Television Critique
As media consumers in North America, we are used to the typical network sitcom or drama that contains a calculated plot created to please audiences for the sole purpose of making money for the network. After analyzing the first episode of Orange is the New Black, “I Wasn’t Ready” it is clear that Netflix has succeeded in creating a show that appeals to the consumer while retaining hegemonic undertones. Orange is the New Black has been crafted to satisfy Netflix’s profit motives through the streaming platform upon which it is presented, the use of marginalized characters as the main cast and the humanization of women of various race, sex and body types targeted at the accepting millennial generation.
Orange is the New
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Black is brought to the public by Netflix, which is an online streaming provider that gives the audience the perception of control by providing all the episodes at once. In a interview with the cast and producers of the show, they commented on the fact that because Netflix does not rely on rating systems and advertisers, they have been given more freedom to cross boundaries and create a more “original” show (Griffiths, 2014, pg. 1). Netflix has perpetuated the trend of binge-watching television shows, as OITNB is released in seasons versus the typical network distribution of weekly episodes. A statistic has been released showing that 70% of Netflix users binge watch shows (Betterbid, 2015). The viewer feels as though they have more control because they are not subjected to commercials or a specific time they must watch the show, but they are subjected to integrated in show advertising. This can be seen in the opening scene of “I Wasn’t Ready” where Piper and Larry’s Fiat is featured as well as the usage and mention of “I-Phones”. Chesney (2004) states that networks say they want to give people what they want (pg. 193). Netflix uses the binge-watching platform to present a carefully planned risqué show that makes us think it is what we want. The marginalized main characters presented in “I Wasn’t Ready” end up perpetuating negative stereotypes that society is comfortable with while succeeding in diverse representation.
Chesney (2004) compared the difference between the network and the creatives that work for them saying that, “often artists have social, political and creative impulses they value in addition to money” (pg. 193). The shows creator, Jenji Kohan has said to have used the show to illustrate Americans that have retained their non-American heritage and how these varying racial, gender and sexual identities relate in the unescapable prison context (McDonald, 2015, pg.1). OITNB has been praised for its representation of marginalized groups, and proven to be effective as a media text because of its diverse representation and complex minority characters (McDonald, 2015, pg. 1). Hegemony is demonstrated in a concentrated scale throughout white power in the prison (McDonald, 2015, pg. 15). The male, white security guards have the highest control and the white women in prison are depicted to be too good to be there. Erica “Yoga” Jones and Sister Ingalls whom Piper befriends based on race appear to be too holy and spiritual to belong at Litchfield. “Red” the kitchen manager gives out favours of yogurt to the other white women at the table including Piper, purely because she is white. This clearly shows the hegemonic undertones integrated into a show praised for multicultural …show more content…
diversity. The uncommon portrayal of women of varying race, sex, and body types appeals to the age of Netflix’s highest users, the millennial generation. Smith (2015) notes that, “Orange is a successful show because it is almost all things to almost all people…” (pg.
277). The show caters to a more liberal audience and has a sense of shock value. For example, when Piper is in the shower, she sees her new bunk mate Nicky Nichols eating out another woman. Lesbian sex in prisons is not an issue that had been previously broadcasted in the media but is blatantly addressed as a theme for the series in the first episode. Chesney (2004) makes a point that “entertainment is gravitated to commercially successful genres” (pg. 193), and Netflix took a calculated risk in this show knowing it had extreme potential for success among the millennial generation, 75% of whom use Netflix in America (Betterbid, 2015). Younger Americans are also shown to more likely accept LGBT people (“Changing Attitudes on Gay Marriage”, 2016). After receiving praise for humanizing prisoners and depicting various race, sex, gender and body types, it is evident that Netflix devised this cast to receive praise for being multicultural. At a time when issues such as body positivity and transgender rights are being backed by celebrities and the media, Orange Is the New Black cleverly capitalized upon it. It is seen in the casting of a plus size woman as Pipers bunk mate, Dayanara Diaz, and the transgender role played by Laverne
Cox. In conclusion, through an analysis of “I Wasn’t Ready” and themes prevalent throughout the series, it is clear that Netflix has not just taken a risk on this series, but has designed it to shock and please consumers by placing minority characters with sympathetic stories as the main cast. Combined with the user-control oriented streaming it is exclusively offered on, the series came to the public at a perfect time to generate a profit for Netflix. Although Netflix does not rely on ratings or commercials, it still has a profit driven agenda.
