall, the regression results do not support an hypothesis involving main effects of TV entertainment exposure on perceived white outcomes; however, PRTV and interaction hypotheses may not be rejected on the basis of these f indings . Chapter IV DISCUSSION This study assessed the impact of mass media and direct interracial experience on four dependent variables derived from equity theory and a conflict perspective on race re- lations. The four dependent variables were: perceived relative outcomes; perceived relative inputs; perceived individual (vs. system) responsibility for inequality; and relative favorability of stereotyping. Independent vari- ables were newspaper exposure, television news exposure, TV sports exposure, TV entertainment exposure, interracial contact, and perceived reality of television. The influence of three interactions was also assessed. Twenty-four hypotheses were generated, and integrated into a multivariate model. Bivariate relationships were assessed for each hypothesis using correlation coefficients. Relationships were also assessed within multiple regression analyses, in which different variables could be examined for their independent and additive contributions to the predictive power of a set of independent and control varia- bles. Figure 3 shows a revised model of media and interper- sonal effects on beliefs about race relations which is con- sistent with the results Obtained. Comparing this with the 141 142 .mmcaecuu nuwz ucmumamsoo mflcmsoHumamu mo cofiuomuflc 0:» Op umwmu mnumm m>oam mcmwm .mmanmwum> msocmmopsm on» no some Ou musnwnucoo ou coasmmm mum coHuOflponm mo muouum .wum>oo Op pmuuflsnwm mum mm~bmaum> Aucmccmmmpcwv msocmmoxm .mnuwm Hmmsmo ucmmmnmmu m30HH< .meoz .OOOH usonm mmmwamn co muomwwm uomucoo Hmfiomuumucfl can canoe mmmE mo Hmcoa pomw>om .m musmwm huwaanamcommmm 1 1 AHMMHOHOZV >Bmm x >8 Hmscw>wpsH 1111:1111: 111111 . 1111111111: 1111111 OH x >5 11111 1111uu1111u1 83362158 1111111 111111111 1 1111111 111 111 unmesflwuumusm >9 ‘\\\ Isl-I155Qua-Iii|I.I.|1..Iv \\\\\ musmcH 2?, A mmfioous. Monacou m>wumHom A+V O>flumam. .1. HugomuumucH i ‘r/’/ muuomm PH. . 1% m3oz >9 ’1“ 1’/ Onamomxm m2 ocflmhuomuwum \E flm.m m>flumawm . xmm 143 originally-hypothesized model (Figure 2) helps in focusing on some of the differences between the actual results of this study and those which were predicted. Among the endogenous variables themselves, it was hypothesized that relative (white/black) outcomes would positively predict perceived relative inputs, perceived individual responsibility for inequality, and relatively less favorable stereotyping of blacks. The variable in this group which was seen as most directly related to the original equity theory concept of "justification", and which was therefore expected to exhibit the strongest re- lationship to perceived outcomes, was perceived relative inputs. As expected, perceived inputs showed a significant positive correlation with perceived relative outcomes, consistent with theory. However, the other two variables which were originally seen as possible forms of justifica- tion failed to act in a manner consistent with that role; neither stereotyping nor perceived individual responsibil- ity for inequality demonstrated a significant relationship to the relative outcomes variable. The model in Figure 3 shows, therefore, no paths from perceived relative outcomes to relative stereotyping or individual responsibility. A large number of relationships were posited between media exposure and the four endogenous variables, only some of which were supported. Three hypotheses involved the effects of television news exposure. Positive relationships were predicted be- tween TV news exposure and perceived relative outcomes, 144 perceived relative inputs, and relative favorability of sterrotyping (all in favor of whites). Results showed no support for the first of these, so in the revised model the path from TV news exposure to relative outcomes was removed. The second and third hypotheses were supported, and in each case the prediction was m2£g_strongly supported in the regression results, in which the effects of sex, S.E.S., and other mass media inputs were controlled. TV news exposure appears to be related to the perception that blacks produce relatively less than whites, and are pos- sessed with a relatively less favorable set of character traits. One hypothesis was advanced concerning television sports exposure. It was predicted that greater TV sports exposure would be related to less favorable stereotyping of blacks as compared to whites. This was supported. Two hypotheses were made concerning newspaper exposure effects. The hypothesis that the greater the newspaper exposure, the greater the perceived outcomes of whites in relation to blacks was not supported. In fact, for one of the perceived outcomes factors (negative outcomes), news- paper exposure seemed associated with a perception that whites experienced relatively less favorable outcomes. This is reflected in a change between the model in Figure 2 and the revised model in Figure 3 in the sign given to the causal path running from newspaper exposure to per- ceived relative outcomes. The second hypothesis, that 145 increased newspaper exposure would lead to a greater aware- ness of "system" factors in producing inequality, was sup- ported. Television entertainment exposure was hypothesized to have a wide range of effects. In fact, the sphere of in- fluence of entertainment exposure which was found in this study proved rather small. TV entertainment exposure was expected to predict perceptions of greater affluence for whites, greater perceived individual responsibility for inequality, inputs that were perceived to be more unequal (in favor of whites), and relatively more favorable stereo- types of blacks. Using both an overall entertainment