MEDIA CONTACT:
Bradley S. Greenberg
(517) 353-6629
Dana E. Mastro
(517) 432-1286
Karen Twigg
(517) 355-2281
3/18/98
MSU STUDY SHOWS LATINOS UNDERREPRESENTED ON PRIME TIME TV CAST MAINLY ON CRIME SHOWS
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Forget to watch "NYPD Blue" this week? If so, you probably missed seeing 25 percent of all Latinos portrayed on prime time TV.
A Michigan State University study reveals that although Latinos are the second largest minority in the nation, they are distinctly underrepresented on prime time broadcast television. In fact, Latinos constitute only 3.2 percent of the prime time TV population but are 11 percent of the nation's population.
The study also found that 77 percent of the prime time Latino appearances were featured on crime dramas and 30 percent of the Latino characters' conversations revolved around issues of crime and violence. However, the majority of the Latino characters in crime dramas are the cops instead of the criminals.
"Although they are not represented proportionately, they generally are portrayed in a positive light," said Bradley S. Greenberg, University Distinguished Professor of Telecommunication and Communication and study co-author. "No longer are Latino characters restricted largely to roles of buffoons, bandits and illegal immigrants. Although sparse, Latino characters were sometimes better off than characters of other ethnicities."
The relatively few Latino characters found on TV were on average the most motivated and respected among all ethnic groups. They also had the same income, intelligence, physical size and cleanliness as their Anglo and African American counterparts. Remaining stereotypes dealt mostly with appearance; Latinos wore less professional attire and significantly more accessories and jewelry than Caucasians.
"Clearly television has quite a way to go before its prime time population truly reflects the diversity of the United States," said Dana E. Mastro, study co-author and a Ph.D. candidate in the MSU Department of Communication.
The study examined a one-week representative sample of all fictional entertainment programming from the 1996 fall prime time (8-11 p.m. EST) line-ups of ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC. Sports, news, and public affairs programs were excluded. The total programming included 64 shows or 44.5 hours of TV. (over)
This content analysis also determined whether TV perpetuates ethnic stereotypes and identified the dominant images of Latinos on TV. All main and minor speaking characters were tallied based on their role, age, income level, race, and sex. Characters were examined further by physical, behavioral, appearance and conversation characteristics.
The term Latino is used within the study when referring to Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, Puerto Rican-Americans, Central and South Americans and to Spanish-speaking individuals of non-European origin.
Other key findings of the MSU study were:
-- Latinos were less often in main roles. Forty-four percent of all Latinos were in main roles, 52 percent of Caucasians and 56 percent of African Americans.
-- A total of 20 Latinos appeared in the weeklong prime time broadcast television sample. Overall, 16 of the 20 were on crime or adventure shows and four on situation comedies
-- One-fourth or five of the Latino appearances were in an episode of "NYPD Blue," three appeared on an episode of "Nash Bridges," two appeared on an episode of "New York Undercover," two appeared on an episode of "High Incident."
-- Although sitcoms constitute nearly half of all prime time TV shows, Latino characters were in only 20 percent of prime time sitcoms.
-- Also weakly represented were Asian Americans, comprising 1.4 percent of the prime time TV population and 3.6 of the nation's population.
-- Caucasians constituted 80 percent of the TV population of main and minor characters
-- African-Americans constituted a representative niche of 16 percent of the TV population of main and minor characters. African-Americans make up 12 percent of the nation's population.
-- No Native American representation was found.
-- Most Caucasians (51 percent) were on sitcoms
-- African Americans were distributed nearly equally between sitcoms (34 percent) and crime shows (40 percent)
-- Evening soap operas such as "Melrose Place" had zero minority main or minor characters
-- Racial distribution differed in terms of program length, with Latinos most likely to appear on hour-long shows and Caucasians on half-hour shows
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