What were the research questions that Ward answered with the study?
1. Are heavier exposure to and connection with mainstream programs and characters negatively associated with self-esteem and racial self-esteem? Do these associations vary by media genre?
2. Are heavier exposure to and connection with Black-oriented programs and Black characters positively associated with selfesteem and racial self-esteem?
3. To what extent does religiosity buffer negative (or positive) media influences concerning self-esteem and racial self-esteem?
How was the study conducted?
What were the main findings of the study? 1. There are several significant connections between mainstream media use and student’s self-evaluations, negative direction. it was frequent viewing of sports programs that was negatively associated with performance self-esteem, social self-esteem, and racial self-esteem. stronger identification with one’s favorite character was associated with less positive judgments of one’s own social competencies and one’s physical appearance.----- frequent media exposure and stronger viewer identification were associated with lower self-evaluations. 2. the potential impact of Black-oriented media use.
Stronger identification with popular Black male characters was associated with more positive evaluations of one’s own physical appearance. Surprisingly, exposure levels made no contribution; more frequent viewing of Black-oriented programs, assessed as a raw score or as a proportion, was not associated with students’ self-esteem or with their racial self-esteem.--- the findings were minimal 3. the extent to which