Television and the Self

Kathleen M. Ryan spent more than twenty years in network and local news production and she continues to work as an active multimedia director and producer. She holds a PhD in communication and society from University of Oregon, an MA in broadcast journalism from University of Southern California, and a BA in political science from University of California, Santa Barbara. She is an associate professor at the University of Colorado.Deborah A. Macey holds a PhD in communication and society from the University of Oregon, an MA in Communication and a BS in Business Administration from Saint Louis University. She is a visiting assistant professor at Saint Louis University, where she teaches courses in human communication and media studies.

The strength of Television and the Self is its effort to create conversation across and within areas of television studies, theoretically, thematically, and methodologically. Perhaps most noteworthy are the diverse methodological perspectives employed here—ranging from discourse and textual analysis to autoethnography, content analysis, and reflections on media history — which point to the breadth and plurality of the field. The autoethnographies (Marcelina Piotrowski’s essay on 'becoming Polish' through television viewership and Andree Betancourt’s reflection on motherhood as portrayed through characters on HBO’s Six Feet Under and The Sopranos) are especially powerful, merging academic critique with personal stories, narrated by authors who reflect—thoughtfully and, at times, emotionally—on the ways in which their relationship to TV has impacted their identities and lives. . . .Television and the Self speaks to multiple perspectives, inviting readers to consider the ways in which our own identities, values, and everyday lives have been shaped and molded, influenced and informed, by our engagement with televisual narratives.

• Chapter 1: IntroductionKathleen M. Ryan & Deborah A. MaceyPart 1: The Electronic Hearth, or the (un)Real World Chapter 2: The Way We Were: Ritual, Memory and TelevsionLeah A. RosenbergChapter 3: Becoming-Spectator: Tracing Global Becoming Through Polish Television in a Canadian Family RoomMarcelina PiotrowskiPart 2: Father (and Mother) Knows BestChapter 4: As Seen On TV: Media Influences of Pregnancy and Birth NarrativesJennifer G. HallChapter 5: All About My HBO Mothers: Talking Back to Carmela Soprano and Ruth FisherAndrée E. C. BetancourtChapter 6: Mad Hatters: The Bad Dads of AMCDavid StatonPart 3: Family TiesChapter 7: Family Communication and Television: Viewing, Identification, and Evaluation of Televised Family Communication ModelsEllen E. Stiffler, Lynne M. Webb, and Amy C. DuvallChapter 8: Reality Check: Real Housewives and Fan Discourses on Parenting and FamilyJingsi Christina Wu and Brian McKernan Chapter 9: Keeping Up with Contradictory Family Values: The Voice of the KardashiansAmanda S. McClain Part 4: The Facts of LifeChapter 10: The Selling of Gender-Role Stereotyping: A Content Analysis of Toy Commercials Airing on NickelodeonSusan G. KahlenbergChapter 11: “Stand by, Space Rangers”: Interstellar Lessons in Early Cold-War MasculinityCynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van RiperChapter 12: The Avengers and Feminist Identity Development: Learning the Example of Critical Resistance from Cathy GaleRobin Redmond WrightChapter 13: Juno for Real: Negotiating Teenage Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Love in MTV’s 16 and Pregnant/Teen MomTanja N. Aho.Part 5: As Not Seen on TVChapter 14: Race, Aging and Gay In/visibility on U.S. TelevsionMichael Johnson, Jr.Chapter 15: Eighty is Still Eighty, but Everyone Else Needs to Look Twenty-Five: The Fascination with Betty White Despite our Obsession with YouthDeborah A. Macey