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between them as a first step to understand media portrayal in relation to knowledge and
attitudes toward sex and pornographic materials.
In the following paragraphs, we will first review the existing literature on sex,
pornography and media in general and present a picture of the Chinese landscape in those
aspects, with subsequent hypotheses and research questions posed.
Sex and media
The effects of sexual content on media consumers have been a fertile field for
research. Before the twentieth century, sexual portrayal in print already evoked both
concern and censorship even in countries such as United States, where freedom of speech
is constitutionally guaranteed (Stern & Handel, 2001). It is interesting to note that all
media technologies, from print to the Internet, have been used for sexual purposes
(Noonam, 1998). In fact, in almost all forms of media, studies have indicated one effect
or another. Concerns have been raised about sexual content, images, innuendos and their
effects in advertising (Lin, 1997; Harris, 1989; Reichert, Lambiase, Morgan, Cartarphen,
& Zavoina, 1999); in movies (Forman, 1933; Abramson & Mechanic, 1983; Greenberg,
Siemki et. al, 1993; Palys, 1986); in radio (Samoriski, Huffman, & Trauth, 1995); in
popular music (Tirro, 1977; Brown & Hendee, 1989), music videos (Berry, 1994; Jones,
1997); and even in telephones (McCarthy, 1993; Cline, 1994). In particular, there has
been a lot more attention focused on television because of its high levels of viewership.
Research on the sexual content of primetime television such as soap operas (Buerkel-
Rothfuss & Mayes, 1981; Buerkel-Rothfuss & Strouse, 1993) showed that watching
television laden with sexual activity and innuendos is associated with increase of sexual
Convention