Differences in how Males and Females Process Television Advertisements

Throughout the semester we have discussed the differences between males and females across a variety of topics. One of the many topics this idea has applied to is the topic of the media. We have discussed how the media influences adolescence, and how this differs among gender. A study done for the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media titled, "Adolescent Evaluation of Gender Role and Sexual Imagery in Television Advertisements" yields some interesting finds.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/s15506878jobem4703_7

This study's participants were 227 males and 158 males aged 13-16 from selected public schools. Students were offered anything from 6$-10$ to participate. The most interesting idea that I gained from the study was the result analyzing the fifth hypothesis of the experiment: The more traditional gendered and sexist beer ads, with and without sports content in them, will elicit more counterarguments compared to other ads, from females than males. The results stated that, in response to hypothesis five, "more overall counterarguments resulted if the ads presented traditional gender roles, higher sexist or sexual imagery, and were targeted to males, compared to ads with less traditional gender roles, and low sexism or sexual content." This result may seem expected and appropriate, however, what can we make of this in terms of how the media influences gender roles? Does this mean that the media influences females more than males in regards to gender roles, or vice versa? I am interested to see what you think.