| Summary: | This thesis examines the reactions of black and non-black adolescent basketball enthusiasts to
portrayals of black athletes in athletic apparel commercials. The research builds on work in
media studies by Radway (1991), Morley (1980), and Jhally and Lewis (1992). In particular,
Radway's concept of the "interpretive community" is evaluated, together with Morley's notion of
the "cultural map", as frameworks for explaining audience reactions. Radway suggests that
similarly located groups tend to have similar interpretive strategies with respect to media
messages. This tends to result in similar "readings" of media texts by these groups. Morley
proposes that these diverse audiences can be plotted on a "cultural map" that describes the
culturally based interpretations made by these audiences. Jhally and Lewis posit that there are
racially based interpretations of black television portrayals that differentiate audiences. The
explanatory power of these assertions was evaluated in this thesis project by examining the
relationship between race, social location and interpretive strategies in two groups of research
subjects ~ black and non-black adolescent males. This work also builds on research in social
inequality that theorizes about the positive and negative "influences" that black television
portrayals have on viewing audience beliefs about blacks (Wonsek, 1992; Lewis and Jhally,
1992). The research schedule had 3 phases. In the first, a content analysis was conducted to
document black representation in commercial messages aired during television broadcasts of
1994 NCAA basketball tournament games and 1994 NBA playoff games. A representative
sample of 31 broadcasts was selected from a total of 44 broadcasts and the commercial messages
were content analyzed for their racial representation. In the second phase, a sub-sample of 6
representative athletic apparel commercials featuring black athletes was drawn from the overall
sample of commercials. This sub-sample was viewed by 7 groups of 2-8 subjects who routinely watch televised basketball (3 groups of 15-19 year old black males and 4 groups of 15-19 year
non-blacks). Focus group reactions to the commercials and to related interpretive and race-related
questions were recorded using questionnaires and videotaping. Transcripts were prepared
from the videotapes and a thematic content analysis was performed on the questionnaires and
transcripts. In the third phase, audience statistics were obtained from the broadcaster and used as
a frame of reference for broadening and contextualizing the focus group findings (based on the
demographic characteristics of the viewing audience). The study integrated the methods of
content analysis and audience research respectively, in order to overcome the limitations of both
classical content analysis research (that theorizes about audience interpretations on the basis of
contents alone) and of audience research (that ignores the broader spectrum of television
content).
The content analysis results showed blacks to be comparatively underrepresented in the
overall contents of the commercials messages and in most commercial types. However, blacks
were vastly overrepresented in the athletic apparel commercial type. Audience statistics showed
adolescent males to be frequent viewers of the NBA playoffs compared to their normal viewing
patterns and compared to other demographic categories. The focus group finding relevant to the
social inequality literature showed many black respondents to recognize the stereotypical
portrayals of blacks in all areas of television programming. The respondents felt that these
portrayals lead non-black audiences to see blacks more stereotypically in everyday life. The
black respondents also appeared to identify with the black athlete portrayals, but were, for the
most part, aware of the "myths" surrounding the mobility of blacks through sport and did not
subscribe to these widespread beliefs. Most non-black respondents indicated that the portrayals
of blacks and black athletes in the commercials were realistic, or suggested that they were uncertain about how realistic the portrayals were because of their inexperience with "real life"
blacks. These findings suggest that black portrayals tend to increase perceived racism for the
black respondents while appearing to inform the non-black respondents about "what blacks are
like". The findings relevant to the youth culture literature showed the blacks and non-blacks to
have common understandings of and preferences for the athletic apparel commercials and the
athletes as they related to basketball, but to have distinctly "raced" perceptions of the black
athletes whereby the blacks showed a cultural identification with the athletes that the non-blacks
did not. The findings relevant to the interpretive literature showed the blacks and non-blacks to
demonstrate a similar "cultural competency" with respect to basketball, however, their
differences in cultural experience connected with race appeared to differentiate them as two
different "interpretive communities". More generally, these findings describe the youths'
positionings as television audiences, as consumers of popular culture and as readers of media
text. This work has particular relevance theoretically and methodologically for the cultural
studies discipline considering the underlying patterns that connected race, culture and
interpretation in this audience ethnography. === Education, Faculty of === Kinesiology, School of === Graduate
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