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Dopesick (2021) is the first TV series whose plot deals exclusively with the opioid crisis in the United States. The current study uses narrative analysis and framing theory to explore this series, discussing its portrayal of the people and themes involved in the opioid crisis. Our analysis found that although Dopesick attempts to portray multiple dimensions of the opioid crisis, its narrative oversimplifies the story in attributing the cause of the problem almost exclusively to Purdue Pharma and its director Richard Sackler, while downplaying other factors that contributed to the opioid crisis. Thus, the narrative in this TV series tends to offer simple explanations to a complex problem for which simple solutions are likely to be inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent should scholars view competitive reality television series as a politically relevant medium for transmitting messages about race, racial identity, and politics in the United States? Cultivation theory argues that the depiction of social issues and groups on television influences how individuals perceive the world around them. Drawing on this theory, I argue that the increasingly diverse casts of American competitive reality series are a heretofore underexplored site for studying the transmission of narratives related to race and racial justice to ostensibly unsuspecting American television audiences. In this article, I analyze viewers' reactions to Black contestants discussing their feelings of racialized social obligations when playing the game – what I refer to as narratives of racial duty. Employing a sentiment analysis as well as an inductive thematic content analysis of tweets reacting to four episodes from the 41st season of Survivor, I found that audience members overwhelmingly reacted negatively to embedding narratives of racial duty into the series. Specifically, they described the season as too political – the worst in the show's history – and even vowed to stop watching. These findings suggest that broadcasting exemplars who challenge prevailing narratives of racial progress may stoke feelings of racial backlash that could ultimately prompt individuals to tune out of these entertainment programs at best, and stoke racial discord at worst. Thus, I conclude that bringing race to the center of communication research offers scholars in both traditions a new vantage point for studying trends in American racial attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of gente-fication, or Latinx-led urban revitalization in workingclass barrios, has recently gained widespread attention and is at the heart of the popular US television series Vida (2018-20) and Gentefied (2020-22). Both programs serve as windows into contemporary Latinx struggles over belonging, "home," and identity against the backdrop of multicultural neoliberalism and multicultural whiteness in the United States. We examine how change in the fictional Latinx neighborhoods in Vida and Gentefied highlights the precarity of home for Latinxs in the United States, even as Latinx representation has achieved new heights across social life. Vida and Gentefied specifically depict home as threatened by processes of gentrification and gente-fication. Even though the home is in distress, it continues to offer Latinx protagonists safety, love, and belonging through a heterogeneous network of individuals, experiences, and memories. In their attempt to stabilize home, Latinx protagonists find autonomy and a home that heals, but in contrasting the popular conceptualization of gente-fication as a gentler, more culturally sensitive form of gentrification emphasizing racial and economic uplift for barrio residents, we argue that Vida and Gentefied utilize gente-fication as a narrative tool that rests Latinx belonging on tenets of assimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodistico is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The opening sequence of a series or film acts as a preamble that encapsulates various key elements of the plot or presents aesthetic and iconographic features that appear in the story. In this research, we analyze the representation of the modern-day American city in the opening sequences of three recent series that were very well received: The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007), Weeds (Showtime, 2005-2012) and House of Cards (Netflix, 2013-2018). To this end, we characterize the urban spaces presented in these intros, analyzing how their different elements are represented and used, the differences (or not) between "reality" and fiction, as regards their spatial and urban layout, together with the projection in the media of the different urban contexts. The Sopranos and House of Cards offer a brief, but highly detailed, picture of two world-famous metropolises (New York and Washington DC) and their different functional aspects. Weeds, and to some extent The Sopranos, offer the viewer an insight into suburban areas, as an example of urban sprawl in idealized family residential areas. These images are in sharp contrast with the cultural, historical Washington portrayed in House of Cards. In this way, the three opening sequences present and help create many of the stereotype images that make up our collective imaginary of the urban landscape of the East and West coast of the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of TECHNO Review is the property of Eurasia Academic Publishing Group and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article will evaluate the possible uses of fiction--specifically TV series--for a social history of American intelligence. Drawing on methodological debates within intelligence studies, as well as contemporary philosophy, it argues that certain TV series allow viewers to hypothetically experience the everyday life of ordinary intelligence professionals by permitting in-depth descriptions of specific routines and practices. Such a claim will be illustrated using the example of Rubicon (AMC, 2010), an American TV series that was praised for its realism by professionals and scholars alike. By making visible the ordinary life of professionals (coffee and lunch breaks, daily briefs, interminable waits etc.), Rubicon successfully demystifies the everyday life of intelligence analysts, without normalizing the extraordinary nature of the secret world (secrecy, mistrust, and extreme violence). In addition to challenging the clear-cut and often overly simplistic distinction between the factual and the fictional when it comes to secret intelligence, this contribution will also broaden our understanding of the hidden side of government by shedding light on cultural perceptions (including self-perceptions) of intelligence professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: According to cultivation theory, distorted representations of social reality on television