American Television Research Articles

Multirotor drone noise: numerical approach for aeroacoustics and in-flight noise prediction

Nowadays, multirotor drone usage has become widespread for various purposes: amateur or professional videos, building inspection, civil security, military defense, etc. But this usage increase has also seen growing concerns about community noise annoyance in inhabited areas, acoustic detectability for security and military purposes, or remote wildlife monitoring. Predicting the drone noise can now be accurately achieved thanks to computational aeroacoustics (CAA). The present work deals with the aeroacoustic simulation and measurement of a quadcopter drone and in-flight condition prediction. The CAA simulation of a single rotor is first compared with test bench measurements in an anechoic room. Comparison for the full drone is then derived from this single-rotor comparison. Finally, the study is further extended to in-flight comparisons, in order to show that CAA simulation can help design quieter drones in real operating conditions.

Wordplay as a technique of linguistic manipulation (based on the American television series “Police Squad!”)

Wordplay as a technique of linguistic manipulation (based on the American television series “Police Squad!”)

“Women's Lives Are on the Line, and Our Hands Are Tied”: How Television Is Reckoning With a Post-Dobbs America

BackgroundSince the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision revoked federal protection for abortion rights, many states have restricted abortion. Although news media covers this shifting landscape through reporting, this article documents how entertainment content is responding to this new reality in its storytelling. MethodsThe sample is from a public database of abortion plotlines on American television (abortiononscreen.org). I separated the sample of 150 plotlines into two groups: plotlines that filmed and/or aired pre-Dobbs (January 2020–August 2022) and those that aired post-Dobbs (September 2022–December 2023). Coding occurred in Microsoft Excel. ResultsPost-Dobbs, there was an increase in procedural abortion depictions compared with pre-Dobbs, but no change in the consistently low number of depictions of medication abortion. The post-Dobbs sample included a 10% increase in teen characters compared with pre-Dobbs. Pre-Dobbs, the vast majority of plotlines (77%) did not portray any barriers to abortion care. Post-Dobbs, 33% depicted barriers. The most common reason for abortion seeking in both samples was age (11%). Pre-Dobbs, the next most common was a mis-timed pregnancy (10%). Post-Dobbs, the next most common was health concerns (11%). ConclusionsSince Dobbs, more television plotlines are portraying obstacles to abortion care, yet they continue to tell stories of white, non-parenting teenagers who make up a small percentage of real abortion patients. Plotlines overrepresent procedural abortion over the more common medication abortion. Depictions of health-related reasons for abortion seeking obscure more commonly provided reasons for abortions, such as mistimed pregnancies, caregiving responsibilities, and financial concerns. Considering the low levels of abortion knowledge nationwide, understanding what (mis)information audiences encounter onscreen is increasingly important.

Enchanting things: the scientific communication of Julius Sumner Miller

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the popular educational broadcasting of Julius Sumner Miller and its intersections with contemporary science policy and education.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on archival research including resources so far unused by historians of science or of broadcasting and audio-visual resources of Sumner Miller’s broadcasts on Australian, Canadian and American television. It begins by contextualising Sumner Miller as both an academic and broadcaster. The second section interprets the core points of his educational philosophy which he articulated in his written and broadcast works. The final section uses his private papers contextualised by works on the history and philosophy of science to interpret and delineate the disparity between Sumner Miller’s influence as a populariser of science and the prevailing trends in scientific policy and teaching.FindingsThis paper proposes that reconstructing the themes and recurring points he asserted in his broadcasts reveals disjunction between Sumner Miller’s high-profile successes and the contemporary trends in both science policy and science education. This paper interprets the circumstance of an internationally known and influential science populariser who was coterminous with but against the grain of the notion of “big science”. He therefore sought to popularise science precisely as it was developing in ways he disparaged.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper breaks new ground by interpreting the different sources, audio-visual and written, created by and about an influential television broadcaster.Originality/valueAlthough he was widely and internationally known, and the range of his influence on science communication is generally noted, Sumner Miller’s broadcasting and the themes and educational philosophy espoused in it is little researched and contextualised. This paper sharpens understanding of his influence but also his points of intersection and disjunction with scientific culture. Hitherto unused archival resources contribute to this understanding.

