Keywords

African American churches -- Florida, Blacks -- Race identity -- Florida, House of Payne (Television program), Meet the Browns (Television program), Perry, Tyler

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of Tyler Perry‟s House of Payne and Meet the Browns on black viewers‟ racial identity, based on a survey of 145 members of four predominantly African American churches in the Central Florida area. Mirroring Allen, Dawson, and Brown‟s (1989) model of an African American racial belief system, this study proposed that both shows would positively influence three dimensions of the black identity including closeness to blacks, black separatism, and the belief in positive stereotypes about blacks, while negatively influencing the dimension that emphasizes negative stereotypes about blacks. Socioeconomic status and religiosity were also hypothesized to predict exposure to both shows. The results show that while House of Payne positively influenced two dimensions of the black identity including closeness to blacks and the belief in positive stereotypes about blacks, Meet the Browns did not have a statistically significant relationship with any of the dimensions of the black identity. Additionally, results showed mixed support for the relationship between socioeconomic status, religiosity, and show exposure. While education had a negative relationship with exposure to both House of Payne and Meet the Browns, the income variable revealed no significant results with either show. Lastly, religiosity was shown to be a significant predictor of exposure to House of Payne, but not Meet the Browns. The findings suggest that Perry‟s shows may be considered by viewers as more beneficial than harmful to viewers to their racial identity and experience, which contradicts the critiques of his images as reverberating with negative stereotypical images of the past. Findings also suggest the importance of education and religion to black socialization patterns.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2011

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Musambira, George

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Nicholson School of Communication

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003957

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003957

Language

English

Release Date

July 2014

Length of Campus-only Access

3 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences, Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic

Download

Included in

Communication Commons

Share

COinS