can lead to distorted perceptions of reality among viewers. For example, the death penalty has been abolished in most Western countries a long time ago, but is often portrayed or mentioned in US crime shows, which are very popular outside the United States. Previous research suggests that the amount of television viewing can be associated with erroneous perceptions of the use of the death penalty—even when the death penalty is not used in the respective country. Unfortunately, available evidence on this association is inconclusive. Methods: In a cross-sectional web-based survey, we used quota-based sampling techniques to recruit 1,002 individuals representative of the Austrian population in terms of gender, age, education, and region of residence. We asked about their weekly amount of television viewing and use of US crime dramas and measured their beliefs on the use of the death penalty in Austria. Results: Although television viewing in general was not associated with erroneous perceptions of the death penalty (i.e., no overall across-the-board cultivation effect), data analysis provided supporting evidence for the idea of a genre-specific cultivation effect: The more US crime shows participants watched, the more likely they were to mistakenly believe that the death penalty is used in Austria. This association held true even after controlling for the gender, age, and education of participants. Conclusion: The finding that watching US crime shows, which are based on social reality in the United States, is associated with Austrian viewers' confusion with regards to perceptions of the death penalty is consistent with the genre-specific cultivation hypothesis. Some viewers may be guided more by mediated reality than by actual social reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matyjaszek's article discusses a set of reactions by Polish émigré cultural and political activists in the United States to the screening of the NBC television series Holocaust: The Story of the Family Weiss on 16–19 April 1978. It offers an analysis of the emergence of Holocaust history as a source of collective identity and memory in western societies, and as a part of popular culture. The end of the 1970s witnessed a series of cultural and political events as well as the publication of scholarly texts that put images of the mass murder of the European Jews at the centre of North American and global debates on identity and history as well as their political uses. In his analysis of reactions by Polish intellectuals and community leaders, Matyjaszek examines the cultural position of members of the post-war Central-Eastern European intelligentsia in the United States, both in relation to their own reference group's painful and violent history, and to their position within the North American society of the time. In a critical evaluation of contemporary uses of the concepts of 'bystander' and 'survivor' with regard to the Holocaust, he focuses on a set of documents stored in the private archive of Jan Nowak-Jeziorański (Ossoliński Institute, Wrocław, Poland), as well as on published documents and correspondence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of the Latino population in the United States during the 21st century has attracted the attention of television professionals and scholars to this community. This article aims to study the inclusion of Latinx people in American TV series and the correlation between Latinx characters and Latinx showrunners and writers. A literature review on the Latino community in television media has been conducted. After this, a specific case study--Vida TV series--is examined following a qualitative methodology based on two theoretical approaches: media production and television aesthetic. These results show that Tanya Saracho has a creative and personal connection to her TV series as showrunner. In conclusion, the traditional stereotyped and limited representation of Latinx people in U.S. TV series is counteracted by hiring Latinx television professionals in the television production process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds further on research in gender/queer TV studies to understand how interpretive communities form around gender-diverse TV series on social media platforms, while questioning the influence a broadcaster/content provider may still have on the reception of LGBTQ characters. Since recent technological innovations have deeply upset normative definitions of television and of its 'identity', this article seeks to understand whether the inclusion of LGBTQ characters in TV series has a similar potential to encourage viewers to queer or challenge normative knowledges about human sexualities and identities. To this end, the article provides a qualitative analysis of discourses that have been published on the official Facebook page of two US serialised dramas: Sense8 (Netflix 2015–2018) and Billions (Showtime 2016–). This research reveals that conversations around Sense8 and Billions differ significantly, ranging from a tendency to deflect criticism and promote progressive readings of the show (Sense8), to more aggressive debates and frequent attempts to 'solve' gender ambiguities (Billions). Through a detailed analysis of comments and interactions on a popular social media platform, this article, therefore, argues that the nature of a particular content provider might still affect – though never determine – the formation of interpretive communities online, and the nature of comments published around a series featuring LGBTQ character(s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of Internet-distributed television services such as Netflix has led viewers and legacy television companies to rethink the norms of television. Internet distribution is often presumed as the source of Netflix's market differentiation, but the contemporary competitive field has simultaneously been adjusted by shifts in revenue model and ownership regulations. This article examines the multiple shifts in the US television industry to illustrate how adjustments in the underlying financing practices of series production and revenue sources also structure the multiplatform environment. Distribution technology is not reshaping the boundaries and norms of television texts and industries alone, but adjustments to industrial practices such as financing must also be examined. Comparison of the financing practices of subscriber-funded, linear, HBO, and nonlinear Netflix ground the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the development of the television industry and its relationship to commercial culture and social change. Topics discussed include the relationship between televisual narrative and technological development; impact of the American television series "The Twilight Zone" on commercial culture and social change; and also mentions the unsettling of the domestic sphere and close reading historical television.

