Social Issues in Television Fiction

Social Issues in Television Fiction
Author: Lesley Henderson
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2007-06-06
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0748630899

Why are some controversial issues covered in TV soaps and dramas and not others? How are decisions really made 'behind the scenes'? How do programme makers push boundaries without losing viewers? What do audiences take away from their viewing experience? Does TV fiction have a greater impact on public understandings than TV news? This exciting new book draws on unique empirical data to examine the relationship between popular television fiction and wider society.The book gives lively and engaging insights into how and why socially sensitive story lines were taken up by different TV programmes from the late 1980s to the 2000s. Drawing on a series of case studies of medicine, health, illness and social problems including breast cancer, mental distress, sexual abuse and violence it comprehensively traces the path of storylines from initial conception through to audience reception and uses contemporary examples to link practice to theory. For the first time, this book addresses production and receptio

Popular Representations of Development

Popular Representations of Development
Author: David Lewis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2014-01-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135902631

Although the academic study of development is well established, as is also its policy implementation, less considered are the broader, more popular understandings of development that often shape agendas and priorities, particularly in representative democracies. Through its accessible and provocative chapters, Popular Representations of Development introduces the idea that while the issue of ‘development’ – defined broadly as problems of poverty and social deprivation, and the various agencies and processes seeking to address these – is normally one that is discussed by social scientists and policy makers, it also has a wider ‘popular’ dimension. Development is something that can be understood through studying literature, films, and other non-conventional forms of representation. It is also a public issue, one that has historically been associated with musical movements such as Live Aid and increasingly features in newer media such as blogs and social networking. The book connects the effort to build a more holistic understanding of development issues with an exploration of the diverse public sphere in which popular engagement with development takes place. This book gives students of development studies, media studies and geography as well as students in the humanities engaging with global development issues a variety of perspectives from different disciplines to open up this new field for discussion.

Abortion in Popular Culture

Abortion in Popular Culture
Author: Brenda Boudreau
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2023-04-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1666919853

Abortion in Popular Culture: A Call to Action brings together scholars who examine depictions of abortion in film, television, literature, and social media. By examining texts ranging from classic television series such as Maude and Roseanne and recent films such as Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Unpregnant to dystopian novels and social-media campaigns, the essays analyze narrative styles, rhetorical strategies, and cinematic techniques, all of which shape cultural attitudes toward abortion. They also analyze cultural shifts, including the willingness or reluctance of networks, cable channels, and filmmakers to acknowledge changing trends in reproductive health such as medication abortion and the role that abortion plays in family planning. As a whole, however, the essays argue that popular culture can play a significant role in destigmatizing abortion by including a wider range of narratives and doing so with nuance and empathy. With reproductive rights under attack in the United States, each essay is a call to action for writers, producers, directors, showrunners, authors, and musicians to use their platforms to tell more positive and accurate stories about abortion.

Telenovelas in Pan-Latino Context

Telenovelas in Pan-Latino Context
Author: June Carolyn Erlick
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134811950

This concise book provides an accessible overview of the history of the telenovela in Latin America within a pan-Latino context, including the way the genre crosses borders between Latin America and the United States. Telenovelas, a distinct variety of soap operas originating in Latin America, take up key issues of race, class, sexual identity and violence, interweaving stories with melodramatic romance and quests for identity. June Carolyn Erlick examines the social implications of telenovela themes in the context of the evolution of television as an integral part of the modernization of Latin American countries.

