Victor C. Strasburger and Barbara Jan Wilson. Children,Adolescents, & the Media. Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage, 2002, 560 pp., ISBN 9780761921257 (paperback)

Recent research shows parents manifest parental third-person perceptions on behalf of their children; that is, they believe their children are less affected by media sex and violence than other children. This study (N = 171) found parental third-person perceptions for materialism effects of television and parental first-person perceptions for advanced educational effects of public television. Perceptions of materialism effects on one's own and other children predicted parental mediation, whereas perceptions of education effects predicted support for regulations requiring more educational television.     

Navigating the Maze: Sources for press historians

Television history channels and programming have seen considerable growth in recent years, yet empirical research on television history audiences remains limited. This essay argues that media history scholars need better to understand what happens when audiences consume television history, examining the critical debates concerning the genre's specific modalities of rendering the past on screen before exploring what opportunities and problems it affords viewers. The essay draws on original qualitative, empirical research on audiences of historical reality television through a specific, small-scale case study of BBC Wales' Coal House at War (Indus 2008). It argues for the need to retain a dual focus upon such programming's historical content and its televisuality if we are to appreciate the intricacies of viewers' cultural consumption. The essay concludes by demonstrating that audiences' own oral and written responses to television history reveal something of how people, situated in their specific times and places, understand both their past and their present.     

Law & Disorder: The Portrayal of Mental Illness in U.S. Crime Dramas

A quantitative content analysis examined stereotypes and counter-stereotypes concerning mental illness in crime-based fictional television programs aired on U.S. television between 2010 and 2013. Coders rated 65 randomly selected television episodes and 983 characters for stereotypes and counter-stereotypes related to mental illness. Characters labeled as having mental illness demonstrated greater likelihood of committing crimes and violence than the remaining population of characters, perpetuating stereotypes. They also stood greater chance of being victimized by crime, another stereotype. Nevertheless, counter-stereotypes related to social standing (including the presence of family and friends) also emerged in the television content. The authors discuss how stereotypes in television content might contribute to the stigmatization of mental illness.     

Prosocial effects of entertainment television in India

The study examines the prosocial effects of Hum Log (We People), India's first long‐running television soap opera. Hum Log was a prosocial television programme that was designed to promote women's status in Indian society. Regression analysis was used to measure the degree to which exposure to Hum Log affected viewers' (1) awareness of certain prosocial beliefs promoted by the series, (2) level of television dependency, (3) involvement with the characters of Hum Log, and (4) adherence to three prosocial beliefs promoted by Hum Log. Exposure to Hum Log was positively associated with viewers' awareness of the programme's prosocial messages, television dependency, and involvement with television characters in the series. Viewers who were more exposed to Hum Log were also more likely to believe in women's equality and women's freedom of choice, but not in family planning. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of present and future research on the use of prosocial television programmes for development in Asia.     

Forum: Canonical correlation: Response to Wimmer

Although there has been concern about sex and violence on television since the 1950s, little is known about the determinants of public opinion concerning the regulatory response to “inappropriate” television content. Here the Annenberg National Health Communication Survey (ANHCS) is used to predict support for fining television stations for violent and sexual content from a set of precursor demographic, attitudinal, political affiliation, and television exposure variables. The results show that support for fining television stations is primarily a result of the beliefs that sex and violence on television causes sex and violence in teenagers.     

The Office was asking for it: “that’s what she said” as a joke cycle that perpetuates rape culture

In this essay, we argue that the popular joke, “that’s what she said” is a symbolic representation of rape that contributes to and insulates rape culture. Drawing on Joseph Boskin’s notion of the “joke cycle” and extant literature on rape culture and misogynistic humor, we critique several instances of the joke on the popular television series The Office. From there, we extend our critique of the joke cycle, noting the conspicuous absence of concern over the joke and its implications in other scholarly treatments of the program. Our primary contention is that the joke cycle, which may be the most prominent cycle in recent decades, reinscribes rape culture by normalizing discourses that dismiss and silence rape victims, justify violence against women, and even blame victims for having been assaulted. “That’s what she said” avoids the critical eye because it disguises itself as a joke like any other.     

Surviving Survivor: A Content Analysis of Antisocial Behavior and Its Context in a Popular Reality Television Show

The scope and nature of reality television has changed since researchers last conducted a content analysis of the antisocial behavior for this type of programming. This study examines the content of seven seasons of Survivor, one of America's longest running reality television programs, to determine the types, frequency, and context of antisocial behavior presented in the series as well as the possible effects of the program on longtime viewers using social learning and cultivation theories. In the 76.4 hours of programming analyzed for this study, 4,207 antisocial acts were documented in the coding database. Indirect aggression and verbal aggression were found to be the most frequently occurring types of antisocial behavior. The number (4,207) and the rate (45.7 acts per hour) of antisocial acts in the seven seasons of Survivor analyzed in this study is higher than the findings of a previous study of antisocial behavior in reality-based television conducted in 1997. This study clearly demonstrates that longtime viewers of Survivor get a higher dose of antisocial behavior than did regular viewers of news programming and other reality-based programs that aired slightly more than 10 years ago.     

