Media vs. Gender

MAY 13, 2015Arkadiy Aronov

Media vs. Gender

Abstract

Gender inequality, and gender issues in general are always relevant in society, especially

during the current era where any form of media, videogames, social media, television, and so on,

not only sexualize gender as a norm, but also give a false image of what an ideal male or female

should be. The primary focus was to find out if there were any real correlations to be found

between how males and females view media, how much time was spent, and how it may affect

them mentally through a series of questions done throughout qualtrics that was in affiliation with

Baruch College. The reason why this topic is important is due to the fact that we are living in a

very shallow moment in life, all in all with our perspectives of the human body, ideals, and views

in media. This will determine how one can also be affected mentally when they view media.

While many may deny at first that media does not affect them, delving into the research at even a

basic level will prove that everyone, regardless of age, gender and any other factors, will be

affected by media one way or another. This can of course lead to positive factors that will affect

one’s life, but there is also the risk of having it be an incredible hindrance towards one life.

Reading the research, hypothesis, all the data will give you a better perspective of how everyday

people are impacted by media, and how it possibly even impacts you. This does not even assume

the fact that future generations may have a media dominated world. Looking into this now is

something that should be taken with the utmost importance. This is a life we’re living, not a life

we’re living for someone else.

This isn’t so much a general problem, but a focus on how media is a negative influence

on everyone. As mentioned previously, with the impact of emotion, physical appearance and so

on. This is something that impacts everyone.

1

Media vs. Gender

Literature Review

“All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can

vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.” This is a

quote taken from William Bernbach, and “All media exist to invest our lives with artificial

perceptions and arbitrary values” by Marshall McLuhan. These two quotes are the general topic

of this paper, and I believe before beginning are something to continue to keep in mind

throughout the rest of the paper, as it will focus on the research and the hypothesis that were

brought during the production of the survey study and observations that were determined from

the survey results and personal research.

A study by Malgorzata Wolska, titled “Gender Stereotypes in Mass Media. Case Study:

Analysis of the Gender Stereotyping Phenomenon in TV Commercials” shows us how mass

media can really play a significant role in our modern world. They go into details of how

stereotypes is probably one of the most dominant features of media and with the impact it has on

gender. Elliot Aronson, an American psychologist said, “Stereotypes are used to attribute the

identical features to each member of a certain group without taking the existing differences

among the members into consideration”. Obviously with the thought of how media will always

pile up all gender stereotypes into one group without considering the fact that many would wish

to break out of the social norms, or that not everyone is the same as is portrayed. Then gender

roles where they found the men have been considered financial providers, career-focused,

assertive and independent through the ages, while women have been low-position workers,

loving wives and mothers, responsible for raising children and doing housework. While the

modern household should be viewed as a mutual partnership with equal work. Generally, the

results for their finding was that change will not be coming anytime soon as media still focuses

2

Media vs. Gender

on past norms rather than create new one’s for genders. The stereotype that the male is the

dominant one in a relationship, and being the head of the household is still in strong effect, and

doesn’t show an incredible sign of being changed, but someday will be as norms will change and

media will be forced to adapt despite being the head of these stereotypes and norms that

influence those thoughts.

The second research study was “Gender roles and the Spanish media, a three-decade-long

comparative study.” by Gutiérrez San Miguel, B and company. The main objective of this study

was to identify the gender roles that had been presented in the Spanish media that had been

produced between the 1960’s and the 2000’s. The purpose was to detect if there was any change

in social norms between that timeframe. It was determined by questionnaires to schools, and

those in the workforce. They had used quantitative response variables of the survey questionnaire

and categorical response variables. In the end of the research, their conclusion was that were was

indeed a paradigm shift in the representation of gender roles, in Spain however. While there were

positive correlations that certain social norms were changed in media, they were not all

beneficial. The female gender ended up having a loss of traditional identity, for the sake of

having a more media-centric beauty. Many lost their traditional roots and their views of beauty to

what media, identified as beautiful.

