Women in Media: Advertising and Gender Roles
What gender messages do people learn from advertising? Do the messages vary based on the type of media? Based on the presentation? Find out by analyzing television commercials played within an hour's programming within three different time slots. (You'll probably want to record the hours of programming so you can go back and do a quantitative and qualitative analysis.) You might try time slots that seem to aim at different audiences. For example, do more men than women watch daytime TV? Sports TV? Serious Drama on TV? Keep a log of the commercials and do a brief gender analysis of those commercials. Explain your research and result findings to the class.
Create a chart like the one below on which to log your findings. When evaluating the messages, you might consider whether they support or disprove traditional gender roles.
Hour Time: AM or PM? |
Expected Audience
(Describe) |
Commercials
(List individually by product) |
Gender Images or References? | Gender Messages and Evaluation |
| Program #1 | 1. 2.
3. |
1. 2.
3. |
1. 2.
3. |
|
| Program #2 (if applicable) |
2. Pick one of the commercials and do an intense evaluation
of it. How does it create its meaning? How persuasive is it? How
does it incorporate gender messages? How does it utilize
technology? How might viewing this commercial impact a viewer?
What kind of viewer is most likely to be persuaded to use or buy
the product?