Television 1

Television: Is Hopelessness the New Trend in TV? Salva Khataw Alfredo Santos Aryelle Simmons Brooks Stewart Caroline Williams St. Edwards University

Television 2 Literature Review: It can be said that todays television programs are a reflection of the world around us. Indeed, many parallels can be drawn between the small screen and modern society. For this reason alone, it is vital that a thorough examination is conducted on current themes in television.The insidious effects of television have been studied extensively. Sex and violence are standard themes in a range of television programs and several studies have shown correlations between the amount of television watched and the resulting behavior because of it. Yet, as of late a new theme has emerged and gone almost undetected. Some of the most watched television programs have adopted this theme of hopelessness. Networks hide this motif through the other more relevant themes within programs. The research question to be studied is as follows: How often does the theme of hopelessness occur in major television shows? It is important to study this phenomenon as is it very present in todays programming. Sex: One of the most prevalent themes in television is sex. Many theorize that increasing sexual content in television can be detrimental to overall growth and attitude development towards sex. Gorham (1994) examined sex within primetime television while offering analysis of the content trends. It also addressed a problem of sample size designed to follow these trends. The results of the study indicated many differences from previous reports in early studies with considerable decreases in the quantity and quality of sexual behavior between the 88-89 and 9394 television seasons. A minimum of one constructed week of programming has been measured for study, qualified analyses of full and half sample data provided proof for trends to be accurately tracked easing a reasonable subsample of a assembled week of programming. No conclusion has been made to prove that exposure to television sex is necessarily harmful;

Television 3 however previous studies have shown changes in sexual attitude which lead theorists to believe that television sex is a cause for concern. Overall, this study used a constructed week of programming from four major television networks to discover trends of a sexual nature. The study does not aim to prove that television sex is directly harmful, but rather to cause alarm to how much sexual content appears on television and why it is a cause for alarm. Other studies centered on sexual messages presented within television programming. Kunkel, Eyal, Donnerstein, Farrar, Biely, and Rideout (2007) attempted to study the pattern of sexual messages found on television over the course of a few years and study the effects these shows had on the audience. The content analysis also provided valuable information on the types of messages audience members were being exposed to in recent years. Researchers observed a sampling of random television shows over the course of a week between 7:00am and 11:00pm on a variety of channels. The researchers accounted for different representation of sexual behavior in a variety of ways. They included any sexual suggestive activity, sexual talk, interests and behaviors. Researchers also accounted for behavior such as flirting, passionate kissing and heavy petting. They then ranked the behavior on a scale of one to four, with one being physical flirting and 4 being a portrayal of sexual intercourse. The results were recorded by 56 undergraduate students who were trained on messages for over 10 weeks. By the 10th week, 89% of all coders were in agreement on what constituted a sexual portrayal on television. The results show that in 2001/2002; nearly two of every three television shows (64%) contained some type of sexual message. Across all programs where were approximately 4.4 scenes per hour involving sexual content. Research also found that in the majority of programming sexual intercourse was strongly implied rather than directly depicted, 82% being implied to 18% being directly depicted. Overall, the study found that sexual messages have increased significantly over the 5 year period

Television 4 of analyzed by researchers. An increase from 7% of shows depicting sex in the late 1990s, to 14% of shows depicting sex in the early 200s was found. Another important fact to note is that only 1% of television shows depicted any type of risk in regards to sexual behavior. This study ultimately concludes that with the amount of sexual situations depicted on television, there needs to be more of an emphasis placed on risk and responsibility. Lack thereof poses a possible social health risk. Eyal and Finnerty also performed a study on sexual portrayals in television (2009). Their research examined the portrayal of sexual intercourse in television. Sexual content in television rose from 56% in 1997-1998 to 70% in 2004-2005. Programs were assessed by the appearance of sexual intercourse acts, the characters that engage in them and their consequences. Results indicated that 16% of television characters involved in sexual intercourse acts were teenagers or young adults and risks associated with sexual activity were rarely depicted. Also, attractive female characters were more probable to be victims of sexual crimes than male characters. Consequences of sexual intercourse were portrayed as more positive than negative and tended to be more emotional in nature. Positive consequences were seen as more brief and short-lived while negative consequences were seen as more emotional and impactful. HBO included the most shows with sexual intercourse acts but were fairly even when compared to multiple channels with the presentation of sexual intercourse in television. In the final study, Punyanunt-Carter (2006) observed college students view of love and romance in television. Results indicated that both men and woman were comparable on the idea of courtship, kissing, dating and attraction on television. However, on the other hand men and women differed on the view of sex, love and romance on television. Men tended to believe that sex on television was very realistic while women tended to believe that the portrayal of love on