ex- posure measure and a measure of exposure to black content, only the final hypothesis was supported. There was no zero-order or additive relationship of TV entertainment exposure to the perceived affluence of whites, or to attri- butions of individual responsibility. The data involving relative white/black inputs actually support to some degree a relationship opposite to that which was predicted. ‘As a result, the causal path from entertainment exposure to in- dividual responsibility was removed, and the sign of the path from TV entertainment exposure to perceived relative inputs was changed in the revised model. Several possible explanations for the unpredicted (albeit weak) relationship between TV entertainment expo- sure and the perceived inputs of blacks and whites seem to suggest themselves. First, it is possible that inappropriate 146 predictions were made as a result of evaluating TV content without considering the relationship of this content to the rest of the individual's information environment; that is, blacks may indeed be less likely than whites to be shown in productive employment on TV, but still may be shown more favorably in this regard than they are presented by other (media and interpersonal) sources of information available to whites. Second, this measure may be tapping not only perceptions of the relative productivity of blacks and whites, but also the tendency to attribute negative stereotypes to blacks. However, when this result is looked into in greater detail, neither of these explanations is convincing. Separate examinations of the relationship of television entertainment exposure to black and white in- puts reveal no observable television impact on perceived black inputs, although exposure to entertainment content featuring blacks does appear to have a negative relation- ship to perceived white inputs. If this is indeed the main source of the observed relationship between entertainment exposure and perceived relative inputs, it raises some in- teresting questions. What is the nature of portrayals of whites on shows featuring blacks? Are they shown as espe— cially unproductive? What about the content of conversa- tion 32225 whites in these programs? Content analyses directed at answering such questions would be useful, expe- cially if one wished to predict the full impact on other audiences (particularly the black audience) of exposure to black programs. 147 Although a number of hypotheses were advanced concern- ing TV entertainment exposure effects, as well as inter- actions of entertainment exposure with interracial contact and perceived reality of television, the only clearly con- sistent positive result involving a main effect of such exposure was in relation to stereotyping. The greater the TV entertainment exposure, the greater the relative favor- ability of stereotyping of blacks in comparison to whites. It was hypothesized that TV entertainment exposure would interact with perceived reality of television and interracial contact. The latter interaction was discon- firmed in all instances, except for one of four measures of perceived white outcomes. The PRTV by TV interaction did better, significantly predicting perceived relative in- puts and three measures of white affluence. However, both PRTV and interracial contact had wider influence additively than they did in interaction. It was hypothesized that more interracial contact would lead to less relatively negative stereotyping of blacks, and less of a tendency to blame social inequality on individual difference factors. The first of these was partially supported (for individual blame only). The sec— ond was supported consistently. In addition, interracial contact had an unpredicted association with perceived rel- ative rewards, which is shown as an additional causal path in Figure 3. It was a strong negative predictor of per- ceived (white/black) positive outcomes. Perhaps this should 148 not have been a surprise, since not only does interpersonal contact tend to make individuals feel subjectively like they are more alike; it is also to be expected that blacks with whom one would likely have contact in one's neighbor- hood or school would be of similar social status to oneself in actual fact. The perceived reality main effects that were obtained pose a problem of interpretation, particularly since in more than one instance, a single PRTV measure relates to the criterion positively and another PRTV factor relates to the same variable negatively. PRTV for positive economic items is related negatively to perceived (white/black) pos- itive outcomes, while PRTV (government) is related posi- tively to the same outcomes measure. PRTV (positive eco- nomic) is related positively to individual credit and nega- tively to perceived white/black inputs. PRTV (inputs), however, relates positively to the relative inputs variable. It would seem that there are two plausible explana- tions for this. It should be noted that respondents perf ceived the degree to which blacks are portrayed relatively favorably on these material factors to differ greatly de- pending on the particular factor. TV whites were seen as having from 1.2 to 2 times the favorable outcomes as TV blacks on the items making up the PRTV (positive economic) factor, as a sample median. However, the sample perceived TV to be five times as likely to portray blacks as unem- ployed than to so portray whites, and to show whites in government positions nine times as often as blacks. If one 149 learns more from specific TV content which one believes to be representative of the real world, then the fact that perceiving television portrayals of relative proportions of whites and blacks in government to be realistic should predispose one to learn that white and black outcomes are widely different. On the other hand, if one believes