THE PORTRAYAL OF ASIAN AMERICANSIN MAINSTREAM MAGAZINE ADS:AN UPDATE

By Ki-Yoinig Lee and Swig-Hee }oo

Mass-circulation magazines were analyzed for the frequency and imttireof advertising portrayals of Asian Americans, along several dimensionsrelated to the "model tninority" stereotype. Findings icere comparedwith those for African Americans ami Hispanics. Despite sotne improve-ment in the frequency and scope of representation, the presence of AsianAmericans is still limited to narroivli/ defined stereotypical roles.Logistic regression analyses provided further support for the findings.Draii'ing on both cultivation and expectancy-violation theory frame-works, the authors suggest that, to the extent that the stereotype isreflected and reinforced through advertising, biased and undtie expecta-tions may be formed, resulting in negative conseqtiences for the groupmembers.

I&MC QiiiirlirlVol. 82, No. 3Autumn 2005654-671&2005 AE}MC

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic group in America,with a 72% increase from 1990 to 2000, a decade in which the total U.S.population grew only 13%.' In the 2000 U.S. Census, 11,9 million peo-ple, or 4.2 % ofthe U.S, population, identilied themselves as being Asianor Asian in combination with another race, making Asian Americans thefourth-largest ethnic group in the country, behind whites, Hispanics,and African Americans.- By 2050, the percentage of Asian Americans isprojected to reach 8%."* This ethnic group forms a desirable market, witha high average income coupled with an aiinual spending power of over$200 billion, a high level of education, and exceptional brand loyalty.''Nevertheless, Asian Americans are not yet considered a major minorityand are typically portrayed as "foreigners" in the media."' Moreover,compared to other ethnic groups, they have been almost invisible inmainstream American popular culture." When Asian Americans doappear in movies and other pop cultural venues, stereotyped or narrow-ly defined roles are pervasive. For example, Asian women have beenfrequently portrayed as passive, exotic, and humble, or at the otherextreme, as oversexualized, treacherous, and evil. Asian men, on theother hand, are often portrayed as incompetent, asexual, and supreme-ly wise, or as martial arts experts.^

Stereotyping of Asian Americans also occurs in ads. Their portray-als in ads usually reflect the "model minority" stereotype, in which they

Ki-Youiin Lei' is a doctoral caiutidale in the Mass Mciiia Ph.D. Program, Michigan StateUiiiversiti/. Siiiig-Mcc }oo is n itoctaral aimiidate in the Department of CommunicationStudies, the Uuii'ersitij of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The authors thank Frederick Fico, aswell as tioo anoin/nwiis reviewers, for their helpful comments.

654 JOURNALISM & MMS COMMUNIC^fU'^ QUAKTLRIY

are depicted as diligent, hard working, technologically competent, andmathematically skilled." Although this stereotype may seem complimen-tary, it can lead to negative consequences for individuals both inside aswell as outside the group." For instance, continued portrayals of AsianAmericans based on the model minority stereotype and repetitive expo-sure to these images may create undue pressure on Asian Americans toconfirm stereotype-driven expectations, consequently undermining theirperformance.'" When failing to meet expectations, Asian Americans maybe more harshly penalized than others," and sutfer lowered self-esteem.Furthermore, to the extent that Asian Americans are viewed as industri-ous, hardworking, and serious, they may be prone to experience themore negative stereotype of being le.ss sociable or "workaholics,"'-

The current study examines whether the model minority stereo-type of Asian Americans is reflected in magazine ads. Unlike previousstudies on Asian Americans, however, it further examines whether theportrayals of Asian Americans differ from the portrayals of other ethnicminority groups and, if so, the extent and nature of that difference, byusing logistic regression techniques.

77ic Model Minority StereotypH': More Hann than Good? This Ltteratlirestudy is couched in two theories: cultivation and expectancy-violation,'^ ReviewCultivation theory suggests that audience perceptions toward a groupare influenced by how the group is portrayed in the media.'-' Specifically,heavy television viewers develop a social reality that reflects the televi-sion world because that world is relatively "consistent" and "uniform" inthe images and portrayals it conveys.''' Although the theory was origi-nally proposed to explain the effect of violent primetime television pro-gramming, it can be readily applied here, because if Asian Americans arestereotypically portrayed in a consistent manner in magazine ads, read-ers should develop perceptions of Asian Americans that mirror the waythey are depicted. Cultivation theory may be particularly applicablebecause of the geographical distribution of Asian Americans. They tendto be heavily concentrated in a few areas of the United States such asHawaii, New York, and several cities on the West Coast, such as LosAngeles and San Francisco."' People in many parts of the country mayhave little or no personal interaction with Asian Americans. Lacking suchcontact, the audience may be more likely to accept media portrayals ofAsian Americans as a fair and accurate description of the group.'^

Expectancy-violation theory offers a convincing explanation for apotentially negative effect of the model minority stereotyping of AsianAmericans in ads. This theory suggests that when an individual's char-acteristics violate stereotype-based expectations, judgments tend tobecome more extreme in the direction of the violated expectation,'"Studies have shown that the violation of a negative stereotypical expec-tation tends to generate more favorable judgments for the members of anegatively stereotyped group, while the violation of a positive stereotyp-ical expectation generates more unfavorable judgments for the membersof a positively stereotyped group.''' This so-called "contrast" effect in

Till PnKTKA>AI 01 AfilAN A.MLRICANS

judgment has been found for Asian Americans. For example. Ho,Driscoll, and Loosbrock found that Asian American students who per-formed poorly on a math test were given sub.stantially lower points thanwhite students when judges lacked motivation to grade seriously.-" Inaddition, the pressure to meet the high expectation to excel in mathe-matical skills is likely to create the potential for "choking" on the part ofperformers, thus affecting performance on the task. '^