Shameless Sociology

Shameless Sociology
Author: Jennifer Beggs Weber
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2020-09-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1527559971

In 2011, Showtime premiered Shameless, a comedy-drama about the audacious behaviors of the Gallaghers, a white, working-class family living in Chicago’s South Side. In 2020, the series headed into the production of its eleventh and final season, making it the longest-running original scripted program in Showtime’s history. Shameless explores topics such as poverty, alcoholism, teen pregnancy, and mental illness. The series has been credited with “reinventing working-class TV” and for humanizing groups that are typically “othered” or simply laughed at. However, others have critiqued the show for relying on and promoting stereotypes, and for the cavalier ways in which it portrays controversial social issues like rape and abortion. Shameless Sociology: Critical Perspectives on a Popular Television Series offers a critical eye toward topics such as gentrification, pregnancy and abortion, racial and gender inequality, and homophobia, and illustrates the ways in which Shameless sometimes confronts and topples stereotypes, yet, at other times, serves to reinforce and perpetuate them. Given the broad appeal of the show and the diverse topics it covers, this book will appeal to the general public, as well as researchers of media, culture, and social inequalities, and undergraduate and graduate students at institutions of higher education.

Ethnicity, Gender, and Diversity

Ethnicity, Gender, and Diversity
Author: Peter Robson
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: Law
ISBN: 149857291X

Television and streamed series that viewers watch on their TVs, computers, phones, and tablets are a crucial part of popular culture They have an influence on viewers and on law. People acquire values, behaviors, and stereotypes, both positive and negative, from television shows, which are relevant to people’s acquisition of beliefs and to the development of law.. In this book, readers will find the first transnational, empirical look at ethnicity, gender, and diversity on legally-themed TV shows. Scholars determine the three most watched legally-themed shows in Brazil, Britain, Canada, Germany, Greece, Poland, Switzerland and the United States and then examine gender, age, ability, ethnicity, race, class, sexual orientation and nationality in those shows and countries. As such, this book provides an important link between law, TV, and what is going on in real life.

Contemporary British Television Crime Drama

Contemporary British Television Crime Drama
Author: Ruth McElroy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2016-10-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317160959

Contemporary British Television Crime Drama examines one of the medium’s most popular genres and places it within its historical and industrial context. The television crime drama has proved itself capable of numerous generic reinventions and continues to enjoy some of the highest viewing figures. Crime drama offers audiences stories of right and wrong, moral authority asserted and resisted, and professionals and criminals, doing so in ways that are often highly entertaining, innovative, and thought provoking. In examining the appeal of this highly dynamic genre, this volume explores how it responds not only to changing social debates on crime and policing, but also to processes of hybridization within the television industry itself. Contributors, many of whom are leading figures in UK television studies, analyse popular series such as Broadchurch, Between the Lines, Foyle’s War, Poirot, Prime Suspect, Sherlock and Wallander. Essays examine the main characteristics of television crime drama production, including the nature of trans-Atlantic franchises and literary and transnational adaptations. Adopting a range of feminist, historical, aesthetic and industrial approaches, they offer incisive interrogations that provide readers with a rich understanding of the allure of crime drama to both viewers and commissioners.

Mediated Geographies and Geographies of Media

Mediated Geographies and Geographies of Media
Author: Susan P. Mains
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2015-10-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9401799695

This is the first comprehensive volume to explore and engage with current trends in Geographies of Media research. It reviews how conceptualizations of mediated geographies have evolved. Followed by an examination of diverse media contexts and locales, the book illustrates key issues through the integration of theoretical and empirical case studies, and reflects on the future challenges and opportunities faced by scholars in this field. The contributions by an international team of experts in the field, address theoretical perspectives on mediated geographies, methodological challenges and opportunities posed by geographies of media, the role and significance of different media forms and organizations in relation to socio-spatial relations, the dynamism of media in local-global relations, and in-depth case studies of mediated locales. Given the theoretical and methodological diversity of this book, it will provide an important reference for geographers and other interdisciplinary scholars working in cultural and media studies, researchers in environmental studies, sociology, visual anthropology, new technologies, and political science, who seek to understand and explore the interconnections of media, space and place through the examples of specific practices and settings.

Media Representations of Police and Crime

Media Representations of Police and Crime
Author: M. Colbran
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2014-10-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 113733472X

This unique book explores the social processes which shape fictional representations of police and crime in television dramas. Exploring ten leading British and European police dramas from the last twenty-five years, Colbran, a former scriptwriter, presents a revealing insight into police dramas, informed by media and criminological theory.