Content: Themes and Social Issues
by
C. Leight

The Question

The themes and issues that appear on television in both fictional and documentary programs can be a reflection of the society from which they came. Identifying and discussing topical issues through the medium of television may also shape the audience’s perception of the problems. For the purposes of this research, a theme will be defined as a unifying topic developed throughout a fictional program and an issue will be defined as the discussion of a problem or event in a documentary program. This research compares the themes and issues in American and British television. One goal is to determine whether there is a correlation between the topics that arise in fictional programs and those that arise in documentary programs in each country.

Methods/Results: Television

To analyze this question, the researcher examined the themes in the comedy, drama, and documentary genres in Britain. Five programs in each genre were studied. An overseas participant recorded the same data for American programs. All of the programs appeared on the over-the-air stations: in England, channels 1,2,4,5, and ITV, and in America, CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, WB, UPN, and FOX. The programs were aired between October 17^th, 1999 and November 13^th, 1999. Only programs that air between 7:00pm and 12:00am were included in the research, and all of the shows were watched when they aired. In addition to watching the actual programs, plot summaries were consulted in the British publication Time Out, and an American publication TV Week.

The American programs represented in this research are as follows:

DOCUMENTARY: Dateline(2x), 20/20(2x), 60 Minutes(1x)

FICTIONAL PROGRAMS (COMEDY): Friends, Drew Carey, Frasier, Dharma and Greg, and Everybody Loves Raymond

FICTIONAL PROGRAMS (DRAMA): NYPD Blue, ER, The Practice, Law and Order, and Chicago Hope

The British programs represented are:

DOCUMENTARTY: Embarrassing Illnesses, Talking Cure, Private Investigations, Women’s Infertility, and Time Watch.

FICTIONAL PROGRAMS (COMEDY): How Do You Want Me?, Cookie, Stella Street, Starting Out, and Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married.

FICTIONAL PROGRAMS (DRAMA): Real Women, The Cops, Grafters, Family Confidential, and Living with the Enemy.

Among the American programs, the issues that appeared in the drama and the documentaries were the most similar. The most frequent topics were violence and violence involving children. Within a two-week period of time, the television programs NYPD Blue and 20/20 both dealt with youth and violence. The programs in the comedy genre (e.g. Dharma and Greg, Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends) were more likely to deal with romance and relationship issues.

Death and mortality were interwoven themes found in documentaries and dramatic programs in the U.S. Many episodes of the acclaimed dramatic series ER contained graphic portrayals of wounded and dying patients. Likewise a recent episode of the news program Dateline contained several interviews with forensic pathologists in order to discover what information autopsies can offer. In the programs examined within these two weeks, violence and death were the most reoccurring issues in American television.

In contrast, British television contained more diverse themes. Two programs in two weeks, one comedy and one documentary, featured infertility issues (i.e., Women’s Infertility and Real Women, respectively) likewise, one comedy and one documentary featured political issues. On a program entitled Living With the Enemy, a former miner argues with his friend, who sits on Parliament, about whether the Monarchy and House of Lords should be abolished. This is an issue that also appeared on the nightly news. Another interesting aspect of British television is that it was more likely to feature documentaries in a series format containing one specialized topic, as opposed to American television that had a greater number of documentary/magazine shows which covered a variety of different topics in shorter segments.

Conclusions

In examining television programs in these two countries, it was apparent that British television included more educational programming and topical issues within fictional shows. The themes and issues in British television appeared to have more in common with programs on the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which contained programs of a political and historical nature.

The two countries may have different goals: America to entertain, and Britain to educate. This is not to say that America has no educational programs, but to acknowledge that the primary concern in Britain is to educate. This is probably due, in part, to the heavily regulated channels that have an obligation to reach the diverse population.

One of the predominant concerns in America today is juvenile violence and the programming echoes those concerns. Similarly, Britain is dealing with political issues that appear in both fictional and documentary television shows. These are just a few examples of how the themes that appear in television programs can be a reflection of the society from which they came. Television programs can also effect society. Television is a form of communication available to many households. Issues that are discussed, evaluated, and dramatized would most likely shape the viewers’ perceptions of the events or issues. Further research could include the psychological effects of television isolated from other forms of communication.