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Missing the Market:
Character Salience in Television Program Websites
James R. Angelini
Debbie P. C. Goh
Jason A. Rosow
Tyler Dodge
Wenchang Deng
Na Zhou
Susan Tyler Eastman
Indiana University, Bloomington
Correspondence:
James R. Angelini
Doctoral Student
Dept. of Telecommunications
1229 E. Seventh Street
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405-5501
Tel: (812) 323-2615
Fax: (812) 855-7955
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Manuscript submitted to
Mass Communication and Society Division
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
April 1, 2005
ABSTRACT
The television media promote primetime programs in ways that reflect
different target markets. Analysis of the gender, ethnic, and age
demographics of 1306 images of characters on the six broadcast
networks' 124 program websites showed close similarities between old
and new media in gender and ethnicity stereotyping but not in age
stereotyping. In addition, an index of character and program salience
measured the relative prominence of characters by demographic type.
Missing the Market:
Character Salience in Television Program Websites
Over the five decades of television's history, scores of studies
have documented the changing patterns of media coverage in terms of
gender, ethnicity, and age . These studies generally arise from the
belief that distorted or misleading portrayals of social groups may
lead to negative social consequences for those groups . One of the
primary purposes of such research has been to determine the magnitude
of television network representations of racial minorities, women,
and individuals of varying ages because relative proportions for
excluded groups have been interpreted as contributing to the
reinforcement of existing stereotypes . Television portrayals have
been shown to have an impact on lasting beliefs about an individual's
own social groups, as well as other groups' status in the larger,
general societal context . This study extends investigation of
television character portrayals tp the new media of network program
websites to determine whether they have the potential for mitigating
or exacerbating television's social stereotyping problem.
Cultivation theorists argue that television has long-term effects
that are small, gradual, and indirect but cumulative and significant
. They emphasize the effects of television viewing on the attitudes
rather than the behaviors of viewers. Heavy watching of television is
seen as "cultivating" attitudes that are more consistent with the
world depicted in television programs than with the everyday world .
This research agenda has produced a large body of work that
highlights the importance of analyzing the kinds of people appearing
in programs on the grounds that the content of television affects
some people's attitudes and values, and it leads to subjugation and
the reproduction of historical inequalities. This rationale has also
been applied in studies about promoting programs to viewers,
contending that on-air promos have special importance because people
who do not watch many of the promoted programs nonetheless are
influenced by the promos they see in great quantities .
George Gerbner and his associates relate the formation of attitudes
and values about various social groups to amounts and kinds of
television consumption. Although traditional cultivation theorists
primarily limit the scope of their theory to "heavy" viewers, recent
work by Zillmann (1999, 2002) has demonstrated the utility of
expanding the horizon of media influence to include less compulsive
viewing. His exemplification theory posits that extended distribution
of events or images defines them as exemplars, irrespective of any
distortion, and exemplars are bound to influence related concepts and
behaviors . In particular, many scholars have shown that continued
exposure to the televised portrayals of various social groups,
particularly those groups of which the viewer is not a member,
corresponds to stereotypical attitudes about gender , race/ethnicity
, and age .
It is well understood that television programs deal in visual and
auditory stereotypes for quick and efficient communication with a
large and varied audience. Analyses of primetime programming has
repeatedly shown that white male characters overwhelmingly dominate
television portrayals, especially of figures of authority, and that
television under-represents the young, the old, and all minority
groups except, in recent years, African Americans, and that most
characters are visualized with easily-recognized stereotypical
attributes. Furthermore, researchers have found that promotional
messages were a microcosm of primetime programs that also powerfully
underrepresented younger and older people, as well as women and
ethnic minorities, in stereotyped roles, and thus potentially
contributed to viewers' skewed understandings of groups' social positions .
The focus of these previous content analyses of television
portrayals, however, has been limited to programs themselves and
on-air promotion of them (or advertising images) and has ignored the
increasing relevance and importance of the new media, especially
Internet web pages. This shortcoming is surprising given the
importance of the networks' official websites dedicated to television
programs. For such shows as Survivor (II, Vanuatu, Australian
Outback), it has been argued that the official websites may have been
as important to audiences as the programs themselves . Not only the
audiences but also the networks have a considerable investment in
program websites, which have cost networks millions of dollars to
develop . Indeed, although program websites possess a high
entertainment component, they serve as more than mere novelties: They
can increase program audiences and generate significant revenue .