Advertising is an influential social agent in the development ofour understanding of social reality, and in particular, perceptions of eth-nic groups, both by group members and by others. These perceptionscan be reinforced by repeated exposure to prejudicial and stereotypicalportrayals of a targeted group. To the extent that advertising portrayalsof Asian Americans continue to be consistent and limited in certainareas, they will contribute to the creation and reinforcement of thestereotype associated with this group. The model minority stereotype is,thus, likely to place undue pressure on Asian Americans to conform toit, as well as possibly encouraging unjust treatment when they fail tomeet the stereotype-based expectations. In .sum, although seeminglypositive, model minority stereotyping of Asian Americans may do moreharm than good.

Previous Research on Portrayals of Asian Americans inAdvertising. Studies of how Asian Americans are portrayed in advertis-ing began only in the 1990s,-- with many reporting that Asian Americanrepresentation is sparse and often virtually invisible.-^ When AsianAmericans do appear, they are assigned to narrowly defined roles basedon the model minority stereotype.-"' For example, in both televisioncommercials and magazine ads, Asian Americans have shown a dif-ferential presence in terms of the type of products they endorse.Specifically, Asian Americans have most often been found as endorsersof high-tech products and banking/financial services, and less often inads for domestic products. Similarly, they have appeared more frequent-ly in technology and business magazines than in general interest andwomen's magazines.-" Furthermore, they have frequently been por-trayed in business setting.s, but rarely in home settings or social gather-ings.-'' This disproportionate portrayal of Asian Americans in terms ofsetting has been attributed to the "hard work, no fun" or "all work, noplay" stereotype of Asian Americans.-" Based on this presumption,Taylor and his colleagues defined a set of variables for the content analy-sis of minority portrayals in magazine ads, and have demonstrated thatAsian Americans are pictured as hardworking, serious, and technologi-cally savvy, confirming the model minority stereotype.^"

Although there has been relatively consistent support for themodel minority stereotype, research on the frequency of Asian Ameri-can representation has produced somewhat conflicting results withinand across media.-"* For example, Taylor and Lee reported that AsianAmericans accounted for 4% of the magazine ads analyzed from 1992 to1993, higher than the proportion of Asian Americans at that time in theU.S. population (3.3%)."' In a sHtdy of television coinrnercials in 1994,Taylor and Stern found an even higher representation of Asian

656 ;v MMS CoMMusiCATinN QU.AKTERLY

Americans (8.47(v).'" In contrast, Bowen and Schmid found AsianAmericans present in only 2.5% and 1.8% of magazine ads in 1987 and1992, respectively. "

Of course, it is also necessary to consider that the presence of eth-nic minorities in ads is often minimized by their assignment to tokenroles rather than main characters." Tokenism is especially apparent inads where minorities are the sole representatives of their ethnic group ina crowd of otherwise white-only characters."^ This suggests that the fre-quency overrepresentation of Asian Americans found in some studiesmay not reveal the true nature of the portrayals of Asian Americans inads.

Several research questions and hypotheses were developed toexamine the stereotypical portrayals of Asian Americans in magazineads. First, an attempt was made to address the confusion around the fre-quency of Asian American representation by posing the following re-search question:

RQl: Does the proportion of Asian Americans in mag-azine ads reflect the actual proportion of Asian Americans inthe U.S. population?

Regarding the prominence of roles, the following research questionwas posed:

RQ2: When Asian Americans appear in magazine ads,what type of role (e.g., primary, secondary, background) arethey most likely to play?

In order for this study to update previous research, the followinghypotheses were formulated, using the framework and variables devel-oped by Taylor and Lee,'- to compare the portrayals of Asian Americansin magazine ads with those of African Americans and Hispanics, rarelydone in past studies:

HI: Popular technology/business magazines will morefrequently include ads that contain Asian Americans thannontechnology/nonbusiness magazines (i.e., popular gener-al interest and women's magazines).

H2: Ads for technology-/business-related products/services will more frequently contain Asian Americans thanads for nontechnology-/nonbusineRS-related products/serv-

ResearchQuestionsandHypotheses

H3: Compared to other minority groups (i.e., AfricanAmericans or Hispanics) when Asian Americans appear inmagazine ads, they are more likely to be portrayed in busi-ness settings than other types of settings.

THL PORIRAY.M Of ASIAN AMERICANS57

H4: Compared to other minority groups, when AsianAmericans appear in magazine ads, they are more likely tobe portrayed as coworkers in relation to other models in theads.

A content analysis of ads from selected mainstream consumermagazines was cotiducted. For sampling purposes, a combination ofrandom and purposive sampling was employed, considering both edi-torial interest and popularity of the magazines. In consultation withAcivcrtisiiig Age 300 for 2001 and iUridi's Perhtiicah Directory,^" a sam-pling frame was developed for each of four consumer magazine cate-goriesbusiness, technology, women, and general interest. These fourcategories were chosen to represent a wide range of readership and edi-torial interest areas and to test one of the main hypotheses about the rel-ative frequency of Asian American representation across magazineswith different editorial interest areas.