Although a considerable amount of research has been carried out in the field of global media studies on the ways in which US television and audiovisual products in general travel to different countries, little attention continues to be paid to the cultural and linguistic adaptation that such cross-cultural transfer inevitably requires and to the modifications to which these products become subject in the process. This paper focuses on the adaptation into Italian of a number of recent US television series containing controversial language and potentially disturbing themes, such as references to death, disability, sexuality/homosexuality and drugs. By analysing dubbed, subtitled, and fansubbed versions of such series, this study shows how the dubbed versions of the series tended to be toned down as far as taboo language and subjects are concerned, as opposed to the fansubbed versions and to some extent the official subtitles. In some of the more extreme cases the series seem to have undergone a ‘genetic modification’ of sorts, with Italian viewers watching sometimes radically different shows with respect to their US counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite consumption patterns gradually changing, the notion of flow remains a key concept drawn on by scholars to understand television. As a concept, 'flow' is connected to an understanding of the difference of television from other media as far as the viewing experience is concerned: rather than a single film, audiences encounter a number of small units that are combined in the process of audiences' sense making. In this understanding, ephemera become as important as programmes as they interlink to create a meaningful whole. On the other hand, John Ellis argues that the more typical form for television is actually the segment which contains a separate meaning within itself. Using an audience ethnography, this article argues that in the experience of audiences, the concepts of flow and segmentation are both in evidence. Rather than seeing them as opposing, therefore, they must be understood as complementary in order to fully account for audiences' experiences and sense making of television. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article critiques the "Def Comedy Jam" television series which was developed in 1992 as a means of showcasing black comedians, and it mentions the social aspects of television programs such as "Def Comedy Jam" during the 1990s in the U.S. Performances by black comics such as Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and Richard Pryor are examined, along with African-American humor, the popularity of comedians such as Eddie Murphy, and the social aspects of black comedy.

