Black family life on
television and the socialization of the African American
child: images of marginality.
Author: Berry, Gordon L. Source:
Journal of Comparative Family Studies
v. 29 no2 (Summer 1998) p. 233-42 ISSN: 0047-2328 Number:
BSSI98046339 Copyright: The magazine publisher is the
copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with
permission. Further reproduction of this article in
violation of the copyright is prohibited.
Sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists and other
students of human behavior have generally agreed on the
importance of the social and developmental process they
refer to as socialization. The socialization process is one
by which children learn the rules and regulations of their
own family group, their culture, and their society. Within
this framework, socialization is a process of assisting the
child in acquiring the attitudes, skills, and knowledge
needed to get along in that society (Harris and Liebert,
1984; McConnell, 1980). Socialization also refers to the
learning of information, cognitive processes, values,
attitudes, social roles, self-concepts, and behaviors that
are generally accepted--or expected--within one or many
segments of American society (Berger and Luckmann, 1967;
Dorr, 1982).
The major institutions most involved in the early
learning process related to socialization have traditionally
been the parents and family, the school, and religious
organizations. In addition, the peer group plays a role in
the process as the child matures. Of these institutions, the
agent that has the most influence on the learning process of
children remains the parents and family who surround them.
Parents or the primary caregivers exert the most influence
on the child because they serve as the models from whom
children receive positive reinforcement for their behavior,
as well as corrections of their actions when they fall
outside of the values of the family unit and its broader
cultural group.
Any analysis of the socialization process also involves a
great deal of social learning which is sometimes called
"modeling." Developing children frequently model
both desirable and undesirable behaviors after that of
others. This is especially true for those they trust and
admire (Berger, 1980). The social learning theory
surrounding the concepts of modeling is important because it
assists us in understanding how this element of the
socialization process provides children with a set of
beliefs, values and attitudes about themselves, their
family, ethnic group and others. These early values and
beliefs learned from a variety of sources are frequently
maintained by the child into adulthood.
Clearly, the agents of socialization such as the family
and the other traditional institutions remain the major
transmitters of values within the process of socialization.
In contemporary society, however, the phenomenon of mass
communication competes with these traditional socializing
institutions. This is especially true of television, so this
article examines the role of this medium in the
socialization of African American children.
TELEVISION AND THE SOCIALIZATION PROCESSNo medium within
our vast communication system is more competitive with the
traditional agents of socialization than television. The
attrativeness of the television people, its images and
messages, surrounded by a dynamic set of formal features
which increases its power, means that it can create profound
mental sets in children. The messages and images of
television consciously and unconsciously compete with and
challenge the teachings in the home and other institutions
concerned with the growth and development of young people.
It is the ubiquitous nature of television in American
society, and its ever-present entertainment and information,
that causes it to be an important secondary socializer of
the young. Television is a box that can talk, sing, record,
play games, and change colors. Throughout each of these
operations, television also provides for children an
unending array of values and ideas about the world, people
like themselves, and those who are different from them.
We know from social learning theory that any medium that
can teach can also help to form attitudes and beliefs.
Leifer, Gordon, and Graves (1974) suggest that children
change their attitudes about people and activities to
reflect those encountered in television programs. Thus,
their conclusion is that television is not only
entertainment for children, it is an important socializer of
them. Similarly, Comstock et al. (1978) and Stroman (1984)
refer to television as a source of vicarious socialization
that competes with other socializing agents in providing
role models and information which affect children's
attitudes, beliefs and behavior. Television is also an
important source of vicarious learning. From watching
television families, vicarious learning of family roles,
attitudes, and behaviors is expected for, in many instances,
television is a more readily available and attractive
socializing agent than the family itself (Abelman, 1989).