Dines, Gail, and Jean McMahon Humez. Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995. Print.
The leading character Piper is privileged self-absorption. The very moment Piper steps foot in Litchfield prison she is treated with more respect from the guards. The protective treatment Piper gets from white male prison counselor Healy, and the keen alertness with which Black characters like Taystee Jefferson is direct white power. Piper is rudely awakened to this reality when Lorna Morello, a fellow white inmate, concludes Piper’s orientation with a smiling comment: “We look out for our own.” Piper’s visible horror at this honest statement of racist preference is met with amusement” (Charlton). Showing that all women are divided by race. Taystee in contrast to Piper, many of OITNB’s characters who are people of color recognize and knowingly direct the dangers posed both by white men like Healy, and by white women like Piper. The portrayals of Black and Latina women constantly threaten to turn into all too familiar stereotypes. Orange Is the New Black does give us a lot to talk about the conversations people of color and white folks have amongst themselves. The different identities and experiences shape those dealings. When confided to a certain lifestyle it’s hard for the women to not feel the need to judge each
Since its start, the television industry has been criticized for perpetuating myths and stereotypes about African-Americans through characterizations, story lines, and plots. The situation comedy has been the area that has seemed to draw the most criticism, analysis, and disapproval for stereotyping. From Sanford and Son and The Jefferson’s in the 1970s to The Cosby Show (1984) and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990s, sitcoms featuring black casts and characters have always been controversial. However, their significance upon our American culture cannot be disregarded. During the 1950s and 1960s, 97% of the families were Caucasian. In the first five years of the 1990s, nearly 14% of the television families were African-American (Bryant 2001). These statistics obviously show the substantial impact our American culture has had on African-American television families.
In the new millennium, the concepts of racial diversity in multiculturalism have become part of the fabric of American discourse. Consequently, the television industry faces an increased pressure from advocacy groups to better reflect the nation’s demographic reality. Many observers of American popular culture believe that multicultural television fare presented when children are most likely to be viewing this critical to advancing acceptance of racial and ethnic diversity in the United States. (Wilson, Gutierrez & Chao) Being a show designed for younger audiences, Everybody Hates Chris is able to address racial stereotypes to young audiences and possibly impact the way younge...
Many people say they want to avoid drama, and this is due to the fact that drama emits certain dark emotions, like sadness and fear. These emotions are prevalent in everyone’s reality. In reality, the issue of race is drama filled and serious, and this is how these issue should be portrayed on TV shows. People need to realize that racial conflict is not a joking matter, because it causes pain for many people in society. One drama TV show that accurately portrays the struggle of race is Luke Cage. The setting of this TV show is dark, mainly due to what the show wants to accomplish. The show is trying to put its audience in the situation of a struggling black male, and this informs the audience of the severity of his issues. This show inspires people to speak out against race, because on the powerful words the show displays. For example, the shows use of the word ni**er brings up a certain nuance not between white people and black people, but within the black community. The use of this word is exactly the power drama shows have over comedy shows, because drama shows can portray these nuances, while comedy show portray a general
Only 4% of Hispanics make up the cast of prime-time television shows, a miniscule amount considering that Hispanic-Americans are the largest minority group in the US. The ways in which minorities are portrayed in the show have their good aspects as well as bad aspects. This is to be expected since showing all good points or all the bad points isn't a fair perspective of the Latino population. As a show that points out a minority, its necessary to look as the good as well as the bad to find if it is actually a optimistic view of the race or a pessimistic one.
The Effect of Television In The Age of Missing Information Bill McKibben, in his book The Age of Missing Information, explores the impact of television on modern cultures both in America and around the world. In the book McKibben carries out an experiment; he watches the entire television broadcast of 93 separate cable channels for one entire day. In all McKibben viewed 24 hours of programming from 93 separate cable stations, that is more than 2,200 hours of television. His purpose in this formidable undertaking was to determine how much actual information that was relevant to real life he could glean from a day of television broadcasting. McKibben also spent a day camping alone on a mountain near his home.