Online promotion offers a unique opportunity for examining some
fundamental differences between old and new promotional media. First,
while broadcast promos for programs are primarily persuasive media,
Internet web pages are largely informational media . That is, on-air
promos, radio spots, billboards, and periodical advertisements are
all media that aim to persuade potential viewers to watch, listen, or
subscribe. In contrast, online sites must be sought out by Internet
users on computers or mobile phones, and those users are typically
searching for some kind of information or experiential enhancement of
their television experience. Furthermore, on-air and most print media
messages tend to approach the audience member, whether that person is
interested or not, while online media have to be purposively accessed
by the user to serve that person's needs. Still, this is not to
minimize the role of media as entertainment: Both persuasive and
informational promotional messages must be visually and auditorily
engaging to command the audience's attention.
Second, on-air and online promotional messages have differing
contextual and structural attributes.[1] A broadcast promo is
necessarily presented next to or within another program; it may be
situated within a popular or unpopular program, and it may be
surrounded by many other commercial messages or be relatively
isolated, but in any case, the promo is secondary to the program and
an interruption to it. In contrast, an online promotion normally
consists of numerous web pages and links, constituting an extended
experience, thus being the principal content rather than an
interlude. Program web sites can be likened to on-air programs, while
banner ads and pop-ups are the functional equivalent of on-air
promos. Further, a broadcast promo appears at a network-determined
time and with a fixed duration, and viewers cannot normally extend or
repeat the spot (except with TiVo-like DVR controls). In contrast,
web-based program sites are persistent and available anytime and are
intended for active manipulation. Moreover, web sites consist of both
general introductory pages (the home page for a network, the usual
entry path) and program specific pages (beginning with splash pages
of varying lengths that are connected to other pages and sites by
click-on links), a structure not at all parallel to on-air promotion.
Accessing of program websites varies by genre (greater for reality
and some dramas), while on-air promos tout programs of all
entertainment genres proportionate to the individual network's
economic need. Still, despite the widespread use of online program
sites by television audiences, little is known about their
composition in terms of character portrayals and their relationship
to broadcast promos.
Foundational Questions
In an attempt to fill this lacuna, we begin by asking general
research questions to establish some baselines for studying online
program promotion.
RQ1: What is the proportionate distribution of the gender, ethnicity,
and ages of program characters portrayed on program splash pages and
network home pages? How do the distributions of characters' gender,
ethnicity, and age on web pages compare with the proportions for
characters in on-air promos and programs reported in other studies?
At the same time, we must ask whether systematic variations between
the six networks or between program genres confound interpretation of
any results.
Beyond Quantity
Although the frequency and proportion of portrayals has been shown
to impact viewer beliefs, a new theoretical lens has developed that
illuminates the role of portrayals as a key factor in distinguishing
viewer impact. Salience Theory contends that effectiveness in program
promotion arises from maximal prominence of certain structural and
content variables that collectively create an advantage that
positively affects a promoted program's ability to attract an
audience . Although Salience Theory has traditionally been applied to
on-air promotion, by extension, it also suggests that maximally
salient character portrayals in online program promotion may
influence website use and, as a function of repetition and selective
prominence, viewers' beliefs about demographic groups.
This study extends research about the salience of promotional
messages in three ways. First, it adapts the attributes of salience
that have been previously demonstrated for broadcast promos to the
programs and characters appearing on network promotional web sites.
Second, it suggests new attributes of salience that are specific to
web sites, namely selective sound and motion. Third, it introduces
the use of salience indexes for characters and web pages as a method
of summarizing relative prominence so that producers' treatment of
characters and programs can be evaluated. Because applying salience
theory to program web pages requires adapting it to the unique
affordances of the online context, two research questions address the
relationships between the portrayals of social groups.
RQ2: As measured by an index of image salience elements, on average,
how much salience is allotted to women and minority characters, in
relation to the averages for the other gender and ethnic groups
portrayed on program splash and network home pages?
It would be valuable to know whether any particular elements
contribute significantly to the amount of image salience for
particular gender, ethnic, or age groups. In other words, does
prominence for white male characters or young adults come from
particular web page elements? Another aspect of the relationship is
whether a program's salience index is closely related to each show's
popularity.
RQ3 Is there a significant correlation between the salience indexes
for specific programs on their web splash pages and the program's
current rating?
