Nonverbal cues of dominance on American and Canadian television

Abstract

The goal of this thesis was to focus on the nonverbal behavior of male and female characters on prime time television. After researching the ratings of prime time television dramas it was discovered that American produced prime time dramas were much more popular than Canadian produced shows. The focus of the research was to explore how dominace and submission could be characterized on television to project sterotypical images of dominant males and submissive females. This stereotypical project??on reinforced a cultural myth of male dominant behavior in North American society. Two avenues of research were explored. The first involved a context analysis of the nonverbal behavior of four American produced shows and three Canadian produced shows. The context analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the presentation of nonverbal behavior in American and Canadian dramas. The context analysis also revealed that while there was a tendancy for male characters to display dominant behavior and for female characters to display submissive behavior, there was little statistical support for these differences in frequencies of behavior. The second area of focus was one not originally intended but which proved very important. A content analysis of American produced dramas and Canadian produced dramas revealed major differences in story line and character presentation. These differences were explained by reference to the historical theory of national development in Canada. The preference of Canadian audiences for American television was explained by reference to dependency theory which claims that Canadians have been more or less assimilated into American culture.