March 24, 2008

University Television Ads Depict White Dominance, Study Finds

New York — The television advertisements produced by most major universities depict their campuses as overwhelmingly white, privileged environments, likely deterring many minority students from applying, according to a paper being presented here this week as part of the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association.

The study that the paper summarizes closely examined videotapes of the 30-second television spots that 43 colleges aired during the 2006-7 Bowl Championship Series. The researchers — Brian Bourke and Michael S. Harris, both assistant professors of higher education at the University of Alabama — analyzed the images, narration, characters, scenes, and music in the ads, applying key concepts from the field of critical race theory.

The researchers found that the overwhelmingly majority of the students and alumni depicted in the advertisements were white, with minority members generally being depicted only as token members of larger groups. The common image of a group of students strolling the campus, for example, typically depicted three or four white students and a single student of color.

(A feature story about a few colleges’ 30-second spots, which may or may not have been part of the study, appears in The Chronicle this week.)

In trying to convey the message that their graduates are successful, the universities typically showed images of alumni who are white and wealthy. And the images shown to depict the tradition and history of the institutions were so void of students of color they sent the message “tradition equals whiteness,” the paper said.

Some of the universities examined by the researchers have enrollments that are so overwhelmingly white that advertisements depicting large numbers of minority students arguably could be called misleading. But the two researchers say that the messages that the advertisements send to minority students are not going to help bring much racial and ethnic diversity to those campuses anytime soon.

“With the use of people of color as token display pieces in their advertisements, these institutions communicate to any would-be students of color that their experiences will be marked by tokenism,” the paper says. As a result, it says, “The message that these advertisements send to potential students of color does untold damage to the public missions of these institutions to increase access and attainment among all populations, not simply those that are part of the dominant white and wealthy elites of the state.” —Peter Schmidt

Comments

1. I’m not sure of the perspective of the AERA paper. Is the paper critical because the university ads inadvertently tell the truth? Or is the paper suggesting that the ads should be changed to provide hope to minority students seeking access to higher education, when that hope is not very likely once the students enroll?

   — RJS    Mar 24, 03:40 PM    #

2. Showing an ad with four students and one of them being of color would mean the institution is showing 25% of its students are of color. Beside HBCUs is not this an accurate picture of most universities?

   Thus, is the issue for this paper to show what the institution is or what it should become?

   — EP    Mar 24, 03:48 PM    #

3. While it’s true that most Universities want to promote diversity, it would be unfair for them to paint a completely false representation of themselves to attract minority students. As a student I would be offended if this was how a school promoted itself when in fact it was not the case.

   — MCO    Mar 24, 03:48 PM    #

4. Maybe the point is universities could look harder for ways to advertise themselves. I agree with #1-#3 but that is taking the current approach as given. Testimonials from individual students could draw more heavily on underrepresented groups, make a good impression, and not be as ridiculous as campus scenes that have no connection to campus reality.

   — Sam    Mar 24, 04:00 PM    #

5. If I understand this study correctly, colleges and universities that show moderate numbers of minority students in their ads are perpetuating white dominance, and are likely to be perceived as uninviting to prospective students of color. On the other hand, if they include higher numbers of such students, they are guilty of false advertising. I think this is called the double bind – damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

   — DJ    Mar 24, 04:02 PM    #

6. Though I agree that colleges should not overrepresent their diversity, presenting the types of programming and support systems available to underrepresented groups and clearly stating that they value and want diverse students in their campuses is a way to be more atrractive to students of color. Why can’t they do that?

   — Josie Herrera    Mar 24, 04:18 PM    #

7. It would be interesting to do the same analysis of network television ads for the college sporting events themselves and see if the ads perpetuate black dominance in nationally competitive division I football and basketball programs.

   — Paul    Mar 24, 04:21 PM    #

8. I agree with #6. If minority students are shown as one, small part of a large, overwhelmingly white group, they’ll come away with the sense that the university is not interested in them—they’d be too small a group to matter. But if you show them students like themselves involved in activities that they’d be interested in—organizing a Chinese New Year’s Festival, promoting Latino Heritage Month—then they’ll see that there is a place for them in that university. Numbers alone don’t mean everything—the question is, will the university help you grow?

