This document currently outlines my progress on the media conditions for the experiment. I have conducted a lot of research on media priming effects on stereotypes (e.g., race, gender), to see how best to apply practices to our examination of accent stereotypes.

I have added some important points to consider, and current media clips that I have sourced.

Designing the Media Stimuli

After conducting research into media effects/priming literature, an importnat point to acknowledge is the perceived realism of the exposure material. Perceived realism (PR) refers to the similarity between events and characters in mediated environments and those in real life (Shapiro & Click, 2005). For instance, news content tends to have higher PR than films (Shapiro, 1990). Research shows that media with higher PR influences viewer attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours more significantly (Potter, 1988; Taylor, 2005) by promoting deeper information processing and greater memory accessibility, which will have subsequent greater weighting when activating stereotypes for evaluative formations (Huston et al., 1995, Drager, 2016). High-PR content, whether stereotypical or counter-stereotypical, has been found to strongly impact stereotype formation and moderation (Murphy et al., 1998). For example, counter-stereotypical news content significantly reduces implicit gender stereotypes compared to entertainment media (Choe, 2008).

Stimulus Design Considerations

I think that the inclusion of both news and entertainment (various PR levels) media in the stimuli is the best course of action for the following reasons:

  1. Allows greater flexibility in sourcing the mediated content, especially given the lack of counter-stereotypical portrayals found in the content analysis (films).
  2. This acknowledges notable influence of perceived realism on media and stereotype-formation.
    1. As we are wanting to see first, whether media can impact accent stereotypes at all, incorporating both will give us the best chance of this.
    2. If we rely solely on low PR content and the results indicate no media influence, we cannot generalize the findings to conclude that media, in general, has no impact on accent bias. Research on other social stereotypes shows that high PR media tends to have a stronger effect. We don’t want to overlook this potential!
    3. In the thesis, recognise that media effects on accent stereotypes have not been previously explored. Highlight that investigating whether the perceived realism of media types influences accent stereotype formation or moderation would be an important direction for future research.

Media Selection Process

Below outlines the currently proposed selection process, found in other media priming studies on stereotypes and bias (note: who did not do a prior content analysis):

  1. Use results of the content analysis, which has provided an empirical overview of GV stereotypes, to help source both stereotypical and counter-stereotypical portrayals in the media (across film and news).
    • Results from the content analysis allows significant attributes in empirical data as ‘identifiers’ to be used as selection metrics
  2. Select approximately 15-20 (film and news).
  3. Norm these clips in terms of their level of stereotypic/counter-stereotypic value, by having participants rank their perceived stereotyping using Likert scales. This could be argued to not be necessary as the content analysis has handled the salient stereotype identifiers. But could always run this if needed.
  4. Include the top-rated clips (stereotypical and counter-stereotypical) in the final compilation.
  5. Aim for a condition duration of 3–5 minutes, though some studies use as little as 1.5 minutes (Choe, 2008).

Points for consideration

  1. If each condition has multiple separate clips compiled together, all sharing key stereotypical content (for example), consider whether participants may become aware of the study aim – affecting post-exposure behaviour.
    • Solution: could intersperse the stereotypical clips with neutral, unrelated content (e.g., dog barking, a ball bouncing. But this may counterbalance the effect of the experimental content.
  2. Constant use of subtitles for Glaswegian characters in film and television. Will ensure that subtitles are present for all content, to avoid any unwanted effects and bias occurring through perception of unintelligibility.
  3. To make participants aware of some distressing scenes in the media (e.g., profanity use, aggression, violence, drug use, deprivation).
  4. Will ensure that volume is constant throughout all clips.

Media Clips

Below are the current media clips for the 3 conditions (stereotypic/counterstereotypic/control). All materials have been retrieved from publically available resources. Note: some video quality has been lost when re-uploading some of the clips to youtube for them to be viewable on this page (better quality on my computer).

The experimental condition materials possess key ‘identifiers’ of stereotypes and counterstereotypes of Glaswegian. Both fictional and factual clips have been provided, to give additional levels of perceived realism.