In my research, I had used the findings of Facebook, Twitter and other social media to

identify my results. Research by Rose, Jessica and company, my fourth research study choice

was titled “Face it: The Impact of Gender on Social Media Images.” Illustrates how social

websites like Facebook, as mentioned, enable users to see how media can impact gender in a

closed domain, a parallel world. A panel for the research has used a literature review of pictorial

features that are associated with gender traits, to asses the gender stereotypes that were presented

3

Media vs. Gender

on Facebook. Males had been seen as active, dominant, and independent, similar to the research

conducted by Malgorzata Wolska. Females were under attractive and dependent, again,

following the pattern of having males be the dominant heads while females were just there. The

research found that while it was obvious that there were differences in males and females, it gave

us a broader view on how it could be a mass media issue, where we broadcast these gender roles

ourselves, and not just have media be the ones to portray it as such. The findings were there to

confirm gender stereotypes that were found in prior research, and were proof of how media

depicts to the self-selected social media display.

The fourth paper focus’s on a more serious topic that gets brought up later on in my

personal and professional opinion. Media will only impact one’s self image, but how one will

act. Walsh, Kimberly R’s “Mean Girls and Tough Boys: Children’s Meaning Making and Media

Literacy Lessons on Gender and Bullying in the United States” research is heavy, in the sense

that it is an extreme, an extreme that is indeed a reality to many a scary reality to that. The study

examines how children’s way of thinking on media content is processed in the context that could

portray gender and even to a larger degree, bullying. Sixth graders were asked to respond to

questionnaires that had depictions of gender roles, and bullying based upon their favorite media

content or content that would ever create had they been media producers. There were several

ways of thinking based on the responses, some ranging from direct applications of lesson

concepts to those that evaluate and critique media content. While the results came in that they

had more or less had their own opinions, it was enough to realize that there were some hints that

the children were a bit imposed to media, and that their independent ways of thinking were only

due to their young age, however could easily be influenced overtime. Males of the age that were

surveyed had shown a high amount of action films, and how they viewed media to be. Many

4

Media vs. Gender

listed they enjoy violence, they enjoy the hectic pacing. While females were more focused on

reality shows and shows that they fantasize, such as a reality show they wish they could live, or a

princess film. However, media does try to enforce that violence is not the answer, but if it was

under the provision of an action film or a war documentary, it could have a negative impact and

allow bullying to come to act despite the best interest of one’s being.

The final article of choice toward the topic of how media affects everyone, and gender in

specific is Goodall, Hannah’s “Media’s Influence on Gender Stereotypes”. The articles from

before didn’t focus too much on stereotypes besides the first, and seeing that America is a

society that is not only saturated with media, but also with stereotypes, the research goes full

force into explaining how it’s a factor. It states that with age, comes outside influence affects

how they perceive the world around them. Media being an extremely pervasive source, it shows

a lot of exposure on society. It goes into how being swayed by what is perceived to be the social

norms wouldn’t be too hard to believe, with how much emphasis is put into it, and how often

they may go back and mention it. People tend to act and think based on the stereotypes that is

associated with one’s gender that they had seen on a media outlet. It’s harmful toward the young

audience who may not possess the intellectual tools that would allow them to distinguish if the

messages on media is for fictional purposes, or for reality. It ends with how if as a society, we

refuse to accept certain gender stereotypes as truth, then media makers would not be so inclined

onto having it be the center of their messages in media.

Generally throughout the five articles we have the same concept of how media is

harmful, and we need to try and avoid stereotypes as a society, so that media would stop

portraying it so heavily. While it does harm those growing, as they can easily be swayed and

have issues with telling the right from the wrong, it has to start with the current generation.

5

Media vs. Gender

Without starting now, there will be issues in which there could be more bullying, more social

inequality, and gender stereotypes getting to even worse degrees.

Discussion

Media has an influence on gender, both male and female for that matter. We live with

media in our everyday lives, if it’s not through television it could be on the radio while one’s

driving in their car somewhere. If it happens to not be that, we have our phones with internet

access, and above that we have computer’s. Out of the realm of technology, we have billboards

sexualizing both genders for the sole purpose of profit, but to what cost, does a simple billboard

affect the person looking at it? While it may be said that it’s generally viewed through one

person’s eyes, and that no one can speak for everyone, there is however, an argument that is

believed that media, in those listed above, or in any other source, is that media portrays

unrealistic goals that cannot be achieved thought he common person’s life. Examples being

Adobe Photoshopped magazines, articles depicting how one person is extremely beautiful and

showing how everyone would want them, or to be them. This just causes a hysteria among many,

and in such, just allows one to be more subjective to media at a much easier, or even faster pace

than others.

