Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 71, No. 1, 2015, pp. 123--138
doi: 10.1111/josi.12100
Using Celebrity News Stories to Effectively Reduce
Racial/Ethnic Prejudice
Srividya Ramasubramanian
∗
Texas A&M University
This article argues that exposure to admirable media celebrities from racial/ethnic
outgroups is an effective, proactive, and viable strategy for prejudice reduction
and intergroup harmony. It uses mediated contact and exemplification theories
to demonstrate that reading news stories about likable outgroup media personalities who serve as counter-stereotypic exemplars can subtly modify racial attitudes, which are malleable and context-sensitive. Specifically, results from a
between-participants experiment (N = 88) show that exposure to news stories
about counter-stereotypic African American media personalities as compared to
stereotypical ones reduces stereotypical perceptions and symbolic racist beliefs of
White Americans about African Americans. Furthermore, these favorable attitudes
translate into an increased willingness to support affirmative action policies.
Intergroup conflict, which stems from prejudice and discrimination, is a
major global issue today. It is the root cause for genocide, ethnic cleansing, and
terrorism whose costs are staggering in terms of deaths, illnesses, and destruction.
Even after these conflicts are seemingly resolved, their impact on societies
can be long-lasting. In the United States, for instance, interracial tensions and
discrimination continue to exist even 40 or more years after the civil rights
movement. Mistrust, racial discord, and anti-Black prejudice are still prevalent
in so-called color-blind, postracial America. Recent controversies such as the
Trayvon Martin murder, the racial profiling of Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr., the
Jena Six case, and the shooting of Reshida McBride show that racial/ethnic enmity
remains a deep-seated problem in the United States. Under these circumstances,
∗ Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Srividya Ramasubramanian,
Department of Communication, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4234. Tel: (979)
845-5178 [e-mail: srivi@tamu.edu.].
I sincerely thank Amanda Martinez, Robin Bedenbaugh, and Jonathan Chacon for their assistance
with data collection. I am grateful to Karen Dill-Shackleford for feedback on an earlier draft of this
article.
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C 2015 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
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Ramasubramanian
the promotion of intergroup harmony through reduction of symbolic racist beliefs
and increased support for public policies that encourage racial equality remains
an important goal for scholars, social activists, and educators.
Media scholars studying intergroup processes are committed to exploring the
role of mass media, which offer a rich range of salient vivid exemplars, in promoting positive intergroup relations. Media-based positive contact with well-liked
members of outgroups offers a less intrusive and anxiety-ridden approach than direct, face-to-face interracial contact. Using mediated contact and exemplification
theories, it would be expected that because racial/ethnic attitudes are malleable and
context-sensitive, exposure to news stories about positive media celebrities from
racial/ethnic outgroups can serve as counter-stereotypic exemplars that activate
favorable attitudes toward outgroups. Specifically, the findings from the present
between-participants experiment demonstrate that exposure to news stories about
counter-stereotypical, admirable African American media celebrities (compared to
negative, stereotypical presentations) reduces stereotypical perceptions and symbolic racist beliefs about African Americans, among White American participants.
Importantly these favorable attitudes further translate into an increased willingness to support affirmative action policies that provide greater opportunities for
racial/ethnic outgroups to access societal resources.
This study contributes and builds on existing scholarship on media’s role in
racial/ethnic stereotyping processes in several ways. Whereas the bulk of existing
literature examines how media portrayals influence the formation and maintenance of cultural stereotypes, the current research contributes to the important but
sparse literature on media-based strategies for prejudice reduction. Moreover, it
extends intergroup contact theory by applying it to media contexts by suggesting
that positive vicarious contact with outgroup members via media can help encourage favorable outgroup attitudes. Additionally, this study expands the scope
of the scholarship on mediated counter-stereotypic exemplars by examining their
effects on subtle symbolic racism and affirmative action policy opinions. Finally,
it provides rare experiment-based evidence that links exposure to media exemplars
with viewers’ policy opinions.