Proportion, Salience, and Portrayals
The large body of research about character portrayals in broadcast
programs and promotion, when combined with recent literature
regarding Internet websites, points to some predictions about what
might be expected regarding the proportion and salience of portrayals
on Internet web pages. Both a study of television programs and a
study of television promos concluded that television continues to
overwhelm viewers with images of white men while placing women and
minority characters in supporting roles. Clearly, in program and
promos analyses, men are overrepresented in the population of
television characters while women are underrepresented . Although
African-Americans are now generally represented on television in
proportion to their U.S. Census numbers, Hispanics, Asians, and
Native Americans remain markedly unrepresented . Thus, we safely
predict two outcomes:
H1: On program web pages, the proportions of male and white
characters will be higher than female and other ethnic group characters.
Although it has been argued that characters in the age group 18 to 49
are overrepresented in programs and promos, while all other age
demographics are underrepresented, the Internet may be different .
Analyses of contemporary Internet users consistently conclude that
teens and young adults are more likely to use the Internet than other
age groups , despite recent rises in use by older adults . Moreover,
most television networks strive to attract younger not older adult
viewers to please advertisers, and Internet use is greatest among the
younger age group. Thus, given that a chief goal of promotion is to
generate connections and identification with the characters by users
, we predict that
H2: The proportion of teens and young adult characters promoted in
web pages will be significantly larger than the proportion of any
other age group.
Looking at broadcasters' websites, researchers have sought to
identify the changes and continuities in notions of the audience from
on-air to online, concluding that the television networks have merely
expanded from on-air to online but not really changed their
conceptions of audiences as target groups . Accordingly, in
comparisons with Eastman and Walker (2005), we should not expect big
differences between new and old media.
H3: The proportions for gender and ethnic in web pages will not
differ significantly from their overall proportions in on-air promos, while the
proportions of teens and young adults will be larger on web pages than
in on-air promos.
Nonetheless, television programming has witnessed an emergence of
network specific variation in target audiences even at the broadcast
level. ABC, CBS, and NBC generally target the largest possible
audiences, and FOX targets teens and younger adults, while UPN and
the WB predominantly seek either male or female viewers, and UPN has
proportionately more programs with African-American roles. Thus, we
can confidently expect that
H4: The gender, ethnicity, and age of characters depicted on web
pages will differ significantly by network, reflecting programming
for different target audiences.
Furthermore, contemporary television programming includes only
limited number of television genres within primetime, consisting of
comedies, dramas, reality, sports, and news. Because notable
differences by genre have emerged in previous studies , particular
genres may be associated with particular types of character
portrayals. Specifically, such reality programs as Survivor, Fear
Factor, and Amazing Race, may be associated with different age groups
than situation comedies or dramas. Given the diversity found in
programs of specific genres, we predict that
H5: The gender, ethnicity, and age of characters depicted on web
pages will differ significantly by genre.
Going beyond demographic quantities, we can look at the prominence of
characters and programs. Although the salience index is a new and
untested tool for measuring differences in web page promotion, it
draws on a sizable body of measurement of salience within on-air
promotion. Given the prevalence of white males both as television
characters and Internet users , it seems logical to presume that not
only white males—especially young ones—will be promoted more on
websites but that the kind of promotion they receive will be more
salient than that given to other groups. Therefore, we predict that
H6: The average salience index for young white males will be higher
than the average salience index for any other gender or ethnic group.
Method
This study analyzed all network homepages and splash pages of
primetime-program websites on the six major English-language
television networks--ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, UPN and WB. The pages were
captured on a single day to avoid weekly site changes by webmasters.
A single day (November 12, 2004) was purposively selected from the
first half of November because (1) most new as well as continuing
programs would have already premiered, (2) that period avoids
holidays, and (3) during a November sweeps period, the networks would
be exhibiting their best efforts at promoting their fall schedules.
Despite weekly changes in plot summaries and plot-related photographs
on websites, it is likely that the site content on the sample day
typifies a much longer period of time for most programs. The primary
unit of analysis was the primetime character, including human and
human-like characters that were portrayed as capable of speech or
social interaction.
