Type of reward. Four categories of reward were coded: "self-enhancement" where the purported benefit of the product was an improvement in health or appearance, "practical" where the purported benefit was a saving of time or effort, or where the main emphasis was on the relative in expensiveness of the product, "social or career advancement" where it was suggested that ownership of the product would assist progress in some social or occupational hierarchy, "other" where the rewards could not be coded in any of the above (including `family approval' and `fun/enjoyment'").
Type of Product. Four categories were coded: "Body/Home/Food" where the product or service involved bodily health, hygiene, cleansing, the home or housework, food, and drink, "Auto/Technical/Occupational" which included automobiles and accessories, and technical and occupational products; and "other" if none of the above categories was applicable.
Narrator. Central figures were categorized according to whether they portrayed a character, ("character") or narrator/presenter ("neutral").[29]
The analysis of the research data showed that, in all, only three data were significant: role, reward, and product. On two specific criteria, men and women were portrayed in significantly different ways on British radio advertisements. Overall men were more often portrayed suggesting practical and social career advancement as a reward for product purchase, and women as suggesting self-enhancement as a reward for the product. Men were more likely to be portrayed in advertisements for automobile, technical and occupational products and women more likely to appear in advertisements for body, home and food products. In addition, women were more likely than men to be shown in dependent roles. Males were also significantly more likely to have a role of narrator/celebrity than females were.
It is concluded that the amount of gender role stereotyping in advertisements varies depending on the target audience. There are inevitably many other social, economic and political factors that influence gender role development, portrayal and understanding. Further, audiences are selective in terms of when they listen to which station/channel, and why.
Recognition of the potential influence of mass media on gender-role development has spurred a continuing interest in monitoring the degree of gender-role stereotyping in commercials. Beginning in the early 1970s, researchers assessed the degree of stereotyping by analyzing the content of gender-role messages.[30] The choice to focus on content is most likely attributable to the long-established tradition of content analysis. For decades it has been used as an objective, systematic, and quantitative method for analyzing the manifest features of communication. It is based on the assumption that information about the nature of people's psychological states and social roles can be obtained by analysing their choice of language and other observable, visible characteristics.
From a very early age, males and females are taught different linguistic practices. Communicative behaviours that are acceptable for boys, for example, may be considered completely inappropriate for girls. Hence, the body of research on women and language reveals that women experience linguistic discrimination in two ways: in the way they are taught to use language, and in the way general language usage treats them.[31] So, for example, women reflect their role in the social order by adopting linguistic practices such as using tag questions, qualifiers, and fillers to soften their messages. Likewise, traditionally women were identified by their association with men, and we know that occupational titles indicated which jobs were "for men" and which were "for women." While much of this has changed today, the society retains a tendency to imply that maleness, after all, is the standard for normalcy (a female physician may still be referred to as a "woman doctor," and while a female committee chair may be called the "chair" or the "chairperson," a male in that role will more likely be called "chairman").[32] What we are taught about gender, then, is reflected in our language usage.
Johnson and Young[33] suggest that the way language in advertising is used to link a particular product to a particular gender polarizes differences between genders. While in reality many boys demonstrate feelings and behaviours labelled as "feminine," and vice-versa, these television ads create the impression that certain behaviours are exclusive to one or the other gender. Young children exposed to this type of advertising have not yet developed the thinking skills that would allow them to view these ads critically. Johnson and Young are concerned that such ads present stereotypes that may hinder boys and girls from recognizing themselves as the complex and multifaceted individuals that they are.
Many scholars describe the female worldview as significantly different from the male worldview. Carol Gilligan states that "female identity revolves around interconnectedness and relationship." Conversely, she argues that male identity "stresses separation and independence."[34]
Obviously, differences in language usage and worldview are woven together and difficult to separate. Hence differences between female and male worldviews, like differences between Asian and American worldviews or European and Native American worldviews, may significantly affect communication. Differences in worldviews cannot be discussed without talking about language, since our view of the world is expressed through language and other symbol systems. Deborah Tannen argues that "communication between men and women can be like cross cultural communication, prey to a clash of conversational styles."[35] This is due to differences in the way men and women generally look at the world. Therefore, it is no coincidence that women see talk as the essence of a relationship while men use talk to exert control, preserve independence, and enhance status.[36] The ways in which concepts of social relationships (and their accompanying communication patterns) differ between genders are parallel to gender differences in worldview.