Granted of course, this does not apply to everyone, however it should be seen as a high

possibility as we all consume media. It’s in our lifestyle, it’s everywhere we go. Subways, bus’s,

billboards, the radio, internet, television, our phones, advertising in other forms and just the

everyday products that we use. We see unrealistic expectations a lot of the time, and we see that

mostly in humans, and media sources are not oblivious to the fact that we look up to many idols.

Having idols, gives us this entire argument over media and gender. How does media view

females? Most of the time, as sexualized objects that are nothing more than to sell product to

6

Media vs. Gender

other females, and to have males flaunt over their bodies. This is the view on females at a bare

minimal level. Going further into it, we have how females must be slim, slender, amazing at

multitasking, being house wives while still resembling that of a model’s figure. The issue here is,

this isn’t an observation that is new in the slightest, in fact there are book’s from the 1980’s that

argue this issue, and then even further back argue about how media has influenced many females

to do things they would otherwise never consider. The book titled, Women, Media and Sport:

Challenging Gender Values by Pamela J. Creedon goes into detail about how feminism was

brought up because of media. Giving so many unrealistic expectations, unrealistic and even

unachievable goals. Much of what is listed also applies to males.

While they may have a bit more leeway in the fact that, certain things aren’t as prevalent,

there are still quite a bit. Major one’s would be the factor of still having to be the one to bring the

most revenue, having to always be professional, obtain a fit, muscular body, never be the one to

cry, and the sort. Males have a focus on being macho and lack emotion. While some may argue

these are more focused on social norms, another can argue these are only imposed social norms

because of media. Media is the reason why we have social norms, in such, we have gender

inequality, and we have gender stereotypes, and just generally, gender issues all around. These

stereotypes have led to incredible social norms, as mentioned, how the ideal man is muscular,

and must not show any emotion that could be deemed unmanly, again, a social norm of what a

man should be, and how a male can easily be pressured into locking up their emotions causing a

meltdown for some, and how it could cause more harm than good. Many studies show how

males who are emotionally locked have outbreaks, or even cause harm to others. David and

Brannon in 1976 were able to even outline this fact, and provided such quotes like “no sissy

stuff” where one would distance themselves from feminity, homophobia and to purposely avoid

7

Media vs. Gender

emotion to even be deemed either of those. Clearly, over the years this is an issue that continues

to come up, almost yearly with new results arising every single time there is further research

onto the topic.

Personal Interest

My personal interest toward the topic of media and how it can affect genders is that this

is something I see on a daily basis, and it has personally shaped me and many of the people I’ve

grown up with similarly. Humans are, in my opinion born as an empty canvas. We are able to

learn what we see, and mimic what we view interesting. Once media has come to the household,

we have more and more canvases be ruined with ideals that are not our own. We are thrown

idea’s of what a child should do. What one should learn, how one should be. Speaking as a male,

growing up with the fact that I was not allowed to show emotion, how I was not allowed to cry

and not allowed to do anything that was out of the social norms imposed by media was off-

putting. I had enjoyed being a simple child, one who has compassion for things, living and non-

living alike and appreciated things that males should not have appreciated. The concept of

military-action figures for example, a media norm of how males must be strong and one day join

the military to prove such, was not something of interest to me. Human life was valuable and

being told otherwise was just incredibly saddening. Just seeing how male toys are any toy store

were sword, guns, of course of the fake kind, and action figures depicting muscular men with

said items, and having the comparison of females where everything we pink, home-esque where

you could buy a cooking set, or being prepared early for fertility with baby-dolls that would

mimic that of an actual child. It’s great for females in terms of a future, but it doesn’t allow one

to breathe and express themselves. These media norms telling us what to do, what to think and

8

Media vs. Gender

what to do create a machine-like society where we only do what we’re told, and mimic what we

see in media.

