Summary of Recommendations
Children Now, 1998
Lake Sosin Snell Perry and Associates
Motivational Educational Entertainment (MEE)
Republished with permission
Full document includes:
I'm looking for me
What I like to see
People I'd like to be
Do I see me?
How I see people like me
I believe what I see
What is real to me
How they expect me to be
I want to see me
|
I'm looking for me
America is engaged in a national dialogue on race, but the voices of our children have yet to be heard. How do they feel about issues of race? What are they learning about diversity? Does media play a role in shaping their understanding? As our nation grows increasingly diverse, the answers to these questions become critical. To explore this important issue, Children Now commissioned a groundbreaking series of focus groups and a national poll of 1,200 children.
This research is unprecedented in a number of significant ways. While previous studies have measured adults' perceptions of media's race messages - and others have asked children about media or about race - this is the first to bring children, media and race together. In addition, most polls survey people in proportion to their percentage of the population. We chose to survey the same number of children (300) of four races - African-American, Asian, Latino, and White - to explore the views of each race in equal depth.
Children - of all ages and all races - recognize the power of media in their lives. They look to the media for role models - imitating the way their favorite characters dress, the way they talk, how they do their hair. From the shag haircuts of the women on 'Friends' to the baggy fashions of the hip hop music scene, the influence of media on today's children can be seen everywhere. And beyond superficial messages about style and appearance, children are getting more formative messages from the media. The characters they admire - and the news stories they watch - send both subtle and explicit signals about their value, their families, and their race.
Research demonstrates that children get messages about their race by seeing how and how often its members are portrayed in the media. Media grant legitimacy through the 'recognition' and 'respect' shown to racial groups. Recognition occurs when group members appear in programs, while respect is conferred when group members are cast in positive roles. The absence of group members suggests that they are not worthy of viewers' attention, while stereotyped or negatively-valued roles indicate that they are not worthy of respect. And children get these messages about other races as well as their own, helping shape their earliest opinions.
Our study found that children overwhelmingly believe that it is important for all kids to see people of their own race on television. White children see people of their race on entertainment television most frequently, followed by African-American children. Asian and Latino children see people of their race much less frequently. Across all races, children recognize media's use of stereotypes, frequently attributing positive traits and roles to White characters, and negative traits and roles to minority characters. Similarly, children believe that television news media portrays races very differently, showing African-Americans and Latinos in a negative light more often than Asians and Whites.
However, this research also shows that children have great faith in media's ability to send children positive messages about race. Over 80% of children from every race say that media has the power to show kids "that people of their race are important." Children also see that "television starts conversation" among peers of different races. That's why, when asked to design their perfect show, children across all races say it would have, "different cultures, different religions, different races, different everything. That would be really smart." Today's children will be the first generation to come of age in an America where racial minorities are the numeric majority. Our future will depend upon their ability to develop positive racial identities and an appreciation of diversity. To help build bridges across racial lines, children will need to expand their conceptions of race and race relations in ways their parents never knew. Clearly, media is only one of the many influences in our children's lives, but young people believe that it has both the power to break down stereotypes and the potential to build greater understanding. One young girl offered this simple advice: "[Don't] make prejudice on TV. I just wish this world would be one happy - nobody is prejudiced against each other - one happy family."