Instrument
For each splash page, coders noted the (1) program's title, (2)
network (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, UPN, WB) and (3) genre (comedy, drama,
reality, news and other).[2] To measure image characteristics,
coders recorded the following for each character: (4) name, (5)
gender (male, female, unknown for ambiguous gender in cartoon
characters and aliens), (6) ethnicity (White, Black, Hispanic, Asian,
Native American, Other for aliens and cartoons, and Unknown), and (7)
age (child 0-12, teen 13-19, college/young adult 20-34, settled adult
35-64, grandparent/elderly 65+, and unknown for ambiguous aliens and
cartoon characters).[3]
Studies have shown that the frequency of repetition of a message
usually contributes to the impact of promotional messages . It
follows that repetition of images of specific characters on web pages
would strengthen their impact relative to unrepeated character
images. Thus, (8) every picture of a single character was enumerated
for images larger than a thumbprint (about 100 x 150 pixels), both in
the main parts of the page and any promotional ads (such as DVD
sales) for the program providing there were recognizable character
images related to the main picture. Because photographs on websites
were often small and difficult to judge, coders made use of actor
bios and cast descriptions to verify names and intended ages of the
characters. Teens, for example, are often played by older actors but
makeup, script, acting style, and allotted position in family
hierarchies define their supposed ages, giving coding of the actor as
"teen" greater ecological or external validity because it would
likely resonate with viewers' experience of the program and thus the
website.) Because the pilot coding showed that advertising messages
for non-program-related products had no recognizable faces in them,
such ads were excluded. Each image on a home page was later added to
the totals for the appropriate character.
Salience of a character image online was measured using an
eight-factor composite index drawn from Eastman's index of factors
impacting the effectiveness of on-air promotion . The eight factors
relevant to online salience were (9) picture size (large, medium,
small), (10) framing of image (portrait, a mid-to-full body shot, or
a long shot), (11) shot composition (single, pair, or multiple
characters), (12) picture position on the web page (top, middle,
bottom), (13) picture motion (video, slide show, special effects),
(14) character movement (high, medium, low), (15) automatic voice
audio (if recognizable), and (16) other visual elements contributing
to dominance (extreme close-ups, foreground placement, larger
relative size, dramatic color/value contrast). In subsequent data
entry, factors 9 through 14 were assigned three points for the most
salient condition (large, portrait, single, top, video, high, voice
sound), two for the mid condition, and one point for the least
salient condition (small, long shot, multiple, bottom, special
effects, low). One point was awarded for any visual dominance
elements; no points were given for the absence of picture motion,
character movement, or audio.[4] Totaling these points for each
individual character provided an index of salience above and beyond
the number of pictures and distinct from the character's gender,
ethnicity, and age. Totaling the points by program for all characters
provided an index of the salience the program had been given by the
web page producers. Totaling all indexes for a network or a genre
provided comparisons by network or program genre.
Coding Process
For a pilot test, each of the seven researchers coded three program
splash pages from one of the six networks. The researchers then
discussed the results as a group and fine-tuned definitions and
instructions to prepare a code book. On the actual coding day, six
researchers coded all identifiable primetime character images
appearing on the splash pages and homepage of one network. A seventh
researcher randomly selected 24 program splash pages from the six
networks, stratified as 4 programs per network, for intercoder
reliability tests. In addition, all 6 network home pages were recoded
by a single researcher to assess reliability. Altogether, reanalysis
was conducted of 24% (29 of 122) of the page database and 20% (161 of
826) of the total characters. Reliability was assessed using simple
agreement and Cohen's kappa among paired coders.[5] Overall,
intercoder reliability was 98.8%, and agreement was 100% for gender,
100% for ethnicity, and 98% for age. Cohen's kappa for number of
pictures was 100% and for character salience was 96%.
Results
Every program carried in primetime in mid-November 2004 or
soon-to-premiere had a web page. Analysis of the 122 program pages on
the six networks' websites generated 1319 images (pictures of actors)
for 826 characters. ABC's 23 program web pages (22 splash and 1 home)
contained pictures promoting 145 characters; CBS's 23 pages promoted
136 characters; FOX's 23 pages promoted 185 characters; NBC's 23
pages promoted 169 characters; UPN's 13 pages promoted 67 characters;
and the WB's 15 pages promoted 124 characters.[6] Thus, only UPN,
and to a lesser extent, the WB, are underrepresented in this sample.
Demographic Differences
Hypothesis 1 predicted that men and white characters would be the
largest gender and ethnic groups. As expected, of the 826 portrayed
characters, 56% were male and 44% were female (which compares to 49%
men and 51% women in the U.S. population). Ethnic distribution was
overwhelmingly white (81%), followed by 14% African American, 2%
Hispanic, 2% Asian, and 1% uncodable cartoons or aliens (see Table
1). Thus, both outcomes predicted in the first hypothesis were supported.
Table 1 about here
Hypothesis 2 dealt separately with age and predicted that teen and
young adults combined would be the dominant age group. In contrast to
our expectations, the ages of portrayed characters skewed toward the
older age groups. Table 1 shows that about 5% of characters were
children, 11% teens, 27% young adults, 53% settled adults, and 5%
elderly (fewer than 1% were uncodable). The combined 37% for teens
and young adults is far outweighed by 53% for settled adults. More
than half the characters on the web pages were beyond youth by any
perspective (as is true of the U.S. population), and thus, the second
hypothesis--claiming that websites would skew toward youth because
users do--was not supported.
