Inspite of the overwhelming heterosexuality of main-stream news representations, portrayals of homosexual and lesbian people on tv are becoming notably more prevalent since 1997 whenever Ellen became the very first tv series to own a gay character that is leading. This enhance is visible when sexy blonde babes naked you look at the introduction of homosexual figures on numerous programs such as for example Spin City, ER, Dawson’s Creek, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in addition to reveals that give attention to homosexual figures in leading functions such as for example Will and Grace and it’s really All general. In addition, cable channels have actually included shows such as for example Queer as Folk, Six Feet Under, and Oz that depict gay figures much more complex plot lines sufficient reason for more explicit sexual actions.
Even though the presence of lgbt figures might have increased recently on both commercial broadcast and cable sites, it really is ambiguous exactly exactly how usually television addresses the intimate problems and issues of intimate minorities.
As noted previously, when homosexual and lesbian figures have actually been contained in programs, they usually have frequently been portrayed in asexual contexts. Furthermore, the majority of exactly just what happens to be posted up to now about homosexuality and tv is qualitative (including solitary show instance studies), concentrating on just exactly how certain programs have actually portrayed homosexual figures. Although many content analyses have actually evaluated the total amount of sexual content shown on tv generally speaking (Cope Farrar & Kunkel, 2002; Greenberg et that is al; Kunkel et al., 1999, 2003; Kunkel, Cope Farrar, Biely, Maynard Farinola, & Donnerstein, 2001; Sapolsky & Tabarlet, 1991; Ward, 1995), none have actually reported from the prevalence of intimate portrayals and explore sexual dilemmas regarding gays, lesbians, or bisexuals.
This paper centers around factors assessing content that is nonheterosexual had been included as an element of two bigger content analyses examining sexual content more broadly on US television.
Information through the 2001 2002 and 2002 2003 tv periods are acclimatized to respond to questions in regards to the prevalence and regularity of intimate behavior and talk that is sexual to nonheterosexuals. Particularly, the info analyses address two broad research concerns: (1) as to the extent are nonheterosexual intimate themes, especially intimate behavior and speak about sex, present in tv programming general and exactly exactly what habits emerge across system genres, system types, and prime time versus nonprime time development? (2) When nonheterosexual content that is sexual take place, what exactly is its frequency and exactly how does it differ across genres, sort of community, and prime time versus nonprime time programming?
System Examples
A 3 composite week sampling plan ended up being utilized to acquire two large yearly random types of tv programs of interest that is greatest to adolescents and that were comprehensive of many portions associated with the tv industry. Programs had been taped from 11 channels 6 commercial broadcast sites (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN, and WB) and 5 cable sites (BET, Cinemax, HBO, MTV, and Showtime). The Steve Harvey Show, Moesha, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, One on One); WB, which tailors its programming to white youth, with programs such as Gilmore Girls, 7th Heaven, Sabrina, and Smallville; and MTV, which shows music videos and other programs (e.g., dating reality shows) watched by many teens and young adults because the content analyses were part of a larger research project on television exposure and adolescent sexuality, several networks were included because of their appeal to young audiences including UPN, which televises a substantial number of programs with young African American characters ( e.g.
Composite week sampling designs have already been found in past analysis that is content to get representative examples of tv development (Kunkel et al., 1999, 2001, 2003; Madden & Grube, 1994; Wallack, Grube, Madden, & Breed, 1990; Wilson et al., 1997). This sampling strategy involves arbitrarily choosing times of the week or particular time slots for recording over many weeks to cut back prospective bias that might be introduced if all taping had been done inside a calendar week that is single. Recording associated with the test happened mainly over a 7 period in the fall each year week. Because season premiere episodes are staggered through the thirty days of September, we started taping when all nonsyndicated show had been showing episodes through the present period. Each week, three various days of the week had been randomly chosen for taping from all 11 channels, along with 7 days of this week represented 3 times when you look at the sample. The 8 hour time block for taping extended from 3:00 p.m. (of which time youth that is most are out of college) to 11:00 p.m. (through prime time). The entire process of recapturing missed episodes (like those which is why the satellite sign had been lost or even the show was pre empted by sporting or other unique events) proceeded through the entire winter time.