This study investigates and maps out sociocultural groups in american sitcoms over two decades, the 1990s and 2010s. It also examines whether characters were portrayed in different stereotypes and how and if the male gaze occurs. All this was done through an intersectional perspective. A total of 30 sitcoms, 15 per decade, were examined by a quantitative content analysis. There was 168 characters coded in the sitcoms from the 1990s and 200 characters in the sitcoms from the 2010s, which make a total of 368 coded characters. Key findings showed that sitcoms in the 2010s had more diversity among ethnicity and sexuality compared to sitcoms in the 1990s. Yet caucasian and heterosexueal people were still overrepresented. More men were represented in both 1990s and 2010s sitcoms, but major roles were divided equally between men and women in 2010s american sitcoms. Compared to other studies, surprisingly little sexualization of women occured in the selection of american sitcoms. None of the 368 characters that were coded had any disabilities and very few older and retired people were represented.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-75144 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Bergqvist, Sandra, Mårdling, Frida |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ), Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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