Scharrer, Erica
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Professor of Communication Integrated Learning Center, Department of Communication
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Scharrer
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Erica
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Communication
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Publication Violent video games DO promote aggression(2018-01) Scharrer, Erica; Kamau, Gichuhi; Warren, Stephen; Zhang, CongcongIn this chapter, we provide a brief review of the research investigating the connection between playing violent video games and aggression, summarizing key approaches and findings from survey research and experimental methodology. We trace through some of the main features of the debate surrounding the topic, present the grounds on which we arrive at our own interpretive position, and make some suggestions for future research. We find that effects are often contingent on (or made stronger or weaker by) features of games themselves and how they are played as well as differences that different users bring to the gaming experience. On balance, we make a case for the interpretation that playing violent video games does, indeed, contribute a small but meaningful influence on aggression.Publication Cultivating Conceptions of Masculinity: Television and Perceptions of Masculine Gender Role Norms(2017-01) Scharrer, Erica; Blackburn, GregThe potential of television to both reflect and shape cultural understandings of gender roles has long been the subject of social scientific inquiry. The present study employed survey methodology with 420 emerging adult respondents (aged 18 to 25) in a national U.S. sample to explore associations between amount of time spent viewing television and views about “ideal” masculine gender roles. The viewing of particular television genres was explored in addition to (and controlling for) overall amount of time spent with the medium, using cultivation theory as the theoretical foundation. Results showed significant statistical associations between viewing sitcoms, police and detective programs, sports, and reality television and scores on the Masculine Roles Norms Inventory-Revised scale. Biological sex of respondent (which very closely approximated gender identity in the sample) moderated a number of these relationships, with positive associations between viewing some genres and endorsement of traditional masculine gender roles stronger for biological male compared to biological female respondents.Publication Producing PSAs on consumer culture: youth reception of advertising(2019-01) Olson, Christine; Lanthorn, Kylie; Onut, Gamze; Sekarasih, Laras; Scharrer, EricaThis study is a qualitative analysis of Public Service Announcement (PSA) storyboards produced by 177 fourth and sixth-grade students as part of a Media Literacy Education program on advertising and commercial culture. The program curriculum addressed the ubiquity and hidden nature of ads, as well as gender portrayals, violence, and nutritional messages in advertising content. Textual analysis revealed differing patterns in student reception of the varied lesson topics. Students called for specific behavioral changes in PSAs for the topics of nutrition and gender, although most were limited to non-media-related behaviors such as improving eating habits and encouraging fluidity across roles more traditionally associated with masculinity or with femininity. The analysis also suggested responsibility for the problems students identified with advertising were largely based on individual, consumerist perspectives rather than on collective or social, citizen-based terms. Fourth graders’ storyboards especially indicated an apparent mimicry of mainstream commercial productions and practices. The analysis further explores these fourth and sixth graders’ underlying orientations toward the U.S. commercial media system as well as the potential strengths and limitations of a production component in MLE programs to promote outcomes associated with critical media literacy.Publication Video Game Playing and Beliefs about Masculinity Among Male and Female Emerging Adults(2019-01) Blackburn, Greg; Scharrer, EricaVideo games have been soundly critiqued for their depiction of gender, and emerging research has shown that playing can be associated with holding stereotypical or narrow views of gender roles and norms. Yet, rarely has past research focused particularly on correlations between video game playing and perceptions of masculinity, in particular, despite critiques of gaming content and culture as a space where a type of hypermasculinity thrives. The current study explores the relationships between the overall amount of time spent with video games and time spent with games that contain violence with beliefs that emerging adults hold about masculine gender role norms. In a sample of 244 young adult video game players from across the United States, amount of perceived violence in favorite games is shown to predict scores on the Masculine Role Norms Index-Revised and some of its subscales, even under multiple controls. Gender identity of respondent does not moderate the relationships, thereby suggesting that both men and women players with violent favorite games are likely to endorse a view of masculinity that includes aggression, dominance, toughness, and the suppression of emotions. Implications for policymakers, students and other young adults, and for society at large are discussed.Publication Cultivating conceptions of masculinity: Overall television use, genre viewing, and perceptions of norms regarding masculine gender roles(2018-01) Scharrer, Erica; Blackburn, GregThe potential of television to both reflect and shape cultural understandings of gender roles has long been the subject of social scientific inquiry. The present study employed survey methodology with 420 emerging adult respondents (18–25 years old) in a national U.S. sample to explore associations between amount of time spent viewing television and views about “ideal” masculine gender roles. The viewing of particular television genres was explored in addition to (and controlling for) overall amount of time spent with the medium, using cultivation theory as the theoretical foundation. Results showed significant statistical associations between viewing sitcoms, police and detective programs, sports, and reality television and scores on the Masculine Roles Norms Inventory–Revised scale. Biological sex of respondent (which very closely approximated gender identity in the sample) moderated a number of these relationships, with positive associations between viewing some genres and endorsement of traditional masculine gender roles stronger for biological male compared to biological female respondents.Publication Documenting the "mediated message:" The art and science of content analysis research(2019-01) Scharrer, EricaAs media consumers, we are often struck by the content features of what we encounter on television, film, radio, the newspaper, the Internet, in print, and in video games. Content can make us laugh, cry, fearful, angry, or joyful. It can make us feel connected to others or it can make us feel isolated or distant. It can inform us and it can persuade us. It is always teaching us something about the world around us, and the events and people—as well as the values, experiences, and points of view—that make up that world. What, exactly, we encounter through news and entertainment outlets, as well as what we ourselves create and distribute, has much to tell about our culture and the world in which we live. Content analysis is a social scientific tool that allows for the documentation of the content features of the media and other cultural artifacts in order to better understand them, to determine whether the content we encounter represents broad patterns or is more idiosyncratic in nature, and to begin to consider how and why content features function as they do as cultural products with particular uses, users, and audiences. The method examines the artifacts of culture as an important locus of inquiry in their own right and also has the potential to reveal a great deal about both why and how those cultural artifacts take the shape they do and how individuals might create, use, and/or be influenced by them.