   — madamesmartypants    Mar 24, 04:24 PM    #

9. Personally,I think universities are trying to promote themselves using whatever means necessary and playing to the most viable audience depending on point of the communication.They do a lot of study before they produce and air any ads.The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas has a couple of African American physicians they use in every commercial they air. The sad part of that is that on their VIP list for large donors,every physician on the call list for the rich ,every one is white.Go figure.

   — Brent    Mar 24, 04:25 PM    #

10. It took a study to come to this conclusion? How much did this cost us?

    — vlw    Mar 24, 04:30 PM    #

11. Wouldn’t it be great if universities were, in fact, promoting diversity and inviting places for people of color? Then the enrollment of people of color could quite possibly rise rather quickly and then the ads could accurately reflect a diverse environment. Nah, too simple for academia.

    — sk    Mar 24, 04:34 PM    #

12. I think part of the problem is that the people responsible for creating these campaigns don’t realize how damaging (and transparent) tokenism is. Many of them likely think that, say, airbrushing a student of color into a campus scene will actually make minority students feel welcome. In reality, #6 sums it up well— students of color want to be welcomed, valued, and treated like adults.

    — kj    Mar 24, 04:47 PM    #

13. The researchers applied a method of analysis that ensured they would discover the obvious. The University of Wisconsin ignited a controversy several years ago when it inserted the image of a black student into a photo of fans at a football game. Apparently the intent was to show the presence of minorities in the hope of drawing more to the campus. What solutions do the researchers offer for the dilemma?

    — John    Mar 24, 04:49 PM    #

14. Troy University often features black students very fairly in our television ads. For example, one of our recent ads features just our chancellor, Dr. Jack Hawkins, along with a prominent black alumnus who is a high ranking Air Force officer. Yet another current Troy television ad features exclusively DeMarcus Ware, our former football player who is now a Pro Bowl player with the Dallas Cowboys. Troy University is also the most culturally diverse university in Alabama. (We graduated more African-American students than did HBCU Alabama State University over the last two years.)

    — Stephen    Mar 24, 05:16 PM    #

15. Several commenters have misunderstood the article, which says that only some of the 43 universities have very few minority students. Presumably the others have plenty but showed an overwhelmingly white student body in their ads anyway. It would not be false advertising for those schools to include more minority members in their ads in order to be more representative of their actual enrollments.

    — CU Alum    Mar 24, 05:18 PM    #

16. Did the researchers ask:

    1. Is the advertising successful?
    2. How did the Universities measure success?
    3. Does financial assistance play a bigger factor in admissions than advertising?
    4. Is the bowl season the only place the university advertises?
    5. Is the make-up of the athletic teams representative of the student body?
    6. Is the faculty/administration representative of the student body?
    7. Does anyone care about the 30 second ad spots, or are we visiting the refrigerator or bathroom during the airing of the commercial?

    — seth    Mar 24, 05:27 PM    #

17. If you are a minority, you already know that white people will out-number you in the vast majority of institutions. And if you are a minority person who can’t deal with that simple fact of life, then you’re already screwed.

    — Fred    Mar 24, 06:02 PM    #

18. g –

    You’re missing the point. The majority of students at American universities are American, but Americans come in all colors. The study doesn’t claim that foreigners are underrepresented in the ads. Your argument makes no sense unless you equate “American” with “white” — in which case you’re one of the people whose outlook on racial issues is out of touch with reality.

    — CU Alum    Mar 24, 06:50 PM    #

19. This is sooooo old world. You think any college-bound student today pays attention to race, let alone a stupid Madison Ave advertisement for a college? Does anyone watch commercials anymore??? C’mon Chronicle. Get hip. Or have you finally become the old folks home in the College?

    — Marci    Mar 24, 07:37 PM    #

20. Why is the phrase “majority White” routinely used as a pejorative, without a measure of the actual racial make-up of the United States? In the last census, 12-13% called themselves Black, 4-5% Asian, and 1% Native American. And c.5% as mixed. That leaves the U.S. 75-80% White.