Media Priming and Racial/Ethnic Attitudes
Content analyses of news media document that African Americans have been
historically depicted in negative ways such as dangerous, lazy, unintelligent (Dixon
& Linz, 2000; Entman & Rojecki, 2000), hypersexual and relatively low social and
professional status (Tukachinsky, Mastro & Yarchi, 2015). Scholars have studied
the priming effects of these stereotypical news portrayals on audiences’ person
perceptions, social judgments, endorsement of explicit stereotypes (e.g., Gilliam
& Iyengar, 2000; Hurley, Jensen, Weaver, & Dixon, 2015; Oliver & Fonash,
2002). However, the current media scenario offers a more complex and diverse
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array of exemplars about African Americans beyond just negative stereotypes. For
instance, entertainment genres such as sitcoms and noncrime dramas are gradually
presenting characters from African Americans in a more favorable light (Children
Now, 2003; Mastro & Greenberg, 2000).
Not surprisingly, there is a growing research interest in understanding the effects of more progressive portrayals on audience attitudes (Bodenhausen, Schwarz,
Bless, & Waenke, 1995; Fujioka, 1999; Mastro & Tukachinsky, 2011; Power,
Murphy, & Coover, 1996; Ramasubramanian, 2007, 2011; Ramasubramanian &
Oliver, 2007; Schiappa, Gregg, & Hewes, 2005). For example, Power et al. (1996)
use the priming paradigm to show how counter-stereotypic media information increased sympathetic ratings towards African Americans. Similarly, Bodenhausen
et al. (1995) found that exposure to either likable positive African American
role models as compared to neutral or negative media personalities primed positive attitudes, which they labeled generalized appraisal, of White audiences toward
the entire outgroup. This study applies the priming perspective to examine whether
more auspicious media portrayals of African Americans can decrease biases and
encourage favorable outcomes towards them.
Celebrity News Stories and Mediated Vicarious Contact
One of the best researched approaches for promoting intergroup harmony
is the contact hypothesis. It theorizes that greater intergroup contact increases
positive attitudes, especially when such contact involves mutual respect and cooperation in an egalitarian environment with institutional support from authorities
(Allport, 1954; Brewer & Miller, 1988; Hewstone & Brown, 1986; Pettigrew &
Tropp, 2000). However, meaningful long-term intergroup contact in the real world
is difficult to achieve due to societal constraints such as continued segregation in
housing, schooling, and working environments. There is also the problem of selection bias such that more prejudiced individuals tend to avoid interpersonal
contact with other racial/ethnic groups. Research also shows that both Blacks and
Whites experience inter-racial anxiety that prevents initiating face-to-face social
exchanges, as they fear race-based rejection (Richeson & Shelton, 2007).
This article contends that vicarious mediated contact with positive outgroup
media celebrities offers a practical and effective approach to prejudice reduction
that could serve as an alternative or supplement to traditional face-to-face direct
contact. Mediated contact is particularly effective with individuals who otherwise
have minimal or no direct contact with outgroup members (Armstrong, Blake, &
Neuendorf, 1989; Fujioka, 2005). In the context of television programs, Schiappa
et al. (2005) found that when heterosexual audiences developed strong emotional
bonds through para-social relationships with admired gay television characters,
their overall attitudes toward homosexuality was improved.
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This article applies the idea of vicarious mediated contact to celebrity news
media contexts. Celebrity news has evolved as a popular subgenre of news media that appeals to a broad range of audiences by combining entertainment and
news through infotainment outlets such as television, magazines, Internet sites, and
social media. By reading celebrity news stories, readers often feel a sense of closeness and intimacy with the media personalities whom they venerate (Cashmore,
2006). Media serve as important sites through which audiences learn vicariously
about admired media characters, which abstractly shapes their real-world perceptions and behaviors (Bandura, 1994). This article argues that reading news stories
about outgroup media celebrities can serve as a vicarious contact experience that
influences outgroup attitudes.
Exemplification Theory and the Drench Hypothesis
Exemplification theory posits that media exemplars act as concrete and vivid
cues in influencing attitudes toward specific issues or social groups (Zillmann &
Brosius, 2000). Racial attitudes are not stable evaluations but are context-sensitive
such that specific salient exemplars that are momentarily primed at the time
of making judgments can play a significant role in influencing attitudes (Krupat,
Smith, Leach, & Jackson, 1997; Nisbett & Ross, 1980). Unlike associative network
and prototyping models of stereotypes that suggest that attitudes cannot be altered
and that only the most typical and strongest traits associated with a racial/ethnic
group are stored in schemas, exemplar-based models posit that both stereotypic
and counter-stereotypic exemplars coexist such that those activated most recently
and continuously are most likely to influence subsequent attitudes (Gawronski &
Bodenhausen, 2006).