gen- eral positive economic portrayals to be a more accurate pic- ture of the true state of affairs, one should learn more from this content and consequently minimize black-white differences. However, it would seem that the seemingly contradic- tory "main effects" of PRTV may be more plausibly inter- preted as effects of prior perceptions on the interpreta— tion of TV content. If the individual thought that there was a large difference between black and white outcomes, he or she would be more likely to perceive TV political percentages as realistic. If on the other hand, he or she perceived whites and blacks to be socio-economically more similar, then the individual would be more likely to rate the positive economic portrayals as realistic. Correla- tional data of this sort does not provide the information needed to conclusively decide between these two alternative explanations, however. As an indication of the degree of such uncertainty as regards the PRTV measures, all paths originating with PRTV or PRTV by TV interactions are shown as dashed lines in Figure 3. PRTV only had an apparent impact in relation to the materially oriented variables. It had no impact, either 150 additively or in interaction, on relative favorability of stereotyping. PRTV of black and white stereotypes has therefore been removed from the revised model in Figure 3. In addition, it should be noted that among the PRTV (ma- terial conditions) factors, only the perceived reality items measuring how representative subjects perceived TV content to be of the real world had any predictive power; none of the variables measuring the perceived congruence of TV with personal experience exhibited any impact on the dependent variables in this study. The results, then, conform to the model proposed at the outset of this research in some respects, but call for revision in others. The resulting revised model has, of course, not been tested, although it could be; it is merely presented here as a convenient way to summarize the obtained results and compare these to the overall model originally proposed. Limitations There are several limitations to this study, and cau- tions are in order, if one wants to avoid inappropriate generalizations. First, this study was conducted with a college student population, with all that this implies: A generally higher S.E.S. than the general population; upwardly mobile; with generally higher-than-average intelligence, and with gen- erally better life chances than the average American. Col- lege students are not those who may feel most immediately threatened by black progress. Exposure to the same media 151 content by a lower class population could lead to quite different results. The results of the present study then should not be freely generalized to populations which differ substantially from the one sampled. One of the negative findings of this study was no apparent interaction between TV-entertainment exposure and interracial contact with blacks in impacting on any of the dependent variables. Unfortunately, it would be a mistake to conclude that this relationship has been fairly tested. Although it was expected that a substantial proportion of the sample would come from schools in large or medium sized cities, where opportunities for interracial contact would be extensive, this did not turn out to be the case. Although a small proportion of the sample had relatively intensive contact with blacks, the majority came from essen- tially segregated environments. One Hundred Twelve of the 188 subjects answering the question about blacks in their high schools reported that less than 3% of their school population was black. Considering the truncated range of this variable in this sample, what is surprising is not that no interaction effects were found, but that so many direct effects of interracial contact managed to manifest themselves. Of course, the highly skewed distribution also leaves open the possibility that the observed inter— racial contact effects that have been noted were the re- sult of a few extreme cases. Clearly, a more diverse sample would be necessary if the full impact of inter- racial contact was to be confidently assessed. 152 This skewed distribution on interracial contact also has implications for evaluating the usefulness of the per- ceived congruence construct. Although perceived reality- congruence exerted no measurable influence, this may have occurred because a substantial proportion of subjects an- swering these questions actually had no real contact with blacks and thus no true basis for providing an answer. The problem with interpreting the observed PRTV "ef- fects" has already been noted. Although a considerable amOunt of retrospective data was included, this was still essentially a cross-sectional study. As such, a given causal direction cannot be assumed in any of the relation- ships observed, although it can be concluded that observed relationships do or do not fit with a given model of causal effects. The special problems of the PRTV measures may have arisen from the effort to obtain a quantitative measure directly related to the particular dependent variables of interest. This may have been carried too far to allow for the extraction of what is conceptually a learning-related construct, rather than a mere comparison of the TV world with a previously-constructed picture of reality. It would perhaps have been better to depart somewhat from the spe- cific content of the dependent measures in constructing the PRTV measure, and instead to attempt to assess aspects of the perceived reality, such as perceived usefulness, which may conceptually be more highly related to social learning processes. 