Television 5 television were accurate perceptions of reality. Therefore this study showed that in some aspects men and women had similar ideas relating to love and in other aspects completely different ideas. Another category of program often associated with sexual content are reality shows. Reality TV: Johnny E. Williams (2006) explains how reality TV causes people to normalize their being and cultural identities. He explores the issues of reality TV production and offers an extensive critique through various approaches. The first approach discusses how reality TV viewers make sense of these shows. He found that some viewers sought relief from the rigors of trying to survive their life circumstances. These viewers evaluated themselves against the standards of productivity. The second examines how television producers and executives thoughts on why people watch reality TV are incorporated into the production process to shape participants and viewers understanding of the genre. He found that producers and executives create an illusion that reality TV assists in creating a more equitable society when in fact they naturalize inequality. These processes effectively control the behavior and shape the ideas of reality TV participants and audiences. The third investigates how historical, commercial, and cultural contexts inform reality TV discourse. He explains that reality TV attempts to shed light on the interactive dynamic between cultural, social, political, and economic structure and reality TV discourse creation and interpretation. Williams studies reality TVs production purposes in shows that include crime, racism, class, and gender status. Additionally, Maryann Haggarty (2010) explains that the unscripted genre continues to grow past being a superficial cultural fad. Racism, stereotyping, and the lack of social value are likely consequences of reality TVs ability to distort young viewers perception of life. Haggarty examines the classy and/or trashy programs of reality TV and how audiences follow the lives of

Television 6 minor celebrities known mostly for being on other reality shows. She questions the degree of fakery because evidence revealed that reality shows are edited so that there is a story line. These issues undeniably dont scare away viewers. Haggarty reasons that reality TV depicts stereotypes, which is troublesome as it distorts how individuals perceive life. Jason R. Kosovski and Douglas C. Smith (2011) use the literature on reality TV and empirical studies on addiction to examine Interventions narrative. They analyze the way the first six seasons are structured: repeated emphases on the causes of addiction and the TV shows sobering success rate. This article highlights discrepancies between the shows representations and assertions versus empirical research. Kosovski and Smith give a narrative and ethical critique of Interventions reality TV show on addiction. The remedies for Intervention involve treatments generally available only to the financially affluent, and the programs depictions of addiction reinforce a popular culture, rather than a science-based understanding of the addiction and family. Kosovski and Smith find it problematic that addiction is presented as the stigma to reality TV. This article is useful because it illustrates the disjoint between reality and reality television. Often times, what is portrayed on the screen in not realistic. This is true in the case of intervention, in which addicts are often shown experiencing fairytale endings and suddenly overcoming addiction. It is important to analyze the quality and true reality of reality TV if one wants to understand the perceptions of the audience. The final themes to be explored is that of violence as this theme is present in many of todays shows. Violence: A study by Slotsve, del Carmen, Sarver, and Villareal-Watkins (2008) aimed to add to research done in the 1970s that showed television violence can affect children and encourage further violent behavior and aggressive attitudes. The purpose of the study was to decipher

Television 7 perceptions and knowledge of television viewing habits, program content, and behavior from childhood to present day. The basics of the study aimed to associate a relationship between childhood introduction to violent television and perceived aggressive behavior later on in life. Different reports are cited that confirm advertising for violent television programs are specifically targeted at a younger demographic such as kids. As adults these same children may grow to exhibit more aggressive behavior dependent on how much television they were exposed to. Physical violence is not the only form of violence in television. Glasscock (2008) studied the prevalence of three types of aggression in primetime television during the spring season 2005. The three forms of aggression studied included verbal, indirect, and physical with verbal aggression being the most prevalent. Physical aggression also was noted to appear more among Caucasian males while female characters in television programming were found to exhibit more indirect aggression. Verbal aggression was found to be sex neutral. Minority racial groups were noted as less aggressive than their Caucasian counterparts. Cross sex and cross cultural aggression remained seemingly balanced. Nielsen Media Research was used to track the average viewing time for American households and individuals. As with other research the sample consisted of a week of programming on major broadcast networks which account for a majority of primetime television viewing. The three different forms of aggression were given a criteria as well as recorded demographics of each aggression exhibited. Each show was coded three times to ensure accuracy. Verbal aggression came out to be the most present form of aggression leading to violence within primetime television. Nancy Signorielli and George Gerbner (1995) decided to explore various themes of violence found in different television programs. They deemed their project the Cultural

