Final Project-- What the...kind of language is in TV shows?

Title: What the...kind of language is in TV shows?

Introduction/Research question: I initially was going to do my content analysis study on how the radio "pushes the envelope." As I was researching, I found "pushing the envelope" on television to be of some interesting findings especially with all the new and different types of entertainment shows on today. Since my prior study involved the gender/race stereotype in commercials, I figured something different from that would me most appropriate for a final project. Something that we didn't talk too much about in class so I thought the language content during a TV show would be something to look at. Thus, my research question is how far doees television "push the envelope" concerning indecent and vulgar language? Is it the worst at a certain time of the day?

Summary of findings: I found that the crude language on TV these days is very common. I thought their would be a significant difference of results during the day, which are called the "safe harbor hours"(before 10pm)--time that children are watching TV the most, than the nightly shows. I found that it really depends on what you're watching that makes either the "safe harbor hours" true or makes it untrue. What I mean by that will be clarified in the following sentences. I watched 3 types of shows: a talk show, a soap opera, and a comedy show. The comedy show was clearly more indecent than the soap opera but not even close to being as profane as the talk show. This would probably be a good time to mention which shows I have done. I watched The Jerry Springer Show, Passions (daytime drama), and F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Now, it is clear that out of the three which one must have the most indecency in its language content. If the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) cared and really believed in the "safe harbor hours" then The Jerry Springer Show would without a doubt not be on daytime television, but it is. That to me was discomforting to know that a kid only 10 years old could potentially be watching that same disgusting show called "I'm sleeping with your mother."

Summary of previous study: I used supporting information from a similar study. The work is done Bradford L. Yates, Ph.D and Anthony L. Fargo, Ph.D. ("Talk dirty to me: Broadcast and cable TV push the envelope on indecency," April 2002, Broadcast Education Association.) by They did case studies as well as a quantitative content analysis on whether TV shows have gotten worse in language content since 1994. According to the studies it has. This is why the FCC has now put ratings on TV shows for whether it is suitable for a child or not. I used their coding on all three shows.

Corpus and Methodology: As I watched all three shows, I coded my analysis study. I first categorized the language into 4 distinct and different parts: offensive language, vulgarities, and profane use and charecteristics. I then broke down each category into parts. This will be most efficient in bullet form:

• Offensive language:

-Verbal (They vocally said something offensively/insulting beyond norms to somebody else)

-Implied (Bleeping out or mouthing off dirty words)

-Gestural (Ex: "giving the finger)

• Vulgarities:

-"Seven dirty words"--These words have been singled out by the FCC to be too indecent for the airwaves. These words are: tits, shit, piss, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and fuck.

-Sexual words (Ex: "boobs" and "balls")

-Excretory words--Direct references to human waste products/processes (Ex: "shit" and "crap")

-"Other" offensive words (Ex: "Hell," "Son of a bitch," "bastard," "damn," "whore," "you suck" etc.)

• Profane Use: (Using the name of God in a bad connotation)

-"Christ"

-"Jesus"

-"God" (Ex: "God, she looks like an ugly cow!")

• Charecteristics:

-Network (NBC, ABC, FOX, WB)

-Type of show (drama, comedy, reality)

-Time period (what time did it play it? daytime/nightime?)

With all these categories I was able to tell significantly what show was the worst and by how much as well as by what extreme. The category "vulgarities" helps with disputing the extreme level of offensive language. The "charecteristics" category showed what networks "pushed the envelope" more as well as whether the show was seen during the day or night.

Findings: Firstly, with "The Jerry Springer Show," it had by far the most offensive language, vulgarity but suprisingly not profane use. It was the only show to have not just once but 42 times of one of the "7 dirty words." You can only imagine which ones they were! Another shocking revelation was that "The Jerry Springer Show" played the earliest of the 3 types of shows at noon. Also, the most common word I heard was different synonyms for the word "slut" like "whore" or a "tramp." One can only imagine how many children are getting exposed to certain subjects one shouldn't at such an easily-influenced age. The next show to air was "Passions." The shocking discovery was that I initially had thought that daytime dramas would have a little more of vulgarity and offensive language but it almost didn't have any! The most significant finding for "Passions" was that it had more "other" offensive words than F.R.I.E.N.D.S did. It had 10 offensive words that were mostly made up of "bastard," "bitch," and the phrase "go to hell." F.R.I.E.N.D.S shockingly had the most and only "profane use." The only word they said was "God" 6 times. Something else interesting was the fact that F.R.I.E.N.D.S had two "Excretory words" while "The Jerry Springer Show" had only one. The worst words heard during this show was "bastard," and "bitch."