153 Finally, special caution should be exercised in interpreting correlation results concerning the dependent variable, individual responsibility for inequality. It should be noted that the proportion of hypothesized cor- relations which achieved statistical significance at the .05 level barely exceeded chance expectations. This problem is also, of course, reflected in the nonsignificance of the overall regression equations predicting the two individual responsibility factors. Within these limitations, substantive results were still obtained, which suggest several implications and some areas of further research which may be pursued. Implications In this study, mass media and other variables were assessed in a multivariate framework, in terms of their relationships to a diverse set of variables theorized to be related to race relations. Several implications of these findings can be suggested. First, these findings suggest that different media and types of media content have impacts on different sorts of beliefs or perceptions. It was believed at the outset of this research that TV— entertainment effects should be expected in a much broader domain than has often been assumed. It was thought that entertainment exposure could impact on cognitions concern- ing objective political and economic conditions, rather than merely on perceived character traits and social roles, narrowly defined. If this is indeed the case, the evidence 154 is not present in this study. The impact of television entertainment exposure on cognitions seems to be precisely where the more traditional approach to mass media effects would have led us to look: on relative character traits and stereotyping. Perceptions about "what things are" (i.e. material conditions), and even "how things work and why", seem from these results to be influenced by news alone, if by any mass media content at all. Neither do the results of this study justify the con- cerns of media critics concerned about audience effects of what they perceive to be unrealistic or stereotypical por- trayals of blacks. Perhaps television entertainment con- tent does perpetuate an individualist myth, and perhaps it is pervaded by subtle racism. If this is the case, this study nonetheless finds no evidence of negative effects of this content. On the contrary, TV entertainment exposure is related to relative positiveness of character traits attributed to blacks, and to the perception that blacks are relatively mgge productive vis a vis whites. Moreover, where effects of exposure to television blacks are detected (and this measure would be expected to relate in large part to viewing of black situation comedies), they are in the same positive direction as the effects of general televi- sion viewing.' These results suggest rather that where critics con- cerned with minorities and the mass media ought to be dir- ecting.their attention, and their ire, is toward television 155 news. In particular, TV news is associated with more negative stereotypes of blacks in comparison to whites, and to the perception that black contributions are less. Moreover, the impact of television news exposure seems from these results to be equally strong or stronger over- all than the impact of television entertainment. The impact of newspaper exposure, by comparison, seems relatively benign. Although racial inequality, at least in terms of its negative economic impact, seems to be relative- ly downplayed, readers do seem to be more aware of the role of discrimination and inequality of opportunity in produc- ing inequality. These results suggest several possibilities for fur- ther study. First, to what degree can the results (and the revised model following from them) be applied to other pop- ulations: for example, to non-college bound whites. An- other population in relation to which media impacts of the sort examined in this study could be profitably assessed is black Americans, particularly young blacks. The finding of the present study that television viewing has no measur- able effect on whites' perceptions of relative outcomes does not mean that a null effect would be observed with blacks, particularly the large segment of the black popula- tion which is ghettoized and of low socio-economic status. It would not be surprising if it was found that a wider range of information was learned from TV entertainment con- tent among this population than among white college students. 156 Possible differential effects on the respective social perceptions of blacks and whites of exposure to media con? tent is one possible focus of study. In terms of policy implications,it would seem that scholv lars, and political leaders, both black and white, who are concerned about the resurgence of white racism should pay closer attention to the television news, and to local news content as well as network programs. There has been nothing in this area to parallel the long-term and intensive con- tent analyses of entertainment content that have been per- formed over the past 20 years. Perhaps people are indeed only learning minimal amounts of information, in terms of concrete political and social facts, from television news. However, the results of this study suggest that viewers are indeed learning something of social consequence from this exposure. FOOTNOTES lAny obtained score on a measure may be regarded as reflecting three different sources of variance: random error, systematic error, and true score (Zeller & Carmines, 1980). Unreliability refers only to the degree to which the score is affected by random error. Systematic error reflects a source of systematic variance which does not, however, reflect the underlying construct which one is attempting to measure. 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APPENDICES Appendix A Handout Used to Instruct Interviewers on Procedures Perl 165 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Communication Spring, 1981 Perceived Reality of TV Portrayals of Black and White Americans DATA COLLECTION INSTRUCTIONS I. STEP 1: PREPARATION: BEFORE YOU START 1. Collect the items you need to take with you. Checklist: a. instructions b. questionnaires c. interview record sheet d. entry blanks for drawing e. a watch f. a pen 9. 