RACE-RELATIONS ON PRIME-TIME TELEVISION RECONSIDERED - PATTERNS OF CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

This study was designed to assess the changes that have occurred in th e portrayals of black people and cross-racial relationships in prime-t ime television broadcasting during the past decade. By replicating the content analysis procedures used by Weigel, Loomis, and Soja (1980), this investigation provided a consistent basis for comparing two simil ar samples of television content drawn, respectively, from 1978 and 19 89. Results of this comparison indicated that, although black appearan ces and cross-racial interactions were no more frequent in the 1989 sa mple of product commercials, the black presence in prime-time programm ing and increased substantially. As compared to 1978, the proportion o f time that one or more black characters were on the screen more than doubled, while the frequency of cross-racial interactions more than tr ipled in the 1989 sample. Nevertheless, ratings of qualitative dimensi ons of these cross-racial interactions suggested that relationships be tween blacks and whites on television continued to be portrayed as coo perative but emotionally detached, particularly when the relationships occurred outside of the work place.