Effects of Ethnic Identification on Web Browsers’ Attitudes toward and Navigational Patterns on Race-Targeted Sites

Contrary to research that suggests Blacks can only be reached effectively with Black-oriented media, this research demonstrates that there appears to be a subset of the Black population that can be reached equally well with White targeted media as they can with Black-targeted media. The study findings confirm expectations that Blacks’ differential responses to race-targeted Web sites are mediated by their level of ethnic identification. Blacks with strong ethnic identities spent more time browsing a site and viewing each story when the site was targeted to Blacks than Whites. Blacks with strong ethnic identities also rated the site and the stories more favorably when browsing the Black-targeted site compared to the White-targeted site. In contrast, Blacks with weak ethnic identities displayed no difference in their browsing time on the sites and stories or their rating of the sites and stories based on the racial target of the Internet site.

[1]  Osei Appiah.  Black and White Viewers' Perception and Recall of Occupational Characters on Television , 2002 .

[2]  Marye Tharp.  Marketing and Consumer Identity in Multicultural America , 2001 .

[3]  Rohit Deshpandé,et al.  Social Dimensions of Consumer Distinctiveness: The Influence of Social Status on Group Identity and Advertising Persuasion , 2001 .

[4]  R. Goldsmith,et al.  Values of middle-class blacks and whites: A replication and extension† , 1987 .

[5]  T. Brock,et al.  COMMUNICATOR-RECIPIENT SIMILARITY AND DECISION CHANGE. , 1965, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  Marlene L. Rossman.  Multicultural Marketing: Selling to a Diverse America , 1994 .

[7]  J. Dates.  Race, racial attitudes and adolescent perceptions of black television characters , 1980 .

[8]  Tommy E. Whittler.  The Effects of Actors' Race in Commercial Advertising: Review and Extension , 1991 .

[9]  William J. Qualls,et al.  Stereotyping effects on consumers' evaluation of advertising: Impact of racial differences between actors and viewers , 1990 .

[10]  Naveen Donthu,et al.  The Intensity of Ethnic Affiliation: A Study of the Sociology of Hispanic Consumption , 1986 .

[11]  Michael Rosenberg,et al.  Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising, Second Edition , 1997 .

[12]  H. L. Williams,et al.  Transition from East to West: Vietnamese adolescents and their parents. , 1989, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[13]  J. Dovidio,et al.  Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism , 1986 .

[14]  Herman Aguinis,et al.  Methodological Artifacts in Moderated Multiple Regression and Their Effects on Statistical Power , 1997 .

[15]  Cynthia M. Webster.  Effects of Hispanic Ethnic Identification on Marital Roles in the Purchase Decision Process , 1994 .

[16]  Anne M. Brumbaugh,et al.  Nontarget Markets and Viewer Distinctiveness: The Impact of Target Marketing on Advertising Attitudes , 2000 .

[17]  L. R. Huesmann,et al.  Mitigating the imitation of aggressive behaviors by changing children's attitudes about media violence. , 1983, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[18]  S. Sundar,et al.  Multimedia Effects on Processing and Perception of Online News: A Study of Picture, Audio, and Video Downloads , 2000 .

[19]  R. Deshpandé,et al.  What We See Makes Us who We are: Priming Ethnic Self-Awareness and Advertising Response , 2001 .

[20]  Differences in Media Buying by Online Businesses in Black- and White-Targeted Magazines: The Potential Impact of the Digital Divide on Ad Placement , 2002 .

[21]  Tommy E. Whittler.  Viewers' processing of Actor's race and message claims in advertising stimuli , 1989 .

[22]  Donna L. Hoffman,et al.  Bridging the Digital Divide: The Impact of Race on Computer Access and Internet Use. , 1998 .

[23]  A. Woodside,et al.  Personal Values and Consumer Psychology , 1984 .

[24]  R. D. O'keefe,et al.  Black and white response to culturally targeted television commercials: A values-based approach , 1989 .