From those publications ranked within the top 10 in terms of cir-culation in each category, two were randomly chosen, resulting in a totalof eight magazines: (1) Popular Mechanics and PC World to representtechnology magazines; (2) Fortune and Business Week for business maga-zines; (3) Time and U.S. News & World Report for the general interestmagazines; and (4) Woman's Day and Ladies' Home journal for thewomen's magazines. Finally, four months between August 2000 andAugust 2001 were randomly selected: October 2000, and February, May,and August of 2001." All ads from theissuesof the selected months thatwere one or more pages long, featuring human models, were includedin the content analysis. This sampling procedure resulted in a total of1,843 ads.

All ads containing ethnic minorities were coded along severaldimensions including race, role prominence, and the four model minor-ity stereotype-rel a ted variablesmagazine category, product type, adsetting, and role portrayal. All the major variables were coded for threeethnic minority groupsAsian Americans, African Americans, andHispanics. Asian Americans were defined as persons whose ancestry isrooted in any Asian country other than those on the Indian subcontinentand those countries that are referred to as the Middle East.'-' The adsfeaturing only white models were counted to provide a baseline forcomparison. White models were also coded for type of endorsed prod-uct.

For comparison and consistency purposes, the operational defini-tions and coding schemes used for this study were based on those devel-oped by Taylor and Lee (see Appendix).'"* Role prominence was ana-lyzed using three categoriesprimary, secondary, and backgroundtodetermine whether Asian Americans were depicted in central or periph-eral roles.^ "

The type of product advertised was initially coded into ninecategories: (1) Technology-based electronics; (2) Telecommunicationsproducts and services (e.g., ISP, cable modem, DSL, ISDN); (3) Banking

658 JOURNAI tbM & M A . S S COM.MU.N(L",inLI,V

and financial services; (4) Automobiles; (5) Food and beverages; (6)Household products; (7) Fashion and cosmetics products; (8) Nonpro-fit organization/PSA; and (9) Other. In order to test H2 (about pro-duct type), these categories were collapsed into a dichotomous categoryof "Tech/Business products/services" [categories (1) through (3)]and "Nontech/Nonbusiness products/services" [categories (4) through(9)].

The settings of the ads were analyzed to assess whether minoritieswere featured in certain types of settings more often than others. The cat-egories included: (1) Business setting; (2) Home setting; (3) Social settingoutside home; and (4) Outdoor/natural setting. Any artificial settingsand any other settings not listed in the above categories were coded as(5) Other.

Role portrayal was coded into four categories: (1) Coworker; (2)Family member; (3) Social circle; and (4) Impersonal relationship. Forrole portrayals, coders were instructed to identify the most salient minor-ity model in the ad and analyze the relationship between the model andothers depicted in the ad. Ad settings were recoded to the dichotomous"Business setting" or "Nonbusiness setting," and role portrayal was tothe dichotomous "Coworker" or "Noncoworker," for logistic regressionanalysis.

Two coders independently coded the same 10% of the sample totest for inter-coder reliability, with reliabilities of all variables exceedingthe .85 standard recommended by Kassarjian for figures not corrected forchance agreement." After being corrected for chance agreement, theagreement figures, as measured by Scott's Pi, of all major variables forAsian Americanspresence of Asian American models, role promi-nence, product type, ad setting, and role portrayal^were .92, .80, .87, .81,and .88, respectively. -^

Initial analyses were conducted using the difference in proportionstest and the chi-square test. Since the chi-square test does not revealwhich category pairs account for a statistical significance, the differencein proportions test was also used. The second round of analyses usedlogistic regression techniques to assess the degree to which the modelminority stereotype-based portrayals of Asian Americans were presentcompared to other minority groups. Logistic regression techniques areknown to avoid problems associated with nonlinearity of the dichoto-mous outcome variables and the violation of ordinary least-squaresassumptions.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Asian Americans represent4.2%, of the U.S. population." Of 1,843 sampled magazine ads, 464(25.2%.) contained at least one minority model and 153 (8.3%,) containedAsian Americans. African Americans were found in 322 (17.5%), and 47included Hispanics (2.6%). The remaining ads contained whites only.The difference between the two proportions of Asian Americans4.2%,frotn the U.S. Census and 8.3% from this studyis statistically signifi-cant at a = .001 (z = 8.77, /) < .001). Further, the number of ads analyzedft>r "Tech/Business" and "Nontech/Nonbusiness" magazine categories

FindingsandDiscussions

Till PoRrnAYALOi AS 659

TABLE 1Representation of Minorities by Roic Prominence. Magazine Category, Product Type.

Ad Setting, and Role Portrayal

Role Prominence

PrimarySecondaryBackground

X'=10,50, d,f,=4, p < .05

Magazine Category

Asian AmericansAfrican AmericansHispanicsWhites

X^=34.03, d.f.=3, p < .001

Product Type

Asian AmericansAfrican AmericansHispar\icsWhites

X^=32,8], d,f,=3,;) < .001

Asian Americans(N=153)73.2%20.3

6.5

Tech/BusinessMagazines(N= 1,149)

9.7%15,73,2

71,4

Tech/BusinessProducts/Services

(N=l,068)10,4%15.9

2.471.3

Ad Setting Asian Americans

BusinessHomeSociiilOutdoorOther

X-=23.72, d,f.=8, p < .001

(,V=153)62.4%12.412,4

6,56.5

Role Portrayal Asian Americans

Co workerFamily memberSocial circleImpersonal relation

(N=9^)52,7%13.215.418.7

African Americans(N-322)72.4%19.6

8,1

Nontech/Non-business Magazines

(/V-939)4.5%

15,11,1

79.3

Nontech / Non businessProd ucts / Services

(N= 1,020)4.1%

14.92.1

78,9

African Americans(N=322)

40.1%24,820,2

7,17,8

African Americans(N=]80)36.7%18.322.222.8

Hispanics(N=47)51.]%38,310,6

z-score

9,14*,76

6.40*-8,33*

z-score

11,07*1,27

,91-8,02*

Hispanics(N=47)53,2%23.412.8

6.44.3

Hispanics(,V=30)43.3%20.016,720.0

X'=6,93, d,f,=6, n,s, at a=.O5

Note: For HI & H2, some ads were counted more than twice since they contained more than tworaces. As a result, the Ns are larger than the actual number of ads analyzed,

' p< .001 ,

were roughly comparable (987 ads vs. 856 ads), excluding the possibili-ty of biased results. In sum, Asian Americans appear to be more fre-quently represented in magazine ads than their actual proportion In theUnited States, thus answering RQl.