Professional Interest

As a professional interest, this is a topic as I personally said, feel is important. I feel we

must view this as a serious topic. This is something we need to identify and figure out how we

can tone it down, and also see what we can do so that future generations don’t feel the same kind

of pressure that many of us are feeling in this current generation. Media is a given, it’s something

we need and it is not something that will go away anytime soon. Viewing the world and the

people in it from a different perspective, in which everyone has something to offer, but cannot

due to the media norms overpowering them. Some people for example, may not have the

muscular body shape that’s ideal in society, but have other attributes they would love to show

off, such as an artistic ability for example, but would rather keep it enclosed as it’s not something

that’s considered masculine, and generally would be overshadowed in their eyes compared to a

business-man who is muscular. Granted that’s an extreme, but in this society it’s not an

impossibility to feel restricted in doing something just because media has been shoving other

ideals down one’s throat.

Hypothesis

Another goal is to see if I can make specific correlations with the survey data, and the

research literature from above, and see if there is a direct influence on gender stereotypes from

the media, and how it could affect any those surveyed anonymously. While my main thesis is to

see how gender is impacted by media, and thus how gender is affected by social norms and

stereotypes, I have several hypothesis that go directly under that to more specifications.

9

Media vs. Gender

Hypothesis 1. Those who intake media are subjected to any media stereotypes.

Null Hypothesis 1 . Those who intake media are not subjected to any media stereotypes.

I have a strong belief that this hypothesis are indeed subjected to media stereotypes. Not

only through personal views, but because of the information brought up earlier, and the articles

brought up in my personal and professional goals. They all prove this statement to a degree, and

I wish to further prove it.

Hypothesis 2. Media stereotypes will cause those viewing it to change themselves,

mentally or physically.

Null Hypothesis 2 . Media stereotypes will not cause any changes in one’s mental

thoughts or physical appearance.

Media portrays what is beautiful, what’s considered in-and-out in the current popular

stream. So, why would it not impact how one’s watching? It would obviously end up causing

the viewer to change their image based on what’s in, and change their views on what’s

considered smart. What was in yesterday is out tomorrow, and the media knows how abuse

that.

Hypothesis 3. Media influences how satisfied people are with themselves.

Null Hypothesis 3 . Media does not have any influence on how satisfied people are with

themselves.

Media is a source that shows you what’s in and out, as also shown in Hypothesis 2.

Therefore, one’s self-image would be deterred because of how media portrays what the ‘perfect

body’ or ‘ideal life’ is. That could cause one’s opinion of themselves to vary.

10

Media vs. Gender

Hypothesis 4. Media will stop one from doing something, or wanting to achieve

something.

Null Hypothesis 4 . Media will not stop anyone from doing something, or wanting to

achieve something.

When you see someone on a social network achieve something, say an art award, and then

you compare yourselves to them, and view them as better, you will get discouraged and

sometimes give up. This applies to media in general, say a TV show where some character gets

something while another didn’t, and you relate to that secondary character.

Hypothesis 5. Media creates an image that the male image is stronger than the female

image, meaning there is sexism in our cultural media.

Null Hypothesis 5 . Media does not create an image that the male image is stronger than

the female image, meaning there is no sexism in our cultural media.

Many of the research papers from earlier brought a sense of male dominance, and that it’s a

media-depicted social norm. Where the male is the dominant one who brings money, while the

female is the stay at home mom who takes care of everything with a smaller job.

Hypothesis 6. Many are peer-pressured into following social norms set by media.

Null Hypothesis 6. Many do not fall into peer-pressure and thus, do not follow social

norms set by media.

It’s easy to be influenced by social norms set by media, but it’s even easier to follow into

peer-pressure due to media influence. Therefore, it’s easy to assume what one see’s on TV, for

example, will end up continuing what they saw, and thus, transferring it to another.

11

Media vs. Gender

Hypothesis 7. Those who watch/read media sources, will be influenced negatively

more than positively.

Null Hypothesis 7. Those who watch/read media sources, will not be influenced

negatively more than positively.

Similar to some of my other hypothesis, I feel there is going to be a general negative

correlation over media use. There will always be hate, jealously, and other self-harming

thoughts. Even if it’s mental, and at the worst physical.

Methodology

The data that had been gathered for Media vs. Gender was received through surveys.

