Gender Role Stereotyping in Advertisements on Three Radio Stations: Does Musical Genre Make a Difference?

Abstract

The portrayal of women and men in radio advertisements on three different channels representing various music genres was examined. This study aimed to replicate the work of Furnham and Thomson who analyzed radio advertisements in Britain which updated a previous study by Furnham and Schofield. Some 111 radio advertisements were content analyzed. Using McArthur and Resko's coding scheme, central figures were coded for: credibility, role, argument, reward, product and narrator. Males were over-represented in radio advertisements (72% of all central characters). Males were significantly more likely to be shown as authorities on products rather than as users; females were portrayed more often than males in dependent roles; and males were most often in the neutral narrator capacity compared to females. We expected to observe more gender stereotyping on the oldies channel than the rock or hip hop stations. Males were significantly more likely to use scientific arguments to sell products on the oldies station compared to females. Likewise, females were more likely to be depicted in a dependent role on this station than were males. Our findings generally replicate those of Furnham and Thomson; however, we did not find gender differences with regard to the perceived reward of using a product or the type of product being sold. We agree with Furnham and Thomson that changes in gender stereotyping on this type of media may lag behind those for television advertisements.

Keywords:

• Gender
• advertising
• stereotypes
• radio
• roles
• cross-cultural