Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Deborah A. Macey, Kathleen M. Ryan and Noah J. Springer

Section I: Not Necessarily the News
2. A Bigger Screen for a Narrower View
Jack A. Barwind, Philip J. Salem, and Robert D. Gratz
3. Measuring the Messenger: Analyzing Bias in Presidential Election Return Coverage
Kahtleen M. Ryan, Lane Clegg, and Joy C. Mapaye
4. Television, Islam, and the Invisible: Narratives on Terrorism and Immigration
Tim Karis

Section II: Boy (and Girl) Meets World
5. “Your Dreams Were Your Ticket Out:” How Mass Media’s Teachers Constructed One Educator’s Identity
Edward A. Janak
6. Defying Gravity: Fox’s Glee Provides a Forum for Queer Teen Representation
Katherine J. Lehman
7. Friendship and the Single Girl: What We Learned about Feminism and Friendship from Sitcom Women in the 1960s and 1970s
Cindy Conaway and Peggy Tally

Section III: America’s Most Wanted
8. Epic Failures: Media Framing and the Ethics of Scapegoating in Baseball
Chandler Harris and Lauren Lemley
9. Eyewitnesses to TV Versions of Reality: The Relationship between Exposure to TV Crime Dramas and Perceptions of the Criminal Justice System
Susan H. Sarapin and Glenn G. Sparks
10. Paramilitary Patriots of the Cold War: Women, Weapons, and Private Warriors in The A-Team and Airwolf
Charity Fox

Section IV: The More You Know
11. Lisa and Phoebe, Lone Vegetarian Icons: At Odds with Television’s Carnonormativity
Carrie Packwood Freeman
12. Television and the Environment: More Screen–Less Green
Jennifer Ellen Good
13. From Welby to McDreamy: What TV Teaches Us About Doctors, Patients, and the Health Care System
Katherine A. Foss

Section V: The Voice
14. Made Impossible by Viewers Like You: The Politics and Poetics of Native American Voices in US Public Television
Leighton C. Peterson
15. “Real” Black, “Real” Money: African American Audiences on The Real Housewives of Atlanta
Gretta Moody
16. He Who has the Gold Makes the Rules: Tyler Perry Presents “The Tyler Perry Way”
Danielle E. Williams
17. Viewing 90210 from 12203: Affluent TV Teens Influence a Cohort of Middle Class Women
Michelle Napierski-Prancl

Section VI: Futurama
18. The Construction of Taste: Television and American Home Décor
Stylés I. Akira and Larry Ossei-Mensah
19. Bordertown: Manufacturing Mexicanness in Reality Television
Ariadne Alejandra Gonzalez
20. Cyborgs in the Newsroom: Databases, Cynicism and Political Irony in The Daily Show
Noah J. Springer

About the Author

Deborah A. Macey is visiting assistant professor at Saint Louis University.
Kathleen M. Ryan is an associate professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder and an active multimedia director and producer.
Noah J. Springer is a PhD student at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Reviews

The authors use diverse methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and genres of television to enhance the scholarly application of this book. The editors succeeded in organizing an array of essays on the ways in which television both influences and is influenced by social trends.... This book would be a helpful addition to a course on mass media, the history of television, or diversity in the media... The variety of methods and theoretical frameworks used make the book helpful for a class that is exploring ways to approach the study of media and communication.
*International Journal of Communication*

Because of its range of texts, themes, and critical approaches, this potpourri of essays enriches television scholarship. The ambitious collection examines commercial considerations, such as advertising and audience reception, and social issues, such as images of good and evil. It is a persuasive analysis of information distribution and predictions about what lies ahead in television, which remains a singularly important conduit for dominant and alternative cultural narratives.
*Jan Whitt, University of Colorado Boulder*

This book brings together diverse and highly respected scholars to help demonstrate the powerful influence of television, an increasingly fragmented and fractured media in contemporary culture. It explores institutions, audiences, and cultures through multiple methodologies and theoretical frameworks, offering fascinating new insights into how television molds our perceptions of the world and influences our action within it.
*Kathleen German, Miami University*