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Eric Wiemer, Ind. There is a curiosity about women’s representations in political roles on TV shows.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A new study from Purdue shows that seeing feminine TV characters in political roles can inspire female audience members to be more politically active.

Eric Wiemer, a PhD candidate in the Brian Lamb School of Communications, co-authored an article that aimed to identify the effect of seeing female TV characters in political narratives on the female audience.

Eric is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue. The research was presented by a group of four researchers led by Assistant Professor Jennifer However through the journal of broadcasting and electronic media. Precisely, women tend to be influenced by other women represented in political TV shows. With that, it would be possible to identify whether that triggers any downstream conceptions. For instance, does women’s participation in political TV shows motivate other women to desire to participate in political processes?

“There’s a lot of research that just says mere representation, mere exposure to demographics in the media contributes to effects,” said Wiemer. “People feel more efficacy if they see their demographics represented in the media. They’re more likely to participate.”

The article is called “Linking Political TV Shows with Female Lead Characters to Political Engagement: The Roles of Parasocial Processes and Gender Identity” and was published in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.

Notably, research highlights that typical representation of demographics in the media is associated with a high efficacy level, triggering their desire to participate in such activities. Here, there is the delivery of a unique perspective on “how women feel when they see women represented in TV.” The focus is further on the pre-conceived binary about gender with the idea that being feminine is expressed differently, whether one is male or female. To test this, it was essential that the research team diverged from merely asking what gender is, and instead, it allows participants to rate themselves on a scale of masculinity and femininity.

It is possible to identify that being a woman or a man causes a high correlation with the outcomes of one feeling more feminine and masculine, respectively. However, in stating women audience members, it refers to individuals who identified as more feminine irrespective of their gender.

“People who identified as feminine would be more likely to participate politically so they would feel more political self-efficacy, interest, and engage in politics,” states EricWiemer. High prevalence in this is attributed to the audience identifying with the female character in the TV show. Parasocial interaction is attributed to influence one’s identity either as a concept or a personal experience. It is connected to the intense feelings that one develops towards a media character. The audience tends to relate with the character, either fictional or natural, with the conception that the character is in their real life with whom they share experiences or even friendship.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers deployed a test using two familiar TV shows of Madam Secretary and Designated Survivor. To make it effective in understanding a specific storyline in the TV show, which is entailed with diverse ideas in each episode, there was the provision of four shorter versions that focused on a single storyline rather than the entire show. In the first, there is a version of a female lead character in a family set up while the second has a male lead character in a similar setting. The third maintained the female character in the lead position in a political involvement while the last had a male lead character in a politically driven narrative.

Ideally, to make it effective, participants were selected to randomly watch the selected videos to identify how they relate to the lead characters in the presented piece. Evaluation is also based on the level of the influence acquired to be able to go out and participate in the political processes.

In the results, Eric Wiemer states that “the participants who identified as more feminine strongly identified with the female lead characters compared to the male lead characters more in the politically driven narratives over the family-driven narratives.” The high parasocial interaction with these characters triggers a high desire to engage in the political process, increased political interest, and political self-efficacy.

There is a correlation between individuals identifying as feminine seeing female lead characters in politically driven narratives as they tend to feel empowered. However, these impacts seemed not to exist among the male characters or in the family-driven narratives. It leads to EricWiemer’s notion that “showing women in politically driven narratives on TV increases this empowerment among feminine identifying audience members.” Besides, this hypothesis can be practically applied by TV show producers in developing a program or a show to justify their inclusion of more females in the politically driven narratives. This is because it conveys the feeling of being encouraged, empowered, as well as feeling that they need to engage in more political processes. For instance, in Hollywood and for a majority of a mainframe, TV producers can adopt this research to ensure that the roles assigned to the characters project a positive influence on the audience as this will convey an overall positive impact on the personality of the target audience. Comment by Mattingly, Andrea L: -3 we need to use last name only after the first reference

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