Television 8 Indicators Project, and the project itself was conducted over a period of 25 years, starting in 1967. Researchers attempted to observe the relationship between television viewing and concepts of social reality. They conducted a content analysis as well as a cultivation analysis. The former addressed what the audience actually saw on television and the latter addressed the consequences of living and learning from television. First the group defined violence as the overt expression of physical force (with or without a weapon, against self or other) compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt or killed or actually hurting or killing. By defining violence in this was there was no room for participant misinterpretation. Researchers decided to include violence that was done intentionally, portrayed in a comedic sense as well as an violent accidents or acts of nature. Next, researchers recorded the number of times a violent act appeared on screen and the amount of time the television program being studied devoted to these separate violent acts. They also measured the seriousness and the significance of the violent act, meaning if the violent act was comedic in nature, and if the violent act had a meaningful purpose in regards to plot or storyline. Finally, researchers recorded whether the characters on the show commit the violent act or are victims or the violent act, as well as the extent to which they are involved. In this case, whether do not hurt or kill, they hurt someone, or kill someone or in regards to victims whether they are not hurt or killed, are hurt or are killed. The research has analyzed 26 annual week-long samples of primetime and weekend daytime network dramatic programming, broadcast each fall between 1967 and 1993. Researchers observed every genre in television rather than limiting themselves to one genre. While this article in particular does not discuss the results of the Signorielli Gerbner studies, this article provides relevant and extremely valuable information concerning cultivation theory and cultural indicators. Cultivation theory could prove to be relevant in the study of our overall thesis.

Television 9 Death and Hopelessness: Death is a closely related consequence of violence in television. Taylor (2012) examined the idea that media choices would be affected by the influence of death-related thoughts. There were three experiments conducted with a sample of undergraduate students to examine whether the influence of death-related thoughts would affect the preference for law and justice television programming. In the first experiment, students who saw more of an importance on the view of mortality preferred programming with law and justice themes rather than students for whom death was not as big of an issue. The second experiment, was observed without the idea of trust in law enforcement and was conducted only on participants who were persuaded to think about death and mortality, not to those encouraged to think about pain. This study reinforced the same findings as study 1. Thoughts about death increased interest in law and justice programming even though this was independent of trust in the justice system. In the last experiment, students for whom death was an important factor and who watched crime programming that showed justice being carried out demonstrated a diminishing self-enhancing bias compared to participants who watched a version of the same program in which justice was disappointed. In conclusion, results indicated that entertainment choices are influenced by thoughts of death beyond the idea of a distraction and entertainment programming that have an emphasis on justice and successfully improve anxiety that develop from thoughts of death. In close relation with death, and definitely a trending theme is vampires. Sometimes it seems as if vampires and other supernatural creatures that just won't die are everywhere when you turn on the television. The truth is, immortality on television programs is nothing new. What is new, perhaps, is the obsession with the dark side of immortality. Jonathan F. Bassett analyses how Americans are becoming obsessed with the concept of "dark" immortality. This is

Television 10 studied through the observation of television and how we relate to it. The paper begins studying the concept of immortality itself by analyzing the character Duncan MacLeod in the television series Highlander. Highlander came out long before the vampire "craze". This is a character that is considered a "successful" immortal in that he is not miserable. He is capable of living a heroic and productive life. He is not a vicious murderer. The article contrasts this with the vampires of the Anne Rice novels and vampires of television. This type of immortality involves misery, regret, and murder. It is this immortality that America and American youth, in particular, is becoming obsessed with. This concept can be further explored in the ever-growing zombie phenomenon. The article suggests that it is not prolonging life that America finds fascinating, nor is it the supernatural, but the prolonging of death. It is constant and repeated death that young Americans thirst for. Unlike the vampires that we see on television today, MacLeod's identity remains intact and constant. In other words, he never loses himself or his sense of values. He has a mission and it is a productive one. The article asks why are we continuing to watch more and more programs that revel in the idea of hopelessness. Peirse (2012) has solidified that vampire television is a major trend in America today. Where did vampire television begin? This article gives us the answer. The answer, at least, to the latest group of supernatural-related television series such as True Blood and Vampire Diaries. Canada is not where you would think the American vampire trend would start, but that is exactly what Alison Peirse claims in this study. The article studies the Canadian television show Blood Ties. Blood ties began filming in Vancouver in 2006, aired in 2007, and only lasted one year. This study takes into account the economy of Canada, the television market, and the other reasons why a show about vampires failed in a country that neighbors a land that simply can't get enough vampires. This study compares the television audience of Canada to that of the U.S. and,