Hypothesis 3 presumed that the portrayals of characters in the new
media and the old media would match on such attributes as gender and
ethnicity but not on age, where teen and young adult age groups would
be larger on web pages. In addition to the online findings in the
first column of Table 1 already discussed, and the U.S. Census
equivalents in the third column, the second column lists the findings
for on-air promos from Eastman and Walker's recent study (2004). The
table shows that while the proportions by gender in this study
matched on-air promo closely, the proportions by ethnicity actually
match the census more closely than they do the findings for on-air
promos. As Table 1 shows, although the most recent U.S. Census shows
a 49:51 gender split, Eastman and Walker (2005) found a 60:40 ratio
in on-air promos for primetime programs, comparable to the 56:44
ratio in this study. For ethnicity, Table 1 shows that apart from
UPN, which has a 40:60 white and other ethnic group ratio, the
overall proportions for online (81:19) are not significantly
different from the proportion in on-air promos (88:12). Both are also
clearly different from U.S. Census figures.
Moreover, the percentages of young adults and settled adults in
online promotion differ significantly from their proportions in
on-air promotion in Table 1, although the skew is, as predicted,
toward younger people. Only the proportion of young adults matches
the census, the rest differing markedly, and the proportions in all
groups (except elderly) differ significantly from findings for on-air
promos. Thus, characters promoted on websites differ both from the
census and from those promoted in on-air promos, except that the bias
in promos toward male characters appears also in website
portrayals. Although some support appears for the second half of the
third hypothesis—regarding favoritism for youth on web sites, when
the three groups (teen plus young and settled adults) are collapsed,
the finding is no longer significant, suggesting that the differences
may be artifacts of measurement. In this web study, adults from 20 to
34 years were considered "young adults," while the on-air study broke
the categories apart at age 25. This means that a huge proportion of
television characters appear to be in their late 20s or early 30s,
although only about a quarter of the general U.S. population falls in
this age range. In sum, only in gender proportions and emphasis on
white characters—but not in minority or age categorization--was the
third hypothesis supported.
Hypothesis 4 raised the issue of differences by network and predicted
significant differences between the networks because of their
different programming targets. Table 2 shows this study's findings
for gender, ethnicity, and age by network. In gender, ABC exhibited a
50/50 split while FOX, NBC, and UPN circled closely around the 60:40
overall ratio. Only UPN appeared a distinct outlier with its
reversed proportion of more women than men (42:58). In ethnicity,
both CBS and WB were somewhat higher in proportion of white
characters (92% and 89%) and correspondingly lower in minority
classifications, while UPN was significantly lower in proportion of
whites (40%) and dramatically higher in ethnic groups (60%), again
reflecting differences in target audiences. However, because UPN
represents only a small portion of the character database (8%), it
seemed reasonable to treat the networks as a single unit in some
subsequent analyses.
Significant age differences for characters among the networks also
appeared. As Table 2 shows, WB had a higher proportion of teen
characters (27%) than the overall average of 11%. ABC had a
significantly lower proportion of young adult characters (1%) by
comparison to 27% overall, while FOX and UPN had significantly higher
proportions (55% and 42%) than the 27% overall. Also, ABC, CBS, and
NBC all had significantly higher proportions of settled adults (72%,
63%, and 66%) by comparison to 53% overall, while FOX and UPN had
significantly lower proportions (28% and 40%). These findings support
the claim for network differences in Hypothesis 4, but the
differences are most dramatic for age and far less so for gender and ethnicity.
Table 2 about here
Hypothesis 5 looked at the role of genre and predicted that
differences between genres for gender, ethnicity, and age would be
significant and thus could potentially confound interpretation. Table
3 shows that the distribution of gender, ethnicity, and age for four
genres. In gender, all the genres except reality shows hovered around
the 60% male to 40% female ratio. Reality shows were more nearly
equal in their male-female distribution (48% male, 52% female). In
ethnicity, all genres except comedy had about 82% white characters in
their web promotion, with comedy somewhat lower (75%) in proportion
of white characters. Subsequent selective analysis by the younger
age groups showed that children and teens associated most closely
with the comedy genre (26%), while young adults associate mostly with
the reality genre (48%). Settled adults figured most prominently in
news (86%), and then in dramas (60%). Thus, the fifth hypothesis
predicting differences by genre was clearly supported for age groups,
but for gender and ethnicity, relatively small differences by genre emerged.