2 folders 2. Practice your interviewing procedure--several times--with another person before going to the dorm to interview people. 3. Don't be overanxious about interviewing. ‘Everybody is a little anxious about interviewing at first. A little practice should help. II. GETTING YOUR INTERVIEWS 1. UNIVERSITY REGULATIONS: You must follow the following procedures in order to interv1ew legally in the dorms. a. Only interview during times when the dorm is officially open. b. Before you go to the f-oor on which you will be interviewing, you must check in at the reception desk. You may be asked how long you expect to be in the dorm. c. Interview only in dorm rooms. Do not go to cafeteria lines, the snack bar, etc. d. Do not go to any room which has a sign saying “No solic1tor or distributors.” e. If (and only if) you follow these rules. you are allowed to interview in dorms. (The source of this information is Personnel Policies for Residence_Hall Advisory Staff, p. VII-I , #4, "Solicitation and distribution for non- revenue producing purposes.") 166 PERCEIVED REALTTY STUDY INSTRUCTIONS 2. WHO TO GET a. b. f. You will be assigned a floor in a campus dorm. Collect your interviews from rooms on that floor. Pick a room to star with and knock on the door. After that room, try every third door until you get your interviews completed. Interview only 1 person per room (the person who answers the door). Do not interview anyone you know persOnahly (no friends or acquaintances). Ask if the person is a freshman (1 year or less at M.S.U.). ONLY interview freshmen. If a persOn refuses to be interviewed. just go on to the next door and continue every third door after thht. 3. PROCEDURE a. b. Knock on the door. Give the following introduction to the person who answers the door: "Hello, I'm doing a mass communication survey. Are you a freshman at M.S.U.?" (If "yes", go on. If ”no", go on to the next room). "We are offering a chance at winning a $20 gift certificate from Wherehouse records to each person who fills out our survey questionnaire. Would you be willing to take a few minutes to fill it out?" If the answer is "yes", give the person a copy of the survey questionnaire and ask him/her to (please) read the instructions carefully and answer all the questions. Tell the person that he/she should f317ik.out by him/herself, without looking in book: or getting other opinions. Tell the person that you will give hin/her a form for the drawing when he/she has completed the questionnaire. 167 e. The person you are interviewing may have questions. If the question is something that is answered in the questionnaire instructions, just point out the part in the instructions that answers the question. Other queStions should be answered in the following way: QUESTION: "Is this for real?" Answer: "Yes". QUESTION: "What do you think?”, etc. Answer: "I'm not supposed to give you my opinion or say anything that might influence you." QUESTION: ."When is the drawing for the records?" Answer: "May 20 or whenever the survey is completed, whichever comes sooner." Any other questions that cannot be answered by pointing to instructions on the questionnaire should be answered: ”I'm sorry, but I can't answer that." f. Do not try to interpret, re-word, or explain any questions to the person who is filling out the questionnaire. 9. If the person you have interviewed asks to know who is doing this study, you can tell them Blake Armstrong in the Communication Department. However, only do this if the person asks. h. After the person has completed the questionnaire, give him/her 1 (and only one) entry blank to fill out. i. Put all completed questionnaires in one folder. j. Take the entry blank, put your name and class on it, and put it in your second TOIder. k. Fill in your “record sheet" for that room. 1. Go on to the next room. III. RECORDING YOUR INTERVIEWS 1. It is important, both for this study and for your extra- credit, for you to keep an accurate record of all your interviews and attempts at interviews. This information should be put down on your "interview record sheet". Record each room you went to, even if it did not result in a completed interview. The following items should be recorded: a. The address you went to. b. The date and time of day you first approached the room. c. What happened: no one home; interview refused; interview begun but not completed; interview completed. d. If the result was a successful interview, also write down the time of day the interview was completed. PER‘ IV. PERCEIVED REALITY STUDY INSTRUCTIONS IV. V. AFTER YOU ARE DONE l. 2. Do not throw away any interview materials. Return everything to the researchers. Return completed questionnaires, entry forms, and other materials at the meeting time and place scheduled. TIME: PLACE: If you have any questions or problems, you can call Blake Armstrong at 353-5035. If you cannot get ahold of Blake Armstrong, you can call Suzanne Terrel at . Please do not give out Suzanne's number to anyone. OTHER IMPORTANT POINTS FORGING DATA Dishonesty in data collection is academic misconduct under University regulations, and is no different from cheating on exams or plagiarism. The researchers will engage in random callbacks in order to verify that the people listed were actually interviewed. At least one respondent will be called back for each interviewer. Anyone who is found faking data will be reported to his/her section instructor, and will have academic misconduct charges filed against him/her with the University. . CONFIDENTIALITY OF DATA All data collected must remain confidential. No