These surveys were from the student body of COM4900 at Baruch College, and a selected

student body by the class’s professor, Professor Wilkins. The selected student body was through

his own additional resources. Additionally, to the student body and the professor’s resources,

Facebook, Twitter and one-on-one messages to my friends. Besides the information on the

survey additional information was also received for knowledge, from sources such as the Baruch

Library Database, personal studies, and articles throughout the web.

12

Media vs. Gender

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha

Based on

Standardized Items

N of Items

.753 .806 8

As you can see from the Cronbach’s Alpha, there was a .753 in terms of reliability during scaling

it, out of those 8 questions that were pulled out. Out of that .753, this can prove that the survey is

quite reliable from those questions that were pulled, and thus can be researched further without a

sense of falsehood.

In terms of controlling the internal and external reliability, to show how accurate my

information can be, was that for one, I had taken the CITI course in research ethics, allowing me

to conduct this research first and foremost. Following that, those surveyed were asked to accept

the terms and conditions set by me, in which if they have any inclination to lie and or provide a

false answer, it would be best to not take the survey in the first place. Those I had asked on

Facebook, Twitter and from one-on-one messaging were those I had trusted, and those who had

no issues providing me with their honest answers. Those who answered under Professor Wilkins

are a body of people who were chosen under the professor himself, and would be obligated to not

insert false-answers. Finally, those that deviated from actual answers, which was only one out of

58 surveyed, was removed.

I had tried to ask my questions as straightforward as possible, to keep from having any

second thoughts or perhaps allow bias toward them. Any questions that could have had bias, or

weren’t too straightforward were put onto a Likert scale, which there were only two

13

Media vs. Gender

circumstances where that had to be done. In terms for what measures were used, there was

descriptive and inferential statistics involved.

In terms of descriptive statistics, which are numbers that summarize and describe data,

there were measures of central tendency, the mean, median and mode to figure out certain

applications and variables for certain hypothesis. As for inferential statistics, which is trying to

infer from the sample data we had to make judgments, just like above with the Cronbach’s alpha,

there was Pearson’s coefficient test, the chi square which was emphasized heavily, and the T-

test. The lambda test was also used to measure certain aspects of my research.

What gender are you?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent

Valid

Male 23 40.4 50.0 50.0

Female 23 40.4 50.0 100.0

Total 46 80.7 100.0

Missing System 11 19.3

Total 57 100.0

Those who took my survey, as mentioned above for slightly more detail on who did, was

a total of 58 respondents. However, of those 58 one of them was a joke response, which was

quickly removed. Since gender plays a vital role in my research, there was a total of 23 males

who has answered, which made of 50% of the survey results, and 23 females which made

another 50%. There were 11 missing, so this is going off a valid percentage, which is great in

terms of this research. Having an equal number of males and females allows for a more accurate

response as the research continues.

14

Media vs. Gender

Out of those, there were 41 who went to a high school, college, or graduate school, and

this made up 89.1%. However, 5 of them did not attend any form of education and this made up

a 10.9% amount.

Since my research does revolve around media as well, we needed to find the descriptive

amounts for the amount a person would watch TV, read, go on social network, listen to music

(which can have ad’s if using a radio-like-service) or play games.

Descriptive Statistics

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

How often do you watch TV

in a given day?46 1 4 1.78 .664

How often do you read any

form of text, such as online

articles, or a book in a given

day?

45 1 7 5.87 1.753

How often do you go on

social networks such as

Facebook, Google+, Twitter?

45 2 7 6.51 1.014

On a typical day, about how

many hours do you spend

listening to music?

45 1 5 2.64 .957

Do you play video games

(Consoles, PC, mobile,

browser..)?

45 1 2 1.31 .468

Valid N (listwise) 45

This chart shows us, 1 being the least amount of never, 2 being less than once a month, 3

being once a month, 4 being 2-3 times a month, 5 being once a week, 6 being 2-3 times a week,

and finally 7 at daily. These are for the ones that are called between 1 and 7. Those scaled

between 1 and 5 are, 1 being none, 2 being 1-3 hours, 3 being 3-6 hours, and 4 being 6 – 9 hours,

15

Media vs. Gender

and a 5th option which was only chosen for music, which is 9+ hours. For television, the 5 th

option has not been picked and in which case only shows 1-4. Finally, the 1-2 option was a

yes/no question, therefore you see video games saying yes or no.

