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Co-constructions of gender and ethnicity in New Zealand television advertising
Abstract
This paper reports key findings from a content analysis of gender and ethnic depictions in a sample of 2,120 New Zealand prime-time television advertisements screened in 2006. The study explored the following questions: With what product categories are male and female White, Māori/Pasifika and Asian characters most commonly associated? What are the most common occupational roles of male and female White, Māori/Pasifika and Asian characters? The results reveal highly stereotypical depictions of women and men within each ethnic category. White men dominated advertisements for foodstuffs, telecommunications and financial/corporate/legal services and were over-represented as professionals/white collar workers, while White women were over-represented in advertisements for household products, personal products, and medical products and featured predominantly as homemakers. Māori/Pasifika men were over-represented as athletes and service and sales workers. Non-White women featured prominently within multi-ethnic groups in advertisements for personal grooming products and most frequently featured as glamour models, while non-White men were over-represented as blue collar workers. Largely absent were Māori/Pasifika women and Asians of both genders, potentially exacerbating the multiple axes of subordination encountered by these groups in the New Zealand context.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
Michelle, C. (2011). Co-constructions of gender and ethnicity in New Zealand television advertising. Sex Roles, published online 07 September 2011.
Date
2011
Publisher
Springer
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
This is an author’s accepted version of an article published in the journal: Sex Roles. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011. The final publication is available at www.springerlink.com.