study

• aim


  is the language of ads for early elementary school children scripted differently for boys and girls?

  How is gender use as a discourse code to link products to gender roles
• method


  Content analysis of TV ads shown during children’s cartoons
• sample


  Commercials recorded from American channels in 1996, 1997 and 1999

  Commercial networks, independent stations in New England and Nickelodeon

  Food items, toys, education, video, and film promotions
• procedure

  Content analysis - creating categories and using tallies

  Discourse analysis - analysing tone , vocab and speech

  coding was guided by the gender of the children portrayed rather than the nature of the toy itself

  Advert explicitly orientated to one gender, rather than the other is recorded as such, even if a child of the other gender could be seen, either in the background or for a few sections

  Ads for girls with girls as the main focus

  Ads for boys with boys as the main focus

  Ads for girls and boys, which contains both boys and girls
• results


  The names of toys reinforced stereotypical gender roles such as big-time action hero or girl talk

  boys were presented with more action

  Male voices were used 100% of the time for boy and boy/girl ads and female voices used 86% of girls ads

  Verbs in competition and destruction were used 133 times for boys and 9 times for girls.

  Verbs in female and nurturing were used for girls 66 times, and never for boys

  Girl ads had more children speaking than boys ads

  Words based around power, we used in 21% of boys adverts and 1% in girls adverts
• conclusions


  Gender stereotypes are evident in toy adverts

  When advertisements only show traditional gender roles they limit the range of experiences that children try

  This could explain why some professions are male dominated