Table 3 about here
Salience for Characters
The final hypothesis turns to the index of salience, as previously
described--an index collapsing internal and external image variables
to quantify the degree of prominence each character and each program
received. Hypothesis 6 predicted that males who are young and white
would be given more prominence on pages by webmasters than any other
combination of gender, ethnicity, or ages. However, overall analysis
defeated that hypothesis. It appeared that the huge quantity of male
characters obliterated any distinction between those in the
foreground and those in the background. In consequence, the
researchers turned to a tertiary split of the index data created low,
mid, and high groups of characters according to their salience to
look for patterns of character receiving salient treatment by site producers.
Table 4 shows the results of that tertiary analysis, revealing that
only age contributed significantly to differences in salience
(p=.001). Children and elderly were more likely to have low salience.
Young adults were more likely to have mid salience, while teens were
more likely to have high salience. Examination of Table 4 also shows
that Hispanics were more likely to have been placed in the background
and less frequently in the foreground than other ethnic
groups. Thus, while the results do not support our hypothesis that
more prominence will be given to young males specifically, it does
add strength to our earlier argument that attention will be paid to
attracting younger viewers.
Table 4 about here
Individual and program salience were also investigated. Notably,
just three characters had very large salience scores (well over 80
points): Dr. Gregory House in FOX's drama House (110 points); Lea
Masters in CBS's Survivor: Vanuatu (111 points), and Sydney Bristow
in ABC's Alias (185 points). In two cases, House and Alias, the shows
had yet premiered at the time of coding. The exceptionally high
salience for the lead characters on the program splash pages may
reflect the networks' attempts to establish them firmly in viewers'
minds. High salience for the Survivor character Lea is an artifact of
his being voted off the series in the previous week's episode (the
last person to depart is always highly promoted on the program's splash pages).
A comparison of the mean differences in salience scores of the
122[7] characters who appeared on both home and splash pages showed
that they scored significantly higher on splash pages (_=17.02,
t=4.65, p<.001) than on home pages (_=11.91).
Conclusions
This study's finding that salience for most characters--except
teens—did not differ significantly from on-air promos indicates that
the network web producers have failed to harness the features of the
Internet to the fullest, despite their belief that it will serve as
an invaluable promotion tool. Network program websites have
essentially "missed the market." This can be likened to the early
days of introducing new information and communication technologies,
when development experts extolled the merits of each new technology
and sought to implement it without due consideration on how to best
engage it appropriately. The Canadian Development International
Agency today reminds those considering harnessing new communication
technologies that while these technologies are "one important driver
of economic growth, they should not be considered a panacea." One
needs to assess the characteristics of a technology and use it
effectively. In the business arena, researchers have argued that
content providers prosper only when they pay heed to what information
and service users seek in the online environment . Given the
importance of the networks' official websites in increasing program
audiences and generating significant revenue, it is thus critical for
networks web managers to reconsider the blueprints for their sites.
On a broader front, this study asked about the general distribution
of gender, ethnicity, and age groups on web pages, differences
between online and on-air promotion of programs, and about
differences between types of web pages, network targets, and program
genres as potentially confounding variables. The results of this
analysis lead to four main conclusions.
First, web sites numerically favor male characters, white
characters, and settled-adult characters. It is clear that web pages
give somewhat less attention to women characters, considerably less
attention to minority characters, and practically no attention to the
children and the elderly, little attention to teens and somewhat more
to young adults, but favoring the settled-adult group over all
others. In each case, the favored group was given more prominence in
foreground placement on web pages as well as middle and background
placement. By comparison to
Second, web promotion of programs closely resembles over-the-air
promotion of network programs. Surprisingly few differences between
online and on-air promotion emerged, the most salient being the age
distinction between young and settled adults, possibly a measurement
artifact. While the Eastman and Walker study showed that on-air
promos favored younger adults, the web pages analyzed here favored
the settled-adult group. It is likely, however, that our age
classification of characters more accurately reflects how network
producers intend audience to see these characters (and perhaps how
viewers see them), because this study draws verification from the
cast and bio descriptions. Thus, this study corrects rather than
challenges previous work in age proportions by Eastman and Walker
(2005). Altogether, this study's findings support our prediction
that the gender and ethnic proportions of web page characters match
promo characters, they clearly challenge our prediction that web
pages ought to emphasize younger characters in greater quantity.