A conception of television as a socializer of children is
not without precedent. Regarding the question of
television's impact on children's outlook and values,
Himmelweit, Oppenheim, and Vince (1966) examine the
circumstances under which the socialization process might
occur. Their research suggests that several principles can
be formulated regarding the conditions under which
television will have maximal effect on the child's values:
1) if the values or views recur from program to program; 2)
if the values are presented in dramatic form so that they
evoke primarily emotional reactions; 3) if they link with
the child's immediate needs and interests; 4) if through
friends, parents, or immediate environment, the viewer is
not already supplied with a set of values which would
provide a standard against which to assess the views offered
by television.
The major purpose of this article is to examine the
general relationship between the portrayals of African
American family life on commercial television, and the
potential of these images for influencing the attitudes,
beliefs and values in early school-age Black children.
Within the framework of the socializing influences of the
portrayals, the article will also identify some research
issues which need to be a part of models attempting to
understand the impact of culturally marginalized television
portrayals on these children.
Three factors need to be mentioned as a framework for
this article. First, television portrayals, images, and its
general or specific content can be complex in terms of our
ability to ascertain their true effects on children and
youth. That is to say, there is great variability in the
manner, impact, influence, and power of the television
content in terms of what its meaning will be to the
individual. Second, African American children and youth,
just like their peers everywhere, represent a heterogeneous
group of boys and girls with social, psychological, and
physical attributes which are driven by a number of unique
and general cultural experiences. The level of variability
of the general and personal experiences, coupled with those
that are culturally unique, adds to the complexity of trying
to identify specifically the influences of television. Thus,
all of our research with television, children, and the
socialization process turn to some degree on the nature and
needs of the young viewer who is a receiver of the messages
from the television set. Finally, it is important to point
out that there is an assumption throughout this article that
television is and can be a marvelous medium for all
children. The challenge to parents, schools, government
agencies, broadcasters, advertisers, and those professionals
in the creative community is to capitalize on the potential
of this medium and to assist our children to be wise
consumers of it.
THE LEGACY OF TELEVISION FROM ITS MEDIA
PREDECESSORSHiebert, Ungurait and Bohn (1974) suggest that
the various forms of communication are a series of actions
or operations which are always in motion, directed toward a
particular goal, and are a dynamic--not a static--process
used to transfer meaning, transmit social values, and share
experiences. Significantly, television as one of those
dynamic forms of communication draws on the content legacy
of its media cousins, such as radio, film, and especially
newsprint. It was these early media forms that frequently
ignored people of color, stereotyped them, or simply
provided listeners, viewers and readers a collective world
view that these groups were not equal to White Americans.
Nowhere was this ignored or marginalized legacy of creative
hegemony more pervasive than the early media depictions of
Black family life. Many of the negative depictions of the
family have endured for so long because some of the media
image-makers still had racially marginalized beliefs about
Black Americans. These beliefs were image holdovers and
perceptions from African American life during slavery and
into Reconstruction; perceptions of their behavior as a
result of the economic and social constraints growing out of
the "Jim Crow" laws; perceptions of the media
portrayals during their migration from the southern rural
states to the urban centers of the North; and perceptions
growing out of their subsequent roles as victims of
discrimination patterns in employment, housing, and
education.
In this country people in the early theater, vaudeville,
literature, music, song, radio, cinema, newspapers, and
magazines often presented derogatory racial caricatures
drawn from their own culturally encapsulated views of
African Americans. In this context, a culturally
encapsulated person is one who substitutes stereotypes for
the real world, disregarding cultural variations among
people, evading reality through ethnocentrism, and believing
that his or her internalized value assumptions are best for
society (Wrenn, 1985; Baruth and Manning, 1991). Although
television as a medium was born into the media family later
than some other forms of communication, the portrayals from
the past easily emerged when pictures in the minds of those
who created the images reflected little cultural
understanding, reflected culturally encapsulated
perspectives and reflected distorted views of Black family
life.