Prior studies show that exposure to counter-stereotypic exemplars leads to
prejudice reduction, especially when the exemplars are not extreme outliers and
when they are primed subtly (Blair & Banaji, 1996; Bodenhausen et al., 1995;
Dasgupta & Greenwald, 2001). Drench hypothesis suggests that vivid, interesting, and engaging counter-stereotypic exemplars about outgroups can be very
powerful, even if such portrayals are fairly uncommon (Greenberg, 1988).
Media Exemplars, Symbolic Racism, and Support for Affirmative Action
In order to be effective, strategies to reduce prejudice should not only target explicit stereotypical perceptions but also subtle, symbolic prejudice. Racial
prejudice often manifests in implicit and aversive ways rather than old-fashioned
blatant racism (Devine & Elliot, 2000; Entman & Rojecki, 2000). In particular,
symbolic racism that emphasizes the ideology of meritocracy and the American
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dream is a pervasive form of subtle prejudice in the United States (McConahay,
1986; Sears & Henry, 2003). Those who endorse symbolic racism believe that
racial discrimination is no longer an issue in present-day contexts and that racetargeted public policies provide unjustified advantages to racial/ethnic outgroups.
Considering that racism is increasingly expressed in subtle ways, measuring symbolic racism is invaluable in media stereotyping scholarship; yet only a few studies
in media contexts have looked at effects on subtle prejudice (Busselle & Crandall,
2002; Entman & Rojecki, 2000; Mastro, Behm-Morawitz, & Kopacz, 2008).
One of the paradoxes of contemporary racism is that although there appears to
be a greater acceptance of the notion of racial equality, in practice such principles
have not necessarily converted into tangible support for policies such as affirmative action or welfare. Motivational approaches to prejudice reduction often
focus on self-enhancement goals of the perceivers but such efforts may not lead to
helpful attitudes to accommodate, support, and promote interests of racial/ethnic
outgroups. The current study contends that in order to be effective, any prejudice reduction strategy should also lead to more support for public policies that
promote outgroup interests. Prior research on the role of televised stereotypes in
influencing audiences’ support for policies such as affirmative action and welfare
programs have largely been correlational in nature (Pan & Kosicki, 1998; Tan,
Fujioka, & Tan, 2000). This study provides rare experiment-based evidence for
the effectiveness of media counter-stereotypes in increasing support for policies
that promote outgroup interests.
The Current Investigation
Using media priming, mediated contact, and exemplification approaches,
this study argues that exposure to news stories about likable African American
media celebrities serve as counter-stereotypical exemplars that can be used effectively to reduce symbolic racist beliefs and increase support for policies that
encourage outgroup interests. Specifically, an experiment was conducted to understand the complex causal chain of relationships linking exposure to news stories
about African American media celebrities with heuristic policy decision-making
relating to affirmative action policy. Specifically, the following hypothesis was
tested:
Hypothesis: Exposure to news stories featuring counter-stereotypic African Americans as compared to stereotypic ones amongst White American participants will
reduce real-world stereotypical perceptions about African Americans, lessen
symbolic racist beliefs about African Americans, and increase support for affirmative action policies.
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Method
Design
A between-participant experimental design was used in this study to compare
the effects of type of media exemplar (stereotypical or counter-stereotypical) on
the dependent variables (a) stereotypical perceptions about African Americans, (b)
symbolic racist beliefs about African Americans, and (c) support for affirmative
action. Each participant was randomly assigned to either the stereotypical stories condition (N = 48) or the counter-stereotypic condition (N = 40). They read
through a news booklet that contained four news stories, two of which were manipulated to be about either stereotypical or counter-stereotypical African American
media personalities. They then completed a second purportedly unrelated “Quality of Life” study that, among other filler questions and demographic variables,
assessed the dependent measures.
Participants
Participants were recruited from two mass lecture communication courses
at a large public university. They participated voluntarily in exchange for course
credit and had the option of completing an alternative writing assignment. They
were between the ages of 19 and 30, with the average age being 21.0 years
(SD = 1.54). They represented many different educational backgrounds and community settings (urban, semirural and rural). Women comprised the majority of the
sample at 66%. Note that 75.4% of participants were non-Hispanic Whites, 12%
were Hispanic, 7.8% marked Other, 3% were Asian, 1.2% were African American,
and 0.6% were Pacific Islanders. Only those participants who self-identified as
non-Hispanic Whites were included in the final analysis since the study focused
on prejudice reduction amongst majority group members.
