Television Portrayals Research Articles

Imaginary work: media representations of work and gender in Italy from the economic miracle to the present day

AbstractThe article explores media depictions of industrial labour in Italy, with a special focus on visual, film and television portrayals, spanning from the 1960s to the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Rather than delving into an analysis of labour processes, the primary objective of the article is to scrutinise the gendered representations of work and whether and how the representation of work, including all professions, has played a pivotal role in shaping narratives about Italian society and its inherent contradictions. In this context, the article also emphasises the significance of what remains unrepresented, highlighting the absence of work as equally consequential as its presence. Of particular importance within this exploration is the examination of women's work, a realm less frequently depicted than that of men. The article dedicates specific attention to unravelling the nuances of women's role in the workforce, recognising their portrayal as a key element in understanding broader narratives about Italian society and its complexities.

Examining the Authenticity of Autistic Portrayals in US Adult and Children's Television Shows Using Medical and Social Models of Disability.

Television programs have introduced viewers to characters on the autism spectrum (e.g., Sesame Street, The Good Doctor), impacting audiences' knowledge and attitudes. Thus, it is essential that character representations convey accurate health information. This study explores how autistic portrayals across six adult and children's television programs align with the medical (e.g., American Psychiatric Association in Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th ed., text rev., 2022, https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787 ) and social models of disability. A content analysis methodology was used to investigate defining characteristics of autism (i.e., medical model) and how characters navigated their environment (i.e., social model) in 252 scenes (across six characters in 22 episodes). Measures included the frequency with which autism characteristics (e.g., social-communicative difficulties, restrictive repetitive behaviors) were present across autistic portrayals and the valence (e.g., positive, negative, neutral) with which characters interacted with their environment (e.g., character and neurodiversity affirming valence). Findings indicate that (a) television portrayals depict social-communication difficulties significantly more than behavioral characteristics, (b) children's programming portrays autistic characters with significantly more positive personal attributes (i.e., character valence) than adult programs, and (c) the majority of programs portray characters navigating autism in positive or neutral ways (i.e., neurodiversity affirming valence). Results offer stakeholders (e.g., writers, advocates, neurodiverse community) insight into how autistic characters are portrayed on television, adding to a growing body of literature examining how such representations impact public knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards individuals on the autism spectrum. Collectively, such studies highlight how changes in diagnostic criteria, legal protections, and social inclusivity are presented to viewers, who are seeking entertainment but gaining public health information.

“Social Workers Should Be Required to Watch this Episode” : Social Media Perceptions of Television Portrayals of Fictional CPS Workers

Child Protective Services (CPS) workers appear in television plotlines across every fiction genre, and these depictions are often quite unfavourable. Customer engagement behaviours (CEBs), or what viewers say in online forums or on social media influence how other viewers perceive CPS workers. This interconnectivity is examined here through the framework of CEBs and Social TV using case studies from four popular programs: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), Shameless, Law and Order: SVU (SVU), and The Sandman. These case studies were compared for accuracy against observations given by a former Child Protective Investigator, whose feedback indicated that the realistic programs (SVU and Shameless), while being overly dramatised, had more authentic and balanced CPS portrayals than the fantasy programs (BtVS and The Sandman). Common themes from the audience in the CEBs are: CPS workers are overworked, underpaid, and too bureaucratic; greed motivates some families to foster or adopt children; and that the system of protective services is broken.

Livid about Liberalism: Putin, State Controlled Television and Kremlin Portrayals of Liberalism

Abstract Russian President Vladimir Putin has demonstrated a keen interest in questions of history and political theory over his more than two decades at or near the apex of Russian power. These questions became particularly salient in Russia’s political discourse after Putin returned to power in 2012 and inaugurated the so-called “conservative turn.” This paper examines how Putin characterized liberalism between his return to power in 2012 and the start of the “special military operation” in Ukraine on 24 February 2022. It contends that, over this decade, Putin consistently positioned himself as a moderate critic of Western liberalism as opposed to an uncompromising ideologue, even after the 2014 Ukraine crisis. To highlight this tendency, this paper simultaneously examines two prominent Russian state television personalities – Dmitrii Kiselev and Vladimir Solov’ev – who have used strident rhetoric in describing Western liberalism, notably after the 2014 crisis in Ukraine.