Even today, with many conditions having improved for
African Americans, language such as welfare mothers, teenage
pregnancy, single mothers, public housing projects, and low
I.Q. scores have become code words for some image-makers as
they begin the creative process of portraying the Black
family and its cultural life in America. It is important to
point out that the image-makers referred to in the context
of this article can and do represent many ethnic groups.
While the group representation includes so-called majority
and minority creative professionals, the psycho-social
forces that drive their cultural perceptions of African
American family life, while having different origins,
frequently lead to the use of similar, culturally marginal
portrayals. These code words have replaced the images that
Noble (1969) describes as the portrayals of Black Americans
in the media of the past. These media images were of a
savage African, happy slave, superior athlete, perfect
entertainer, and mental inferior.
TELEVISION PROGRAMS AND AFRICAN AMERICAN IMAGESAfrican
American family life has been a part of the commercial
television programming landscape for a number of years. One
of the early programs that aired in 1969 was
"Julia," a nurse and single mother who had a small
son. This show evoked some discussion as to whether or not
Julia represented the Black family. A selection of the other
shows that followed includes "Sanford and Son"
(1972), "Good Times" (1974), "That's My
Mama" (1974), "The Jeffersons" (1975),
"The Cosby Show" (1985), "227" (1985),
"Frank's Place" (1987), "South Central"
(1995), and "Under One Roof" (1995). These shows
have been replaced or joined by "Family Matters,"
"Fresh Prince of Bel Air," "In The
House," and "Minor Adjustments.".
Each of these past and more recent shows presents to the
young viewer a perspective about Black family life and a
point of view from which he or she can relate to their own
experiences. At the same time, some of these shows have the
characteristic of portraying Black family life within a
predominantly "comedy ghetto." Dates and Barlow
(1990:261) argue that televised comedies help Americans
adjust to the social order and, in their portrayal of
African American images, these comedies pick up threads of
the established pattern of White superiority and Black
servitude and continue to weave them back into the popular
culture. Other researchers have advanced the theory of why
television decision-makers allow very few dramatic programs
and a proliferation of comic ones for framing African
American life. These researchers see this phenomenon as
indisputably linked with previous eras of racial
stereotyping in American popular culture. Moreover, they
believe that the predominant reliance on the comedy format
for representing African American life also restricts the
themes and types of values open to exploration (Sklar, 1980;
Matabane, 1988; Dates and Barlow, 1990).
Each of these family shows identified and some not
mentioned have their special set of messages about Black
family life. Three shows are discussed in order to highlight
the variance in values, beliefs and images communicated to
the viewer. "Good Times" was an example of an
inner-city family who, while struggling against great odds,
managed to stay together because of the love and support
they provided each other. "Sanford and Son," while
having very talented performers, tended to return to some of
the early stereotypes of the lazy, crafty, and dishonest
Black man. The image of the aunt in this show was especially
interesting because of her preoccupation with emasculating
Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx). This image of the emasculating
Black woman was, incidentally, a common role in a number of
shows. In contrast to the devoted but struggling parents in
"Good Times" and the lazy, crafty, and dishonest
image of "Sanford and Son," "The Cosby
Show" portrayed an upper middle-class set of parents
and children who represented family life in the broader
society. "The Cosby Show" made references to Black
culture, showed paintings by African American artists and
provided a general attitude that focused on the human
condition seen within the framework of a strong, proud
African American (Dates and Barlow, 1990). Thus, what was
communicated to children in both "Good Times" and
the "Cosby Show" were Black families with
proactive parents who taught solid values whether they were
struggling or very affluent.
Sherryl Browne Graves (1993:179-181) provides a broad
overview of the research on the portrayals of African
Americans over the last ten years. Selected analysis of her
research shows the following:.
* The African American families featured as isolated from
other families. These family role portrayals are such that
the wife is more likely to be presented as being in conflict
with the husband, and females in general are more likely to
be presented as dominant in the family setting than is true
with other family situation comedies.