Third, possible confounding variables tended to support rather than
contradict the main findings. Subset comparison of splash pages to
home pages showed significant differences in these variables overall,
as characters received lower mean salience scores on home pages than
splash pages. This is expected as space on network homepages is
distributed across all programs, as opposed to splash pages, which
are dedicated solely to the respective programs and their characters.
Network differences in web pages emerged but predictably, following
the trend of the four major networks seeking broad mid-aged audiences
and the smaller networks seeing younger subset audiences and
ethnically oriented viewers. Genre differences appeared but tended
to follow the general patterns with a few exceptions: Reality program
had more gender balance, while comedy had somewhat more ethnic and
younger representation. But overall, the analyses by the six
networks and four main genres produced patterns consistent with the
male, white, and mid-aged web pages.
Fourth, the salience measurements produced strong differentiations
that paralleled most of the previous findings—with one big
difference. Males received by far the most prominence in size of
pictures, framing of images, shot composition, picture position,
character actions, video motion, and recognizable voice
audio. Children and the elderly and Hispanics were allotted the
least salience by comparison to other characters. The one notable
difference from the other findings in this analysis and the Eastman
and Walker analysis of on-air promos was that, of all age groups,
teen were clearly given the most prominence. This is the sole
finding that supports our expectation that web sites would try to
attract and hold the interest of the age group that sees computers as
essential tools for living, the group that has never lived without
them and are thus most attune to using them for information and entertainment.
The fundamental assumption behind studies of the demographic
composition of characters in television programs is that, for the
social good, programs ought to provide equitable, representative
portrayals over the long term for both women and men, for people of
varied ages and ethnic backgrounds. Over time and across many
programs and networks, television ought to reflect the composition of
the United States—or at least the best of America. By avoiding
distortions from under-representation as well as over-representation
of men, whites, and young adults, television could potentially lessen
the negative economic, employment, and social consequences of narrow
stereotyping of members of minority groups.
Web page media include a large amount of pre-existing content,
including standard portraits of the cast, official graphics relating
to show logos and typography, and still images taken from the shows
themselves. Accordingly, the correlations between structural features
suggest that the stock content being put online is designed and
utilized consistently. That is, guidelines like network style sheets
and production techniques inform the development
of stock content. Still, in traditional media, content is leveraged
to promote character salience reflecting conscious or unconscious
framing biases, but this is not the case with television program web
pages: the lack of correlation between structural features and
character demographics suggests that content is not being leveraged
for character presentation.
Given the nascent state of online promotion in comparison to such
well-understood media as magazine and televised promotion, we may
reason that the program web sites are being built by designers who
are implementing extant content online but without making the
effective marketing decisions associated with designers of
traditional promotion. The causes may be several: The designers may
not understand the theoretical and practical foundations of
promotion, audience response, and perceived salience; or they may be
following the dictates of style specifications toward standardizing
pages that need frequent updating, thus curtailing their creativity.
In any case, the result is a network website that publishes
high-quality media related to television programs but nonetheless
fails to leverage the media
in ways fundamental to promotion, including establishing character
salience in the minds of viewers. In short, the networks are missing
the market.
References
Table 1. Demography of Webpage Characters in Percents
Online Characters
On-air Characters (Eastman & Walker, 2005)
U.S Census**
(n=826)
(n=5241)*
Gender Character
Male
55.7
59.5
49.1
Female
44.3
40.5
50.9
(?2, N = 826) = .00, p < .001
Ethnicity Character
White
80.6
88.0
75.1
Black
14.0
8.6
12.3
Hispanic
2.3
--
12.5
Asian
1.7
--
3.6
Alien/Toon/Other
1.7
--
0.9
(? 2, N = 827) = .00, p < .001
Age Character
Child
4.8
2.2
Teen
10.9
5.8
25.7 = <18
Young Adult
26.5
9.1
23.8
Settled Adult
53.0
76.4
38.0
Elderly
4.5
6.7
12.4
Others
0.2
(? 2, N = 827) = .00, p < .001
*Primetime only; some categories collapsed.
*Derived from U.S. Census population estimates as of 2000.