... middle of paper ... ... Despite the progress that blacks have worked toward since the days of slavery, society continues to give in to the monetary benefits of producing self-disparaging entertainment and media. It is not only up to the directors, editors, producers and writers to establish this change, but it should also be the demand of the people, or the consumer.
She said that our media climate mostly provides a very misleading mirror of our lives and of our gender, therefore, she emphasized there must be a change to that. Examples, of the media companies she highlighted are; television, radio, publishing, games, and so on. She said, they use a very stiff segmentation approach in order to understand their audiences. Which is an old school demographics, and end up coming up with these very restraining labels to define the public. In addition to that, is the media companies trust that if you fall within a certain demographic category then you are likely in certain ways, as well as having certain taste, and like certain things. (Blakely, September 29,
Throughout the physical research of this study I have found out a lot more about this show than could have ever crossed minds before, one example being that this show has be premiered and marketed so well to the point that the viewer have almost no resistance to not believe what the show is trying to instill into our minds. These shows also categorize the characters, some are “good” guys and others are bad guys, but who is actually decided these labels? Are the categories fair? Many would say yes based off the plot line of the show, but some wonder if the bad guys have an equal amount of air time to defend themselves. These factors bring up a conflict of narration weather or not every character is portrayed in a way that they could be like-able which not the case in The Blacklist is. This “good” guy, bad guy routine is commonly used in crime shows and movies, but is not a true example of real life that these shows depict to do. In a sense these real-life shows are the complete opposite not giving the audience a real conclusion o...
By using Greenwald’s description, who can we guess to have been NBC’s target audience? Yes it is a cop show, and that to me is a telltale sign that their audience is primarily between the ages of 18 to 49. Yet, I think that the starring role combination of Megan Boone as Elizabeth Keen and James Spader as Raymond “Red” Reddington together capture more female and male viewers together than they would in solo roles. That was a great decision to appeal to this audience, not only because it has the broadest age range, but because they are the ones that watch the most primetime television. And for the purposes of this essay, The Blacklist airs Monday nights.
One of the greatest exports of American culture is American media. American media is one of the most widely distributed and consumed cultural forms from the United States. This means that not only do Americans consume large quantities of their own media, but many other countries in the world consume American media, too. People in other countries will not interpret or understand the media in precisely the same ways that Americans will and do, nonetheless, many aspects of American culture and American reality are communicated to numerous viewers as part of the content in the media. The media is an important tool in the discussion of race, class, and gender in America. It takes a savvy viewer to discriminate between and understand what media accurately represents reality, what media does not, or which aspects of experience are fictionalized, and which elements ...
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however what is considered beautiful by some is not considered as beauty when discussing diversity within the media. Society is based on criticism of judging one’s characters body, shape and or race/ethnics background. In the media the society only sees one type that is only focused on perfection to the mind; however within the United States, it is very typical in that the media lacks ethnic representation, cultural identity and gender inequalities. There are no ethnic representation when it comes to the media world and that the media has been trained to believe that the ethnic groups are not valuable. African Americans and Hispanics writers are the minority group when it comes to a social group. According to journalist Prince and Television critic Deggans “CNN , let go one of its most high-profile anchor of color, Soledad O’Brien, replaced her with a white man, Chris Cuomo. Wolf Blitzer gave up one of his hours to another white man, Tapper. Though Zucker met with both National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalist to try and address their concerns, there has been no overt sign from CNN that it is bringing on any more anchors of color, ”(Mirkinson p.1).
Even if the show claims to be about the working class the characters are usually never seen working or even warring about money, they also never have a problem paying rent or buying new clothes. This gives a false image of the working class. The lack of a divers cast also misleads the audience the black population is expected to outnumber the white population in this country by the year 2009. Yet all major television stations don't have many if ant minority in their shows. This leaves most of America's people unrepresentative on television. If these stations where trying to portray the middle class they did not do so in an affective manor.