Some effects of voice quality on retention

All radio and television stations in some way use the human voice as a major communications tool in their programming and their programs and advertising messages. Although some research into this instrument was conducted, particularly in the late 1920s and 1930s, research into the qualities and effects of broadcast voices recently has been infrequent.

Ken Hadwiger earned the M.A. from the University of Iowa and the Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. A former member of the faculty at Wichita State University, he presently is Director of Mass Communications at Eastern Illinois University. Dr. Hadwiger has logged eight years of professional radio and television announcing and directing experience.     

Background and training of television directors employed at small local stations

Traditional analyses have treated TV violence as a homogenous entity disregarding the nature and context of the violent acts. A new coding scheme was designed to examine the amount of violence portrayed on TV; the degree to which it is obtrusive; and the messages it conveys. The final, 37 item coding scheme is sensitive to features of televised messages whether in fiction, or in non‐fiction. It included contextual themes concerning intensity (seriousness, realism, way of dramatization), and attractiveness (justification, glamorization, efficacy) of TV violence. The coding scheme was applied to an analysis of a program sample which consisted of all genres (N = 259) presented on Finnish network television during one week. The analysis showed that television violence does not exist as a homogenous entity, since portrayals of violence vary in amount, intensity, and attractiveness.     

Ellen,Television, and the Politics of Gay and Lesbian Visibility

–The discourses constructing the coming-out of Ellen DeGeneres/Ellen Morgan, star of and lead character in the ABC television sitcom Ellen, were permeated with implications of authenticity and liberation, illustrating the continuing power of the confessional ritual described by Michele Foucault in The History of Sexuality. In contrast to the popular interpretation of the coming-out as an escape from repression, media treatment of the Ellen phenomenon was productive, in Foucault's sense, constructing a regulatory discourse that constrained the implications of gay visibility on commercial television by channeling it through a narrative of psychological autonomy, through television norms for representing homosexuality, and through an overarching strategy of personalization. I conclude with a discussion of the problems of “poster-child politics” as exemplified by the Ellen discourse.     

‘No hugging please,we are Muslims’: Akademi Fantasia,Malay television audiences and the negotiation of global popular cultural forms

This paper analyses the audience reception of the Malaysian reality television programme Akademi Fantasia (AF), which first aired in 2003 and completed its ninth season in 2011. AF has been an influential pioneer in the national television industry, inaugurating the trend of local reality shows and weathering intense competition from similar shows to remain at the top of the ratings chart over the last decade. Based on the Mexican talent search show, La Academia, Malaysia's AF is a unique hybrid blend of an Idol-style talent contest and Big Brother observational spectacle. The article draws on primary audience research to investigate the ways in which Malay audiences interpret the potentially incommensurable cultural meanings generated within the context of a localised version of a global television format. Chua's concept of ‘identification and distancing’ is employed as a framework to analyse the complex ways in which perceived Malay ‘cultural norms’ assume primacy as interpretative lenses for audience evaluations of the show and measures of its local difference from similar global cultural products. The research also reveals how these cultural norms are themselves being negotiated by the audience as part of the everyday experience of inhabiting coexisting local and global popular cultural spaces. The analysis focuses on audience understandings and pleasure in the programme in relation to fashion and taste; the behaviour of the official judges; voyeurism and conflict in ‘backstage’ coverage; and emotional intimacy onstage in the public performance component of the programme.     

BBC's Wednesday Magazine and Arts Television for Women

Wednesday Magazine (1958–1963) was an innovative BBC television afternoon arts and culture strand produced by the specialist BBC women's programme unit, which had been built up and nurtured by the first dedicated head of women's programmes Doreen Stephens, who was appointed in 1953. Stephens was responsible for the development of a diverse and extensive range of women's programming; highly ambitious in the offering that it presented to its female viewers. This article will examine the series Wednesday Magazine exploring the wealth of arts and culture items broadcast, whilst considering the programme's significance in critical histories of both women's programming and arts television. The article will also make an intervention into historical debates around what constituted women's television in Britain.     

