Course: Section: Professor: York College Research Pool Alternative Assignment Gender Bias in the Media Assignment

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1 Name: Course: Section: Professor: York College Research Pool Alternative Assignment Gender Bias in the Media Assignment General Instruction: This is a research pool alternative project. Alternative projects are not to be done to meet your research pool participation requirement. Alternative projects are to be done only if you have ethical concerns which prevent you from participating in one (or more) of the research pool studies. If you have these ethical concerns, please inform your instructor that you will not be participating in the research pool, but you will instead be completing the alternative projects. Each alternative project is equal to participation in one research pool study. Please print out this sheet, follow the instructions and turn it into the research pool coordinator s office (Room 4E-06) before Friday of the 10 th week of the semester. For this alternative project, you will conduct a study on gender bias in the media across two decades. You will do this reviewing all of the advertisements in an issue of a popular magazine and recording different ways men and women are portrayed in the ads. Choose a popular magazine First, choose a current popular magazine. Make sure that you will have a past issue of the magazine to review (see below). Current is operationally defined as being published this year. Examine all of the advertisements in the magazine and record each instance of the categories on the datasheet. Find a past issue of the magazine Find an issue of the same magazine from either the 1960 s, 70 s or 80 s. Examine all of the advertisements in the magazine and record each instance of the categories on the datasheet. This past issue of the magazine must have at least the same number of pages as the current issue you examined. If the past issue has more pages that the current issue, only examine the number of pages equal to the current issue (starting at the beginning of the magazine). Popular Magazines at York The York Library has many popular magazines and carries both the current issue and past issues. Here is a list of some example magazines and the years that York has: Newsweek, Time, US News & World Report, Rolling Stone, New Yorker, New York, People Weekly, Maclean's, 1970-

2 Vanity Fair, The Economist, New York Times Magazine, Many of the older issues of the magazines are on microfilm. Ask a reference librarian for help finding the past issues and with how to use the microfilm reader. Complete the Summary Sheet To receive credit for the alternative project, you will need to correctly and fully complete the datasheet and the summary sheet and turn it into the research pool mailbox (Room 4D-06) before Friday of the 10 th week of the semester. Academic Integrity Information This is an individual project. Thus, students cannot help each other with this assignment. The data about your ratings of the advertisements and the answers to the questions must represent your original cannot be copied from another source, such as another student. Instances of students making up fictitious data or copying data or answers from other students will be taken very seriously. Such cases will be reported to the students course instructors.

3 Gender Bias in the Media Datasheet For each category, count the total number of examples and write the number in the box. Past Current 1. Sexist language toward women ("girls" to denote adult women; "man" to denote both males and females, animals and edible objects to describe women bunny, sweetie -- other forms of sexualized language and infantilization baby, etc) 2. Sexist language toward men ("boys" to denote adult men, animals and edible objects to describe men stud, sweetie -- other forms of sexualized language and infantilization baby, etc) 3. Women as ornaments (e.g., women in bikinis in beer ads, large visible breasts in ads, etc.) 4. Men as ornaments (e.g., men in tight shorts, camera angle emphasizes crotch bulge, etc.) 5. Sexualized portrayal of women (inappropriately "sexy" appearance and behavior of women: e.g. lawyer in very short skirt who behaves flirtatiously, etc.) 6. Sexualized portrayal of men (inappropriately "sexy" appearance and behavior of men: e.g. lawyer in an open shirt who behaves flirtatiously, etc.) 7. woman as primary homemaker

4 Past Current 8. man as primary homemaker 9. woman as childcare provider (e.g. parent, babysitter, teacher) 10. man as childcare provider (e.g. parent, babysitter, teacher) 11. woman as office worker (excluding leader e.g. manager) 12. man as office worker (excluding leader e.g. manager) 13. woman as house servant (e.g. maid, butler, cook) 14. man as house servant (e.g. maid, butler, cook) Low Status Portrayal of Women -- sum totals for the following cells -- 1; 3; 5; 7; 9; 11& 13 Past: Current: Low Status Portrayal of Men -- sum totals for the following cells -- 2; 4; 6; 8; 10; 12 & 14 Past: Current:

5 Gender Bias in the Media Summary Sheet 1) Give your textbook s definition of an independent variable. 2) In the Gender Bias in the Media study you just completed, what was the independent variable? 3) Give your textbook s definition of a dependent variable. 4) In the Gender Bias in the Media study you just completed, what was the dependent variable? 5) Give you textbook s definition of an experiment and observational study. Experiment Observational Study

6 6) Was the study you just completed an experiment or observational study? Why or why not? 7) Our hypothesis for this study was that gender bias would be greater in the past and be smaller in the present. Did your results support this hypothesis? 8) What about your results allowed you to make this conclusion (in #7)? 9) Describe a situation that you were in during the last few months in which you became aware of how people of different genders were portrayed in the media. Where were you, who was involved besides you, what happened? Was the incident you just describe supported by the results of your study?

Who is the superior?

Worksheet 1: Who is the superior? Aim: Boys have an opportunity to realize the differences in evaluating attributes connected with female and male roles. Boys know traditional gender roles and stereotypes