Six Hours Of Television :: essays research papers

Six Hours of Television     In looking at modern television programming there argon hundreds of showsto choose from. cream six instants of television to analyze from the prospectiveof an anthropologist is by no heart easy. It is easy however, to talk aboutwhat our nation looks like to others who hasten neer been here. Every one(a) isgorgeous, lives happily, and overcomes all problems, but more on that later.Four hours of the programming I chose is perhaps the most popular programmingthis year, consistently topping the Nielsen ratings. For the stay cardinalhours of programming I decided to look at two police drama shows, one that wasbrand new this season and one not brand new, but hushed going strong.For the two hours of police dramas, I looked at programs with differentangles. NYPD BLUE is the story of police detectives, and steep INCIDENT was anew show that looked at the view of policing from the beat. proud INCIDENTrepresented one of the first t.v. s hows to come from the SKG works of StevenSpielberg. However, estimable like Spielbergs previous AMAZING STORIES, proudINCIDENT has already ceased to air. This could still change though, with thenext season. Of the remaining four hours, three are on television everyThursday night, and include the tremendously popular FRIENDS, the wiz GUY,the hits SEINFELD and CAROLINE IN THE CITY, and the most popular show this year,ER. For the remaining hour I choose to look at THE TONIGHT SHOW, with Jay Leno.Between these shows there are many similarities and many differences. All ofthese shows can be straight off compared with each other, having some of the samequalities. Looking at these shows in the horizon of an anthropologist somedisquieting trends emerge. I will present the information as if an outsider,from another nation, were watching American shows, and believed what he/she wasseeing to be on-key of what goes on in America.Perhaps more realistic than the other shows, NYPD BLUE, and H IGH INCIDENTrepresent the closest what life is really like. To a alien seeing theseshows, they would probably believe that America is a blood bathroom of crime and illwill towards other people. While this isnt true the totally nation over, thereare many cities like those portrayed in these two shows. Like the other shows Iwill discuss, these two have casts made up of predominately Caucasian males andfemales. Other nationalities, such as Asian, Afro-American, and Hispanic aresprinkled in just enough to make sure the shows are politically correct. To an