Post-Identity Television: An Analysis

The first half of this chapter is a story of Vivian Goodman and her love affair with Emmanuel. Vivian was a forty two year old woman who had two children from a previous marriage, that ended because her husband had had an affair with another woman. She met Emmanuel who was a coworker at Amerco and who also had a child from a previous relationship. Vivian and Emmanuel found that they both had little time to spend together because of their shift differences, and Vivian always picked up overtime shifts whenever she could. Emmanuel had recently moved out of Vivians trailer because Tim, Vivian’s nineteen year old son, still struggled to accept that his parents, Vivian and her ex husband, were done.

The inaccurate or lacking representations of LGBTQ people in media results in misconceptions about the community. Media, such as literature, television, and music, particularly those targeted towards middle

Saved by the Bell was a fictional show about high school students. “The writers of Saved by the Bell always seemed to suggest that most adolescents are exactly the same and exist solely as props for the popular kids, which was probably true at most American high schools.” (140) What happens when one looks at culture that is ultimately not real as being representative of

The climax of the 2008-2009 financial crises, the largest ever since the Great Depression of the 1930s, witnessed the near collapse of multibillion-dollar industries in the United States. Concerns over the economic impact of the possible collapse of these industries compelled the then administration and Members of Congress to seek legislative options to salvage them. Consequently, two of the industry biggest players in the auto industries, General Motors and Chrysler, were offered financial support by the government and in return, shareholders and other stakeholders had to make necessary sacrifices in order to fundamentally restructure their businesses and commit to the tough decision of returning the companies to financial viability. In

Deviance is a behavior, trait, belief, or other characteristic that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction (Ferris & Stein 154). The television Jane The Virgin embodies this sociological theory and is intended for an audience of young and older adults. Types of deviance that is featured is that Jane Villanueva who has hopes of being a teacher and author goes to the doctors for a routine physical examination. However, while there she accidentally gets artificially inseminated. The intended specimen was intended for a patient in the next room, the situation becomes even more shocking. In fact, the donor is Jane’s boss Rafael Solano whom she had a crush on a few years prior.

MTV, formally known as Music Television, is one of the most viewed networks on television today. Roughly thirty-three years old, it has changed the American culture drastically in more than just one way. Specifically targeting teens and young adults, the MTV network provides all of the most up to date gossip on celebrities, highlights the latest fashion trends, promotes versified lifestyles, and defines the music industry of our generation. However, this so-called “idolized network” has not always been this way. The American culture has been affected by MTV through the creation of the network, the transformation from simply just music television to inappropriate reality shows, and the promotion of inappropriate content.

King Henry the fourth was known as "the good king" or “King Henry of Bourbon” by his people because, when King Henry third was stabbed and died the next day after declaring Henry the fourth his successor, allowed both Catholics and Protestants into France by passing the Edict of Nantes. He also protected forests from further devastation, built a system of tree-lined highways, and constructed bridges and canals, And also Helped reconstruct Paris from the rubble that Spain had left it in. Added small taxes to foreign trades, and goods with Ottoman Empire and East Asia. During The Wars of Religion was attacking both King Henry the Third of France and Spain.

One of the most evident changes in Disney entertainment products in the post-Walt era is the introduction of homosexual characters. Conservative Christian groups continue to argue that LGBTQ activists have a secret plan to advance homosexual lifestyles, thus destroying ‘traditional’ marriage ideas. This ‘Gay Agenda,’ according to groups such as the Southern Baptist Convention, is ‘apparent in Disney releases.’ For example, in Tangled, Flynn and Rapunzel visit a tavern that is filled with men with dreams associated with homosexuality, such as an interior designer and a pastry chef. Disney television shows have also presented homosexual characters and storylines, with Ellen Degeneres’ ‘coming out’ episode being the most infamous of the bunch. Recently, on Disney’s hit television show, Good Luck Charlie, two women were introduced to the cast as the homosexual parents of Charlie’s best friend, Taylor. However, even with the debut of these characters in the post-Walt era, the “basic American virtues and values” are still found in