660 S COMMUKICJION Qu.iRTFRLV

Table 1 summarizes the results regarding RQ2 about the role thatAsian Americans play in magazine ads. According to the data, whenAsian Americans appear in magazine ads, they are more likely to befeatured in a primary role, suggesting that they are not marginalized.Rather, they appear in the foreground of ads. A conditional distribu-tion of role prominence for Asian Americans is not contingent on mag-azine category (x^ = .663, d.f.^2, p > .05; Tech/Business vs. Non-tech/Nonbusiness magazines). African Americans show a pattern sim-ilar to Asian Americans, while Hispanics exhibit an even split betweena primary role and a secondary and background role combined.Therefore, the significant differences in relative frequencies of roleprominence across ethnic groups appear to originate from theHispanics (%- = 10.50, d.f.=4, p < .05).

Magazine Category and Representation of Asian Americans. HIpredicts that technology and business magazine ads will more fre-quently contain Asian Americans than general interest and women'smagazine ads. The presence of ethnic groups is contingent on maga-zine category (x' ^ 34.03, d.f.^3, p < .001), as can be seen in Table 1. Ashypothesized, Asian Americans are more likely to be portrayed in tech-nology and business magazine ads than nontechnology and nonbusi-ness magazine ads {9.7% vs. 4.5%), and the difference in relative fre-quencies is statistically significant (2 ^ 9.14, p < .001). African Ameri-cans and Hispanics are also represented more often in technology andbusiness magazines, but the difference is significant only for Hispan-ics. Whites appear more frequently in general interest and women'smagazines than they do in technology and business magazines.

Product Type and Representation of Asian Americans. Supportfor HI, however, does not necessarily substantiate the propositionthat magazine ads reflect the model minority stereotype of AsianAmericans because, although Asian Americans appear in technologyand business magazines, it is possible that the actual ads they are in arefor nontechnology and nonbusiness products/services. While thisassumption is rather unlikely in light of previous studies confirmingthe model minority stereotyping in ads, the findings may be confound-ed if this is the case.

Therefore, a more powerful case for the model minority proposi-tion can be made if data support H2, which states a direct relationshipbetween the type of advertised product and the presence of AsianAmerican models. Table 1 data show that the difference in relative fre-quencies for Asian Americans is significant (z ^ 11.07, p < .001). Thisindicates that ads for technology and business-related products/serv-ices do indeed feature Asian Americans more frequently as endorsers,compared to ads for nontechnology and nonbusiness-related prod-ucts/services. A significant chi-square value indicates that the pres-ence of ethnic groups does depend upon the type of product adver-tised d' = 32.81, d.f.=3, /; < .001).

It is worth noting that for Hispanics, this relationship is notsignificant, contrasting with the significant result found for Hispanicsfor magazine category in Table 1. Even though Hispanics may more

T'Hf PORTRA>-\I. IT AflAN AMLKICANS DOI

TABLE 2Logistic Regression Equations Predicting Effects of Asian Americtins nnd Hispanics

on Magazine Category, Product Type, Ad Setting, ami Role Portrayal(N - 464 for Model 1, 2, ami 3; N - 220 for Model 4}

Indt'pt'ndentVariiibics

Intercept

AsianAmerican

Hispanic

ModelChi-square

Model 1:Magazine Category

b

.176

.723"

.934'

SE

.121

.216

.374

18.403"*

OddsRiitio

2.060

2.545

b

.092

.892

.124

Dependant VariablesModel 2:

Proditct Type

SE OddsRatio

.120

*'* .216 2.439

.322 1.132

18.160-'*

b

-.609-'

1.062*

.504

Mtxlel 3:Ad Setting

SE

" .125

** .207

.319

29.604'*'

OddsRatio

2.839

1.655

Model 4;Role Portrayal

b SE OddsRatio

-.831'*' .186

.613* .278 1.846

.388 .41X) 1.474

6.210*

A/oftvb = coefficient, SE = standard error, ' f x .05, *'p< .01, *" ; i< .001.

Independent variables: Asian American: coded 1 if Asian American, 0 othervi'isc; African American: cixied 1 ifAfrican American, 0 othenvLso; Hispanic: ctxied 1 if Hiispanic, 0 otherwise. African Americans were the referencegroup.Dependenl variables: Magazine Category: coded 1 it Tech/Business magazine, 0 otherwise; Pnjduct Type: ctxiedlif Tech/Business product/service, 0 otherwise; Ad Setting: cmled 1 if Business setting, 0 otherwise; RolePortrayal: axied 1 if Coworker. 0 otherwise.

frequently appear in technology and business magazines than in othermagazine categories, they still do not necessarily endorse technology orbusiness products/services. As with Hispanics, the presence of AfricanAmericans does not show a significant variation across product types.The nonsignificant differences for both African Americans andHispanics provide further evidence that the model minority stereotypeof Asian Americans is reflected in their portrayals in magazine ads.

