Survey Results on Movie Industry and Concluding Thoughts

Survey Questions:
Please Circle
Male Female

Answer YES, NO, OR N/A
1) Do you think minorities are accurately portrayed in movies?
2) Do you believe movies favor the idea of white supremacy?
3) Is homosexuality accurately portrayed in movies?
4) Does watching sex scenes in a movie, influence you to have sex?
5) Do you like seeing homosexual behavior in movies?
6) Does watching movies make you feel critical about your self-image?
7) Have you ever seen male abuse in movies?
8) Have you ever identified yourself with a movie character?
9) Have you ever changed your personal beliefs because of a movie?
10) Do you believe movies are racist?

RESULTS

Male:10
Female: 11
Age Range 15-18

Male Responses/Female Responses
1) 2 yes 6 no 2 n/a 1) 3 yes 6 no 2 n/a
2) 6 yes 3 no 1 n/a 2) 9 yes 1 no 1 n/a
3) 3 yes 6 no 1 n/a 3) 3 yes 8 no 0 n/a
4) 7 yes 3 no 0 n/a 4) 2 yes 5 no 4 n/a
5) 3 yes 4 no 3 n/a 5) 2 yes 7 no 3 n/a
6) 3 yes 5 no 2 n/a 6) 6 yes 4 no 1 n/a
7) 8 yes 1 no 1 n/a 7) 9 yes 1 no 1 n/a
8) 5 yes 5 no 0 n/a 8) 6 yes 4 no 1 n/a
9) 1 yes 7 no 2 n/a 9) 3 yes 7 no 1 n/a
10)4 yes 3 no 3 n/a 10)4 yes 5 no 2 n/a

Findings: This survey was taken at at a local high school in Fullerton. The students were asked to be anonymous and to fold their survey in half when it was completed. I wanted to do younger teens for this survey because my research primarily focused on those age groups. This age group is saturated in the media, and it is who marketing is targeting. This groups watches a lot of television, sine many do not have jobs, so when they come home from school they watch movies on TV. I was interested to see how movies have impacted the life of teenagers over time, and so the questions that I asked seem to surprise them. 12 out of 21 students felt minorities are not equally represented in movies, only 4students felt unsure about this. To my amazement 5 girls said that after watching sex scenes from movies, felt influenced to to this as opposed to 4 girls who avoided the question, and males answered either yes or no. 14 students total felt homosexuality was not being accurately portrayed, but 11 also said they did not like seeing homosexual behavior in movies. These results prove the research study by Jenkins because these students are uncomfortable to incorporate authentic lesbianism on screen. In conclusion, I feel movies have made a huge impact in the lives of many teenagers,and as how this survey proved it, 14 students said movies have not changed their personal beliefs, but then again 14 students said that watching movies have made them feel critical of their self-image, just shows the many uncovered sides of popular culture and its many effects.
[Amarilis Ambriz]