Core Response #1 - Lilla Spanyi

 

Newcomb and Hirsch’s 1983 essay Television as a Cultural Form declares that television is our “national medium” that is “central to [the] process of public thinking” (563). While this idea certainly seems dated in 2021, when an increasing number of people are cutting the cord, the idea that TV influences public opinion is still very much relevant. Newcomb and Hirsch argue that according to the “transportation view,” TV as a form of communication transmits “messages at a distance for the purpose of control,” “persuasion,” or “attitude change” (562). They even bring up Father Knows Best as an example of a show that seemingly “reproduces dominant ideology” as a way of persuading their audience to stick to the status quo (565). However, they add that while seemingly presenting ideological conclusions, they in fact “comment on ideological problems” (566). Indeed, television has been used as a way to reflect on contemporary society, with audiences eager to consume storylines relevant to their day-to-day. That said, using the fictional, serialized narratives of characters can also be used to embody change.

Last semester, I interviewed Elizabeth Voorhees, the Chief Strategy Officer at Define American, a non-profit that focuses on the representation of immigrants in television. Voorhees argued that television is important due to its nature as popular culture —people reach for it for entertainment, and not for education. Yet when watching something that is popular culture, people let their guard down. This creates an opportunity to create dialogue and introduce audiences to perspectives they would not have otherwise considered, whether it is for political or other reasons. So, in a way, television is used as a method for persuasion and attitude change, but not in the negative way that Newcomb and Hirsch discuss. It is used as a method to combat the increasing polarization of media consumption and introduce storylines such as undocumented immigration, for example, in a humanizing way and related to characters that audiences otherwise care about. So while TV certainly can be used to reinforce dominant ideologies, it is also capable of doing the opposite — by allowing people to let their guard down, it can warm people up to concepts or identities they are otherwise opposed to.