Ad Setting and Representation of Asian Americans. H3 predictedthat Asian Americans are more likely to appear in business settings, butless likely to appear in other types of settings (e.g., home, social, outdoorsettings), reflecting their "hard work, no fun" stereotype. The data inTable 1 support this hypothesis. Of ads portraying Asian Americans,62.4% occur in business settings. Interestingly, both social and home set-tings, respectively, account for 12.4% of the ads featuring AsianAmericans, a stark contrast to Taylor and Lee's finding of only 4.1% ofads featuring Asian Americans in each of these settings.^'' This suggeststhat the representation of Asian Americans is broadening to includegreater diversify in settings.

Compared to other minority groups, however, the presence ofAsian Americans in social and home settings is still relatively low. The"hard work, no fun" stereotype attached to Asian Americans may haveled others to believe that this group lacks social skills and is less family-

662 I ISM 6- MA-if CuMMLH^ICATIOfJ QtlARTERi)

oriented, consequently leading to less frequent presence of AsianAmericans in social and home settings.

Role Portrayal and Representation of Asian Americans. H4, pre-dicting that Asian Americans are most likely to be portrayed as cowork-ers, is inherenfly related to H3. The findings for role portrayal in Table 1support the prediction. Among the 91 ads featuring two or more charac-ters including Asian American models, 48 depicted Asian Americans ascoworkers (52.7%). The differences in relative frequencies across ethnicgroups are not statistically significant at a = .05. However, a comparisonwith other groups provides partial support for the proposition that mag-azine ads reflect the "hard work, no fun" or "all work, no play" stereo-type of Asian Americans: they are portrayed as family members in 13.2%of cases as opposed to 18.3% for African Americans and 20% forHispanics. Asian Americans are also less frequently depicted as friends(15.4%) than African Americans (22.2%) and Hispanics (16.7%).

The prevailing presence of Asian Americans as coworkers supportsthe proposition that magazine ads reflect the stereotype associated withthis minority group. The nonsignificant chi-square value might havebeen caused by the small sample size in each ethnic group, warranting aneed for further investigation with a larger sample size.

Logistic Regression Analysis Results. Table 2 summarizes theresults of a series of logistic regression analyses. For each model in Table2, the dependent variable is the logarithm of the odds that a minoritymodel will be portrayed in a particular way (e.g., particular magazinecategory, product), divided by the odds that the model will not be por-trayed that way. The reference group is African Americans for all mod-els. Logistic regression was used in order to provide a more rigorousunderstanding of the portrayals of Asian Americans in relation to otherminority groups. The effect of each independent variable is expressed interms of the impact of being a given minority on the log odds of thedependent variable. Odds ratios are also presented for case of interpreta-tion.

The results from the logistic regression analyses are es.sentiaily con-sistent with the results from the preceding chi-square and difference inproportions tests, providing further support for the hypotheses. All mod-els are statistically significant at a = .05. Model 1 in Table 2 shows that,compared to African Americans, Asian Americans are more likely toappear in technology and business magazines. Specifically, by being anAsian American, the log odds of being portrayed in technology and busi-ness magazine ads increase by .723, compared to African Americans. Inother words, the odds of Asian Americans being present in technologyand business magazine ads are over 2 times greater than they are forAfrican Americans. Hispanics are also more likely to appear in technolo-gy and business magazine ads, but Hispanics and African Americans arenot significantly different from each other in terms of their likelihoodof being employed as endorsers for technology and businessproducts/services (Model 2 in Table 2). The odds of Asian Americansendorsing such products/services, however, are 2.4 times higher thanthose of African Americans.

THE PoRTRAYALoh ASIAN AMFRICAN^ 663

Models 3 and 4 show how being from a different minority groupaffects the likelihood that minority models will be depicted in businesssettings or as coworkers. Asian American.s are indeed more likely thanAfrican Americans to appear in business settings and be portrayed ascoworkers. The likelihood of being depicted in business settings or castas coworkers for Asian Americans is respectively 2.8 and 1.8 timesgreater than for African Americans. Again, African Americans andHispanics are not significantly different from each other in their proba-bility of being depicted in business settings and being cast as coworkers.Overall, the results from the logistic regression analyses confirm thenotion that magazine ads reflect the model minority stereotype of AsianAmericans.

ConclusionandImplications

Research on cultivation effects suggests the possible impact thatstereotypical portrayals of minority groups in the media may have onpeople's beliefs and attitudes toward these groups. Once reinforced andentrenched by continued media portrayals, these stereotypes can guideour expectations and color our interpretations of minority group mem-bers' behaviors and traits. The representation of minority groups in themedia is also indicative of how the host culture and minority groupsthemselves perceive these groups' legitimacy in society.-*'

Overall, this study provides further support for the findings ofresearch by Taylor and Lee,"^ which concluded that magazine ads reflectthe commonly held model minority stereotype of Asian Americans ashardworking, intelligent, and highly skilled in math and science. Inaddition, with the aid of logistic regression, this study offers a newavenue to pursue by detailing how portrayals of Asian Americans differfrom those of other minority groups.

The frequency of Asian American representation in magazine adswas higher than its actual percentage in the U.S. population, and AsianAmericans are now more frequently portrayed in nonstereotypicalareas than they once were. For example, we witnessed the growth ofAsian American presence in ads whose settings are nonbusiness innature, such as home and social settings.

