Escape to Germany in Syrian Television Drama: From Cross-Cultural Gender Constructions to Transnational Tropes of Masculinity and Homeland

Looking at programs from the 1960s onward, this article shows the persistence and evolution of the gender imbalance in Syrian television characters' relationships with Germany. Before the 2011 uprising, screenwriters linked women charac ters to Germany as a way to challenge patriarchal standards of sexuality and gendered conceptions of national belonging. As the war has ensued, this trope has vanished. Meanwhile, long-standing narratives about men emigrating to Germany continue to represent abandonment of the homeland and have become intensified through nationalist nostalgia.

Portrayals of Volunteering on U.S. Television: A Textual Analysis

Volunteer managers identify challenging tasks, such as volunteer buy-in, retention, and role matching. Successful management of these tasks is influenced by how volunteers anticipate and perceive their volunteer experience. Volunteers receive and interpret messages about the drivers, rules, and expectations of giving one’s time and expertise from what they observe in the media. Television portrays how society perceives volunteering and compulsory community service. We used textual analysis to interpret portrayals of volunteering in 104 storylines on U.S. television. Television characters portrayed as volunteers were primarily motivated by civic duty, committed on a short-term basis, and had a positive experience. The volunteer manager was often absent. The intended beneficiary need not be present because the volunteer was the ultimate beneficiary. The storylines on TV excluded important components of the volunteer experience, meaning volunteer managers may need to take steps to mitigate problems associated with unrealized expectations of the TV binge-watching volunteers.

Whitewashing diverse voices: (de)constructing race and ethnicity in Spanish-language television dubbing

When television programs are translated for global audiences, languages are changed, but so too are constructions of diverse identities. Characters who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) undergo transformations in order to be intelligible outside of their original national contexts; such transformations might reinforce these characters’ difference or eliminate it, effectively whitewashing BIPOC voices. This article unpacks this phenomenon by investigating the translation of diverse characters through the lens of the many industrial norms and constraints that shape the dubbing industry. Using the international Fox hit Glee (2009–2015) as an entry point for exploring the role of dubbing in Latin America, this study complicates conventional notions about global media’s imperialist and hybridizing implications by tracing political economy and industrial practices onto the dubbing of Black, Latinx, and Asian television characters.

Dampak Konvergensi Media Terhadap Pola Menonton Televisi Indonesia di Era Digital

The present digital era is marked by the emergence of computer technology and other technologies that support electronic access to information. Various digital media that are connected to each other form a new media that is more compatible, easily and quickly accessed, which is then called media convergence. During its development, this has led to various changes in the mass media on how information is presented to the public. In this regard, the television media is no exception, which has undergone several changes due to media convergence. YouTube is a platform that is considered to be one of the most compatible forms of media convergence with television characters. This research focuses on how audiences or television viewers enjoy Indonesian television programs on the YouTube platform, which is analyzed from the number of viewers to see the viewing patterns and measure the impact of media convergence on television. The results of this study can provide an up-to-date picture of how Indonesians watch television and what steps have been taken by television stations in dealing with these impacts. Keywords: media convergence, television, YouTube, digital, information.

An Idiopathic Dalliance in Television, Para-social Relationships, and Consumption: A Study of Pop-Culture Television Nutrition and the Bandwagon Effect

Although it has previously been established that television causes unhealthy eating habits, uncertainty remains as to how this occurs. This study researches the parameters of viewers forming an emotional investment with the characters in pop-culture television and subsequently becoming influenced by the negative nutritional habits that are promoted. This influence is a form of cognitive bias called bandwagon effect. In context, it can be described as a psychological phenomenon in which the viewer starts to eat unhealthy foods as a result of having formed a para-social bond with television characters and, regardless of previous knowledge and practices, the viewer begins to copy the television characters’ food intake regiment. In order to prove this argument, a correlational study was run. Participants, female adolescents and early adults (the most prominent demographic of the show), completed the required consent form preceding survey part one, then watched several episodes of the pop-culture television series Gilmore Girls, known for the aesthetically pleasing protagonists’ plentiful consumption of unhealthy food. The participants of the study had unhealthy and healthy food options displayed within grasp while viewing and at completion of the viewing filled out survey part two which asked about food choices. A week later, participants received survey part three to fill out and return to the researcher. Upon receiving the results, data analysis was performed, and the outcome was deemed statistically insignificant even though the hypothesis proved correct. It was found that participants had worse nutrition after watching the pop-culture television series.

Survivor, Island of the Invisible Asians

This study intended to explore Asian visibility, measured in contestant-to-camera speaking time, in comparison to representation in the three most recent seasons of CBS's reality television program Survivor. Previous literature indicated a disparity in appearance time between Asian and White television characters on primetime programs, although no studies delved into reality television nor measured contestant-to-camera speaking time. This study utilized a quantitative content analysis method to collect speaking time values for each of the 58 contestants across seasons 37 through 39, as well as a correlational method to compile and average these values based on each contestant's racial identity. The results indicated an apparent difference in average speaking time between Asian and White contestants. Although Survivor represents only one program, and the results are only applicable to the three seasons analyzed, the disparity speaks to the larger issue of Asian invisibility in other forms of media and the real world. It is apparent that television producers have a more substantial impact on television narratives and contestants' visibility than directly observable. An equally allotted amount of content in future seasons of Survivor would allow viewers to better understand the struggles and experiences of Asian contestants. In order to expand on the complexity and ubiquity of the issue, it would be ideal for future research to explore whether or not the same Asian-White visibility disparity exists within earlier Survivor seasons as well as other reality television programs.

B(l)ack By Popular Demand: An Analysis of Positive Black Male Characters in Television and Audiences’ Community Cultural Wealth

Often media research interrogating Black male characters featured in television does so from a deficit-based framework. To shift the conversation and showcase affirmative examples of Black male roles in scripted television, the following essay analyzes portrayals in the series This Is Us (2016–current), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2019), S.W.A.T. (2017–current), and A Million Little Things (2018–current). This work adopts critical race theory and community cultural wealth as mechanisms to examine depictions of Black male television characters to illustrate how each offers various forms of cultural capital, including aspirational and resistant capital, for minority audiences. The portrayals discussed here demonstrate a shift in depictions of Black men in television as characters express nonaggressive idiosyncrasies, display vulnerability, and engage in social support with other characters.

The Development and Influence of Parasocial Relationships With Television Characters: A Longitudinal Experimental Test of Prejudice Reduction Through Parasocial Contact

The current study investigates parasocial relationships as the underlying mechanism explaining prejudice reduction following extended exposure to mediated outgroups. Heterosexual participants viewed a fictional television series for 10 weeks depicting outgroup (gay) characters in which the outgroup attribute (sexuality) was accentuated or sanitized. Parasocial relationships with outgroup characters grew significantly over the course of the study regardless of condition. White participants and participants who reported the strongest pretest prejudice experienced the most intense growth. Outgroup prejudice decreased significantly over time for participants in both experimental conditions. Parasocial relationships predicted both prejudice reduction over time and behavioral responses to the outgroup. Parasocial relationships with an ingroup character engaged in intergroup contact did not contribute to prejudice reduction beyond parasocial relationships with outgroup characters. This research suggests that audiences can develop socioemotional bonds with outgroup television characters that can influence attitudes and behaviors much the same as direct, interpersonal intergroup contact.