Inspite of the overwhelming heterosexuality of main-stream media representations, portrayals of homosexual and lesbian people on tv are becoming significantly more widespread since 1997 whenever Ellen became the very first tv series to possess a gay leading character. This enhance is seen within 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 indicates that give attention to gay figures in leading functions such as for instance Will and Grace and it is All general. In addition, cable channels have actually included programs such as for example Queer as Folk, Six Feet Under, and Oz that depict gay figures much more complex plot lines in accordance with more explicit sexual habits.
Even though existence of lgbt figures might have increased recently on both commercial broadcast and cable companies, it really is ambiguous just how often television addresses the intimate dilemmas and issues of intimate minorities.
As noted previously, when homosexual and lesbian figures have actually been incorporated into programs, they usually have often been portrayed in asexual contexts. Furthermore, nearly all of exactly just what happens to be posted up to now about homosexuality and tv happens to be qualitative (including show that is single studies), concentrating on exactly exactly how specific programs have actually portrayed homosexual figures. Although many content analyses have actually evaluated the quantity 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 reported from the prevalence of intimate portrayals and speak about sexual problems pertaining to gays, lesbians, or bisexuals.
This paper centers on factors assessing content that is nonheterosexual had been included as an element of two larger content analyses examining intimate content more broadly on US tv.
Information through the 2001 2002 and 2002 2003 tv periods are accustomed to respond to questions in regards to the prevalence and regularity of intimate behavior and intimate talk relating to nonheterosexuals. Particularly, the info analyses address two broad research questions: (1) from what extent are nonheterosexual sexual themes, particularly intimate behavior and speak about sex, present in tv development general and exactly exactly what habits emerge across system genres, system kinds, and prime time versus nonprime time development? (2) When nonheterosexual intimate content does happen, what’s its regularity and just how does it differ across genres, sort of community, and prime time versus nonprime time development?
System Examples
A 3 composite week sampling plan ended up being utilized to get two big yearly random examples of television programs of interest that is greatest to adolescents and therefore were comprehensive on most portions associated with the tv industry. Programs had been taped from 11 channels 6 commercial broadcast systems (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 now been utilized in past content analysis studies to acquire representative types of television development (Kunkel et al., 1999, 2001, 2003; Madden & Grube, 1994; Wallack, Grube, Madden, & Breed, 1990; Wilson et al., 1997). This sampling strategy involves arbitrarily picking times of the week or particular time slots for recording over many weeks to cut back possible bias that may be introduced if all taping had been done within a solitary calendar week. Recording for the test happened primarily over a 7 period in the fall https://www.camsloveaholics.com/ each year week. Because season premiere episodes are staggered for the thirty days of September, we began taping once all nonsyndicated show had been showing episodes through the present period. Each three different days of the week were randomly selected for taping from all 11 stations, with all seven days of the week represented three times in the sample week. The 8 hour time block for taping extended from 3:00 p.m. (of which time many youth are out of college) to 11:00 p.m. (through prime time). The process of recapturing missed episodes (like those which is why the satellite sign was lost or perhaps the show was pre empted by sporting or other events that are special proceeded through the entire winter time.