TV Characters at Work

Abstract

Television regularly depicts work-related activities of fictional characters and is one of several important sources of occupational information for young people. However, no research appears to have examined the influence of televised occupational portrayals on economically disadvantaged youths, although television may be an especially important source of work-related information for this group. In telephone interviews, 132 economically disadvantaged young people named their favorite television character and the character’s job and rated their perceptions of this career and their wishful identification with the character. They also identified the job they would most like to have. Results show that the income and education levels of respondents’dream jobs are positively correlated with these attributes of the characters’ jobs. Wishful identification is higher for characters whose jobs had higher income, required more education, were seen as more realistic, and were perceived as having greater extrinsic values (e.g., benefits, respect).

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