    The non-racial category “Hispanic” complicates the picture, but most Hispanics do not relate to that broad category and choose White as their race. Surely anyone using “majority White” as a negative phrase has the obligation to specify the presumed proper proportions.

    — Bruce    Mar 25, 06:25 AM    #

21. Since when was advertising supposed to represent reality?

    — Joel    Mar 25, 07:43 AM    #

22. The fact is, white people control the world and the sooner so called “minority” students get that through their head the better off they will be.

    — cliff    Mar 25, 08:06 AM    #

23. Even among the erudite, no topic seems to elicit as much passion as one involving race. I wonder what our students and prospective students would think of this colloquy of comments? The comments on the research are far more revealing of attitudes in academe than the research results themselves.

    — johntee    Mar 25, 08:47 AM    #

24. I agree with Johntee__ every time race comes up you get either awkward silences due to people’s fears of knee jerk cries of racism, or vitriolic, insult laced exchanges such as those above.

    Over the years I have attended (too many) campus discussions of race, and have invariably left feeling worse than before I went in.

    Nothing divides like “diversity”.

    — Ken    Mar 25, 09:25 AM    #

25. College populations ARE overwhelming white. What do the researchers expect to find? On the other hand, if a “diverse” audience is shown in the spots, the producers would be criticized for purposely manipulating diversity in the commercials. We didn’t need a study to tell us this.

    — Kenner    Mar 25, 09:32 AM    #

26. Thanks to everyone for lambasting this baloney for what it is, people of color, people of some color, and people of no color alike. “Critical race theory” is the giveaway. Subjective truths, social experiments, and special agendas trump the academy’s supposed mission and hasten the academy’s self-destruction. Perhaps proponents of “critical racial theory” would be happier with separate-but-equal campuses whose advertising wouldn’t show too many of those awful white faces – at least not in proportion to the general population.

    — Karl Offay    Mar 25, 09:40 AM    #

27. #25 puts it well. Nothing shows how academics really feel about race than a discussion of a relatively unknown research paper.

    As for #20… You’re right… white students don’t pay attention to race. It’s almost as if race is a non-factor for white students, just as sexism is a non-factor for men. Imagine that.

    — kj    Mar 25, 10:00 AM    #

28. In the context of this article the administrator leadership farce that equates equal student representation across universities and colleges in the US is true.

    Yes, the reality for white student dominance at universities is a fact but have we forgotten another REALITY. The American Indian “used” to be the majority and now look what happended to them?

    The demographic change continues to remind us
    the contrary.

    There is a saying in Spanish, “don’t hide the Sun with your thumb”!

    People of color, especially Latinos, are steadily becoming the majority, that includes college number enrollment. I see this fact in every census decade count.

    Resistance to this overwhelming demographic change will eventually streamline true representation at American Universities.

    How’s that for your REALITY?

    — James Corona    Mar 25, 10:30 AM    #

29. So the article is implying that universities should construct deliberately misleading public communications in service to a political agenda? Is this what we have come to expect from institutions whose societal role is as paragons of truth and independence?

    — gfb    Mar 25, 12:41 PM    #

30. Obama is on the right tract in bringing this nation together.

    — Sharon L. English    Mar 25, 02:19 PM    #

31. If a prospective white student were to choose a college based on the racial composition of the student body, there is no doubt in my mind that the student would be thought of as racist, and that many people would try to make him or her feel guilty for making the decision based on that rationale. On the other hand, we should mollycoddle prospective black students who will make their decisions for exactly the same reasons. Have I got this right?

    — FB    Mar 25, 05:10 PM    #

32. As this article mentions, the Chronicle ran a previous feature story that examined the 30-second spots of several schools, including Saint Mary’s College of California. They were all rather unconventional and I doubt they were included in this study because none of them can be characterized as lacking diversity or putting forth token displays of students of color. In fact, our video (http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/about-smc/smc-at-a-glance/institutional-videos.html) stressed the importance of global citizenship and featured actual students who were studying abroad when the video was filmed.
    — Debra Holtz, Saint Mary’s College of California

    — Debra Holtz    Mar 25, 06:44 PM    #

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