Conclusion: Overall, "The Jerry Springer Show" is the epitome of bad/profane TV and shouldn't be aired at noon and most certainly shouldn't even be aired at all. The language of use is disgusting on that show. As far as "Passions" and other soap operas, perhaps I underestimated their conservative level of language compared to other kinds of TV shows out there. Lastly, I never really realized that my favorite show F.R.I.E.N.D.S had any kind of crude language other than a 'slip' here and there, but it was very consistent through the show to have slight unsophisticated humour and not just that but to emphasize the word as well. I suppose I never realized it until here I am, making an effort to hear the use of language. It's funny how when you are just watching a show you'll never notice these little things that directors and producers purposely tell the actors/actresses to do. After doing this content analysis study I've realized how much we really do "push the envelope" on foul-mouthed language. It's a shame how we tell kids not to talk rubbish or else they get the 'soap in the mouth' treatment, yet here are some shows that maybe a family would watch (the exception of the "Springer show" and most likely "Passions") together and they are all full of 'potty-mouths.' So, I guess you can't really say anymore, "where did you hear that word young man?!" because I can tell you where they heard it from, the media.

My Data : -- "The Jerry Springer Show" --"Passions" --"F.R.I.E.N.D.S

OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE VERBAL IMPLIED GESTURAL

IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII

IIIII IIIII IIII II

IIIII IIIII

IIIII IIIII

IIIII IIIII

IIIII

IIIII IIIII II

IIIII III III I

VULGARITIES "7 DIRTY WORDS" SEXUAL WORDS EXCRETORY WORDS "OTHER" OFFENSIVE WORDS

IIIII IIIII III I IIIII IIIII

IIIII IIIII IIIII IIIII

IIIII IIIII IIIII III

IIIII IIIII

II

IIIII IIIII

IIII II IIIII III

PROFANE USE "CHRIST" "JESUS" "GOD" "LORD"

IIIII I

CHARECTERISTICS NETWORK TYPE TIME PERIOD

WB Talk show/Reality 12-1 pm

NBC Soap/Drama 1-2 pm

WB Comedy 1-2 pm

SOURCES:

http://beaweb.org/bea2002/papers/yates.pdf

This class was amazing!

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the class: Race, Media & Gender. Dr. Lambiase is the most amazing teacher. She connects with all the students teaching you what you must know as well as being humorous and charming! I learned alot from this class that I can take away with me as I dive more into the Journalism major. This class is really going to help me in my new internship that I have started yesterday! I'm so glad I took this class! Thanks Dr. Lambiase for everything! I learned so much more than I had imagined!

Speaker Rebecca Rodriguez

I enjoyed it thoroughly when Rebecca Rodriguez came into class. I'm still unsure of what I want to do but I am very interested in broadcasting so it was a pleasure to meet her and have her come share her triumphs and losses with us in "making it as a journalist." Her tips were key:
-Having mentality that "I think I can do this"
-Goal: Always try to have a better idea
-Professionalism is key

After hearing how many times she had to get back on her feet and then fall back down again, but always getting back up, gave me hope that hey, it will work out. I sometimes get unsure, because of all the negative parts of this major, but I've come to realize that every job has that but Journalists' are just more apparent. After hearing her say that all that she does is worth it, I feel confident now "trying out the waters" of the Journalism field.

Gays in the Media

I'm glad that today gays are pretty much accepted on the media. Gays have been through a progression recently. They went from closeted/secretive, to "flamer", and now to invisible. When I mean invisible I mean eyes aren't drawn on them; they don't bring attention to themselves. They are just as normal and you and I. Sometimes I can also see this as a bad thing though. So that it is more accepted in our culture, I think it might need to be talked about more so that it can become a norm in our society today. Just like, in a way, we have accepted crimes occuring everyday and people dying as a result, we should be able to accept that gays will marry and want kids to live a normal life. If we can accept crimes, how come we can't accept gays wanting to live their lives in a family-oriented way?