Procedure
Students were asked to participate in two unrelated studies: “News Enjoyment Study” and “Quality of Life Study.” In the News Enjoyment Study, participants each read a news booklet containing four short news stories and a few brief
items that assessed their recall and enjoyment of each story. Once the first study
was completed, participants were invited to continue on to the second study called
the “Quality of Life” study. In this mini-study, they completed a “Group Traits and
Characteristics” section that asked about their opinions about several groups in
society, including African Americans. Then, participants were asked to complete
some filler questions about general beliefs pertaining to the justice system, politics, and education in the United States within which were embedded the items
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relating to affirmative action policy opinions and symbolic racism. Finally, participants completed demographic information such as gender, age, race/ethnicity,
and media usage. Participants were thanked at the end of the session and asked
to fill out open-ended questions about their experience participating in the two
studies.
Stimuli
The news stories were formatted with a headline, embedded photos of approximately the same size, and columned text for a consistent and realistic presentation.
All stories were approximately one-page long with 300–350 words. Each condition
included four news stories, two pertaining to media personalities and two neutral
stories. The two neutral news stories were about the galaxy and about pumpkin
pie; the neutral stories were placed between the experimental news stories in each
survey. In both experimental conditions, the participants were exposed to two news
stories about African Americans, one about a male African American exemplar
and the other about a female. Headshot photos with little background context and
neutral facial expressions (i.e., not smiling or frowning) of the media personality accompanied each news story. These news stories were edited from existing
stories from popular online news sites such as Yahoo News and Entertainment
Weekly.
Prior to the experiment, two pilot tests were conducted to assess the appropriateness and effectiveness of the stimuli. Participants (N = 48 for pilot 1; N =
250 for pilot 2) were enrolled in mass lecture communication classes at a large
public university. In the first pilot, the researchers surveyed mainstream popular
media, current events, and engaged in informal conversations with racially diverse
personal contacts to generate a list of well-known male and female media personalities, organized by racial category and gender. The media celebrities perceived as
neutral were eliminated and those rated positive and negative, respectively, were
included for the next pilot. This test assessed the chosen media personality images
alongside short news stories including a set of neutral “fluff” news stories to serve
as a control in the final experiment. Participants were instructed to read each short
news story and then respond to questions about recognition and judgment of the
news story’s content and tone apart from the media personality’s overall persona
and reputation. An open-ended response box prompted additional thoughts after
each news story. Based on the inputs from these two pilot tests, the control and
manipulated news stories for the final experiment were determined.
The stereotypical stories focused on common cultural stereotypes of African
Americans such as aggressiveness and promiscuity. For example, one news story
used in the current study featured Kanye West and emphasized his angry outbursts
at the awards shows where he “cut the teen singer off, grabbed the mic . . . ”
and “lost his temper after he was displeased.” In contrast, the counter-stereotypic
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news stories highlighted traits such as calmness, which opposes traditional African
American stereotypes. For instance, one news story featured Morgan Freeman and
described him as a man who “embodies a calm authority that demands respect for
the character.” Those who read news stories with counter-stereotypic exemplars
were exposed to stories about Morgan Freeman (male) and Beyonce Knowles
(female). The new stories with stereotypical exemplars were about Kanye West
(male) and Mo’Nique Imes-Jackson (female). Participants were asked to: “Please
indicate your responses to the story you just read.” They were presented with a
seven-point Likert-scale (Strongly disagree to Strongly agree) asking the extent to
which they found each story informative, enjoyable, boring, and interesting.
Dependent Variables
Stereotypical perceptions about African Americans (M = 4.56, SD = 0.91).
Prior research on prevalent cultural stereotypes about African Americans reveals
that the predominant negative stereotypes revolve around violence, criminality,
poverty, and laziness (Ramasubramanian, 2011; Tan et al., 2000). Accordingly,
participants responded to the question: “Indicate the extent to which you agree
that the following traits describe African Americans/Black people in general.