Not-Russians on TV

Abstract This article discusses portrayals of a Ukrainian and a Polish character on the US sitcom 2 Broke Girls (2011–2017). The pilot episode reveals that the showrunners used stereotypes of Russian characters to establish different national origins for Oleg and Sophie. The show perpetuates offensive stereotypes of Slavic and postsocialist characters to elide differences from Russians but with notable distinctions—stemming from Oleg and Sophie's economic backgrounds in the struggling postsocialist economies of the 1990s. American television has produced many comedic characters from the European margins (Greek, Czech, Ukrainian, Polish, Latvian, or from invented but East European-coded lands) who were understood as chaotic but loveable. Crucially, however, they were not Russian. From the late Cold War through the 2010s, Russianness onscreen seems to consistently signal dishonesty, danger, or hopelessness for Western audiences. This suggests that while stereotypes persist, in comedy, at least, showrunners use East Europeans to support, not threaten, American characters, further othering Russianness.

Music for Prime Time: A History of American Television Themes and Scoring by Jon Burlingame (review)

Music for Prime Time: A History of American Television Themes and Scoring by Jon Burlingame (review)

Spatial Narrative and Critique of Reality in The American Film “Breaking”

The American film and television production “Breaking” (originally titled 892) is an independent film of a documentary nature. Through the experience of a veteran, the film reveals the tragedy under the illusion of so-called fairness and justice in American society. The stark social realism is the biggest highlight of this film. Through interpreting the multiple spatial narratives in the film, the paper analyses the elements of reality criticism in the events, and unearths the profound social criticism and cultural reflection contained in the film.

“Too Much Stress” for “Too Little Reward”: COVID-19 Effects on Reporter’s Workloads and Work/Life Balance

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic challenged historic precepts for local American television news. Reporters were suddenly working from home, often alone, dealing with new health safety protocols, and covering a grim and frightening new reality. Seeking an understanding of this sudden and dramatic shift in the ways in which local television news was reported, researchers conducted in-depth interviews during summer 2021 with 20 local television reporters from large, medium, and small Nielsen designated marketing areas (DMA) across the U.S. about their experiences during the pandemic. Thematic analysis revealed changes in reporters’ workloads, burnout, and a lack of work/life balance that may lead to changes in the ways in which reporters gather and produce news and interact with their colleagues and audiences.

Between Professionalism and Amateurism in the Use of the Agricultural Training Videos: Lessons Learnt from Experimental Auctions in Benin

Agriculture training videos (ATV) facilitate the wider dissemination of agricultural technologies and encourage farmers to adapt the learnings to their conditions. However, producing quality video is expensive as well as challenging for notable number of agricultural extension organizations across many Africa countries. This paper compares farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for two distinct video quality levels—a cheap, amateurish video and a costly, professionally produced video. Using stratified random sampling, 91 farmers were selected for the experimental auction sessions. These farmers were chosen from a database that was compiled by the Ministry of Agriculture developed in 2021, with a total population of 382 vegetable farmers. Data were analyzed using Student's t-test and Tobit model. 97% of farmers who attend the experimental auction sessions, agreed to pay for the ATV and results show a significant difference of 0.063 USD between the two videos, and in favor of professional video. Farmers’ WTP for ATV is influenced by education, access to funding, images clarity, type of character in videos, understanding level of message and language spoken. Video quality is very important in the learning process in rural areas and support the promotion of professional videos. However, amateur videos can be used in agricultural training if financial support are not available for professional videos production.

“Just like friends”: Chinese young adults’ interpretation of parent–child relationships on American TV shows

The emergence of individualization in contemporary Chinese society has transformed parent–child dynamics. This article examines one frequently acknowledged, but rarely scrutinized, individualizing force in this process: the consumption of Western popular media. Based on 29 in-depth interviews with college students in Beijing in 2009–2010, I investigate how members of China's first only-child generation reflexively engaged American television shows to assess their own parent–child relationships during a pivotal time of social change in China. While watching US TV inspired a desire among respondents for the individualistic and democratic family dynamics featured on screen, many were critical of what they saw and came to appreciate Chinese family practices more. Beyond comparing their lived realities with specific narratives on US TV, respondents often extrapolated individual circumstances to broader social issues and cultural traditions. Thus, US TV presented new alternatives for family life that fostered a reflexive “social imagination” among young Chinese, allowing them a deeper understanding of personal experiences by situating them within a constellation of social institutions, economic systems, and cultural values. By analyzing viewers’ meaning-making of American television shows within a Chinese context, this article illuminates how parent–child relationships have been shaped by an interplay between local norms and global possibilities.

