Gay TV and Straight America, Essay Example

The effect of cable news on politics in America can be discerned as largely negative. The advent of the twenty-four hour cable news channel demands that the network fills out its programming schedule. Accordingly, there is a requirement to produce news, as opposed to merely reporting it. This creates an emphasis on scandal and the need to report trivial events as prescient news. Concomitantly, it is significant to note that with the increase in time that is devoted to news coverage through the cable networks, this has not led to a symmetrical increase in the quality of political analysis. Cable news views itself as another form of entertainment, dedicated to securing viewers as opposed to providing rigorous commentary and detailed information. For example, election campaigns are portrayed by such cable news channels as “trivial beauty contest or horse stories which contain little substantive information on issues that concern voters.” (Harper & Yantek, 91) Thus, politics becomes merely another form of entertainment. This furthermore affects politics insofar as politicians become conscious of how politics are portrayed in the media and thus cater to a populist image that is consistent with such a portrayal. This leads to a decrease in the intellectuality of American politics in both the public and political spheres.

A situation comedy, referred to as a sitcom for short, is a humorous television program with a constant set of characters. As Winterbols notes, “the situation comedy is as American as apple pie.” (1) This suggests that there is something intrinsic to the format of the sitcom that appeals to American viewers. The recurring cast of characters and the familiarity an audience gains with such characters is arguably one of the strongest reasons for the success of the situation comedy, as viewers feel an epistemological closeness to a program. The sitcom’s usage of humor, which has always been a popular genre of human art, is also another reason for the situation comedy’s continued relevance.  Nevertheless, sitcoms have changed over the years, and such adjustments can be viewed as caused by changes in American society. For example, as many sitcoms employ a family situation as its basic framework, changes in what Americans consider as the normal familial unit have been reflected within these programs. An increasing cultural sensitivity to the lack of a media presence for minorities has led to many sitcoms being based on minority families, such as African-Americans and more recently Latinos. Sitcoms can thus be said to have also changed according to demographic shifts in American society, as ethnic diversity in the United States increases.

The quiz show is a television genre that fuses entertainment with questioning that is answered by contestants. Most quiz shows employ a format with a monetary reward. The initial popularity of the quiz show can be attributed to a basic desire for knowledge that is present in the human species. At the same time, the decrease in the popularity of quiz shows from their apex in the 1950s suggests a certain dumbing-down of American culture, in which knowledge is not revered. The re-emergence of quiz shows has thus come in a particular form in which entertainment is valued over knowledge, as evidenced by quiz shows that employ a celebrity format, in which contestants are figures from the entertainment media. This de-emphasis on knowledge in the quiz show genre is thus symmetrical with an emphasis on the monetary rewards of the quiz show. As Holmes notes, American quest shows are “often seen as pivoting on the country’s association with capitalist greed.” (7) Thus, the emphasis in American culture on money as the highest value can also be seen in the changes in the quiz show genre, as cash prizes and the imperative to earn as much as possible displace the importance of knowledge.

The trajectory of the portrayal of gays and lesbians in the American media has undergone a change from instances of their total absence within such media to a greater presence on television, radio and the Internet. The early status of gays and lesbians in the media reflects the taboo role such a lifestyle occupied in the American society of the time. Becker writes that, “throughout its first four decades, television virtually denied the existence of homosexuality.” (3) Such a denial suggests that homosexuality was essentially repressed in the American psyche, and this repression reflected itself in the type of media that were offered to the public, such as television sitcoms. A massive shift in this attitude occurred in the 1990s, as “gay-themed episodes and references to homosexuality were everywhere” (Becker 4). This radical change can be attributed to a growing increase in social consciousness towards the presentation of minority groups and their representation in the media. The liberalization of the media allowed new voices to be heard. At the same time, this change indicated a general inclination by the homosexual movement to begin to make their voice heard in the public sphere. Shifts in societal consciousness meant that homosexuality was no longer a lifestyle to be hidden, insofar as the public expression of homosexuality became a civil rights issue. The absence of homosexuality within the media could thus be viewed as a form of discrimination, in which a segment of the population is excluded from a crucial part of the social landscape. As civil rights thus turned out to be a greater reality within American culture, as opposed to merely a dream of the minority, this reality reflected itself in the media in terms of the increased presence of references to homosexual life.

Works Cited

Becker, Ron. Gay TV and Straight America. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006. Print.

Harper, Joe and Thom Yantek. Media, Profit and Politics: Competitive Priorities in an Open Society. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003. Print.

Holmes, Su. The Quiz Show. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.Print.

Wintebols, James H. Watching M*A*S*H, Watching America: A Social History of the 1972-1983 Television Series. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003. Print.