Television had an average of 1.78, which means there was roughly 3 hours watched

daily.

Books, articles and the sort was at least once a week at 5.87.

Social media had the highest at 2-3 times a week on average, and closing on a daily value

at 6.51%.

Listening to music had a mean of 2.64, which is 3-6 hours.

Finally, there was more yes’s for playing video games than those who didn’t at 1.31.

Throughout the results, please keep these statistics in mind, being the gender and the amount of

media intake for those who answered surveys.

Results

My main thesis throughout this paper, was to see how gender is impacted by media, and

by that, how media impacted the social norms and stereotypes onto the average media consumer.

Starting with my first hypothesis;

Hypothesis 1. Those who intake media are subjected to any media stereotypes.

Null Hypothesis 1 . Those who intake media are not subjected to any media stereotypes.

Chi-Square Tests

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-

sided)

Exact Sig. (2-

sided)

Exact Sig. (1-

sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 3.300a 1 .069

Continuity Correctionb 2.292 1 .130

16

Media vs. Gender

Likelihood Ratio 3.344 1 .067

Fisher's Exact Test .129 .065

Linear-by-Linear Association 3.225 1 .073

N of Valid Cases 44

Upon creating a chi-square for the initial hypothesis of there being media stereotypes for

those who simply view media, was incorrect as I was always above a .05 acceptance rate. While

it’s not too far off, the correlations are generally just too far off to be proven correct. Therefore,

for my hypothesis on if those who just intake media being subjected to media stereotypes, was

false, and therefore, my Null Hypothesis is correct.

Hypothesis 2. Media stereotypes will cause those viewing it to change themselves,

mentally or physically.

Null Hypothesis 2 . Media stereotypes will not cause any changes in one’s mental

thoughts or physical appearance.

This one came as a rather big surprise. While I had conducted a lambda test for this one, the

cross tabs alone gave a rather big result. In terms of males, 7 had said yes to this question, while

15 said no. In terms of females, 13 said yes, and 9 said no. This shows gender inequality where

media can affect one gender more so than the other, in such, females in general have a harder

time with mental and physical media portrayal.

As for the lambda test; for the sake of space I shortened the question to “Were there ever”.

Using the asymptotic standard of error, we can see the null hypothesis is correct.

17

Media vs. Gender

Directional Measures

Value Asymp. Std.

Errora

Approx.

Tb

Approx.

Sig.

Nominal by

Nominal

Lambda

Symmetric .238 .176 1.233 .217

What gender are you?

Dependent.273 .173 1.370 .171

Were there ever .200 .210 .860 .390

Goodman and Kruskal

tau

What gender are you?

Dependent.075 .079 .073c

Were there ever .075 .079 .073c

Hypothesis 3. Media influences how satisfied people are with themselves.

Null Hypothesis 3 . Media does not have any influence on how satisfied people are with

themselves.

Doing another crosstabulation my hypothesis is indeed correct, and media does influence how

people are with themselves. The question was, “Have there been moments where you were

unhappy with your self-image, or who you were generally?” Simple enough, to where we can see

how happy they are with themselves, given the choices of yes, multiple times, yes, once or twice,

or no, they had no issues at all. In terms of males, similar to hypothesis 2, we have 4 for multiple

times, and 5 for once or twice. However, most sided with no, at 13.

Females however, had more. For yes, multiple times, we have 5. Only one more than that of the

males. And for once or twice, we have 9. Which is 4 more than that of males. Which is a drastic

number for this survey amount. Additionally, we have 6 for no, which is drastically low

compared to males. Therefore, we can see that, just by these simple numbers, media can

influence how satisfied people are with themselves.

18

Media vs. Gender

Hypothesis 4. Media will stop one from doing something, or wanting to achieve

something.

Null Hypothesis 4 . Media will not stop anyone from doing something, or wanting to

achieve something.