Scrutiny of the data, however, suggests that, compared with otherminority groups, the portrayals of Asian Americans are still limited innarrowly defined roles. In general, the presence of Asian Americans wasstill salient in the areas where the model minority stereotype applied.Specifically, Asian Americans more frequently appeared in technologyand business product categories, and were assigned to roles wheregreater emphasis is placed on work ethic (i.e., business settings andcoworkers) than other minorities. These results indicate that despite theincrease in Asian American presence in terms of frequency and setting,ads continue to perpetuate the model minority stereotype.

The narrow scope of Asian American portrayals may have severalharmful implications. First, Asian Americans who are not particularlyadept in technology and business areas could suffer lowered self-esteemwhen they do not reach the expected achievement level anticipated by

664 SM & M.I.SS CUMMUNICATUW QllARTFRl.Y

Second, continued stereotypical portrayals might place unduepressure on Asian Americans to conform to the stereotype, and theymight incur unjust treatment when they fail to meet the stereotype-basedexpectations. In addition, the seemingly positive characteristics associat-ed with the model minority stereotype may in fact contribute to negativestereotyping in the other direction. For example, to the extent that AsianAmericans are viewed as industrious, hardworking, and serious, theymay also be regarded as less socially skilled and as workaholics.*"* Thissuspicion was supported by the results of the logistic regression, indicat-ing Asian Americans are less likely to appear in social and family set-tings, and are less often featured as friends and family members thanAfrican Americans and Hispanics.

To circumvent these possible problems, advertisers should be moreattentive when featuring Asian American models in ads by includingmore of them in a variety of nonbusiness/nontechnology product cate-gories, settings, and relationships. This heightened sensitivity in portray-ing Asian Americans would be beneficial to both the advertising indus-try and society as a whole. For advertisers, greater inclusion of AsianAmericans in those areas with which they have not been typically asso-ciated can provide an effective means of reaching out to this promising,but previously neglected, market segment. Research suggests that mem-bers of minority groups favorably evaluate ads featuring models of theirown race."'''' Thus, Asian Americans will react positively to ads includingmodels with whom they can easily identify, and these positive reactionsmay, in turn, translate into more positive brand attitudes. For society asa whole, nonstereotypical portrayals of Asian Americans will not onlyprovide a fair description of this minority group, but also contribute tothe assimilation process of its members into mainstream culture by sig-naling to them that they are not treated as a stereotyped minority, but aslegitimate members of society.

While the study's primary focus was on Asian Americans, it is nec-essary to point out that representation of Hispanics was severely limited.Although Hispanics currently account for 12.5% of the U.S. population,^only 2.6% of the sample analyzed in this study contained Hispanic mod-els (47 out of 1,843 ads). This paucity of Hispanic representation in themedia is a serious matter, for it is indicative of this ethnic group lackingequal access to the symbolic cultural resources commonly available tothe host culture. If also sends a subtle signal to the group members thatthey are not fully accepted by the host culture, thereby delaying theassimilation process of the group members into society."' Greater inclu-sion of Hispanics in ads appears necessary.

This study has several limitations and implications. First, theanalysis is limited to magazines. It would be interesting to investigate and Futurewhether the findings of this study can be replicated with other media. Studyespecially television. Currently, Taylor and Stern's study,"*- which ana-lyzed commercials broadcast in 1994, is the only study of this kind.Clearly, more research is needed to replicate and update their findings in

TllL POUTRAfM. or AsiAS AAtl.aiCANi UO5

the context of television commercials. Second, the findings of this studywarrant empirical research to corroborate the suspected linkagesbetween stereotyped portrayals in ads and perceptions of AsianAmericans held both by Asian Americans and by others, and an exami-nation of those perceptions and consequent behaviors. For example,research involving a longitudinal study or an experimental designshould be conducted to assess whether violating the positive stereo-types of Asian Americans actually leads to undue treatment of thosewho fail to confirm the stereotype-based expectancy. Finally, futureresearch can benefit from incorporating gender as a variable since someresearch suggests that media images of Asian Americans differ by gen-der in terms of both frequency and nature of portrayal."

Appendix and Notes follow.

666 /o^K^v\u.s".v1 f- M.-^ii COMMU^JK-ATION

APPENDIX(Adapted from Taylor and Lee'^'')

Operational Definitions for Variables AnalyzedRole Prominence

(1) Primary Role: A character who is very important to the advertising theme or layout,shown in the foreground or shown holding the product.(2) Secondary Role: A character who is of average importance to the advertising themeor layout. Generally, such characters are not spotlighted in the ad and do not hold theproduct, but are not difficult to find in the ad while casually looking at it.(3) Background Role: A character who is difficult to find in an ad (i.e., not likely to benoticed by a reader glancing at the ad) and is not important to its theme or layout.

Product Type

(1) Technology-based electronics: computer hardware/software, semiconductors, hi-tech home electronics such as HDTV, hi-fi stereos, and DVD players(2) Telecommunications products/services: Internet-based products/services (e.g., ISP,ISDN, DSL, cable modetn), wireless lechnology-bascd applications and products (e.g.,mobile phones/services)(3) Banking and financial services: various financial consulting services including mutu-al fund and asset management(4) Automobiles(5) Food and beverages(6) Household products: personal hygiene products such as toothpaste, soap and homecleaning products, detergents(7) Fashion and cosmetics products(8) Nonprofit organization/PSA(9) Other: any other products/services that do not fit into one of the above categories(e.g, media services, drugs, sporting goods)

Ad Setting

(1) Business setting: factories, sales or office rooms and retail settings(2) Home setting: a residence, room, garage, and driveway(3) Social setting outside home: restaurants, bars, movie theaters, concert, and carswhere people interact with one another for social purposes(4) Outdoor/natural setting; forests, rivers, oceans, fields, streets, and public places(5) Other: artificial settings and any other settings not listed above

Role Portrayal

(1) Coworker: two or more people depicted as coworkers. Colleagues in the satne profes-sion or occupation.(2) Family member: husband and wife, a parent(s) with a child (children), a grandpar-ent(s) with a child (children).(3) Social circle: two or more people who appear as friends or any other people depict-ed in a social setting.(4) Impersonal relationship: no apparent relationship between the characters.