Older Adult Representations, Stereotypes, and Interpersonal Competence in Christmas Television

ABSTRACT Recognizing the need to monitor the television depictions of older adults (OAs) we used social cognitive theory to study OA representations, stereotypes, and appearances in the understudied genre of Christmas television, specifically Hallmark Christmas movies (N = 50). We extended social cognitive theory to understand the effect of positive stereotypes on older adults’ appearances by employing interpersonal competence theory and coding OA interactions for positive and negative altercasting, defined as casting of one’s interactant into a valued or disvalued identity. Unlike primetime television analyses, OAs were not underrepresented relative to the U.S. population. OAs appeared in more minor than supporting roles, and participated in Christmas traditions like celebrating with family and affirming Christmas traditions and spirit. Over 60% of OAs portrayed positive stereotypes like Sage, Golden Ager, Perfect Grandparent and John Wayne Conservative. As theorized, net positive altercasting completely mediated the effect of three positive OA stereotypes on the frequency of OA appearances. Implications for studying Christmas television, aging stereotypes, and media portrayals of interpersonal competence are discussed.

From Stepmonsters to the Family’s Saving Grace: Viewer Perceptions of Stepfamilies, Stepfathers and Stepmothers in Media

Research has shown that media portrayals greatly influence viewers’ beliefs, but few have studied stepfamily portrayals or how viewer demographics might impact what they notice. In this exploratory sequential mixed methods research, undergraduates reported perceptions of media portrayals of stepmothers, stepfathers and stepfamilies in 107 narratives. Those categories created a way to quantitatively distinguish between perceptions based on viewer sex and family type in the second study with 341 college student participants. The first study revealed that perceptions of stepparent portrayals in media might often align with stereotypes (e.g., stepmonsters) while also highlighting a mix of negative and positive perceptions and narratives about the depicted normalcy of stepfamilies. Study Two identified that sex or family type might slightly influence what some notice in television portrayals. However, media often portrays unambiguous views of stepfamilies, and these portrayals are noticed and remembered by viewers with only a slight impact from demographic differences.

Disability on drama TV: How attitudes about disability in the US relate to viewing frequency and identification with a character with a disability on “Glee”

Although the relationship between attitudes about minorities and television portrayals has been a long-studied topic, individuals with disability have often been left out. This study demonstrates how exposure to disability portrayal on television relates to attitudes about individuals with disability. An online survey examined respondents’ viewing habits of the television program “Glee,” which had a main character, Artie, who used a wheelchair, and how viewing this representation related to attitudes about individuals with disability. The results showed that identification with Artie is correlated with frequency of viewing and to more positive attitudes about individuals with disability. In addition, any viewing of “Glee,” rather than frequency, was related to more positive attitudes about individuals with disability. While findings were explained through social cognitive theory and identification, results did not line up with cultivation theory. The findings demonstrate that viewing a TV show with a character with a disability relates to more positive attitudes about individuals with disability and hopes to encourage more inclusion in the media landscape.

Friday Night Disability: The Portrayal of Parent-Child Interactions on Television’s Friday Night Lights

Studies of television portrayals of parent/child relationships where the child has a disability are rare. Using the social relational theory perspective, this study examines interactions between parents and a young man with a disability as portrayed in the acclaimed contemporary television series, Friday Night Lights. We found a nuanced relationship between the portrayed teen and his parents and a powerful influence of the community on the parent-child relations and family life.

The Unknown War of the Eastern Front: the first American-Soviet television production and Détente’s World War II

This article details the production of the first American-Soviet television collaboration The Unknown War. The 1978 documentary series chronicled the Eastern Front of World War II, an area of the war few Americans were familiar with. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s American film and television portrayals of the war excised or minimized the Soviet Union’s role due to the Cold War rivalry leading to a knowledge gap. The success of the documentary series The World at War spurred the interest of American independent producer Air Time International for a similar series on the Soviet side of the war. For Americans it was capitalizing on a revival of interest in the war while remedying the public’s lack of knowledge on the Eastern. For the Soviet authorities it was a means of furthering relations eased by Détente and bolstering their ‘Cult of the Great Patriotic War’. The series’ creation showcases the difficulties and compromises made to craft a product that suited both sides’ needs. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led to the series never being rebroadcast in the United States and largely forgotten. It serves as an example of the difficulties of such ‘cross-curtain’ collaborations and the Cold War’s influence on the interpretation of World War II.

