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Kelsey Woods John Foran, Sociology

The Color of Romance: Exploring (Mis)Representations of Interracial Relationships in Television Media: A Sociological Study in Race/Media Issues. Kelsey Woods John Foran, Sociology Bryan Kim, Graduate Department of Education, Counseling Psychology Amanda Stansell, Writing. Media as Technology.

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Kelsey Woods John Foran, Sociology

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  1. The Color of Romance: Exploring (Mis)Representations of InterracialRelationships in Television Media:A Sociological Study in Race/Media Issues Kelsey Woods John Foran, Sociology Bryan Kim, Graduate Department of Education, Counseling Psychology Amanda Stansell, Writing

  2. Media as Technology • Media (as social abstraction): Hypothesized to influence the normalization process of social phenomena

  3. Existing Social Theory • Problems: • 1. No common vocabulary among researchers • a. interracial relationships • b. interdating/marriage, outdating (Fujino), racial exogamy • c. Miscegenation • 2. Interesting but outdated…theoretical framework lacks real world application

  4. Social Proximity Theorists • Yancy—Propinquity (psychology) • Fujino—Group Size Relativity (sociology) • Joyner—Racially heterogeneous background

  5. Socio-environmental Theorists • Mandac—group vitality (communications) • Mills et al.—nurture

  6. Questions • Are these theories relevant in contemporary interdating/marriage circumstances? • If so, are they represented (accurately) in television media? • More importantly, does the general public take notice? • Or, are there other things we should look at?

  7. Preliminary studies • Non random sample (n=5) • Interview survey design (15 minutes each) • Conducted in Fall 2004 • Limitations: • Sample population (not diverse, random, or big enough) • BUT, the population makes the study interesting

  8. Findings • Theories not represented accurately largely because they are vastly underrepresented (according to interviewees)

  9. More importantly • Misrepresentation of interracial romance in the following ways: • 1) The popular “Love Conquers All” mentality. • a. Mariya • 2) Due to lack of minorities in media, interracial relationships are skewed • a. Cat • b. Pete

  10. So, what now? • Study sophistiphication • Quantitative/Qualitative • Hybrid Design • Survey (data analysis) + Interviews (explorative substantiation) • Human Subjects • Undergrad Research Creative Activities (URCA) Funding

  11. Here we have a fork in the road … • Do I: • 1) Try to discredit existing theories’ pertinence to the contemporary interrelationship dynamic • 2) Suggest television media as alternate facilitator of interracial romance and theorize television as social learning institution • Not really where I want to go with this, but opens up some interesting

  12. … fork in the road … • 2) Suggest television media as alternate facilitator of interracial romance and prove television as social learning institution • Not really where I want to go with this, but opens up some interesting inquiries: • How would accurate representation of interracial relationships in television media affect the normalization process?

  13. Feedback • Suggestions on survey design revision • To Do: • Data Analysis • Content Analysis (interview transcriptions)

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