Please be honest in your responses.” A seven-point Likert-type scale, Strongly
disagree to Strongly agree, allowed participants to choose an appropriate number that was closest to their perceptions and assessment of African Americans
(apart from other social groups that were not of interest to the current research).
The negative stereotypical traits included in this index were: criminal, violent,
lazy, poor, uneducated, welfare recipient, drug dealer, and drug user (Cronbach’s
α = .89).
Symbolic racism beliefs (M = 3.61, SD = 1.08).
The items used to measure
symbolic racism beliefs were derived from prior research and comprise a blend of
antiblack effect, conservative values, and individualism. The items thematically
relate to the following subcategories on symbolic racism and stereotypes: excessive
demands, denial of discrimination, and undeserved (dis)advantage (Sears & Henry,
2003; Tarman & Sears, 2005). Specifically, participants were asked to: “Please
indicate the extent to which you agree with the following statements about African
Americans. Please be honest in your responses.” Participants responded to five
items on a seven-point Likert-type scale, Strongly disagree to Strongly agree. Some
sample items were as follows: “African Americans are getting too demanding
in their push for equal rights;” “Discrimination against African Americans is no
longer a problem in the United States;” “Over the past few years African Americans
have gotten more economically and politically than they deserve” (Cronbach’s
α = .70).
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Support for affirmative action policies (M = 3.16, SD = 1.29) .
Items used
to measure participants’ policy support for affirmative action were modified from
existing studies (Ramasubramanian, 2010; Tan et al., 2000). The measure consisted
of three items in two sections entitled “Beliefs about Justice.” Participants were
asked to respond on a 7-point Likert-type scale, Strongly disagree to Strongly
agree, to their beliefs about the justice system in the United States: Affirmative
action is one good way to deal with past racial discrimination; Universities should
not consider an applicant’s race in the admission process (reverse-coded); and,
Affirmative action policies are unfair to White participants (Cronbach’s α = .63).
Results
Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) Results
A multivariate analysis of variance was used to examine the effects of the independent variable (type of media exemplars: stereotypical or counter-stereotypic)
on the dependent variables (stereotypical perceptions, symbolic racist beliefs, and
affirmative action support). Type of media exemplars had a statistically significant effect on stereotypical perceptions and symbolic racist beliefs but not on
affirmative action support; Wilk’s λ = 0.91, F (3, 84) = 2.74; p ࣘ.05; R2 = .05.
Specifically, participants who read African American counter-stereotypical news
stories (M = 4.36; SD = 0.87) reported significantly lower levels of stereotypical
perceptions as compared to those who read the stereotypical ones (M = 4.73;
SD = 0.91); F (1, 86) = 3.69; p ࣘ .05; R2 = .04. Similarly, those who read
counter-stereotypical news stories (M = 3.32; SD = 1.08) reported significantly
lower levels of symbolic racist beliefs as compared to those who read the stereotypical ones (M = 3.86; SD = 1.02); F (1, 86) = 5.91; p ࣘ .05; R2 = .06. However,
those who read counter-stereotypical news stories (M = 3.20; SD = 1.32) did not
significantly differ in terms of affirmative action policy support as compared to
those who read the stereotypical ones (M = 3.13; SD = 1.27); F (1, 86) = .07; ns.
Path Analysis Results
A path analysis was then conducted using the statistical package AMOS to
simultaneously examine the direct and indirect effects of the exogenous variable
(type of media exemplars: stereotypical or counter-stereotypic) on the endogenous
variables (stereotypical perceptions, symbolic racist beliefs, and policy support).
The exogenous variables were dummy-coded such that: 0 = stereotypical exemplars and 1 = counter-stereotypical exemplars. The initial model used the observed
variable approach to hypothesize direct and indirect correlations among all endogenous variables with the exogenous variable. The model eliminated all paths
that are not statistically significant at p ࣘ .05. Goodness of fit of the final model
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Fig. 1. Model relating type of media exemplars in news stories about African Americans (stereotypical
or counter-stereotypic) with stereotypical perceptions about African Americans, symbolic racist beliefs
about African Americans, and support for affirmative action policies.
was determined using a variety of indicators such as χ 2 /df value of more than 0.05,
the root mean square of approximation (RMSEA) less than .06, and a comparative
fit index (CFI) higher than .95 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). The final developed path
model has a good fit with the data as evidenced by χ 2 = 3.14; df = 2; p = .86;
CFI = 1.00; NFI = .99; RMSEA = .00 (.00 to .12).
