How Television Shapes Our Worldview

Media Representations of Social Trends and Change

Contributions by Stylés I. Akira, Lane Clegg, Cindy Conaway, Katherine A. Foss, Charity Fox, Carrie Packwood Freeman, Jennifer Ellen Good, Robert D. Gratz, Chandler Harris, Tim Karis, Katherine J. Lehman, Lauren Lemley, Joy Chavez Mapaye, Gretta Moody, Michelle Napierski-Prancl, Ariadne Alejandra Gonzalez, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Leighton C. Peterson, Ji Yoon Ru, Danielle E. Williams, Susan H. Sarapin, Glenn G. Sparks, Margaret Tally, Deborah A. Macey, Kathleen M. Ryan, Noah J. Springer, Jack A. Barwind, Philip J. Salem, Edward A. Janak Edited by Deborah A. Macey, Kathleen M. Ryan, Noah J. Springer

Not available to order

Publication date:

15 May 2014

Length of book:

462 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739187050

Over the last half of the twentieth century, television has become the predominant medium through which the public accesses information about the world. Through the news, situation comedies, police dramas, and commercials, we learn about the world around us, and our role within it. These genres, narratives, and cultural forms are not simply entertainment, but powerful socializing agents that show the world as we might never see it in real life. How Television Shapes Our Worldview brings together a diverse set of scholars, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks to interrogate the ways through which television molds our vision of the outside world. The essays include advertising and public relations analyses, audience interviews, and case studies that touch on genres ranging from science fiction in the 1970s to current “reality” television. Television truly provides a powerful influence over how we learn about the world around us and understand its social processes.

1. Introduction
Deborah A. Macey, Kathleen M. Ryan and Noah J. Springer

Section I: Not Necessarily the News
2. A Bigger Screen for a Narrower View
Jack A. Barwind, Philip J. Salem, and Robert D. Gratz
3. Measuring the Messenger: Analyzing Bias in Presidential Election Return Coverage
Kahtleen M. Ryan, Lane Clegg, and Joy C. Mapaye
4. Television, Islam, and the Invisible: Narratives on Terrorism and Immigration
Tim Karis

Section II: Boy (and Girl) Meets World
5. “Your Dreams Were Your Ticket Out:” How Mass Media’s Teachers Constructed One Educator’s Identity
Edward A. Janak
6. Defying Gravity: Fox’s Glee Provides a Forum for Queer Teen Representation
Katherine J. Lehman
7. Friendship and the Single Girl: What We Learned about Feminism and Friendship from Sitcom Women in the 1960s and 1970s
Cindy Conaway and Peggy Tally

Section III: America’s Most Wanted
8. Epic Failures: Media Framing and the Ethics of Scapegoating in Baseball
Chandler Harris and Lauren Lemley
9. Eyewitnesses to TV Versions of Reality: The Relationship between Exposure to TV Crime Dramas and Perceptions of the Criminal Justice System
Susan H. Sarapin and Glenn G. Sparks
10. Paramilitary Patriots of the Cold War: Women, Weapons, and Private Warriors in The A-Team and Airwolf
Charity Fox

Section IV: The More You Know
11. Lisa and Phoebe, Lone Vegetarian Icons: At Odds with Television’s Carnonormativity
Carrie Packwood Freeman
12. Television and the Environment: More Screen–Less Green
Jennifer Ellen Good
13. From Welby to McDreamy: What TV Teaches Us About Doctors, Patients, and the Health Care System
Katherine A. Foss

Section V: The Voice
14. Made Impossible by Viewers Like You: The Politics and Poetics of Native American Voices in US Public Television
Leighton C. Peterson
15. “Real” Black, “Real” Money: African American Audiences on The Real Housewives of Atlanta
Gretta Moody
16 . He Who has the Gold Makes the Rules: Tyler Perry Presents “The Tyler Perry Way”Danielle E. Williams
17. Viewing 90210 from 12203: Affluent TV Teens Influence a Cohort of Middle Class Women
Michelle Napierski-Prancl

Section VI: Futurama
18. The Construction of Taste: Television and American Home Décor
Stylés I. Akira and Larry Ossei-Mensah
19. Bordertown: Manufacturing Mexicanness in Reality Television
Ariadne Alejandra Gonzalez
20. Cyborgs in the Newsroom: Databases, Cynicism and Political Irony in The Daily Show
Noah J. Springer

Macey, Ryan, and Springer have compiled essays that examine how television has molded visions of the outside world since the mid-20th century. Since its emergence as a popular form of mass communication, television has served as a primary means of information and cultural storytelling. Through the medium, in all its various genres, narratives, and cultural programs—news, sit coms, police dramas, reality shows—viewers learn about a world they might never see in real life. Pointing to the increasingly fragmented television landscape, the editors organized the essays—all by media scholars—into six main sections: 'Not Necessarily the News,' which considers current affairs; 'Boy (and Girl) Meets World,' the intersection of television with individual lives and social trends; 'America's Most Wanted,' television’s role in perpetuating good and evil; 'The More You Know,' television’s role in social change; 'The Voice,' power and authenticity; and 'Futurama,' which offers a glance at the future. The essays analyze a wide range of shows—Glee, That Girl, Rhoda, Friends, House M.D., M*A*S*H, Welcome Back, Kotter; the numerous theoretical frameworks and methodologies presented suggests that the audience is specialists. The book is a good read. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.