[25]  Corliss L. Green.  Ethnic Evaluations of Advertising: Interaction Effects of Strength of Ethnic Identification, Media Placement, and Degree of Racial Composition , 1999 .

[26]  Lawrence Feick,et al.  The Effects of Preference Heterogeneity and Source Characteristics on Ad Processing and Judgements about Endorsers , 1992 .

[27]  H. Kelman.  PROCESSES OF OPINION CHANGE , 1961 .

[28]  Robert A. Zucker,et al.  Personality and the Prediction of Behavior , 1984 .

[29]  William Allen,et al.  The influence of source credibility on communication effectiveness , 1953 .

[30]  Susan A. Basow,et al.  Role-Model Influence: Effects of Sex and Sex-Role Attitude in College Students , 1980 .

[31]  Lewis M. Killian,et al.  The Black Anglo-Saxons. , 1966 .

[32]  J. B. Mcconahay,et al.  Modern racism, ambivalence, and the Modern Racism Scale. , 1986 .

[33]  Ronald E. Rice,et al.  The use of computer-monitored data in information science and communication research , 1983, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[34]  Y. Ying,et al.  The development of ethnic identity in Asian-American adolescents: status and outcome. , 1999, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[35]  Frank H. P. Fitzek,et al.  The Medium is the Message , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Conference on Communications.

[36]  W. Mcguire,et al.  Salience of ethnicity in the spontaneous self-concept as a function of one's ethnic distinctiveness in the social environment. , 1978, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[37]  James S. Ettema,et al.  Explaining Information System Use with System-Monitored vs. Self-Reported Use Measures , 1985 .

[38]  G. Berry,et al.  Television and the socialization of the minority child , 1982 .

[39]  Rohit Deshpandé,et al.  A Tale of Two Cities: Distinctiveness Theory and Advertising Effectiveness , 1994 .

[40]  Anne M. Brumbaugh.  Source and Nonsource Cues in Advertising and Their Effects on the Activation of Cultural and Subcultural Knowledge on the Route to Persuasion , 2002 .

[41]  Plastizität im somatosensorischen System , 2001 .

[42]  J. Dovidio,et al.  The aversive form of racism. , 1986 .

[43]  Anne M. Brumbaugh,et al.  Noticing Cultural Differences: Ad Meanings Created by Target and Non-Target Markets , 1999 .

[44]  Tommy E. Whittler,et al.  Model's Race: A Peripheral Cue in Advertising Messages? , 2002 .

[45]  Elizabeth C. Hirschman,et al.  American Jewish Ethnicity: Its Relationship to Some Selected Aspects of Consumer Behavior , 1981 .

[46]  Marilyn Kern-Foxworth,et al.  Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus: Blacks in Advertising, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow , 1994 .

[47]  Jennings Bryant,et al.  Perspectives on Media Effects , 1986 .

[48]  Osei Appiah,et al.  Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian American Adolescents' Responses to Culturally Embedded Ads , 2001 .

[49]  Osei Appiah.  Ethnic Identification on Adolescents' Evaluations of Advertisements , 2001, Journal of Advertising Research.

[50]  Naveen Donthu,et al.  Hispanic coupon usage: The impact of strong and weak ethnic identification , 1992 .

[51]  E. Burnstein,et al.  Similarity to a model and self-evaluation. , 1961, Journal of abnormal and social psychology.

[52]  J. Hair,et al.  Consumers’ Level of Prejudice and Response to Black Models in Advertisements , 1979 .

[53]  S. Sue,et al.  Working with Asian Americans : a guide for clinicians , 1997 .

[54]  Larry E. Toothaker,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions , 1991 .

[55]  Charles K. Atkin,et al.  Learning about Minorities from Television: The Research Agenda. , 1978 .

[56]  William P. Eveland,et al.  Users and navigation patterns of a science World Wide Web site for the public , 1998 .

[57]  D. Rosenthal,et al.  Ethnicity and Ethnic Identity: A Comparative Study of Greek-, Italian-, and Anglo-Australian Adolescents , 1985 .