Shades of Identity

This study examines the effects of the complexion of AfricanAmerican children in television commercials on the self-perceptionof African American children. Both quantitative and qualitativeanalyses were conducted. A total of 347 commercials were examinedfrom Saturday morning television programming on broadcast stationsin the Lynchburg, Virginia area during March 2007. The results ofthe quantitative analysis found a lack of darker complexion AfricanAmerican females in the pre-recorded commercials. A qualitativeanalysis was conducted with focus groups of African Americanchildren ages 6-10 who were asked questions after viewing 8 to 10of the pre-recorded commercials from the Saturday morningprogramming to determine their perceptions of the varying skincomplexion of children in the commercials. The qualitative analysisresults were inconclusive regarding skin complexion preference, butnoteworthy information was found for future research, including thechildren noticing the roles given to the African American childrenin the commercials.

Klappentext
This study examines the effects of the complexion of African American children in television commercials on the self-perception of African American children. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted. A total of 347 commercials were examined from Saturday morning television programming on broadcast stations in the Lynchburg, Virginia area during March 2007. The results of the quantitative analysis found a lack of darker complexion African American females in the pre-recorded commercials. A qualitative analysis was conducted with focus groups of African American children ages 6-10 who were asked questions after viewing 8 to 10 of the pre-recorded commercials from the Saturday morning programming to determine their perceptions of the varying skin complexion of children in the commercials. The qualitative analysis results were inconclusive regarding skin complexion preference, but noteworthy information was found for future research, including the children noticing the roles given to the African American children in the commercials.