The article discusses the emergence of Anglo-American difference in the U.S. television series "America Dances." Topics discussed include the addition of transatlantic exchange between Great Britain and the U.S. represented by the series, the mutual regard and repudiation developed by the British public service radio and the U.S. commercial network radio, and the situation of the "America Dances" in the transatlantic broadcasting context.

A criticism is offered of the American television program series "Smallville," developed by Mark Millar and Alfred Gough. The series' depiction of parents' roles in their teenage children's psychic traumas, including in regard to the role that trauma plays in the fictitious character Clark Kent's becoming the fictional character Superman, are discussed. An overview of the impact that trauma plays in the fictional character Lex Luthor's melancholia is provided.

The present study revisits one of American television's most famous and influential shows, Twin Peaks, which ran on ABC between 1990 and 1991. Its unique visual style, its haunting music, the idiosyncratic characters and the mix of mythical and supernatural elements made it the most talked-about TV series of the 1990s and generated numerous parodies and imitations. Twin Peaks was the brainchild of America's probably least mainstream director, David Lynch, and Mark Frost, who was known to television audiences as one of the scriptwriters of the highly popular detective series Hill Street Blues. When Twin Peaks ended in 1991, the show's severely diminished audience were left with one of most puzzling cliffhangers ever seen on television, but the announcement made by Lynch and Frost in October 2014, that the show would return with nine fresh episodes premiering on Showtime in 2016, quickly went viral and revived interest in Twin Peaks' distinctive world. In what follows, I intend to discuss the reasons why Twin Peaks was considered a highly original work, well ahead of its time, and how much the show was indebted to the legacy of classic American film noir; finally, I advance a few speculations about the possible plotlines the series might explore upon its return to the small screen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudos em Comunicação is the property of Labcom / Universidade da Beira Interior and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses mediation as a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in places such as the U.S. as of 2015, and it mentions the portrayal of mediation proceedings and practices in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and "Star Trek: Enterprise" science fiction television series. Neutral third-party mediators and non-binding mediation processes are examined, as well as mediation styles and obstacles to a successful dispute resolution.

In the most recent serial fiction the hero is markedly different. The main characters of the latest series almost always have a feature that is far from the classical virtuosity, an element of strangeness, often asocial. This article aims to show that in the U.S. television drama of the last ten years the hero progressively acquires new features that not allow the normal interaction with the world around him. The characteristics of this type of character, away from traditional narrative standards are diverse, but all of them are typical of the known as freak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the variation in title sequences for American television series (a sequence of moving images and sound at the beginning of a television series). Using a quantitative survey of 50 contemporary fictional television series, it explores key features of the television title sequence – such as length, credits, characters, sound and style – and relates these to its functional characteristics. In so doing, the article provides a synchronic snapshot of a significant contemporary cultural product that viewers regularly engage with and enjoy. The survey not only shows the variation inherent in these cultural products, but also pinpoints areas that are worth investigating more closely and in depth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article looks at the role of two of the most iconic figures in American popular culture: the gangster and the westerner. Drawing on genre theory from film and television, the way in which the westerner has been displaced by the gangster as the most common signifier of American identity is explored, focussing specifically on the television series Justified (2010-). The southern location of the series further complicates the set of referents by mobilizing aspects of Southern Gothic. While the western and the gangster film have often been viewed as oppositional in terms of location, era and their respective musings on and articulation of American identity, this article argues that the hybridity of genres in popular culture opens up a wider space in which to address aspects of myth, history and social concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the formats, narrative techniques, and production processes of television shows and their evolution over time. The author outlines the history of television series, emphasizing that the early twenty-first century witnessed a significant increase in plot complexity and drawing on examples from the United States and Germany. The implications of these trends for children's television are also commented on.

While a growing body of scholarship explores narrative beginnings, much less is known about narrative endings or narrative ‘deaths’. In this article I draw on media studies as well as gerontological and thanatological literature to explore the endings of US serial television, focusing on the criteria required for a ‘good textual death’. Situated in the notion that cultural objects have a biography or a life span much as individuals do, I ultimately explore the implications of a thanatology of media studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article approaches some aspects of serial fiction television that, according to some scholars, features a complex narrative structure that demonstrates the formats innovation for the television serial fiction, especially those originated from U.S.A. The analysis takes in consideration fiction series based on a complex interpretation of the text television set from their materiality (historical, social, compositional), from production conditions and from the production of meanings. After this discussion, we observe the complex narrative in a serial production from Brazil through the analysis of some elements of Task Force (Globo TV). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores five seasons of the Wire, a dramatic television series, which focused several problems including law enforcement failure, poor education for impoverished children, and corrupt city government in Baltimore, Maryland. It mentions that the Wire reflects inequality status in the U.S. and examines the U.S. Supreme Court decision in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez dealing with the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause providing public services.