* Among siblings, dominance conflicts are more frequent
among African American sisters and brothers than among
siblings of other groups.
* African Americans are more likely to be presented as
both victims and suspects or perpetrators of violence.
* Television also presents African American
characteristics as exhibiting specific behaviors or having
particular personality characteristics. African American
characters were more likely to dominate European Americans
in situation comedies, whereas the reverse was true in crime
dramas.
* African American characters in integrated shows were
more likely to display socially valued characteristics and
high social status symbols.
In a recent study, Merritt and Stroman (1993) note that
more positive portrayals of Black families emerged in
research on "Charlie and Company," "Cosby
Show," and "227." Black families had both
husband and wife present; the spouses interacted frequently,
equally, and lovingly with each other; and children are
treated with respect and taught achievementoriented values.
Nevertheless, one might conclude that minorities, including
African Americans, are segregated in specific types of
content and rarely engage in cross-ethnic interactions
(Huston et al., 1992; Graves, 1993).
TELEVISION AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDIt is against
this backdrop of the images of Black family life in various
programs that we must consider a consistent finding that
relates to the potential ability of this medium to influence
the attitudes and values of African American children and
youth. That is to say, there is a great deal of evidence
that African American children and teenagers watch more
television than their White counterparts, and they are more
likely to evaluate television shows and ads as being more
realistic and believable (Greenberg, 1972). In her study of
third through sixth graders, Stroman (1984) found that 50
percent of the sample reported viewing television six or
more hours per day, and only 2 percent of the sample
reported viewing less than three hours per day.
Significantly, the children in Stroman's study reported
watching television before going to school in the morning,
after school, during prime time (8-11 p.m.), and on
Saturday. Lee and Browne (1995) found from their sample of
161 African American adolescent boys and girls that about 22
percent of them watched between three and five hours, 26
percent between five and seven hours, and 27 percent more
than seven hours. Their data also revealed little parental
control over television use.
The research shows that African American children
frequently use television for the learning of new facts or
information. In one study, it was found that 50 percent of
the sample reported watching television so they could learn
how different people behave, talk, dress, and look
(Greenberg and Atkin, 1978; Stroman, 1984). In addition, the
evidence suggests that in the process of imitating the
behavior of television characters, Black children also learn
or acquire behaviors from television (Stroman, 1984).
Clearly, when the learned behaviors are positive portrayals
of Black family life, the child gains pro-social messages
and values from the content. On the other hand, one can also
assume that misrepresented or destructive images can produce
undesirable attitudes and behaviors in the developing child.
Bales (1986) offers some explanation as to why African
Americans generally might be drawn to television. Among the
reasons are the following: (1) television as the last medium
to be developed did not inherit the degree of hostility felt
by Blacks toward established media, especially print; (2)
television's arrival during the burgeoning of integration
made Blacks curious about White society as portrayed on
television; and (3) because of societal prejudices and
limited economic means, Blacks resorted to television
because of their leisure outlets were relatively limited.
Today, two- to five-year-old children of the general
population watch an average of 28 hours of television per
week, and those in the six- to eleven-year-old group watch
over 26 hours per week. Given what seems to be the
proclivity of African American children and youth for
watching television, this means that a large number of them
are spending a great many hours attending to both the
positive and negative images of Black life, and learning
from them.
Social learning theory would suggest that Black children
learn from the models on television. It is quite possible,
argues Abelman (1989), that the same social learning
theories which have led to testable propositions regarding
learning of aggression and sex role expectations from
television would be applicable to learning of family roles,
attitudes and behaviors. The central propositions on which
this theory is based are that (a) children can and do learn
behaviors through observation of models who perform such
behaviors, without direct reinforcement, and (b) children
try to maximize benefits to themselves, usually in the form
of reinforcement for imitating or identifying with a model (Bandura,
1969; Adelman, 1989).