The Lessons Will Be Televised: Examining Television Portrayals of Sexual Consequences by Gender

This study examined the sexual double standard in the portrayal of sexual consequences on television. A content analysis of television programs nominated for Teen Choice Awards from 2012 to 2015 revealed that female characters received more negative sexual consequences than male characters, but there was no gender difference in who received positive sexual consequences. The gendered distribution of negative sexual consequences was qualified by age of the casts in the television programs. Negative sexual consequences were significantly more likely to be experienced by female characters than male characters within shows that primarily featured teens, thus reinforcing a discourse of sexual risk and danger for teen girls.

The Veteran Reintegrated in You’re the Worst and One Day at a Time

Abstract As the “War on Terror” continues, the national myth of veteran-as-hero has given way to a narrative shorthand of veteran-as-villain. Films and television shows depicting the reintegration of veterans tend to focus on the struggle and alienation from the homefront that veterans feel upon their return. In contrast, comedy television portrayals such as One Day at a Time and You’re the Worst, both of which slowly but successfully reintegrate their central veteran characters, do so narratively by shifting their characters’ veteran status from their defining feature to one aspect of their past. Ultimately, I argue that the process of reintegration is one paralleled in the rehumanization that these comedy television portrayals permit, ultimately offering hope that reintegration, while not easy, is possible.

Flunking the Spanish test: Television portrayals of personal responsibility and language shift in heritage learners

ABSTRACT The language practices of Heritage Learners (HLs) of Spanish are frequently regulated and stigmatized in academic and community settings when their Spanish is perceived as deficient. By ignoring institutional structures that accelerate Spanish loss, the “inadequacy” of Latinxs’ Spanish is regularly perceived to be the fault of individuals or families. This study examines language ideologies that emerge in popular television shows for pre-teens (i.e. tweens), revealing that HLs are regularly portrayed as failing Spanish in academic settings and unable to complete everyday communicative tasks in Spanish. When their lack of Spanish is woven into the narrative of a sitcom problem, the resolution of these conflicts leads youth, parents, and grandparents to reflect on their individual responsibility to maintain the language and culture, which reinforces a neoliberal ideology of family responsibility for language maintenance.

Lesbian Police Officers: A Review of Television Portrayals and Their Lived Experiences

This exploratory research considers television’s portrayals of lesbian police officers from the first known character in 1986 through the present. We examine the degree to which depictions of lesbian police officers on television advance or hinder social equity in law enforcement.

Welcoming Difference or Reinforcing the Status Quo? The Influence of Multicultural Television Viewing on Multicultural and Gender Attitudes in South Korea

ABSTRACT Drawing on the nascent literature on multiculturalism in Korea, this study explores the influence of viewing South Korean multicultural television content on two attitudinal measures: support for multiculturalism and opposition to sexism. Conducting a survey of South Korean citizens (N = 500) revealed that although heavier viewing of multicultural television content has no significant effect on support for multiculturalism, it does significantly correlate with greater acceptance of sexism. Our quantitative results lend support to the findings of recent qualitative studies that have identified essentialist and sexist tendencies in South Korean multicultural television portrayal of immigrants. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Buried in stigma: Experimental investigation of the impact of hoarding depictions in reality television on public perception

Hoarding disorder (HD) has been newly classified as a distinct mental disorder and is a considerable public health concern. Treatment ambivalence is a problem in this clinical population, and stigma of HD may be one potential factor contributing to an unwillingness to seek treatment. Stigma of HD is understudied, despite the media often perpetuating severe and negative representations of individuals with HD. This study is the first to investigate experimentally the impact of a popular reality television show on attitudes and beliefs about individuals with HD. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions that randomized them to watch television shows with either low, medium, or high clutter depictions. Participant attitudes were evaluated before and after viewing. Results showed that participants who viewed A&E's Hoarders had higher increases in indices of stigma, including social distance (d = 1.18), difference (d = 0.63), and social restrictiveness (d = 0.94) when compared to the control group. Overall, these findings suggest that these types of television portrayals might produce more stigmatizing attitudes.