Fiction series broadcasted by TV channels can be domestically-produced or foreign-made. The former may contribute to the definition of a TV channel's corporate identity. The latter, usually US-made, series tend to have widely recognized quality standards and offer a reasonable guarantee of high audience ratings in the countries to which they are exported. The definition of viewer preferences for home-produced or American-made fiction series is a key issue in this regard. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect that certain viewer factors may have on preferences for domestically-produced or American-made fiction series in Spain; in specific terms, the variables taken into consideration here are gender, age, educational level, nationality, preferences for TV genres and the perceived quality of television series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US TV series Mad Men, set in an advertising agency in 1960s New York, offers a vivid portrayal of corporate sexism in pre-feminist America, and yet its creators defend it as a ‘feminist’ show. Reflecting on the series, I will draw out two key elements which seem significant for a consideration of the current state of feminism in church and academy, both of which centre around what it means to remember or (not) to forget. First, there is the power of what might be called ‘the allegorical past’ in helping to shape the sensibilities of both feminist theory and feminist theology: reimagining the past in order to destabilize the present and to re-envision the future. But second there is the question of whether we have become too complacent – and forgetful about the sexual revolution of the past 50 years, and whether a new wave of ‘re-membering’ our feminist heritage is required, in order to rejuvenate progressive visions of critique and transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the use of television footage in the television series "Mad Men" as a way of representing a historical period. It examines the television footage of key moments in the administration of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1960 in the television series to convey the nostalgic genesis story about a perceived cultural decline using periodisation. It also cites the three modes of history, the monumental, the antiquarian and the critical which resonate through Mad Men.

This paper discusses the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, more specifically, its enormous popularity in the United States, Western Europe and Australia, and the absence of any reaction to the series in Serbia. By compari ng themes regarded as important in western societies to the current situation in Serbia, the analysis shows that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a series that could not have gained popularity in Serbia because it uses the language of fantasy to speak about reality and pose unpleasant questions, which the Serbian public does not wish to hear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the critical role of tele-visual cultures in the representation of the meanings and consequences of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. in 2001. It cites the re-imagined "Battlestar Galactica" (BSG) television series which is a story of the human race attempting to prevent an apocalypse at the hands of robots. It also explores the representation of subjective and objective violence in the re-imagined BSG, and its interaction with the world post 9/11. Moreover, it points out the preventability of terrorist violence.

While the Cold War generated a number of American TV series exploring national security issues in the context of apocalyptic nuclear policies, it was the end of the Cold War that raised issues about the purpose of the security services and saw television series from The X-Files on with the recurring trope of security conspiracy leading to apocalypse. Since 9/11, terrorism, asymmetric warfare, and the constant threat of apocalypse have been so inventively explored by American TV series that this paper argues they have led mainstream news services in the discussion of security issues. In particular, 24 and West Wing scooped the mainstream press in discussion of the corrosive effect of state-sanctioned torture and assassination on the US presidency. The American TV series' contribution to democratic deliberation is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Réseaux (07517971) is the property of Editions La Decouverte and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Today's US and Western Europe TV series and film features are getting increasingly crammed with health–driven sub–plots and narratives. A number of studies indicate that some TV series' attention is almost equally divided between describing fictional heroes' lives and their medical experience, the latter being a clear educational vehicle. In our contribution we are going to discuss the case study of one of the most appreciated examples of such an approach, the popular TV show Grey's Anatomy that – when usually attributed as a romantic/medical drama with small and specific comedy inserts – became a popular culture phenomenon and a regular prime–time broadcast since its 2005 premiere. This media product can be considered a striking example of spontaneous social and emotional learning right in the front of a TV–screen and the series is even more interesting because of the simple fact that it favours the visualization of professional physicians' experience instead of focusing on more traditional patients' sub–plots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German and American TV comedy series from the 1970s to the present are analysed with special attention to the social relations of their main male and female characters, ranging from the typical comic couple of the earlier German examples to the bunch of friends in current series, with changes in gender relations and other social areas as background. The historical view and the intercultural comparison are linked with observations regarding the transcultural influence of American TV comedy on German series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]