one's Opinions should be discussed with anyone except the researchers. No one's opinions should be discussed by name. 169 PERCEIVED REALITY OF TV PORTRAYALS OF BLACK AND WHITE AMERICANS STUDY INTERVIEW RECORD SHEET Your Name : Your class and section: Address date time begun what—happened* time fihishcd *CODES FOR "WHAT HAPPENED”: R a interview refused NH = not home C a interview completed NC a interview begunn but not completed Appendix B Questionnaire PERCE o; PERCEIVED REALITY OF TV PORTRAYALS OF BLACK AND WHITE AMERICANS SURVEY INSTRUCTIONS: THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING IN THIS SURVEY. THIS STUDY IS BEING CONDUCTED BY RESEARCHERS IN THE M.S.U. DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION. THIS QUESTIONNAIRE COVERS A NUMBER OF TOPICS: YOUR BACKGROUND, YOUR USE OF MASS MEDIA AND FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNICATION, AND SOME OF YOUR OPINIONS ABOUT MASS MEDIA AND SOCIETY. THE QUESTIONNAIRE INCLUDES A NUMBER OF VERY DETAILED QUESTIONS CONCERNING HOW REALISTIC YOU THINK TV PORTRAYALS OF BLACK AND WHITE AMERICANS ARE. WE WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF YOU WOULD READ AND CONSIDER EACH QUESTION CAREFULLY. THIS IS NOT A TEST OF ANY KIND. WE ARE INTERESTED IN YOUR OPINIONS, NOT IN CORRECT OR INCORRECT ANSWERS. YOU ARE NOT EXPECTED TO CONE UP WITH NUMERICALLY "CORRECT" ANSWERS TO ALL THE QUESTIONS. PLEASE GIVE YOUR BEST ESTIMATE IF YOU AREN'T SURE ABOUT A PARTICULAR QUESTION. PLEASE ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS: DO NOT LEAVE ANY ITEMS BLANK. ALL THE ANSWERS YOU GIVE WILL BE KEPT COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL. DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME ON THIS QUESTIONNAIRE. ' U THANK YOU. SIC 1115 P16 1‘1. (2 171 SECTION I; MASS MEDIA BACKGROUND INSTRUCTIONS: In this section we would like you to tell us some things about your use of different mass media BEFORE YOU CAME TO M.S.U. Please try to answer all items as accurately as possible. A.- NEWSPAPER READING IN HIGH SCHOOL (1) ON THE AVERAGE, DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, how many days out of the week did you read at least some part of the daily newspaper? (circle one number) 0 1 2 3- 4 5 6 (2) ON THE AVERAGE, DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, about how many minutes did you spend reading a newspaper each weekday? minutes B. TELEVISION WATCHING IN HIGH SCHOOL (3) ON THE AVERAGE, DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, about how many hours of television entertainment programming did you watch on an average weekda ? Do not include time spent watching news or sports. (a) before 6 p.m.? hours (b) after 6 p.m.? hours (4) ON THE AVERAGE, DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, how many hours of entertainment TV (not including news or sports) did you watch on an average Saturday? (a) before 12 noon? hours (b) between 12 noon and 6 p.m.? hours (c) after 6 p.m.? hours (5) ON THE AVERAGE, DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, how many hours of entertainment TV (not including news or sports) did you watch on an average Sande ? (a) before 12 noon? hours (b) between 12 noon and 6 p.m.? hours (c) after 6 p.m.? hours (6) How many of the TV entertainment programs that you watched regularly_DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL had a star or co-star who was black? (for instance, shows like "The Jeffersons", "Benson", ”Good Times“, "Sanford & Son", etc.). Circle the number of programs with black stars or co-stars that you normally watched. (Do not include news or sports programs.) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 or more NO‘ (7 (i ‘1 '1‘1 172 . Now we would like you to tell us about your viewing of SPORTS PROGRAMS on television during your last year in high school. (7) How many hours of television SPORTS did you watch on the average on an ordinary weekday DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL? hours (8) How many hours of television SPORTS did you watch on the average on an ordinary Saturday DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL? hours (9) How many hours of television SPORTS did you watch on the average on an ordinary Sunday DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL? hours Now we would like you to tell us about your viewing of news programs on television during your last year in high school. (10) DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, on the average, how many days out of the week did you watch the national (network) evening news on television? (circle one number) 0 l 2 3 4 5 6 7 (ll) DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, on the average, how many days out of the week did you watch the local evening (6 p.m.) news? 0 l 2 3 4 5 6 7 (12) DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, on the average, how many days out of the week did you watch the late news (ll p.m. or later) on television? . O l 2 3 4 5 6 7 (l3) DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL. on the average, how many days out of the week did you watch early morning news shows? 