Carol J. Pardun

Sexy Media Matter: Exposure to Sexual Content in Music, Movies, Television, and Magazines Predicts Black and White Adolescents' Sexual Behavior

OBJECTIVE. To assess over time whether exposure to sexual content in 4 mass media (television, movies, music, and magazines) used by early adolescents predicts sexual behavior in middle adolescence. METHODS. An in-home longitudinal survey of 1017 black and white adolescents from 14 middle schools in central North Carolina was conducted. Each teen was interviewed at baseline when he or she was 12 to 14 years old and again 2 years later using a computer-assisted self interview (audio computer-assisted self-interview) to ensure confidentiality. A new measure of each teen’s sexual media diet (SMD) was constructed by weighting the frequency of use of 4 media by the frequency of sexual content in each television show, movie, music album, and magazine the teen used regularly. RESULTS. White adolescents in the top quintile of sexual media diet when 12 to 14 years old were 2.2 times more likely to have had sexual intercourse when 14 to 16 years old than those who were in the lowest SMD quintile, even after a number of other relevant factors, including baseline sexual behavior, were introduced. The relationship was not statistically significant for black adolescents after controlling for other factors that were more predictive, including parental disapproval of teen sex and perceived permissive peer sexual norms. CONCLUSIONS. Exposure to sexual content in music, movies, television, and magazines accelerates white adolescents’ sexual activity and increases their risk of engaging in early sexual intercourse. Black teens appear more influenced by perceptions of their parents’ expectations and their friends’ sexual behavior than by what they see and hear in the media.

Product placements as public relations: an exploratory study of the role of the public relations firm

Abstract This article reports the results of a survey of 106 public relations firms concerning their level of involvement with product placements as part of their public relations strategies. The findings of this research suggest that public relations practitioners are active players in choosing whether to use product placements to enhance a client’s product or service. Results also indicate that practitioners are more knowledgeable about product placements than previously believed and that they are more enthusiastic about the future of product placements than their advertising counterparts. Carol J. Pardun is an assistant professor of public relations and advertising at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Kathy Brittain McKee is an associate professor of journalism at Berry College in Rome, Georgia.

Strange Bedfellows Symbols of Religion and Sexuality on MTV

This study used content analysis to examine the use of religious and sexual imagery in rock music videos to determine how frequently such images were used and how frequently they were combined within the same video. A total of 160 videos were analyzed for presence or absence of religious or sexual imagery. The results of this study argue that religious imagery is present in videos in significant, nonrandom fashion. In addition, the study contends that religious images were more likely to occur with sexual imagery than without them.

Corporate Web sites in traditional print advertisements

This study attempts to better understand how marketers are creating bridges between traditional advertising and the Internet. As such, it describes the Web presence in print advertisement. A content analysis of 1,249 ads in 20 magazines found: 42 percent included Web addresses; Business Week ads were most likely to include Web addresses; 98 percent of print advertisements for autos included Web addresses, while office equipment advertisements (including computer ads) included Web addresses only 10 percent of the time; and that 68 percent of Web sites were used to develop a database of potential customers.

Accessing Adolescents A School-Recruited, Home-Based Approach to Conducting Media and Health Research

This article describes a protocol that was effective in collecting media-use pattern and sensitive health data from young adolescents. Students from three public school districts in the southeastern United States were recruited to participate in a study of the impact of the media on adolescents’ sexual health. Using a 34-page mailed survey, extensive media-use pattern data were gathered from 3,261 7th and 8th graders (a 65% response rate) after students were recruited in schools and parents mailed back consent forms. The media sample included responses from a large number of Black teens and males, sub-groups that have been understudied in media research. A subsample of students who completed the media questionnaire was then recruited to participate in a 45-minute audio computer-assisted self-interview in-home health and sexuality interview. A random sample of 1,074 adolescents (a 90% response rate), stratified into equal Black and White male and female strata, completed the health survey. Both the media and the health samples were representative of the entire school population from which the samples were drawn. Strategies that were effective in recruiting respondents are discussed.

Reading the Video: A Qualitative Study of Religious Images in Music Videos

Seven focus groups were conducted with first‐year college students to better understand how viewers “read” religious imagery within secular videos. The exploratory study revealed that while the students recalled the images and identified them using traditional terms, their interpretations of the symbols often went beyond a limited overt reading. For many respondents, the lyrics did not enhance—and in some cases detracted from—the understanding of the video gained through viewing the visual images.