
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993                   TAG: 9306160230
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

STUDY: TV SLIGHTS MINORITIES

Despite "Murphy Brown," "Murder She Wrote" and the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," most women, senior citizens and minorities still don't get a fair shake on television, a new study shows.

The statistical study, which analyzed 19,645 parts in 1,371 programs over a 10-year period, found that women play one out of three roles in prime time, that elderly characters make up only 3 percent of those seen and that Hispanics and Asian Americans are dramatically underrepresented.

On news programs, too, women and minorities are less likely than white men to appear as presenters, newsmakers and authorities.

"Television seems to be stuck in a time warp of obsolete and damaging representations," said George Gerbner, the study's author and a professor at the Annenberg School of Communications.

The study was commissioned by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which together represent 120,000 performers and broadcasters.

The issues raised by the study go well beyond employment, though, as both union leaders and Gerbner said that television has presented a distorted version of reality to millions of Americans.

"Most of the stories that are told to our children are no longer told by their parents, by their schools, by their churches or by their communities," Gerbner said. Instead, he said, they are shaped by "a small group of conglomerates that have something to sell."

Given the impact of television, Gerbner said, it has become a "new civil right" for people "to be represented fairly and equally in the cultural environment in which we grow."

The networks had no immediate comment on the study, which was released at a news conference Tuesday. But an ABC executive, who asked not to be identified, disputed the claim that women and minorities are not making gains on the air.

"We certainly have strong women characters in prime time," he said, citing "Roseanne" as a show that has been praised by some feminists.

The premise that television programs should precisely mirror society is also questioned by the networks. Many people, after all, seek excitement or escape from television, not a reflection of their day-to-day existence.

by CNB