A study to understand the influence of gender stereotyped portrayal of family by media on children

Pages: 1730-1734
Hunny Matiyani (National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science (NICFS), Delhi)
Shreyashi Sen (Department of Criminology (with Specialization in Forensic Psychology), GFSU, Gandhinagar, Gujarat)

Gender has been described as the social tags given to specific individuals based on the norms of the society. The existence of the image of gender biasness is present since the ancient times. There have been a lot of debates accounting for the same. In the recent times the advancement of media has gained popularity and has become a vital role in the functioning of the daily lives. According to the recent study, children spend about 4.5 hours every day watching television (Maanasi, 2017). This means they are bombarded with advertisements daily. As per National Survey of Children (2010) 72% children reported that they had no restrictions on the amount of time they could watch television. The current study focuses on the influence of gender stereotypical advertisements on children in the age group of 8 to 18 years. In this research the method used is descriptive in nature and purposive sampling technique is used for collecting the samples for the following study. The questionnaire was based on interview schedule and later questions were asked with respect to advertisements shown on laptop. In total five advertisements were taken i.e. tide plus, fair and lovely cream, everest chhole masala, the new XUV500 and layer shot maxx advertisements. The results imply that advertisements didn’t have a direct influence on children; however, a gap between the ideas of children and the television commercials has come into notice.