Till PimTHAt.-M OJ A^i.-w AMI.RICANS 667

NOTES

1. Jessica S. Barns and Claudette E. Bennett, The Asian Population:2000: Census 2000 Brief (Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 2002),available at , retrieved 1 May 2004.

2. Barns and Bennett, The Asian Population: 2000: Census 2000 Brief3. U.S. Census Bureau, Census Btireau Projects Tripling of Hispanic and

Asian Populations in 50 Years (Washington, DC: U.S Census Bureau,2004), available at , retrieved 1 May 2004.

4. Brad Edmondson, "Asian Americans 2001," American Demo-graphics 19 (February 1997): 16-17.

5. Satomi Fruichi, Carrie La Ferle, Wei-Na Lee, and Marye C. Tharp,"Asian Americans: In Search of the American Dream," in Marketing andConsumer Identity in Multicultural America, ed. Marye C. Tharp(Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001), 243-81.

6. Carolyn Martindale, "Only in Glimpses: Portrayal of America'sLargest Minority Groups by The New York Times, 1934-1994," in FacingDifference: Race, Gender, and Mass Media, ed. Shirley Biagi and MarilynKern-Foxworth (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1997), 89-94;Dana E. Mastro and Bradley S. Greenberg, "The Portrayal of RacialMinorities on Prime Television," Journal of Broadcasting & ElectronicMedia 44 (fall 2000): 690-703; Charles R. Taylor and Ju Yung Lee, "Not inVogue: Portrayals of Asian Americans in Magazine Advertising,"journal of Public Policy and Marketing 13 (fall 1994): 239-45.

7. Fruichi et al., "Asian Americans"; Teresa A. Mok, "Getting theMessage: Media Images and Stereotypes and Their Effects on AsianAmericans," Cultural Diversity and Mental Heallh 4 (3,1998): 185-202.

8. Judy Cohen, "White Consumers Response to Asian Models inAdvertising," Journal of Consumer Marketing 9 (2, 1992): 17-27; NejdetDelener and James P. Neelankavil, "Informational Sources and MediaUse: A Comparison Between Asian and Hispanic Subcultures," Journalof Advertising Ret^earch 30 (July/June 1990): 45-52; Taylor and Lee, "Notin Vogue"; Charles R. Taylor, Ju Yung Lee, and Barbara B. Stern,"Portrayals of African, Hispanic, and Asian Americans in MagazineAdvertising," American Behavioral Scientist 38 (February 1995): 608-621;Charles R. Taylor and Barbara B. Stern, "Asian Americans: TelevisionAdvertising and the 'Model Minority' Stereotype," Journal of Advertising26 (summer 1997): 47-61.

9. Lee Jussim, "Social Reality and Social Problems: The Role ofExpectancies," journal of Social Issues 46 (summer 1990): 9-34; Taylor andLee, "Not in Vogue."

10. Sapna Cheryan and Galen V. Bodenhausen, "When PositiveStereotypes Threaten Intellectual Performance: The Psychological Ha-zards of "Model Minority" Status," Psychological Science 11 (September2000): 399-402.

11. Colin P. Ho, Denise M. Driscoll, and Danielle H. Loosbrock,"Great Expectations: The Negative Consequences of Falling Short,"

OOP jauRNAi.iM & MASS COMMUNICATION QUAHTLRLY

journal of Applied Social Psychology 28 (19,1998): 1743-1759.12. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."13. It is worth mentioning that the main purpose of this study is to

examine the presence and extent of stereotypical portrayals of AsianAmericans in magazine ads, rather than testing any formal hypothesis ofeither cultivation or expectancy theory. These theories were mainly intro-duced as a theoretical foundation to establish the significance of thestudy and indicate potential ramifications of stereotypical portrayals ofAsian Americans in magazine ads. In this regard, this study shares acommon goal with many content analysis studiesdoing a "realitycheck" and serving as a springboard for further surveys or experiments,as described in Daniel Riffe, Stephen Lacy, and Frederick G. Fico,Analyzing Media Messages: Using Quantitative Content Analysis in Research(Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1998).

14. George Gerbner, Larry Gross, Michael Morgan, and NancySignorieili, "The Mainstreaming of America: Violence Profile No. 11,"journal of Communication 30 (summer 1980): 10-29; Michael Morgan andJames Shanahan, "Two Decades of Cultivation Research: An Appraisaland Meta-Analysis," Communication Yearbook 20 (1997): 1-45.

15. Gerbner et al., "The Mainstreaming of America"; Morgan andShanahan, "Two Decades of Cultivation Research."

16. Harry H.L. Kitano and Roger Daniels, Asian Americans: EmergingMinorities, 2d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995); Barns andBennett, The Asian Population: 2000: Census 2000 Brief

17. Ronald J. Faber, Thomas C. O'Guinn, and Timothy P. Meyer,"Televised Portrayals of Hispanics: A Comparison of EthnicPerceptions," International journal of Intercultural Relations 11 (1987): 155-69; Taylor and Stern, "Asian Americans."

