Summary. A different world: Children's Perceptions of Race and Class in Media.

1200 children took part in a survey to explore how media effect childrens opinion towards race and diversity. The survey included four races: African-American, Asian, Latino and White.

One question the children had to deal with was what the "perfect" TV show would have in it, and they answered: "different cultures, different religions, different races, different everything. That would be really smart.".

Okey, but what do children watch today then? Studies has shown that latinos are most likely to watch music videos while white children most frequently watch sitcoms.

There is a lot of people shown on TV, and of course the children had their favorites. Actually, all four races had one thing common when the survey got to this point. There were two people, two rolemodels, that were listed as favorites by children of all races - Mike Tyson and Will Smith. A famous boxer and one fantastic actor and rap artist.

Sadly, no latino or asian characters were named as favorites... one reason for that might be because these two races are least shown on TV.

It has been shown that different races are presented in different ways on TV. For example Latinos and African-Americans are most likely to be presented in a negative way on television while white people most often are presented in a positive way.

The stereotype white character was descirbed as:

- Having lots of money.
- Being well-educated.
- Being a leader.
- Doing well in school.
- Being intelligent.

The stereotype of a minority character was described as:

- Breaking the law or the rules.
- Having a hard time financially.
- Being lazy.
- Acting goofy.

Children agreed that even on the TV news are African-Americans and Latinos most often portrayed doing 'bad things'.

What about the newscasters then? How did the children feel about that? Well White children feel there are enough white people as newscasters on TV, while African-Americans are the most dissatisfied with the lack of their own race as newcasters.

This article, this study has shown that the majority of children, no matter what race feels that there are enough white people shown on TV and that there should be a lot more minority races shown in a positive, feel-good, "I-can-do-it" type of way.

Rebecca Tyrstrup