EXPOSURE TO STEREOTYPES

Exposure to Stereotypes

Exposure to Stereotypes

In recent years, television networks have been targeted more and more violent and gender stereotype programs that fill their schedules. Psychologists and media experts such as Dr. George Gerbner at the University of Pennsylvania, have developed scales to evaluate the death and destruction that goes into American homes daily. Sociologists have examined the possible impacts of this position to the public. Since even a brief look at weekly cartoon programs discloses, that children is exposed to a steady diet of violence that exceeds that of the prime-time shows to their parents so willingly to watch.

Children's cartoons have traditionally held a lot of violence and gender stereotype, and this is something we have learned to accept as normal. The coyote pursue the roadrunner and discovers him standing in midair over a deep chasm. For a fraction of a second he appears pathetically at the viewers; then he throw to the ground. Elmer Fudd places his shotgun into a tree where Buggs Bunny is hiding. Buggs bends the drum so that, when Elmer drags the trigger, the gun discharges into his face. Dog hunts Woody Woodpecker into sawmill and, unable to prevent, slides into the rotating blade of a circular saw. As the scene ending, the two halves of the dog fall to the ground with a clatter (Reese, 1996).

Where these so-called traditional cartoons portray stereotyped as an isolated incidence, newer cartoons depict it as a regular practice of life. Yugioh is an excellent example of this. Every Saturday these characters fighting each other in an arena virtual that humans have come. Each week, the plot remains the same, only the part in the contest seems to change. Further, every week the message to young children is the same as this is just a game despite the ...