TV Technoculture: the Representation of Technology in Digital Age Television Narratives Valerie Puiattiy
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2014 TV Technoculture: The Representation of Technology in Digital Age Television Narratives Valerie Puiattiy Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES TV TECHNOCULTURE: THE REPRESENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY IN DIGITAL AGE TELEVISION NARRATIVES By VALERIE PUIATTI A Dissertation submitted to the Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2014 Valerie Puiatti defended this dissertation on February 3, 2014. The members of the supervisory committee were: Leigh H. Edwards Professor Directing Dissertation Kathleen M. Erndl University Representative Jennifer Proffitt Committee Member Kathleen Yancey Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Laura and Allen, my husband, Sandro, and to our son, Emilio. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation could not have been completed without the support of many people. First, I would like to thank my advisor, Leigh H. Edwards, for her encouragement and for the thoughtful comments she provided on my chapter drafts. I would also like to thank the other committee members, Kathleen M. Erndl, Jennifer Proffitt, and Kathleen Yancey, for their participation and feedback. To the many friends who were truly supportive throughout this process, I cannot begin to say thank you enough. This dissertation would not have been written if not for Katheryn Wright and Erika Johnson-Lewis, who helped me realize on the way to New Orleans together for the PCA Conference that my presentation paper should be my dissertation topic. I am grateful to them for continually offering a great amount of insight. I would like to thank my dear friend Jessica Lowe-Minor who has always offered an ear when I needed to discuss new ideas. Her cheerfulness and encouraging nature helped keep me motivated. I also wish to thank Alison Calhoun for her friendship, support, and inspiration. Most importantly, I wish to thank my family. To my dad, Allen, who encouraged me to never give up on the goal of finishing my dissertation despite the many obstacles I faced. To my mom, Laura, who always encouraged me to understand the value and importance of education. To my husband, Sandro, whose love and support is irreplaceable. And finally to our beautiful son, Emilio, who brings me the greatest joy and makes me remember that it is important to take time for fun, silliness, and many hugs. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 A NEW AGE ...................................................................................................................................8 GENDER AND TECHNOLOGY: TV’S TECHNOLOGICAL BATTLE OF THE SEXES .......33 LOSS OF CONNECTION: GENERATION GAPS......................................................................57 POWER AND NARRATION .......................................................................................................84 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................109 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................113 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................128 v ABSTRACT This dissertation explores how the relationship between individuals, society, and communication technologies is represented in television narratives and their overflow. My choice in using television as my media case study stems from the assumption that analysis of popular culture and television highlight the significance of everyday life. The selected programs offer a view into attitudes that are in circulation about how individuals and society are being affected by technology. In this project, I identify four primary emphases in television’s presentation of the Internet and communications technologies: gender, generation gaps, security and privacy, and the impact of the virtual on the physical realm. These areas form the basis for each chapter of the dissertation. Chapter one begins with the idea that we are now living in a new age. It then explores media and scholarly considerations of how digital technology and the virtual have impacted activities based in the physical realm. This chapter seeks to illuminate what value is attributed to face-to-face communication and activities versus those of the virtual as well as to understand if these same concerns are expressed in television narratives. Chapter two explores how gender has been constructed in relation to technology. The third chapter addresses how television representations of generation gaps function to narrate the impact technology has made on the dynamic between digital natives and those who learned—or are learning—to navigate the innovations of the digital era later in life. The final chapter addresses how debates about privacy, freedom, and security have been actively incorporated into television narratives. vi INTRODUCTION In television studies many scholars have discussed television’s role as a piece of technology and how technological advancements have impacted the delivery of television content1. Yet, there is still a need to look at the ways in which technology is influencing the content of television fiction. It should be noted that technology is commonly associated with the science fiction (SF) genre and, indeed, there have been studies of the representation of technology in that television genre2. My aim is to focus not on our hopes and fears for the future (and how those hopes and fears get projected onto technology), but on our satisfactions and concerns with technology in the present. This dissertation analyzes selective non-SF American television programs from the late 1990s to the present with the goal of discerning patterns in how the relationship between society, individuals, and communications technologies is presented by these programs and their “overflow.” Because the selected programs are set in the present instead of the future or near future, they offer a view into attitudes that are in circulation about how individuals and society are being affected by technology. My goal is demonstrate how television narratives across genres outside of SF are products of a digital age “structure of feeling” about technology and its role in our lives. Raymond Williams developed this concept to refer to a “common set of perceptions and values shared by a particular generation” that is accumulated and formed during our lived experience of the world, which then find expression in social practices as well as cultural forms, such as art, music, or film (“Structure”).3 Giving critical attention to television’s messages about technology allows for insight into Digital Age values and norms. It further allows for the 1 For more on television as a technology see Williams, 1974; Spigel, and Tichi; for discussions of technology’s impact on transmedia storytelling, see Jenkins, 2006; Newman and Levine; Lotz; and Ross. 2 See Banks and Tankel, Holloway, Johnson-Smith, and Telotte for studies of science fiction television. 3 Williams continually elaborated on this concept throughout his work beginning with A Preface to Film. 1 identification of general perceptions of how technology’s impact on society. I hope to shed light on how television texts contribute to a discourse on life in the digital age; and, further, how they function to maintain longstanding social structures and offer consumption as a solution to social problems. My choice in using television as my media case study stems first from the assumption that analysis of popular culture and television highlight the significance of everyday life. Jonathan Gray, author of Television Entertainment, points out “television is remarkable precisely for its “daily” qualities, and for the presence it occupies in our everyday humdrum routines and lives” (2). Second, even as television technology has changed, it still operates as “a tool for cultural storytelling” (Lotz 3). Digital age television has been influenced by a shift from the digital revolution paradigm to the convergence paradigm, a social transformation charted by Henry Jenkins in Convergence Culture. As television uses incorporates new media technology into its medium, especially in transmedia storytelling, its medium means its content should also be analyzed to gather what messages about technology are being promoted. For example, Michael Z. Newman and Elana Levine argue that television industry professionals, in attempt to elevate television’s cultural status, embrace an essentialist view of technology: “Legitimation is deeply invested in discourses of progress and improvement, and it works by elevation of one concept of television at the expense of another…New is elevated over old, active over passive, class over mass, masculine