RESEARCH PARADIGMS AND THE PORTRAYAL OF AFRICAN AMERICAN
FAMILY LIFE: BEYOND MARGINALITYThe study of the African
American family, even without the variables of television,
the child, and the socialization process, has always
presented a special challenge to social scientists. Part of
that challenge is housed in the culture and experiences of
the Black family in the past as well as the continuing
socio-psychological pressure on the members of this
institution in the present. Thus, the complexity of the
research enterprise is compounded when we attempt to study
the effects of the images of Black family life on
television, and the implications for shaping the values,
attitudes and beliefs during the socialization process.
If we are to minimize the research and evaluation
complexity, one of the first tasks is to understand the
special nature and quality of each of the four variables
(the child, family, portrayal, and socialization). While
each variable is important, the factors that cause the child
to identify with and embrace or reject a portrayal of Black
family life become crucial. Research must pursue how
children make sense of these portrayals and the variables
that mediate their perceptions. In addition, research
designs will need to turn some attention to the process by
which these portrayals alter same-group or other-group
attitudes (Graves, 1993).
It is clear that both qualitative and quantitative
research approaches must be employed in order to understand
African American culture and beliefs. The utilization of
both research approaches is important in exploring questions
about children and socialization because the use of the
triangulation technique will provide for broader
opportunities to control the large number of variables in
the cultural content of the family (Allen, 1993). The
application of several research techniques is especially
useful in controlling the many developmental and attitudinal
changes taking place in the African American child.
At the core of conducting research into African American
family life and child socialization is not only the
challenge to understand the special nature of relevant
variables, but also to have a research premise that employs
methodologies committed to an "emic" and not an
"etic" approach. An emic approach would study the
African American family and the other variables from within
the cultural context, while the etic approach would examine
these factors from outside (Hymes, 1964). The point in
making this argument is to remove, as much as possible, the
social psychological distance between the researcher and the
cultural attributes of the family and the child. The concept
of social psychological distance is important here because
when it is great, either participant in the research process
may consciously or unconsciously resort to stereotyping in
order to develop a basis for understanding the other person
(Blocher, 1987).
The subtlety of identifying the source of the acceptance
or rejection of the family portrayal on a show is only
meaningful when one can really become submerged in the
culture and subculture of a particular family unit. Thus,
the research model should be designed not only to capture
the broad demographic picture of a family, but also their
attitudes toward the quality of their family life, their
childrearing patterns, and the concepts held by the family
about their own racial identity. These and other factors
should also be considered within the framework of the
child's perception of them.
Broadly speaking, there is a need to understand the
potential of television to influence attitudes and behavior
by utilizing a holistic research perspective. This means
that a researcher must add into the socialization model
knowledge about the power of the sight, sound, tone, and
mood of the programs in order to ascertain what behaviors,
attitudes, performers, and the formal features of the medium
are highlighting for the child. Such holistic designs call
for multidimensional emic-driven paradigms that not only
measure, but also identify causal links between the child
and what he or she is learning from the television content.
Bronfenbrenner (1978) suggests that some research efforts
are characterized by experimental designs that are primarily
statistical rather than scientific; that is, these designs
enable us to predict the concomitants of certain
combinations of conditions, but not to understand the causal
connections that produce the observed effects. In research
on Black families, television and child socialization, this
pitfall must be avoided.
CONCLUSIONThe institution of the African American family
and the children who are a part of it have a long tradition
of survival against great odds. It is a tradition of success
and failures, of great accomplishments and some
disappointments. As people continue to make technical
advancements in a multimedia world, there is every reason to
assume that the media images of American families in
general, and Black family life in particular, will find
their way into the homes of African American children.
Research paradigms that will provide knowledge about the
social learning and modeling from the images created by
television today, will enable social scientists to assist
African American children and their families to be wise
consumers of the images of their culture presented in the
new technologies of tomorrow.
Added material.
GORDON L. BERRY.
School of Education, University of California, Los
Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
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