If we look at the individual paths in the final model generated in Figure 1,
we notice two paths connecting type of media exemplars to symbolic racist beliefs. The direct path from type of media exemplars to symbolic racist beliefs
shows a negative, significant correlation (β = –.49; p ࣘ .05). The indirect path is
via “stereotypical perceptions,” which reveals a significant, negative correlation
(β = −.37; p ࣘ .05) between type of media exemplars and stereotypical perceptions followed by a positive, marginally significant relationship between stereotypical perceptions and symbolic racist beliefs (β = .23; p ࣘ .10). In other words, when
participants read news stories about African Americans with counter-stereotypic
rather than stereotypic exemplars, negative stereotypical perceptions about African
Americans as a whole were reduced, which influenced symbolic racist beliefs. In
the next step of the path diagram, we notice that symbolic racist beliefs and affirmative policy support are negatively correlated (β = –.39; p ࣘ .001). That is, as
symbolic racist beliefs decrease, there is increased support for affirmative action
policy.
Discussion
Findings from this study support the assertion that celebrity news stories
can serve as an effective tool in racial/ethnic prejudice reduction. The results are
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in line with mediated contact theory, media priming, and exemplification perspectives and provide evidence that reading news stories functions as a mediated
vicarious contact experience with counter-stereotypic outgroup exemplars, which
prime favorable attitudes towards the outgroup as a whole. Specifically, the results
show that participants who read news stories about counter-stereotypic African
American media celebrities rather than stereotypical ones reported less stereotypical perceptions of African Americans in general and reduced subtle symbolic racist
beliefs about African Americans, which in turn increased support for affirmative
action policies.
It is to be noted that these findings do not support alternative theories regarding
counter-stereotypes that suggest that perceivers will disregard and discount them
while making judgments in ways that preserve or strengthen existing stereotypes.
Although the enlightened racism perspective speculates that counter-stereotypic
media portrayals will lead to a negative shift through the denial of contemporary
racism (Jhally & Lewis, 1992), this article does not find evidence for it. In contrast, similar to Bodenhausen et al. (1995), it supports the generalized appraisal
perspective that a few atypical media exemplars are able to shape perceptions
about the entire group. There is also no evidence to suggest that participants used
subtyping models of stereotype change, which contend that individuals might
perceive counter-stereotypic exemplars as too atypical and therefore ignore them
while making their assessments about the entire group (Johnston & Hewstone,
1992).
With regard to exemplification effects, the present research applies this theory
to an entirely new context of media stereotyping. Like exemplification theory, it
is argued that when participants are subtly exposed to news stories about entertainment celebrities as counter-stereotypical exemplars, they are not deliberately
or consciously aware of how these exemplars shape their attitudes. Distinct from
existing exemplification research however, this study contends (and the data support) that these contextual cues can improve outgroup perceptions and attitudes; to
the extent that they present positive, counter-stereotypic exemplars. Zillmann and
Brosius (2000) have largely considered exemplification and the use of exemplars
(instead of base-rate statistical information) as a problem to be contended with
when exposed to media content. However, these findings suggest that the exemplification process can also function to enhance social justice goals by increasing the presence of vivid, atypical, and interesting counter-stereotypic exemplars
strategically in news stories. Future studies could further test the conditions and
circumstances under which the frequency, recency, atypicality, vividness, and perceived realism of media exemplars might influence their accessibility and effects
on racial/ethnic attitudes (Busselle & Shrum, 2003).
Celebrity news is an increasingly popular media genre that uses multiple
media formats such as social media, internet, magazines, and television to reach
a wide, diverse audience. Although celebrity news is often seen as trivial “fluff”
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compared to hard news stories, this article argues that given its popularity and broad
reach, it might have a significant role to play in media-based strategies for prejudice
reduction. Such vicarious contact with outgroup media characters offers a less
intrusive and less anxiety-provoking alternative to traditional face-to-face, direct
intergroup contact. The outcomes of this experiment support the idea that celebrity
news media serve as an important virtual site for contact amongst racial/ethnic
groups, which can be a practical and viable tool in promoting intergroup harmony.