My initial thought was that media would restrict someone from doing something, simply

because they felt they wouldn’t be on par with someone they either saw through a media source,

or a friend or something of the sort, and thus, would quit and not achieve what they originally

wanted to do. However, despite my hypothesis, this falls into the Null Hypothesis. Having a

majority of males and females say no as opposed to yes, ended up causing this to scale over to

the Null. 6 males and 4 females had written that they are affected by media, in terms of achieving

something, and 16 males and 18 females had written they are not affected by media in terms of

achieving something. Using a one-sample t-test, where the t is 27.739, and df is 43 we have that

there is a difference as well of 1.773 with a 95% confidence at 1.64 lower, and 1.90 upper.

One-Sample Test

Test Value = 0

t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean

Difference

95% Confidence Interval of the

Difference

Lower Upper

Have you ever stopped

yourself from doing

something, or wanting to

achieve something due to

media...

27.739 43 .000 1.773 1.64 1.90

19

Media vs. Gender

Hypothesis 5. Media creates an image that the male image is stronger than the female

image, meaning there is sexism in our cultural media.

Null Hypothesis 5 . Media does not create an image that the male image is stronger than

the female image, meaning there is no sexism in our cultural media.

When asked if they believed that one gender had superiority in media over the other, on the

survey to fulfill this hypothesis, males voted equally on yes-males have more superiority, but are

also equally represented compared to females. While 5 voted that females had superiority, and 3

had no opinion on the matter. As for females, similar to male, 6 believed male had superiority,

but also were both equal, and 5 voted to the fact that females had superiority, and 3 also had no

opinion on the matter.

Generally, this one comes to a majority stalemate where out of the 44 results, 13 say male have

superiority, and 12 say females have superiority, but 13 say they are equally represented.

Therefore, the male superiority would be countered by those that see it as equally represented,

and it’s only one off the female superiority in media.

Therefore, I would vote neither this being a true, nor false statement as I don’t have enough to

see it being a factor of superiority, or not.

Hypothesis 6. Many are peer-pressured into following social norms set by media.

Null Hypothesis 6. Many do not fall into peer-pressure and thus, do not follow social

norms set by media.

20

Media vs. Gender

Have you ever felt the need to follow gender stereotypes set by media?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent

Valid

Yes 18 31.6 42.9 42.9

No 24 42.1 57.1 100.0

Total 42 73.7 100.0

Missing System 15 26.3

Total 57 100.0

For hypothesis 6, as this was between the male and female groups, and how this was focused

more around the groups within those genders, and how they are affected by gender stereotypes in

media and the need to follow the norms set by them. In terms of how many people fell into peer

pressure, we have a total of 42.9% saying yes, and 57.1% saying no. Therefore, I would have to decline

my hypothesis and bring it toward the null hypothesis. It seems gender stereotypes aren’t so heavily

influenced as one would expect with how drastically media shoves media norms. Surprising in the least,

but it’s not the biggest difference with only having a difference of 6 people choosing no rather than yes.

This was a gender neutral question, so which gender asked which doesn’t affect the outcome too

heavily.

Finally, the last hypothesis;

Hypothesis 7. Those who watch/read media sources, will be influenced negatively

more than positively.

Null Hypothesis 7. Those who watch/read media sources, will not be influenced

negatively more than positively.

This was a more open-ended response, since it wasn’t too easily measured into my survey, and

indeed a mistake of my own for not asking this question more specifically onto my survey,

however I have something similar enough. The results on this one, were also open ended. I gave

21

Media vs. Gender

those answering the survey, the ability to insert their own opinion on this one. Things such as

“You have to be flawless in society, therefore many get the wrong idea an could potentially harm

themselves in horrible diets, weight loss, and other situations where they get a negative affect

from media” and this is generally, the gist of what all the entries say.

As mentioned, this is open-ended, so the results were;

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent

Valid

50 87.7 87.7 87.7

Everyone else does 1 1.8 1.8 89.5

expected beauty standards from

society.1 1.8 1.8 91.2

Looking like them means you're

attractive, and being attractive

can lead to more opportunities.

1 1.8 1.8 93.0

They are seen as Ideal and

normal.1 1.8 1.8 94.7

Yes because all of the headlines

surrounding the women are

about how to look your best and

have a hot body.

1 1.8 1.8 96.5

You are expected to look

flawless.1 1.8 1.8 98.2

you have to be fit and certian

weight limit.1 1.8 1.8 100.0

Total 57 100.0 100.0

22