It is important to note the definition of counterstereotypical media by Hoover et al (1998):

Counterstereotypical media is not merely the positive elements of the cultural stereotype (e.g., african americans are musically gifted), but that they stress attributes that directly contradict any element (positive or negative) of the prevailing stereotype.

Stereotypical

Fictional

Clip 1

  • Media Source: In the Loop film - Maclolm Tucker character
  • In content analysis: Yes
  • Identifiers: Profanity Use
  • Duration: 0 min 34

Clip 2

  • Media Source: Trainspotting film - Begbie character
  • In content analysis: Yes
  • Identifiers: Knife Crime, Aggression, Profanity Use
  • Duration: The first 58 seconds of this clip

Clip 3

  • Media Source: The Angel’s Share film
  • In content analysis: Yes
  • Identifiers: Substance Use, Low Intelligence, Profanity Use
  • Duration: 1 min 17

Clip 4

  • Media Source: Sweet Sixteen film
  • In content analysis: Yes
  • Identifiers: Profanity Use, Aggression
  • Duration: 0 min 30

Clip 5

  • Media Source: In the Loop film - Jamie character
  • In content analysis: Yes
  • Identifiers: Profanity Use, Aggression
  • Duration: 1 min 19

Factual

Clip 6

  • Media Source: Stabbed: Britain’s Knife Problem documentary
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Knife Crime, Aggression, Profanity Use
  • Duration: 1 min 28

Clip 7

  • Media Source: Vice - Cocaine Capital documentary
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Substance Use
  • Duration: 0 min 39

Clip 8

  • Media Source: Channel 4 News: Britain Benefits
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Intelligence, SES
  • Duration: 1 min 43

Counterstereotypical

Fictional

Clip 9

  • Media Source: Dr Who TV Show - Lecturer
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Lack of profanity use, aggression/ High intelligence, authority
  • Duration: 0 min 53

Clip 10

  • Media Source: Star Trek film - Scotty character
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Lack of profanity use, aggression/ High intelligence, authority
  • Duration: 1 min 56

Clip 11

  • Media Source: Together BBC TV show
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Lack of profanity use, aggression/ High intelligence, warmth
  • Duration: 0 min 40

Clip 12

  • Media Source: Dr Who TV show - Be Kind
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Lack of profanity use, aggression/ High warmth
  • Duration: 1 min 57

Factual

Clip 13

  • Media Source: STV News - Glaswegian Professor Nobel Peace Prize Winner
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Lack of profanity use, aggression/ High intelligence, occupation
  • Duration: 1 min 05

Clip 14

  • Media Source: BBC Question Time - Darren McGarvey
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Lack of profanity use, aggression/ High intelligence, authority
  • Duration: 1 min 38

Clip 15

  • Media Source: Graham Norton TV Show - Gerard Butler Interview
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Lack of profanity use, aggression/ High warmth, social attractiveness
  • Duration: 0 min 49

Clip 16

  • Media Source: University Interview - Graeme Armstrong
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: Lack of profanity use, aggression/ High intelligence, occupation
  • Duration: 0 min 40

Control

This is an example of the wildlife documentary, containing no speech. I have over an hour’s footage, and can amend duration to match experimental conditions once they are devised.

  • Media Source: Scenic Scenes - Animals of Amazon documentary
  • In content analysis: No
  • Identifiers: None - neutral
  • Duration: 3 min 38

Neutral Clips in Experimental condition

I have not read so far any media effects research including neutral content in the actual stereotypical/counterstereotypical priming stimulus.

However, it is something I think is worth thinking about some more, and whether we think it could cause participant awareness.

By neutral videos that could be played between each experimental clip in the condition, it could be something like the following (which could be a filler). Although, this may cause unwanted effects of mitigating the experimental stimuli influence

Note: Videos to be played with no sound.

Neutral Ball Gravity Animation

Neutral Animal Gaits Animation