0 l 2 3 4 S 6 7 (14) ON THE AVERAGE, DURING YOUR LAST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, about how many hours did you spend watching news-related programs like "GO-Minutes","MacNeil-Lehrer", or "20-20", in a week? hours per week 173 SECTION II: DEMOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND INSTRUCTIONS: The items in this section are designed to gather information about your background. Please try to answer all items as accurately as possible. (15) (16) (l7) (18) (19) (20) SEX: Male Female YOUR FATHER'S OCCUPATION: What he does (or did), not where he works. Please be precise: YOUR MOTHER'S OCCUPATION: What she does (or did), not where she works. Please be precise: We would like to know how much formal education your mother has completed. How many years did she attend grade school and high school? (Circle one) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6‘ 7 8 9 10 11 12 How many years did she attend college or trade school? (Circle one) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6‘ 7 8 We would also like to know how much formal education your father has completed. How many years did he attend grade school and high school? (Circle one) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 How many years did he attend college or trade school? (Circle one) 0 l 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 What is your family's average yearly income? (Check one) Under $5000 $5,001 to 10,000 $10,001 to 15,000 $15,001 to 20,000 $20,001 to 25,000 $25,001 to 30,000 $30,001 to 50,000 over $50,000 (2 In 174 (21) We would like to know your ethnic background. Below is a list of ethnic labels which may apply to you. Please check all that apply.~ White American Arab American Black American Hispanic American Oriental American American Indian Jewish Catholic Protestant Italian American German American Polish American Other (please specify): o ‘ ' l SECTION III: SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY INSTRUCTIONS: In this section, we would like you to make a number of numerical estimates on economic and social matters. Even if you don't think you have a very good idea of the right answer, please write down your own best estimate. We are interested in YOUR opinion, not in "right" or "wrong" answers. Different people in American end up making different amounts of money, attaining different levels of education, and working in different sorts of occupations. We would like you to give us your opinion about how important different sorts of factors are in determining where a person ends up. In the following questions, please indicate the percentage of influence you think each factor has. MAKE SURE YOUR PERCENTAGES ADD UP TO 100. (22) "The amount of money a person makes‘in his or her life-depends:“ % on the special advantages or disadvantages he or she receives because of social class, race, sex, the occupation of parents, or the region of the country he or she comes from. % on the person's individual qualities, such as ambition, ability, and motivation. % on other factors (please specify) 100 % TOTAL 175 (23) "The occupation a person ends up with in life depends:" % on his or her parents' occupations, social class, race, or region. 09 on his or her individual qualities, interests, and abilities. as on other factors (please specify) 100 % TOTAL (24) "The level of schooling an individual completes depends:" % on the number and quality of educational opportunities available to him or her (and on other special advantages or disadvantages due to class, race, sex, or region). % on individual qualities, such as intelligence, interest, and drive. % on other factors (please specify) 100 % TOTAL Now we would like you to give us your opinion about why people are unemployed or on welfare. (25) Out of every 100 people who are unemployed, how many would you say are unemployed through no fault of‘tHEir own, and for how many is it their own fault that they are unemployed? Can't help being unemployed. It's not their fault. Don't have to be unemployed. It's their own fault that they don't have a job. 160 TOTAL (26) In your view, out of every 100 people who are on welfare, how many are truly needy, and how many just don't want to work? Truly needy. Don't want to work. 100 TOTAL Cu. 14:}. 176 SECTION Iv: TV REALISM--BLACK AND WHITE SOCIAL STATUS INSTRUCTIONS: In this section, we would like you to make a number of numerical estimates about the economic and social situation of black and white Americans in the United States as it really is, in America as it is shown in TV portrayals, and among Americans you have known or seen personally. We are not interested here in ”correct” or ”incorrect” answers. In fact, for most of these items there are no correct answers. It is your opinion that is of interest to us. ‘PIease give your best answer to each question. Don't leave any questions blank. (27) What would you estimate is the average yearly income of a family of four who are: (a) white, in the U.S. as it really is? 5 /Year (b) black, in the U.S. as it really is? 5 /Year (c) white, as whites are portrayed in fictional TV programs? $ /Year (d) black, as blacks are portrayed in fictional TV programs? 5 /year (e) white Americans you have known personally$ /year (f) black Americans you have known personally$ /year (28) At the present time, out of every 100 people in each of the following groups, how many are unemployed? Use a number between 0 and 100 for each group. (a) white Americans in the U.S. as it really is: (b) black Americans in the U.S. as it really is: (c) white fictional television characters: (d) black fictional television characters: (e) white Americans you have known personally: (f) black Americans you have known personally: 177 (29) About what percentage of the people in each of the following groups would you say are middle-class or higher? between 0 and 100 for each group. (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) white Americans in the U.S. as it really is: black Americans in the U.S. as it really is: white fictional television characters: black fictional televiSion characters: white Americans you have known personally: black Americans you have known personally: Use a number Hi! (30) What is the average grade level in school that is completed by members of each of the following groups? Example: 10 a 10th grade 12 . 