It is encouraging to note that in line with drench hypothesis and exemplification theory, even short-term, brief exposure to a couple of positive counterstereotypical celebrity news stories was able to elicit beneficial audience responses.
The findings from this study make a case for the continued efforts of media scholars and policy-makers to encourage more progressive and diverse portrayals of
racial/ethnic groups in the media. The role of media and art in society should not
be to simply mirror prevailing racial dynamics but to challenge existing inequities
to serve social justice ends. In the same vein, promoting greater diversity in the
media workplace (in terms of journalists, scriptwriters, and media characters)
promises to play a key role in combating cultural stereotypes in mainstream media
by opening the door to alternative ways of reimagining intergroup relations and
portraying marginalized groups.
The study of counter-stereotypes is still very new within media effects literature. Future research should continue to clarify the differences between positive
and negative exemplars apart from stereotypical versus counter-stereotypic exemplars. Counter-stereotypes were defined in this study as challenging or opposing
existing cultural stereotypes. For instance, calmness and nonaggression was exemplified in the media celebrities in counter-stereotypical story condition. These are
not the same as (seemingly) positive stereotypes, such as athleticism stereotypes
associated with African Americans or model minority stereotypes of Asian
Americans, which can lead to negative effects such as benevolent prejudice
and symbolic racism (Ramasubramanian & Oliver, 2007). Mediated counterstereotypes, positive stereotypes, and negative stereotypes shape implicit and
explicit racial attitudes in complex and sometimes conflicting ways, especially in
contemporary contexts when racism is expressed by subtle, covert, and symbolic
methods.
Although mediated contact might serve as a proactive solution to the
more reactive motivational approaches, there is no guarantee that majority, White
American audiences would actively seek media content about outgroups. With the
proliferation of media formats, news outlets, television channels, and online websites, there is a constant competition to gain audience’s attention. Given multiple
media usage and multitasking, it is likely that even when audiences are exposed
to counter-stereotypical news stories about outgroups, they might process them in
less deliberate ways than seen in lab-based settings where they do not have other
distractions. Apart from encouraging positive media portrayals, it is also important
to focus on promoting critical viewing skills amongst audiences. A combination
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of audience-centered approaches such as media literacy training along with
exposure to positive outgroup media content can work in conjunction with one
another to maximize prejudice reduction effects (Ramasubramanian, 2007).
In the real-world media scenario, the more auspicious portrayals of African
American characters happen mainly in genres such as drama and sitcoms, especially those targeted at Black audiences. Unless we see a sustained effort from
media producers and content creators to continue to present a more diverse range
of characters in all media genres, the potential for mediated contact to serve as
an effective prejudice reduction strategy in the real world will not be optimally
effective. Media diversity should also go beyond race to include representations
from a variety of age groups, body sizes, sexualities, nationalities, and social
classes. Future research should examine how intersectionality of identities in media characters and audiences influence the complex relationships between media
content and attitudes. By including other racial groups and nonstudent samples,
researchers can understand the audience-related characteristics that moderate the
relationship between media exposure and policy opinions. Moreover, future research should include a control condition to clarify if the counter-stereotypes are
reducing racism or if stereotypes are increasing them or if it is a combination of
both processes.
Despite these limitations, this study makes a valuable contribution to the
sparse literature on media-based strategies for prejudice reduction by providing
new experimental evidence in the context of popular celebrity news stories that
shows that even a brief exposure to news stories about well-liked African American
media personalities is able to prime more favorable attitudes, reduce symbolic
racism and increase support for affirmative action policies among White viewers.
It makes the case that scholarship on media entertainment and celebrity journalism
offers an important contribution to understanding subtle stereotyping and public
policy opinion-formation processes as we tackle complex global issues such as
intergroup conflict.
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DR. SRIVIDYA RAMASUBRAMANIAN, PhD, Penn State University, is an
Associate Professor of Communication and the Associate Dean for Climate &
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Inclusion at Texas A&M University. Her research interests are in media psychology, stereotyping processes, cultural diversity, media literacy, and positive media
effects. She has published in journals such as Communication Research, Media
Psychology, Communication Monographs, Sex Roles, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Howard Journal of Communications, and the Journal of
International & Intercultural Communication. She serves on the editorial board
of Communication Monographs, Journal of Applied Communication Research,
Journal of International & Intercultural Communication, Southern Journal of
Communication and Journal of Creative Communications.