Crash

In the movie, the female characters were seen as bystanders that didn't have drive to support men. I thought that was interesting since women are usually shown as that supportive-type especially paired with a man. It's funny how "Crash" not only talks very different, almost opposite one could say than what films usually portray of genders. Just like female characters are portrayed quite the opposite than what usually is. I liked that about this movie. It didn't in a mouth-dropping sort of way. Another example would be, women are usually treated with respect and equally to men whereas in this movie, Matt Dillan treats women harshly. It's nice to see a difference like this in a movie, but it can also get you upset at times. The movie has the 'balls' to say and address alot of things that we, as humans, think in our minds and would never say out loud, except in this movie I guess the motto is "speak your mind," because I know they sure do!

The Concept of WAR on TV

We talked about something in class for just a few minutes but I really thought it was interesting. Dr. Lambiase discussed how there's two types of wars: The actual war occurring and the war & camera type of war. The war & camera war is put straight onto TV. What's interesting is that people tend to act differently in front of the camera than when they are not in front of the camera. The idea of being viewed makes people not act the way they usually do, thus altering what is REALLY happening. Dr. Lambiase at this time brought up a good point that makes one ponder if it will ever be possible: Can the ACTUAL war be put on TV, is it possible to pass/ignore the war & camera-type war and get the actual events to the audience?

Has anybody seen my 'greaser?'

So we learned what "greasers" were on the 25th of May. Man! What an awful name to refer to Mexicans back in the day. They were defined as "immoral crooks that try to steal white women." I personally found it appalling that Mexcians only fitted into this narrow category of roles they could play in movies back in the day. For instance, Mexican women were only portrayed as the "bad girl, unfaithful and crazy" women. This is absolutely not true! It is unfortunate that our mind-sets had started off like that and sometimes still hold that mentality to this day. It's not Mexicans ever did anything to inherit the name "greaser" so how come they got stuck with it? I'll tell you what I think. I think it's because their skin isn't as 'light and pure' as Americans and therefore are stuck with this unfortunate stereotype.

Shocking Stats!

Ok, so as I left class on May 23rd I was shocked when hearing these statistics about video games/music videos that we learned in class by Dr. Lambiase. I've always loved statistics. They really give you a good idea of just how many people are involved in whatever the statistic may be. For example:
-82% of homes with 8-18 year old feature video game players
-25% of American households with children have 3 or more game consoles (half of this shows kida have the game player in their room.)

These statistics kind of disturb me because, perhaps I'm a girl and this genre of entertainment isn't exactly my cup of tea, but video games are really dominating in boys'/mens' lives. I have a friend that went to school at UNT with me freshman year. It was in the middle of the XBOX hype that I began to resent these game players. My friend had apparently become so 'hooked,' he stopped going to class because he was staying up endless nights playing. He eventually ended up dropping out. Can you imagine? Ever since then, I saw what these game players could do to you. I've seen and heard it happen to more than just my friend. It's one thing to play for entertainment another to let it run your life.

Jean Kilbourne's movie

In class when we watched Jean Kilbourne's movie, "Killing Us Softly," I thought it was really good and an eye-opener for her audience. Kilbourne's message that she sends out is that we should all take advertising seriously. The average person is exposed to 3000 advertisements a day. She believes that the media, especially advertisements, tells us who we are and who we should be. Advertisements also surround us with what the media believes to be ideal women's beauty but what not many know, especially young teens, is that models are touched up on the computer after the photo shoots. So basically, here are these young and poorly influenced teens that want this so-called "perfect" body and "perfect, blemish-free face." All of this to Kilbourne is unfortunate and she thinks it needs to stop immediately and her urgency is clear in her movie.

I agree with Kilbourne completely. Unfortunately, I don't see people really finding the urgency to change their mind-set. In fact, I think it's already ingrained in our American minds.

Is Froma for real?

When we were reading "Missing Sensitivity" by Froma Harrop, I didn't initially realize all the many many things wrong with the article. On a side note, it's funny how this class brings out those hidden senses that people don't usually pick up on. It's almost as if there's a sixth sense: the sense of Journalists!

Froma makes a point in her article to discuss the stereotypes and racism she found in the media. She believes that between these two missing girls, Natalee Holloway (White female) and Latoyia Figueroa (Hispanic female,) only one of them got alot of media coverage. Want to take a stab in the dark who that might have been? Yep, it was Holloway alright. What makes the article disputable is the fact that even though Froma is making a point, she's making the same mistakes in her article that she claims the media has committed. Coincidence, I think not!