Notes toward a rhetoric of animation: The Road Runner as cultural critique

–Recent studies have suggested the need to broaden our approaches to violence in children's programming. This paper uses the violence of “The Road Runner” cartoon series as a starting point for a mythico-rhetorical analysis of the message system contained in the cartoon. It explores how the animated short re-enacts the myth of Sisyphus in the context of the post-World War II technological boom in the United States. Technology is the source of most of the violence in the cartoon, and the violence is created by failures of technology. The use of a “children's” medium to critique our reliance on technology offers substantial freedom to the animator, and, in turn, to the viewer and the critic. Examination of “The Road Runner” yields insights into the meanings of cartoon violence, into how media reproduce mythic structures, and into the potentially rich message systems of children's media.     

Lucy's two babies: framing the first televised depiction of pregnancy

This historical research describes the strategies used by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and several other periodicals to discuss the incorporation of Lucille Ball's pregnancy into her television sitcom, I Love Lucy. This important media event occurred in the early 1950s and marked the first time that an image of pregnancy and childbirth would be depicted on national television. Although the inclusion of sexual content in the mass media was highly controversial at the time of Ball's pregnancy, this analysis concluded that the press was generally favorable in its treatment of the topic. Journalists highlighted the popularity of the event, praised I Love Lucy creators for their sensitive treatment of the topic, and drew comparisons between characters' on-screen and off-screen lives. This research elucidates the emergence of representations of pregnancy and childbirth on television that are now commonly featured in modern broadcast programming.     

Influences on the Construction of Health News: The Reporting Practices of Local Television News Health Journalists

Local television news remains a primary news source for Americans and is a key source of consumer health information. This study explores why local television health journalists cover particular topics and assesses why health journalism newsgathering practices often differ from the normative newsgathering practices of general assignment reporters. Fifteen in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with health journalists from varying geographical regions and media markets. Influence from local hospitals and personal interest in a health topic often determined the health content the journalists produced. Journalists said it was difficult to cover health issues in addition to other newsroom responsibilities.     

Movement as memory: Significant form in eyes on the prize

Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years ranks as one of the most successful public television documentaries ever produced. Although it originally aired in 1987, the series has since been shown widely in school and college classrooms, where it arguably has influenced many students’ understanding of the civil rights struggle and, more fundamentally, of the nature and form of “social movement” itself This essay draws upon Kenneth Burke's concept of “significant form” to examine how the documentary's design works to shape public memory of the civil rights struggle as a social movement. In addition to yielding insight into the rhetorical structure of a landmark television documentary, the analysis of form in Eyes on the Prize illumines how public consciousness of “social movement” can be created and perpetuated through narrative form.     

Producing Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose: How Libertarian Ideology Became Broadcasting Balance

In the first weeks of 1980, Public Broadcasting Service affiliates across the United States aired Free to Choose, a television series featuring the economist Milton Friedman. This article focuses on the production team, which brought Friedman’s small-government, market-focused perspective via privatizing the production of public television. Specifically, executive producer Robert Chitester’s success in bringing the series to air stemmed from two factors: first, he expressed social imaginaries that helped coordinate funding relationships with underwriters; and second, he drew on his institutional knowledge of public television production to navigate zones of regulatory ambiguity without running afoul of broadcast rules and regulations.     

Conceptualizations of Female Empowerment and Enjoyment of Sexualized Characters in Reality Television

This study explores how young women's definitions of empowerment relate to their reception of The Girls Next Door, a popular reality show that documents the life and fun times of Hugh Hefner's three sexy, live-in girlfriends. Specifically, we examine whether young women's general attraction to reality television relates to their endorsement of different views of women and empowerment, how these endorsements relate to the women's own sexual permissiveness, and finally how these views relate to perceptions of The Girls Next Door. Results suggest that reality television preferences relate to greater endorsement of sexual empowerment and traditional feminine roles. However, sexual permissiveness is elevated only when sexual empowerment is endorsed, and perceptions of the show appear to be most positive only when sexual permissiveness is elevated.     

An Evaluation of the Federal Communications Commission's 2007 Report on TV Violence

At the behest of 39 members of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce, in 2007 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a report that addressed the effects of violent television on children, the constitutionality of various strategies for regulating children's exposure to violent television content, and the viability and benefit of a congressionally developed definition of excessively violent television programming. This review evaluates how well the FCC carried out the tasks assigned to it by Congress, particularly in regards to the FCC's assessment of the social scientific research on the effects of exposure to televised violence.     

Judging the Degree of Violence in Media Portrayals: A Cross-Genre Comparison

This study tests the relative importance of different factors of television narratives in how they influence people's judgments of how violent those narratives are. After watching 1 of 3 videotapes of a violent narrative, 99 college students answered a series of questions about their interpretations of the violence. It was found that participants' judgments about the degree of violence in the narratives were more strongly associated with their perceptions of the graphicness of the violent acts and the harm to the victims than with other factors such as the number of violent acts or the seriousness of those acts. Thus, people's judgments of the degree of violence in television programs differs from researchers' conceptualization. Implications of these differences are discussed.