Education in the apocalypse: disaster and teaching on British television

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to examine educational history through television's portrayal of educational activity in post-apocalyptic society. The paper examines how and why television drama set after a catastrophe is in dialogue with, but rejects, both contemporary government discourse of “protect and survive”.Design/methodology/approachThe paper treats television programmes as historical artefacts made during periods of heightened anxiety about nuclear and bacteriological war. This paper follows established methods for interpreting educational history by examining the representation of schooling and the discursive construction of teachers and their practices via television. This paper proceeds by tight selection of sections from two texts, examining them as documentary evidence of education in later-20th-century Britain and representations of specific types of schooling that were found in real-world Britain in the period, namely, the minor public school and educational television.FindingsTelevision drama showing education during and after an apocalyptic event was a reaction to and critique of official assurances that life would continue after a large-scale catastrophe. The representations of schooling reflect the preoccupations of the writers and depict the intersection of schooling, teachers and students with contemporary anxieties in a period where global war and large-scale catastrophe were prominent fears in popular consciousness. Representations of schooling enabled a twofold critique of education. One is critique of the industrial and civil society that had called formal schooling into existence, questioning the value of what in the 1970s and 1980s was being taught in schools. The second is the subversion of the assurances contained in “disaster” education, which promised that disaster would be a temporary setback and underlying social structures and institutions would survive. This paper suggests these sources of educational history present the need to unlearn old knowledge, urge the recourse to self-teaching and question the reliance on a television to teach.Originality/valueThis paper endorses educational, historical and popular cultural research that has found meaning and importance in popular television as a reflection of actual educational practice. Efforts to educate a civilian population about civil defence have received some scholarly attention; however, so far, the way educational practice is portrayed in television that shows the end of the world as we know it has received limited attention. These sources yield valuable insights regarding the interaction between education, disaster and popular consciousness.

Public Awareness of Cleidocranial Dysplasia After Season Releases of Stranger Things

This cross-sectional study uses Google Trends and cleidocranial dysplasia–related foundation website data to investigate the association of television portrayals of cleidocranial dysplasia with public interest and awareness of the disorder.

What Makes Consumers Satisfied?

What Makes Consumers Satisfied?

Hangers, Potions, and Pills: Abortion Procedures on American Television, 2008 to 2018.

Television portrayals of medical procedures may contribute to patient anxieties and cultural myths. We explored how television depicts abortion procedures, focusing on what these portrayals communicate about abortion access and safety. Researchers identified all abortion procedure plotlines on American television from 2008 to 2018 through Internet searches. We viewed plotlines and coded for type of abortion, health outcome, and whether the abortion occurred on or off screen. We used inductive content analysis to identify themes. We identified 96 television plotlines between 2008 and 2018 in which a character obtains or discloses an abortion. Of these, 39 plotlines (40%) depict some aspect of the abortion procedure. Twenty-three of the 39 abortion portrayals (59%) depict a surgical abortion procedure, of which about one-half were legal abortions and one-half were illegal. Only 7 of the 39 procedure plotlines (18%) portray medication abortions. Five of these plotlines depict illegal abortions; only two depict legal abortions. Four plotlines depict attempted abortions by supernatural means or ingestion of a toxic liquid. The majority of abortions on television are surgical, contrasting with the reality of abortion practice in which one-third of U.S. abortions are by medication. Portrayals of surgical abortion often reinforce the misperception that abortion is a surgical intervention requiring hospitalization. The few portrayals of medication abortion also perpetuate inaccuracies, including that it is easily accessible, uncommon, and dangerous. Portrayals of illegal abortions are overrepresented. This misinformation may seed unnecessary fear for patients before an abortion, and may create confusion among the public about abortion access and safety.

Throwing Shade at Cyrus: Willingness to Censor Teen Homosexuality in Disney’s Andi Mack

ABSTRACT The inclusion of a gay 13-year-old main character (Cyrus Goodman) on the Disney television series Andi Mack prompted social conservatives to call for the show’s cancellation due to the alleged negative impact that Cyrus would have on the show’s child audience. The present study explored individuals’ support for the censorship of television portrayals of teen homosexuality in a sample of 232 United States residents who viewed clips from the series detailing Cyrus’ storyline. Results found that censorship support was explained by homonegativity, conservative ideology, and authoritarianism, as well as perceptions that such depictions have a negative impact on the self and others. Response surface modeling also found evidence for a severity third-person effect (others more negatively impacted than the self) being related to increased censorship support. Directions for future research on the role of authoritarianism and sexual orientation beliefs in willingness to censor depictions of homosexuality are discussed.