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TALK TIME Rebecca Nagy
| Date post: | 16-Feb-2017 |
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TALK TIMERebecca Nagy
Question
Is there a difference in talk time among male and female
characters in popular television shows?
Does the sex of the person who created the show or
directed that episode have a correlation with talk time?
Background Information Honeycutt, Welman and Larson
“Beneath family role portrayals: An additional measure of communication influence using time series analyses of turn at talk on a popular television program” The Cosby Show, average number of words per instance of talk
Cliff (Bill Cosby) had 3.27 words per turn of talk- more than the women characters in the show
Thompson and Zerbino “Gender Roles in Animated Cartoons: Has the Picture
Changed in 20 Years? Male and gender neutral characters had more talk time than
female characters
Methods Watched 2 episodes of 4 different
television shows Recorded talk time for each character in
seconds Similar length, format
30 minute sitcoms on network television that are airing now.
Two shows created by a woman The Mindy Project and New Girl
Two created by a man. Modern Family and Brooklyn 99
Data/Findings
Example of raw data
New Girl Created by a female
Elizabeth Merriwether Episodes watched
“Re-Launch” Directed by Steve Pink and written by Kay
Cannon “Katie”
Directed by Steve Pink and written by Elizabeth Merriwether
“Re-Launch”
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350Talk Time (seconds)
Nick Jess Schmidt Winston Cece
“Katie”
10
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Talk Time (seconds)
Schmidt Jess Winston Nick Cece
The Mindy Project Created by Mindy Kaling “Weiner Night”
Directed by Michael Weaver and written by Jack Burditt
“Sk8r Man” Directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller
“Wiener Night”
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Talk Time (seconds)
Mindy Danny Jeremy Morgan Peter Cliff Jason
Sk8r Man
10
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Talk Time (seconds)
Mindy Graham Danny Jeremy Peter Morgan Beverly
Modern Family Created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven
Levitan “The Help”
Directed by Jim Hensz and written by Danny Zuker
“The Late Show” Directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller and
written by Abraham Higgenbotham
“The Late Show”
10
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Talk Time (seconds)
Jay Mitch Phil Haley Luke Claire Alex Cam Lilly Manny Gloria
“The Help”
10
20
40
60
80
100
120
Chart Title
Jay Gloria Manny Cam Mitchell Phil Haley Claire Alex Luke
Brooklyn 99 Created by Dan Goor and Michael Schur “Halloween”
Directed by Dean Holland and written by Lesley Arfin
“48 Hours” Directed by Peter Lauer and written by Luke
Del Tredici
“Halloween”
10
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Talk Time (seconds)
Amy Jake Rosa Terry Ray Gina
“48 Hours”
10
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Talk Time (seconds)
Jake Ray Rosa Terry Amy Gina
Conclusion Most director/writer/creator ratio of men
to women was equal Found that women have more talk time
in shows created by women in this study BUT
The main character of the shows chosen were female
They have more screen time, more talk time
SO… It’s all contextual! Characters with peronality traits
associated with talking more had more talk time Schmidt is very into himself and talk more Winston is more laid-back, reserved, less
talk time Andy Samberg is the most well-known
person on his show, most screen time, most talk time
Follow up Compare talk time with screen time
Would control for whether a characters was major/minor
Compare talk time with instances of talk
