Queens for a Day: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and the Neoliberal Project

This paper moves beyond a conventional critique of gay stereotyping on Bravo's popular makeover show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy to consider how the show puts gay cultural expertise to work to reform a heterosexual masculinity that is compatible with the neoliberal moment. At issue are the newly public acknowledgement of gay taste and consumer expertise; the “crisis of masculinity” that requires that heterosexual men must now attend to their relationships, image, and domestic habitus; and the remaking of the straight guy as not only an improved romantic partner—the metrosexual—but a more flexible, employable worker. The author concludes by considering how camp deconstructs some of Queer Eye's most heteronormative aims, even while leaving its class and consumption rationales intact.     

Effects of threatening visuals and announcer differences on responses to televised alcohol warnings

This study examined threatening background visuals and voice-over differences in televised alcohol warnings. Participants ( N v = v 401) viewed four television adwarning pairs embedded in sports programming. Between-subjects conditions included a threatening visual behind the warning, a non-threatening visual, a plain background, and a no-warning control. Use of a male or female announcer, each using a relatively warm or imperative voice quality, were manipulated within-subject factors. Outcomes included knowledge, cognitive responses regarding warning content and presentation, and perceptions of the risk of the product (beer) shown in the ad. All warnings increased post-test knowledge of alcohol risks relative to control; the largest increase resulted when warnings were accompanied by the threatening visual. Threatening visuals also increased positive thought elaborations about the warning message content and presentation. However, the threatening visuals did not reliably impact perceived risk of beer use, suggesting that threatening visuals influenced responses and knowledge by increasing attention to the warning rather than by increasing perceived threat. These findings are consistent with the EPPM's proposed initial threat appraisal mechanism (Witte, 1992), and further suggest that threatening visuals serve as a heuristic cue motivating increased processing of message content (see Eagly & Chaiken, 1993), rather than an influence via a peripheral route as suggested by the ELM (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Interactions between drinking level and announcer gender and vocal quality variables were also found, but contributed only trivially to explained variance.     

“I Might Get Your Heart Racing in My Skin-Tight Jeans”: Sexualization on Music Entertainment Television

This study explores the culture of sexualizing the (female) body in music entertainment television. A quantitative content analysis was conducted, analyzing 9,369 scenes from 1,393 music videos and 180 programs, broadcast on Belgian music entertainment channels. Results indicated that 39.3% of the coded scenes contained sexualizing messages. These sexualizing messages were predominantly messages equating (female) Western body ideals to being sexually attractive. Music videos were shown to be a more sexualizing genre than nonfictional programs and fictional programs. Findings are discussed in light of objectification theory.     

Making Sense of “Views” Culture in Television News Media in India

ABSTRACT

The initiation of economic reforms in the 1990s led to major recastings in the media-state-market relationship in India. Looking specifically at the television news media space, the age-old monopoly of the state broadcaster Doordarshan was challenged by the mushrooming of a host of private television news media. Private participation in the television news sector was in sync with the logic of market capitalism. Market-based news model radically altered the nature of production, representation and consumption of news. This paper makes an inquiry into one such predominant aspect of news production, the ascendancy of views/opinion based prime time programming in television news media, in contemporary India. Through a series of semi-structured interviews with journalists, the paper attempts to make sense of the reasons, the nature and significance and the likely impact of such programming on the nature of public discourse in India.     

审美视阈下的中国电视娱乐节目走向

电视作为现代社会中最具有影响力的媒体,在传达公共政策、引导社会舆论等方面发挥着举足轻重的作用。电视传媒是现代科技传播的重要标志,是最广泛的大众文化传播媒体之一。本文通过梳理中国电视娱乐节目的发展历程,论述了中国电视娱乐节目的发展的四个时期,最后,阐释了娱乐化电视节目的发展走向。     

Becoming American

Abstract

This study explored how a cohort of Asian Indians who migrated to the U.S. nearly 40 years ago have become acculturated to the U.S. by watching American television when they first arrived. The study used two concepts of the integrative communication theory: enculturation and acculturation. The study described how these Asian Indians did not grow up watching television in India. Hence, they became enculturated into American television. This cohort also watched television to learn how to act “American,” and thus became acculturated to the U.S. Furthermore, the study created linkage between the uses and gratifications theoretical perspective and the need for acculturation.     

TV,technology, and McCarthyism: crafting the democratic renaissance in an age of fear

One of the most watched political events in the United States at mid‐century, the Army‐McCarthy hearings coincided with the early period of the reception and evaluation of television as a force in society. Although optimistic rhetoric often attends the rise of new technologies, worries and fears about the power of television pervaded coverage of the hearings. The popular press expressed concern that Edward R. Murrow and Joseph McCarthy exercised unrivaled control over television viewers. Murrow and McCarthy became condensation symbols in a new struggle over control of the airwaves, and their highly publicized standoff established discursive rules for thinking about the power of audiences, journalists, and politicians.     

穿越剧的抵抗与收编

2011年起,由《宫锁心玉》《步步惊心》领跑的穿越剧火爆荧屏,成为一种重要的文化现象。但在这阵穿越风中也夹杂着"恶搞历史"、"粗制滥造"、"误导青年价值观"等异样声音,而且各种质疑越来越占据上风,先是官方多次发"限播令"对其进行社会意识形态收编,而后在市场经济潮流下,市场对穿越剧也潜移默化地进行商业收编。     

How the dialectical imperative shapes network news content: The case of CNN vs. the entertainment networks

This essay compares an all news network's (the Cable News Network) response to a news story's dialectical imperative with that of the entertainment networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). Using the 1988 nominating convention coverage as subject matter, the author applies narrative principles to interpret a content analysis of those telecasts. The results indicate significant distinctions in narrative structure as the entertainment networks aired a “talent‐based” production whereas CNN produced an “event‐based” interpretation of the two conventions.     

Television and the quality of family life

One hundred seven adults' family activities and experiences were studied via the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). Respondents carried automatic paging devices and were randomly signalled to fill out self‐reports over the period of one week. While some scholars have claimed that communication during television viewing is nonexistent, talking occurred during 20 percent of family television time. Respondents who watched more television also spent more time with their families and reported feeling as well affectively while with family members as did light viewers. However, family viewing experiences were reported as being more passive than family activities generally. Heavier viewers also reported lower levels of activation during non‐TV family activities than did light viewers. Implications are discussed.