The difference in the spoken accent was also polarized between genders. The accent used by central figures in advertising was coded into two categories "standard" (for the research on radio advertisements it was when an English BBC type accent was spoken), or "other" if it was any other accent (including "Londoner" and "regional").[37]
Language also reflects differences in social status between genders. Research on gender and language reveals that female language strategies invariably emulate the subordinate, nonaggressive role of women in Western society. And, language about women does no better.
The observations show that in advertising males are likely to appear as voice-overs and females to be depicted visually. The higher proportion of males comprising the voice-over category suggests that it is men much more than women who are considered to have knowledge about products. Thus, the male bastion of authoritative voice continues unscathed.[38]
Contemporary research by Fern Johnson[39] shows that even ads for children feature male voice-overs. Ads for girls usually, but not always, used female voice-overs. Usually an adult voice was used for the male voice-overs, but about one-sixth of the girl-oriented ads used a girl's voice for the voice-over. Voices, whether male or female, were caricatured in the majority of ads, with male voices often sounding unnaturally deep, husky or loud, and female voices unusually high-pitched, squeaky, or sing-song.
Although women have a reputation for being more verbal than men, boys were more likely to be speaking in ads showing both boys and girls.
Levingstone and Green's[40] also report that silence is presented as a particular feminine quality.
Verbs provide clues to the type of action being expressed, the agent of the action, and the activity being undertaken. Johnson and Young[41] classified the verbs used in the ads into five categories:
· Action verbs relating to physical movement or motion.
· Verbs indicating competition or destruction.
· Agency/control verbs indicating that the child consumer can exercise power or control.
· Verbs indicating limited activity or a state of being.
· Feeling and nurturing verbs Feeling/nurturing verbs were used solely in girl-oriented ads, while competition/destruction verbs were used almost exclusively in ads directed towards boys.
· Action verbs were more evenly distributed between ads for boys and girls, but agency/control verbs were more likely to be used for boys and limited activity verbs in ads for girls. The word "power" was used in 21% of the ads oriented towards boys, but only mentioned once in ads for girls.
It can be assumed that advertising for children reflects the general tendencies of mass mediated commercials for the adult audience, and a special research may prove that language issues will work similarly in the whole bulk of the examined material.
Central figures were categorized according to the type of arguments they presented in favour of the advertised product. Arguments were classified as "scientific" if they contained or purported to contain factual evidence concerning the product or as "non-scientific" if they simply consisted of opinions or testimonials, and as "none" if the central figure offered no argument.[42] The examination shows that in using persuasive arguments men gave more `scientific' arguments than women.[43]
A review and comparison of fourteen studies done on five continents of sex-role stereotyping in television commercials over 25 years[44] show that "end comment" is still highly indicative of sex-stereotyping. Males more frequently offer an end comment in an advertisement, whereas females frequently do not give any end comment.
As we can conclude, language is a vivid reflection of gender stereotypes in mass mediated advertisements, manifesting the bias on the lexical, phonetic, semantic and pragmatic levels.
The given study makes it possible to conclude the following.
1. It is proved that gender stereotypes in communication are culturally preconditioned. That is, cross-gender communication can be considered as cross-culture communication, including issues of behaviour traditions and proxemics. The tendency to evaluate another's culture as inferior to our own is perhaps the most difficult stumbling block to avoid, especially when applying it to gender communication. So, instead of becoming annoyed by a male's aggressive communication style, we should recognize that it is a style which is as much a part of his identity as an ethnic cuisine or a religious tradition is part of a culture.
2. It is shown that mass communication, and specifically TV and radio advertising, is a reflection of gender stereotyping in society. Mass mediated messages offer the most contemporary, powerful, technologically and rhetorically sophisticated stereotypes for shaping cultural reality. Moreover, mass media do not only actively exploit biased models, but they also negatively influence the audience by implanting the gender stereotypes into the viewers and listeners' conscience.
3. Analysis of language usage in advertising proves that it also reflects culturally preconditioned gender bias manifested on the lexical, phonetic, semantic and pragmatic levels.
By learning not to assume that men and women are the same, we can become more sensitive to the fact that men and women's values and goals may differ, and generally their verbal and nonverbal language will vary as well. Conversely, awareness of societal preconceptions and stereotypes which portray the other sex as "different," or "opposite," can help us to avoid such stereotypes. As long as the task in improving intercultural communication is awareness and respect rather than evaluation, this awareness can help to develop effective communication when speaking across genders. Ultimately, guidelines from this study may be useful in improving gender communication in mass media and, more specifically, in advertising.
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