Identity; Romance; Segregation; Beauty; Friendship; Within the film industry’s classic interpretation of female adolescents, these elements of teen culture are typically represented. A film’s demonstration of themes such as relationship tensions or social status struggles are that which attracts the popular viewership of female adolescents, for they are personally dealing with similar experiences. Furthermore, in continually representing the aforementioned traditional elements of teen culture, the film industry seems to make it so films’ story-lines and characterizations adapt to and directly reflect the era in which the film is set. This adaptation is significantly demonstrated in the popular teen films The Breakfast Club (1985), Clueless (1995), and Mean Girls (2004) as they each clearly and diversely characterize young women based on the distinct time period and the cultural attitude towards teen girls of that time. The Breakfast Club (1985) details five high school students in Illinois, a nerd, a jock, a bad boy, a weirdo, and a

The project I chose was project 3a.: Social Psychology on TV and the purpose of it was to evaluate a clip of a TV show and demonstrate how it illustrates social psychological concepts. I took an episode of a TV show named “The Big Bang Theory”, season 6 episode 4, and then evaluated a 4-minute clip in which the protagonist, Sheldon, is showing 2 social psychological concepts: prototypes and priming. I originally expected the outcome to be those concepts because I believed the actions in which Sheldon were participating in was in correlation to what the concepts are and because “The Big Bang Theory” is a show in which intellectual individuals interact with each other meaning for some interesting and awkward situations.

The uprising of gay and lesbian entertainment in shows such as “Will & Grace,” Showtime series “Queer As Folk” and “The L Word,” has overthrown the former cookie cutter husband and wife TV series. Gay and lesbian affairs in the media emerged quickly after the coming out of Ellen Degeneres in her hit sitcom, “Ellen.” The comedian now has her own daytime talk show, achieving mainstream popularity for obvious reasons: she’s funny, down-to-earth, and openly gay. In earlier decades homosexuality was previously limited to a closet of taboos, where no one knew about it, and no one admitted to it. Primetime programming would never house a show in which gay men and lesbian women openly discussed their sex lives and sexual preferences, nor a show that based its entire plotline on gay and lesbian couples.

In sociology, the term deviance refers to behaviors or attitudes which go against certain cultural norms. It is evident that deviance is a fascinating topic not only for sociologist, but for television industry and its viewers, as well. In recent years, increasing number of shows begun to feature individuals violating every kind of social norm from folkways to taboos. The Secret Life of the American Teenager, an American television series on the ABC Family television network, is one of the many contemporary shows that portray deviant behaviors on national television. It’s intended for the target audience of teens and their families who are trying to cope in a culture where teen girls and boys are sexually active.

The presence of dissociative identity disorder in the media is more common than one may presume. In the media, the portrayal of the disorder is very negative. The way the media shows the disorder only builds on the stigmatization already made for the disorder which is harmful and negative towards the people diagnosed with the disorder. Some of these portrayals include the movie Split and the television show Criminal Minds. Both of these and many other films show negative portrayals of people diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder.

I chose the first episode of the very popular television program The Event. I viewed the first episode on Netflix, October 20, 2011. This program originally aired on NBC, September 10, 2010, and is titled “I Haven’t Told You Everything”. This program has a total of twenty two series to date and is classified as an action-adventure drama. After viewing a picture of the main characters with the synopsis of this program, I noticed immediately that this was a male dominated show. The picture shows seven people standing together and merely two of the seven are female. The premise of the story is about a man searching for his missing fiancé. The story line was a prime example of the gender male

Nosedive is an episode in the British sci-fi series called Black Mirror. The meaning of a “Black Mirror” is the inevitable truth that once our computers and cell phones shut off, we have a dark reflection of what the advancement of technology has done to humanity and what’s left is a shell. This shell is all that remains of what society and technology has drilled into our minds, telling us we absolutely need the latest iPhone or video game. The driven main character Lacey is trying to boost her social ratings so that she can live a life of lavish and prosperity, but everything doesn’t turn out the way she hoped. This episode is a great way to show Identity, Conformity, and Society.