The readings for this week, as Megan points out, ask us to
consider representation of minority communities in the US on TV as a
combination of visual texts, economic policies, and marketing strategies. I
enjoyed watching Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat for this week because
they demonstrate how the arguments made by Acham, Grey, and Esposito still
resonate today. In this post I want to focus more on Grey’s article, as I will
be responding to Acham and Esposito for my presentation this week.
Grey speaks to a moment in the 1980s where TV underwent
several structural changes that made it so that networks decided to adapt its
programming, focusing more on “niche” audiences in order to compete. Grey then
argues that during this era “what is
remarkable is not so much the network's use of such strategies as
narrowcasting, but (and this point is central to my argument) the increasing
centrality of black popular culture to the networks' offerings” (61).
Grey also tells us how networks like NBC “made shows about black life central
to its definition of "quality" programming; in so doing, the network
helped to establish the-financial and aesthetic terms within which blackness was
represented and circulated in commercial television (Bierbaum 1990)” (61). In this way,
during the 1980s TV networks not only changed their economic strategies, but
also changed the way in which blackness was viewed and consumed in the United
States. The centrality of black culture and black life was more of a marketing
strategy, Grey argues, rather than a legitimate concern with improving the
quality of representation.
I would argue that streaming platforms today, with the
proliferation of options, and new advertising structures and revenue strategies,
have made a similar need for change in traditional cable networks. As the three
authors help us understand how representation works on TV, I wonder how we can study
the screenings for this week to see where we might find similarities with those
from the 1980s, and whether or not there are similar strategies at play. Do
these networks still view shows with African American or Chinese American casts
the same way shows were seen in the 1980s, as “a low-risk, potentially
profitable object of television”? Or has that changed? Do streaming platforms
like Netflix and Hulu do this as well? When talking about representation in
media, I think about Hannah’s comments as well as these questions. How do we
make sure that these shows don’t reproduce the same structural issues of the
past, and avoid challenging oppression both in front and behind the scenes?
Thanks for your post, Ana Paula! I have similar questions about the similarities and differences between TV of the 80s and the streaming models of the present. Does contemporary television about black or Chinese or any other typically ignored group operate along similar lines of low-risk investment? I'm inclined to say yes. In the beginning of his article, Gray discusses how television needed to find ever more specific audiences for shows in the competitive media environment of the 80s. And, I think this is still largely the case but only more intensified with ever more sophisticated ways to define and build actual and potential audiences. Netflix can track not only what we watch, but how long we watch, how many episodes, what we stopped watching halfway through, etc.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't want to say that it is always low-risk or last resort. There's so much about the production process and these data gathering techniques that we don't know or that is filtered through PR and tech obsession. This data will feed back into the green-lighting of new shows in ways that we are still trying to determine.
Great discussion ya'll! I also wonder to what extent the inverse is true: that micro-targeting an increasingly specific subset of identity positions, artificially cements divisions between people who might otherwise be willing to forgive certain ideological differences in the name of preserving a greater communal unity. This certainly played some small role in the "liberal bubble" phenomenon in the last election. I don't think we can argue that media determines this phenomenon, but I think it plays a role. I also don't want to negate Black-ish's attempts to present a multiplicity of heterogeneous political views. I am just thinking about how the streaming/marketing phenomenon we are discussing creates rather than describes these divisions, and what are the political and ethical implications of this kind of metaphysics.
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