Countering durian plantationocene visuality and the erasure of natureculture histories in Malaysia

ABSTRACT Large-scale durian plantations are now a major threat, causing deforestation and displacing the Orang Asli, the aboriginal peoples of Peninsular Malaysia, from their customary lands. This paper focuses on visual representations of the durian plantations and/or forest to discuss two contrasting views of the landscape. We analyse durian plantation corporate investment videos wooing public investors and videos of the Temiar Orang Asli’s resistance against forced evacuations by the durian companies in Gua Musang, Kelantan. The landscape presented in the corporate video is one that silently but violently erases the Indigenous Peoples of the land and their natureculture histories through high modernist ideology and aesthetics. Counterposing the corporate plantationocene visuals against the raw footage from the amateur videos shot on mobile phones, the Orang Asli galvanize emotionally moving countervisuality as witness to their resistance against the violence enacted by corporate occupation. By doing so, they are actively using visual documentation to tell their side of the story and to demand justice. Drawing from posthumanism, environmental humanities and critical visual studies, this paper presents a decolonial critique of the modernist/developmentalist discourse and highlights the violence of the erasure of natureculture in an extractive economy.

The Royal Treatment

The Royal Treatment

Extreme homes, extreme consumption? The American Dream in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

This article examines the phenomenon of the commercialization of the American Dream through the example of consumerism around the realm of the suburban home, a key element of this concept in the United States, as well as the role of reality television in creating and encouraging inflated standards of consumption. It uses the example of the American television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The article outlines the history and role of the American Dream, particularly the origins of the term itself, coined by Truslow Adams. The behaviour that Thorsten Veblen calls conspicuous consumption, which is characterized by a tendency to display material status in order to gain social respectability and prestige, is identified. The suburban house as a key element of the American Dream is analysed through the example of the makeovers presented in the programme. Their significant scale and unrealistic nature are often at odds with the real financial capabilities of the participants and are the cause of bankruptcies and financial problems. As the programme belongs to a genre that is supposed to reflect reality, in the light of the cultivation theory, created by George Gerbner, it influences viewers whose world-view is shaped by it and whose role models are imitated. Thus, the presented standards of a comfortable home in line with the American Dream can influence viewers’ consumption behaviour by showing them that the acquisition of possessions is a solution to problems, a reward for an honest life and that there are no financial consequences associated with them. The lavishness of the houses and their luxury reinforce this impression. Finally, the article seeks to answer the question to what extent and why the need of Americans to live up to the vision of living the illusive American Dream – thus creating an image of success and social status – is exaggerated and its standards are taken to an ‘extreme’.

‘Thanks for being here with us’: Para-social interaction and the effects of pundit talk on the Hannity and Maddow shows

Contemporary American television news centers pundits as key voices in national political discourse. The most prominent pundits anchor their own programs, often during primetime hours, reaching large audiences . This paper analyzes pundits’ performance of a type of news talk that is designed to appear unscripted and therefore authentic, enhancing parasocial interaction (PSI) with viewers and affirming pundits’ roles as experts. Data collected from two of the most-watched pundit-helmed news shows— Hannity and The Rachel Maddow Show—suggests that pundits use greeting tokens, personal pronouns, repetition, and rhetorical questions during their opening monologues. We discuss the mechanisms through which punditry may contribute to political polarization by creating emphasis frames.

Prostitution adjacent: the politics and performance of mediated motherhood and sex work

ABSTRACT American television producers have created a slew of television series that focus on motherhood’s experience and meanings. This paper examines how SMILF (Showtime, 2017–2019) and The Deuce (HBO, 2017-) depict the intersection of motherhood and sex work under a capitalist and neoliberal society. Both series aired in 2017 when U.S. conversations around women’s bodily agency increased and thus, intervene in historical and current debates regarding women’s bodies and motherhood. I situate this paper within feminist television criticism informed by motherhood studies to examine cultural meanings circulated by each series. This paper reveals the connections between sex workers and mothers concerning their gendered labor and how this intersection displays neoliberal paradigms that govern mothers. While both series explore sex work seriously in the context of motherhood, I argue that SMILF and The Deuce suggest their characters’ labor is only moral if carried out for the sake of their children. Ultimately, these series complicate discourses around motherhood and sex work and reinforce dominant neoliberal narratives around the morality of motherhood in American culture.

Liminality, Niche Television Programming, and the Adventure Drama Series

This article focuses on how expatriate adventure drama series on early 1960s American television served as harbingers of change in network television’s content. Through examination of the context leading to those series and an in-depth analysis of two series, Adventures in Paradise and Hong Kong, it demonstrates how American expatriates served as liminal and transitional figures in geographic settings that themselves were also liminal. As such the series fit into a niche unique to the time of the late turn of the 1960s, when broader social attitudes were also in transition. Drawing upon Victor Turner’s work and Bjørn Thomassen, who has brought a reevaluation of Turner and the concept of the rites of passage as developed by Arnold van Gennep, the article documents how turn of the 1960s adventure dramas already contained disruptive storylines undercutting existing social attitudes even while continuing to reinforce systemic racism and fixed sexual identities.