Table 2. Demographic Percentages for Online Pages by Network
ABC
CBS
FOX
NBC
UPN
WB
(n=145)
(n=136)
(n=185)
(n=169)
(n=67)
(n=124)
Gender of Character
Male
50.3
58.1
60.0
58.6
41.8
55.7
Female
49.7
41.9
40.0
41.4
58.2
44.3
(x2, N=826)=.100, Cramer's V=.100
Ethnicity of Character
White
83.4
91.9
79.5
78.7
40.3
88.7
Others
16.6
8.1
20.5
21.3
59.7
11.3
(x2, N=826)=.001, Cramer's V=.001
Age Character
Child
9.0
2.9
6.5
1.8
1.5
5.6
Teen
14.5
5.9
7.0
2.4
14.9
27.4
Young Adult
1.4
16.9
54.6
28.4
41.8
13.7
Settled
72.4
62.5
28.1
66.3
40.3
46.0
Elderly
2.8
11.8
3.8
1.2
1.5
6.8
(x2, N=826=0.001, Cramer' V=.001
Table 3. Demographic Percentages for Online Promotions by Genre
Comedy
Drama
Reality
News
(n=245)
(n=296)
(n=250)
(n=35)
Gender Character
Male
57.6
59.8
48.4
60.0
Female
42.4
40.2
51.6
40.0
(x2, N=826)=.046, Cramer's V=.046
Ethnicity Character
White
75.5
82.4
82.0
82.9
Others
24.5
17.6
18.0
17.1
(x2, N=826)=.172, Cramer's V=.172
Age Character
Child
9.4
2.7
3.6
0
Teen
16.3
13.9
3.6
0
Young Adult
15.9
19.6
48.4
2.9
Settled
50.6
60.1
42.4
85.7
Elderly
6.9
3.7
2.0
11.4
(x2, N=826)=.001, Cramer's V=.001
Missing the Market
Missing the Market 4
4
Table 4. Salience by Gender, Race, and Age for Online Characters
Low Salience*
Mid Salience
High Salience
Percentage of total
(n=302)
(n=250)
(n=274)
images
Gender Character
Male
37.4
29.3
33.3
55.7
Female
35.5
31.4
33.2
44.3
Average Salience
(?2, N = 826) = .784, Cramer's V = .784
(?2, N = 826) = .652, Cramer's V = .652
Most Salient
(?2, N = 824) = .00, p < .001
Ethnicity Character
White
36.8
29.0
34.2
80.3
Black
32.8
37.9
29.3
14.0
Hispanic
47.4
31.6
21.1
2.3
Asian
28.6
35.7
35.7
1.7
Alien/Toon
50.0
16.7
33.3
1.7
(?2, N = 826) = .623, Cramer's V = .623
(?2, N = 826) = 1.00, Cramer's V = 1.00
Age Character
Child
52.5
30.0
17.5
4.8
Teen
29.4
21.2
49.4
10.9
Young Adult
29.0
42.4
28.6
26.5
Settled
38.6
28.7
32.6
53.0
Elderly
56.8
24.3
18.9
4.5
(?2, N = 826) = .001, Cramer's V = .001
(?2, N = 826) = .302, Cramer's V = .302
* Based on a tertiary split of the data, Low = 0 to 9, Mid
= 10 to 16,
High (Most Salient) = 17-186
Missing the Market
Missing the Market 4
4
Notes
[1] Print advertising and billboards for programs more closely
resemble on-air promotion than they do online program sites; this is
often called the push/pull distinction: Print, billboards, and on-air
promos are pushed out at viewers, whereas online sites pull in viewers.
[2] "Sport" was originally included as a genre, but dropped when
only UPN's WWE Smackdown had a network website among the primetime
sites. WWE Smackdown was classified as reality programming for the
purposes of this study. Clicking on Monday Night Football referred
the user to ESPN's NFL site.
[3] The age category of 35-64 is called "Settled" rather than merely
"middle-aged" to capture not only chronological age but social
lifestyle (as previously used by Signorelli, 2004).
[4] . Interactive elements of pages (navigational devices,
mouse-over changes, click-on spots) were not coded because they
require further action on the part of site users and are thus readily
avoidable and do not contribute to the immediate salience of a
character portrayal.
[5] Following Neuendorf (2002), tests accounting for chance were
judged inappropriate for two-coder measurements of such obvious
physical characteristics as gender and race/ethnicity, and for age
where many cases were revised based on group discussion, but they
were deemed appropriate for enumerations and for salience
characteristics because multiple options had about equal chance of
being selected.
[6] ABC, CBS, and NBC supply programs for 22 hours of primetime
during the seven days of each week, while UPN and the WB program
only14 hours, accounting for the far fewer programs and thus
characters on the UPN and WB web sites. Although FOX supplies
programs for just 15 hours a week, they are almost exclusively
half-hour shows (rather than hour-long programs or movies), thus
substantially increasing the number of programs for which FOX has web
sites and the concomitant number of characters.
[7] Dr. Gregory House's was excluded from this analysis to prevent
his single high salience score in this dataset from skewing the data.
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