18. Lee Jussim, "Self-fulfilling Prophecy: A Theoretical and Integra-tive View," Psychological Reviexv 93 (October 1986): 429-45; Jussim, "SocialReality and Social Problems"; Lee Jussim, Lerita M. Coleman, andLauren Lerch, "The Nature of Stereotypes: A Comparison andIntegration of Three Theories," journal of Personality and Social Psychology,52 (March 1987): 536-46.

19. Linda A. Jackson, Linda A. Sullivan, and Carole N. Hodge,"Stereotype Effects of Attributions, Predictions, and Evaluations: NoTwo Social Judgments Are Quite Alike," journal of Personality and SocialPsychology 65 Ouly 1993): 69-84; Jussim, Coleman, and Lerch, "TheNature of Stereotypes."

20. Ho, Driscoll, and Loosbrock, "Great Expectations."21. Cheryan and Bodenhausen, "When Positive Stereotypes Threaten

Intellectual Performance."22. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue"; Clint C. Wilson II and Felix

Gutierrez, Race, Multicutturatism, iind the Media: From Mass to ClassConnintnication, 2d ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995).

23. Lawrence Bowen and Jill Schmid, "Minority Presence and Por-trayal in Mainstream Magazine Advertising: An Update," journalism &Mass Communication Quarterly 74 (spring 1997): 134-46; Scott Coltraneand Melinda Messineo, "The Perpetuation of Subtle Prejudice: Race and

THL PORJRAYAl OF ASIAN AMI'RICANS 669

670

Gender Imagery in 1990s Television Advertising," Sex Rotes 42 (March2000): 363-89.

24. Mariko Morimoto and Carrie La Ferle, "Representation of AsianAmericans in Magazine Advertisements," in Proceedings of the Conferenceof the American Acadetny of Advertising, ed. Avery M. Abernethy (AuburnAL: AAA, 2002): 138-47; Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue"; Taylor, Lee, andStern, "Portrayals of African, Hispanic, and Asian Americans"; Taylorand Stern, "Asian Americans."

25. Morimoto and La Ferie, "Representation of Asian Americans";Taylor and Lee, "Not In Vogue"; Taylor, Lee, and Stern, "Portrayals ofAfrican, Hispanic, and Asian Americans."

26. Morimoto and La Ferle, "Representation of Asian Americans";Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue"; Taylor and Stern, "Asian Americans."

27. Taylor, Lee, and Stern, "Portrayals of African, Hispanic, and AsianAmericans."

28. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue"; Taylor, Lee, and Stern, "Portrayalsof African, Hispanic, and Asian Americans"; Taylor and Stern, "AsianAmericans."

29. Morimoto and La Ferle, "Representation of Asian Americans";Taylor and Stern, "Asian Americans."

30. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."31. Taylor and Stern, "Asian Americans."32. Bowen and Schmid, "Minority Presence and Portraval."33. Robert E. Wilkes and Humberto Valencia, "Hispanics and Blacks in

Television Commercials," Journal of Advertising 18 (spring 1989): 19-25.34. Juila M. Bristor, Renee Gravois Lee, and Michelle R. Hunt, "Race

and Ideology: African American Images in Television Advertising,"journal ofPtihlic Policy and Marketing 14 (spring 1995): 48-60.

35. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."36. Creig R. Endicott, "The Advertising Age 300," Advertising Age, 23

September 2002, S2-S10; R. R. Bower Company, lllrich's PeriodicalsDirectory (New Providence, NJ: R.R. Bowker, 2001).

37. Publications after September 2001 were deliberately avoidedbecause 9/11 might have influenced the sample to be unrepresentative.

38. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."39. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."40. Taylor and Lee's 1994 study used the terms, major, minor, and back-

ground instead.41. Harold H. Kassarjian, "The Negro and American Advertising 1946-

1965." Journal of Marketing Research 6 (February 1969): 29-39.42. The authors acknowledge the difficulty and potential confounding

that could occur when coding race, caused by the growing multi-racialpopulation. One comfort, however, can be found in the fact that this studyachieved acceptable inter-coder reliability with respect to the race vari-able: Scott's PIS were .91, .89, .74, and .92 for the presence of whites,African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans, respectively. Theauthors believe that with respect to the potential impact of stereotypicalportrayals of minorities in the media, how the minority member is "per-ceived" by an average person is more important than his/her actual

/OUfiW/li.ISM & M.l^.S CllMMUNIC.ITfO.V QUARTFRIY

genetic race. This is based on the authors' stance that as far as the discus-sion of media effects is concerned, race is more of a social constructionthan biology.

43. Barns and Bennett, The Asian Population: 2000: Census 2000 Brief44. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."45. Morimoto and La Ferle, "Representation of Asian Americans."46. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."47. Morimoto and La Ferle, "Representation of Asian Americans";

Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."48. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."49. Mary Jane Schlinger and Joseph T. Plummer, "Advertising in Black

and White," Journal of Marketing Research 9 (May 1972): 149-53; Tommy E.Whittler, "The Effects of Actors' Race in Commercial Advertising: Reviewand Extension," journal of Advertising 20 (spring 1991): 54-60.

50. Betsy Guzman, The Hispanic Population: Cettsus 2000 Bn't'/" (Wash-ington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 2001), available at , retrieved 1 May 2004.

51. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."52. Taylor and Stern, "Asian Americans."53. Mok, "Getting the Message"; Taylor and Stern, "Asian Americans."54. Taylor and Lee, "Not in Vogue."

Till PoKiKAYA! in ASIAN AMERICANS 6/1