Deixis Found In “Good Neighbors-Spongebob Squarepants” Transcription : A Pragmatics Analysis

This research is to analyze deixis in the movie of Good Neighbors of a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season four . SpongeBob Square Pants (often referred to simply as SpongeBob) is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Whereas deixis is one of the most important notions in general linguistics and is a vital link between the real-life environment around us such as time frame, physical location, people involved, etc and what we actually say the linguistic terms used. The result describes the kinds of deixis and the referents of deixis in Good Neighbor-SpongeBob Squarepants Transcription which finds many referents that show different kinds of deixis. Finally, From the analysis, it is found that the Pronoun Deixis is often used. In almost all conversation the personal pronoun "you" existed. Its pronoun almost refers to the spongebob and squidward. The other personal pronoun was "we" that refers to spongbob and patrick. Besides, the possessive pronoun "our" has the same interpretation. File pronoun of "I"is used. "I" refers to the actor. The actors are SpongeBob, squidward, patrick and etc. Finally, it is many deixis that is used in Good Neighbor of SpongeBob Squarpants. Thus, many deixises that is found in this transcript.

Unveiling the Language Techniques Behind the Pragmatic Meaning of Sarcasm in American Confrontational Film Discourse

. This article delves into the concept of sarcasm in confrontational American film discourse, examining its primary functions and characteristics. Specifically, the study focuses on how sarcastic statements are used in American television series to heighten emotional engagement and aesthetic appeal. The defining features of sarcasm, namely implicitness and double meaning, are also discussed. The analysis is conducted through a case study of the modern American drama series This Is Us, which highlights the key mechanisms utilized to achieve the pragmatic effect of sarcasm, including intonation, metaphors, and repetitions. Additionally, the article examines the work of translators, their professional challenges, and the methods and techniques employed to convey the semantic content of sarcastic messages in the target language. The findings suggest that translational means such as literal translation, ellipses, and equivalent translation are effective in transferring the intended sarcasm across languages. Overall, this study provides insight into the language techniques and translational strategies involved in the implementation of sarcasm in confrontational American film discourse.

Kinder-Conspiracy Theories: Disney's Gravity Falls and the Conspiracy Genre in Children's Television

This essay suggests that there is a variant of what Stephanie Kelley-Romano calls the “conspiracy genre on American television,” a subgenre targeting children that we call kinder-conspiracy theories. Treating Disney's Gravity Falls as an exemplar of the subgenre, we argue that kinder-conspiracy theories differ from the larger genre in three ways. First, while inspiring social mistrust like most conspiracy entertainment, the programs portray some conspiracy theorists as hucksters, encouraging viewers to build their defenses against possible deception. Second, by serving as an introduction to reading conspiracy culture, the genre also serves as a kind of conspiracy literacy training and an inoculation against a milieu of rampant suspicion and polarization. Finally, due to their prosocial messaging for younger audiences, the genre also emphasizes a kind of collectivistic agency that privileges community over the traditional individualism and fantasies of the lone wolf conspiracy theorist.

Beyond the Male Stereotype: Complicating Female Geek and Nerd Figures in Contemporary US Comedy Series

The “nerd” or “geek” in US-American film and television has been a popular mainstay to represent distinct social hierarchies. This article aims to highlight the emergence of engaging and relatable female nerds and geeks that subvert the stereotypes associated with such figures in comedy TV series and sitcoms. Humour in these comedy series exposes the silliness of perceived stereotypes associated with geekdom and “othered” cultures, while at the same time questioning and resisting them through complex female characterization. This article analyses these current shifts in representational patterns that highlight different dimensions including race, sexuality, societal conflicts and interpersonal relationships of funny and “nerdy” female characters in American television. Through a comparative analysis of the geeky characterizations of Amy Santiago from Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-2021) in juxtaposition to Betty from Betty en NY (2019), and Devi Vishwakumar from Never Have I Ever (2020-2023) it demonstrates that gender and racial stereotypes influence the portrayal of “geeky” female characters who frequently have not been permitted to be fully developed characters but had to suppress their intelligence to be likeable. This portrayal has significantly changed into the depiction of powerful female nerds on screen in the last two decades.