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=Viewer Analysis to African American Stereotypes in Television=

Many people today have seen at least one or two shows on television that have an African American character as the main focal point. In a recent study by Dana E. Mastro from the University of Arizona and Linda R. Tropp from Boston College University, subjects were asked to rate their feelings towards African Americans before and after watching both a intentionally stereotypical and intentionally non-stereotypical sitcom involving African American characters. The findings seemed somewhat normal compared to what one may think but there were also a few surprises within the content.

The Effects of Interracial Contact, Attitudes, and Stereotypical Portrayals on Evaluations of Black Television Sitcom Characters (Mastro, Tropp, 2004)
The Effects of Interracial Contact, Attitudes, and Stereotypical Portrayals on Evaluations of Black Television Sitcom Characters written by Mastro and Tropp is very interesting article that shows how society today views prejudices and stereotypes in television.The information and data collected from the study is very important and answers the overarching question: What do prior experiences and attitudes towards African Americans do to the analysis of stereotypical African American sitcoms?

Caucasians were the main participants in the study and "the present study examined the influence of stereotypical TV portrayals, attitudes toward Blacks, and interracial contact on appraisals of Black television sitcom characters" (Mastro, Tropp, 2004). The experiment was conducted in two phases. The first phase consisted of a voluntary pretest questionnaire distributed to college students from a mid-sized, eastern university. The second phase commenced approximately three weeks later, where students were asked to view and respond to a video clip, ostensibly as part of an unrelated experimental testing session (Mastro, Tropp, 2004). A lot of the information gathered from this study is very intriguing but on the other hand most of it is also not surprising.

The portrayal of African Americans by individuals asserting greater levels of prejudice accepted specific depictions of racism on television while those reporting less prejudice condemned these same portrayals (Mastro, Tropp, 2004). What this notion is saying is that when people already prejudices towards stereotypes, some of the things they were shown on television were okay with them. While people that were not prejudiced in the first place did not think the stereotypical portrayals of the characters on television were okay. Also, the study found that people who watched a comedy with stereotypical African American characters that put the race in a negative light, they felt negatively towards the race as a whole after watching the show. And the same went for the opposite, people who watched a sitcom with non-stereotypical African American characters felt positively toward African Americans.

The study was an experiment to see how people felt about African Americans after being shown a clip of a television sitcom.

The study done by Mastro and Tropp to find out the how people felt about African Americans before and after they watched a clip of a stereotypical African American character on a sitcom was by no means a very cutting edge study but it did help tell us a lot about how society is today. It shows us that people with preconceived notions towards African Americans will most likely not change the way they think even after watching a clip from a television show that puts African Americans in a positive light. Also, the study showed us that when people have more interaction and contact with African Americans their views will differ greatly from those who do not have the opportunity to interact and socialize with them. Overall this study is a great tool in the stereotypes of African Americans in television sitcoms.

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