Television 11 in doing so, reveals some of the reasons vampire television is so successful in America. In addition to this, the article also shows how Blood Ties helped spawn the dark and sexual themes that we see in vampire shows today. The author even directly relates Blood Ties to the eventual format of HBO's True Blood. Themes such as sex, violence, and death are seen almost on a regular television watching basis. However this new idea of hopelessness may possibly be occurring more in television than any other theme. It is not an advertised or easily noticeable subject and it is not meant to be. Hopelessness is an easily relatable theme and its something any television viewer can experience. It is growing along with other theme which only empower this idea of hopelessness. Aggression in general is an accepted theme of television while other arising themes such as addiction, death, and consequently vampires seems to excite people more than concern them. Caution must be advised, though; in order to fully attempt to begin this new phenomenon we must accept that hopeless does not come as a stand alone theme. To study this effect a criteria must be clearly agreed upon in order to do proper content analysis. By developing a criteria, research can be conducted on a select number of television programs and determine how often the theme of hopelessness enters the show. Another important aspect to examine is the accompanying themes that may enable the hopeless feeling. All of these taken into account, this study will focus on hopelessness and its recurrence in television programs of one particular network. Hopelessness is becoming a very apparent theme in many of todays prime time television shows, to the extent that instances of hopelessness are outweighing instances of happiness.

Television 12 Methods: This study will evaluate trends of hopelessness and life-affirming behavior in the following television shows: Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and The Killing. Hopelessness is defined in the free online dictionary, accepted by the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association, as the subjective state in which an individual sees limited or no alternatives or personal choices available and is unable to mobilize energy on his or her own behalf (Hopelessness, 2013). We will analyze hopelessness through analyzing the characters of these shows. We define hopelessness as personal negativity, reactions to loss, death or pain, and resorting to unethical behavior due to lack of control. We chose a random sampling of 3 episodes of each show. We will also analyze life-affirming behavior, as having or showing a positive outlook that encourages optimism about life (Life-Affirming, 2013). This consists of personal positivity, reactions to romance, respecting ones self and others, and reaffirmation of control over one's destiny. Researchers will be watching the shows together and independently noting instances of hopelessness and instances of happiness throughout the entirety of each episode. Subsequently, we will review the observed events, compare the examples of hopelessness and happiness in each episode and finally draw conclusions about trends in each television show.

Television 13 References Basset, J. F. (2011). Its Hard Out Here for an Immortal: Angst and Ennui in Interview with the Vampire and the Television Series Highlander. PsyArt, 5. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database. (Accession No. 78317522) Eyal, K., & Finnerty, K. (2009). The Portrayal of Sexual Intercourse on Television: How, Who and With What Consequence? Mass Communication & Society, 12(2), 143-169. Retrieved from SocINDEX with Full Text database. (Accession No. 37185812) Glasscock, J. (2008). Direct and Indirect Aggression on Prime-Time Network Television. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(2), 268-281. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database. (Accession No. 34478688) Gorham, J. (1994). Sex in Primetime Television: An Analysis of Content Trends, Context Categories, and Sampling Considerations. Communication Research Reports, 11(2), 177188. Retrieved from Communication and Mass Media Complete database. (Accession No. 18445465) Haggerty, M. (2010). Reality TV. CQ Researcher, 20(29), 677. Retrieved from MAS Ultra - School Edition database. (Accession No. 53544060) Hopelessness. (n.d.) McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. (2002). Retrieved April 14 2013 Kosovski, J. R., & Smith, D. C. (2011). Everybody Hurts: Addiction, Drama, and the Family in the Reality Television Show Intervention. Substance Use & Misuse. Informa Healthcare, 46(7), 852-858. Kunkel, D., Eyal, K., Donnerstein, E., Farrar, K. M., Biely, E., & Rideout, V. (2007). Sexual Socialization Messages on Entertainment Television: Comparing Content Trends

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