Stage Fright or Death Wish: Sociology in the Mass Media

Abstract

Let me start from where we are at this point: Almost all of America and a good part of world are discussing sexual politics, peccadilloes, and privileges of president of United States. Stranger than fiction, of course. If I had written a novel that included a nation having a dialogue about whether oral was sex and whether it constituted adultery, it would have l een considered outrageous impertinence and fantasy although perhaps, properly timed, it could have heen a bestseller. On other hand, that unlikely timing has already been accomplished with movie Wag Dogfiction and nonfiction are now forever married. Life and al^t have few koundaries. The nation has indulged in an orgy of gossip. Did he or didn't he? If he did, is lie worse than act? Were his acts i.e., only province of himself and Hillary or do they concern nation? Is adultery so a character flaw that it imperils presidencyor is it merely a statistically likely behavior of powerful men? And, at a more coffee klatch level, is there a difference tetween hidden sins and public probity i.e., would all of it have been acceptal le if it had been discreet? Is problem a woman, women, or taste in women? Are psychologists or sociobiologists correct in their hypotheses about nubile young women and irresistible attractions they present for men? Or is attraction a mixture of culture and psychology allure of bad girls and thrill of l eing a bad boy, especially in White House? And let's not forget a more Freudian analysis. Should we have expected all this as a death wish for overachieving or, more close to subject, oedipal outcome for a child of a flaml oyant mother and an absent father? There is not much sociology here, is there? The debate about president has keen at o ut character, individual behavior, and a morality play. Only a few questions have had any sociological content. The most interesting was reaction to lack of public condemnation of president. When president's approval ratings stayed up, a surprised press (and, more interestingly, surprised kehavioral scientists) were at a l it o f a loss to explain or even interpret data. Current research on nonmonogamy would have suggested a eluite different pul lic reaction condemnation Something sociological was going con although exactly what it was remained uncertain Hundreds o f journalists looked frantically for an authoritative explanation of how president's approval ratings ctuld stay so when his personal actions seemed to violate traditional values of monogamy and honesty At this point and many others many sociologists who study sexuality, marriage, and intimacy were called to comment in print on radio, television, and Internet So we were communicating with pulDlic and perhaps using a sociological frame to explain p ublic's apparent toleration of possil le presidential infidelity incleed, reportedly, repeated infidelities But, as much fun as that kind of discussion can l e, these conversations with worlcl and with press are prol al ly not what we should aim for, not t ecause they aren't high minded enough, but l ecause these scattered observations don't amount to much especially lecause all our commellts are cast in prevailing moral framework and not truly in a sociological one What most sociologists and other social scientists involved in fray of media appearances have been doing is merely hitching o n to a juggernaut that uses them up in drive-by quotatic)ns on random topics If we wish to make a real contribution, we have to frame debate, by creating and interpreting data more polemically, earlier in game o r later, with possil ility of more complete information and contemplation It is hard to gain an audience or create meaning in eye of a storm; we need composure and some distance to assess wreckage There is little any one sociologist can do during media feeding frenzy of a big story They have their story it is rare under any circumstances that journalist is actually doing detective work to find a thesis to proceed from And while the expert may have impression that he or she has reached perfect understanding with a given journalist, this is o ften al out as real as any other relationship begun suddenly and intensely, with limited mutual knowledge of each other and goals that are not necessarily coordinated Courtship by media is a cold sort of affair They act like they love you, and then they're