12th grade (high school graduate) 14 a 2 years of college 16 = 4 years of college (college graduate) YOU CAN USE ANY NUMBER YOU THINK REPRESENTS THE AVERAGE GRADE LEVEL COMPLETED. (a) (b) (c) (d) (c) (f) white Americans in the U.S. as it really is: black Americans in the U.S. as it really is: white fictional television black fictional television whites like those you have blacks'like those you have characters: characters: known personally: known personally: 178 (31) In the U.S. as it really is, what percentage of elected government‘afficials (at any level of government) are members of each of the following groups? (a) white Americans _____% (b) black Americans % (c) other % TOTAL 100 % (32) In fictional television programs, what percentage of elected government officials are members of each of the following groups? (a) white Americans % (b) black Americans _____§ (c) other _____% TOTAL 100 % (33) On a 0 to 100 scale, what is the value of the goods and services produced by the average member of each of the following groups? Use the scale so that "0" means a person produces nothing, and "100“ means that he or she produces an extremely large amount. (a) average white American in the U.S. as it really is: (b) average black American in the U.S. as it really is: (c) average white American, as whites are portrayed in fictional TV programs: (d) average black American, as blacks are portrayed in fictional TV programs: (34) (35) (3b) (37) (38) (J9) (40) (41) (42> <43) (44> (4 ) (as they really are in the U.S. 179 SLCTIOJ V: TV REALISM--PERSONALITY TRAITS INSTRUCTIONS: In this section, we would like you to compare how black and white Americans are portrayed on television with how black and white Americans are in real life. However, in this section we would like you to make comparisons about personality characteristics instead of economic and social items. below you will find a list of terms describing people may have. For each term listed, please give your best estimate of what percentage of each group's members the term describes. That is, out of every 100 people in each group, how many do you think this term applies to? - different characteristics THERE ARE NO CORRECT OR INCORRECT ANSWERS. There is one column for each group: Column 1 is for white Americans Column 2 is for white Americans as they are shown on fictional television programs. Column 3 is for white Americans you have known personally. Please fill out all columns, and all items. Use a number between 0 and 100 for each answer. . _ WHITE AMER.: WHITE AMER.: - WHITE AMER.: Eggfig REAL LIFE FICTIONAL TV KNOWN TO YOU PERSONALLY intelligent % _§_. % hard-working ~ % % A! % honest . % % % 91.921“ % % % ambitious % % % rude % % % Now, we would like you to make the same comparisons for black Americans in the U.S. as it really is, black Americans as they are portrayed in fictional TV programs, and black Americans you have known personally. What percentage of each of the following groups has each of these characteristics? Use a number between 0 and 100 for each answer. There are no correct or incorrect answers. BLACK AMER. : BLACK AMER.: BLACK NEE. : Words REAL LIFE FICTIONAL TV KNOWN TO YOU PERSONALLY intglligent % % % hard-working % % % honest ~_ % % % 9523} % % % # ambitious“ _ % % % rqdc % g t 180 SECTION VI: INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION BACKGROUND INSTRUCTIONS: In this section, we would like you to give us some information about your interpersonal contact with different groups. We recognize that the amount of such contact depends on a number of different things, including the different opportunities different people have depending on where they grew up and where they went to school. Please answer all of the items as accurately as you can. (46) IN THE HIGH SCHOOL THAT YOU ATTENDED before coming to M.S.U., out of every 100 students, how many were WHITE AMERICANS, how many were BLACK AMERICANS, and how many were members of some other group? Group Number warms AMERICANS _ ULACK AMERICANS OTHER TOTAL ' 100 (47) IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD YOU LIVED IN BEFORE COMING TO M.S.U., out of every 100 people, how many were WHITE AMERICANS, how many were BLACK AMERICANS, and how many were members of some other group? WHITE AMERICANS BLACK AMERICANS OTHER TOTAL 100 (48) Out of your 10 closest FRIENDS OF mus SAME SEX that you had while you werE'in HIGH SCHOOL, how many were white, how many were black, and how many were members of some other group? WHITE AMERICANS BLACK AMERICANS OTHER TOTAL 10 (4‘)) Out of your 10 closest FRIENDS 01“ Tux: OPPOSITE 513x. that you had while you-Were in HIGH SCHOOL, how many were white, how many were black, and how many were members of some other group? WHITE AMERICANS BLACK AMERICANS OTHER TOTAL 10 (50) 181 Of your 5 closest FRIENDS OF EITHER SEX that you had while you were In HIGH SCHOOL, how many were white, how many were black, and how many were members of some other group? WHITE AMERICANS BLACK AMERICANS OTHER TOTAL 5 When you were in HIGH SCHOOL, how many days in an average month would you normally do the following things? Your response should be between 0 and 30 for each question. (51) Visit the home of a friend who: (a) was white? _____ days per month (b) was black? _____ days per month (52) Have a friend over to your house who: (a) was white? ._____ days per month (b) was black? ______days per month (53)Gbuto social events (like concerts, dances, movies) with a friend: (a) who was white? ______days per month (b) who was black? '____; days per month (54)Eat at the same table with a friend who:44 (a) was white? _____ days per.month (b) was black? days per month (55)Get into disputes or serious arguments with a person who: (a) was white? _____ days per month (b) was black? _____ days per month (56) Discuss intimate personal affairs with a friend who: (a) was white? _____ days per month (b) was black? _____ days per month (57) Participate in a sports team or some other organized group which included both blacks and whites? days per month