This dissertation has been 61—5070 microfilmed exactly as received

BELL, Richard Henry, 1921- A STUDY OF THE IMAGE OF THE AMERICAN CHARACTER AS PRESENTED IN SELECTED NETWORK TELEVISION DRAMAS.

The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1961 Education, general University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan A STUD! 0* THE IMAGE OF THE AMERICAN CHARACTER AS PRESENTED

IN SELECTED NETWORK TELEVISION DRAMAS

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial fulfillm ent of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University

Richard Henry Bell, A.B., A.M.

The Ohio State University 1961

Approved by

Department of Education ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In planning the approach to this study, invaluable suggestions were received from Ik*. E. G. Barnett, Department of Anthropology,

University of Oregon; Geoffrey Gorer, author and anthropologist,

Sussex, England; Dr. Margaret Mead, Associate Curator of Ethnology, the American Museum of Natural History; and David Riesman,

Department of Social Relations, Harvard University*

Hie author is indebted to three colleagues on the Arizona

State University faculty for their willingness to undertake the thankless task of vising selected television dramas. Giving of their time and professional insight to check the validity of the instrument for this study were Ik*. Lester S. Perril, Professor of

Sociology; Dr. Carolyn K. Staats, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Psychology; and Ik*. John P. Vergis, Professor of Education and

Head of the Department of AndLo-7i8ual Instruction.

For his invaluable advice on things statistical, the author thanks Dr. Robert L. Baker, Associate Professor of Education at

Arizona State University.

Without the help of these individuals and the generous contribution of typing time by Mrs. Jean Cole and Mrs. Sarah Burke, this dissertation could not have been written.

ii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... 11

LIST OF TABLES ...... Y

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

C hapter

I . THE STUDY ...... U

Purpose of the Study Importance of the Study Assumptions Limitations of the Study Definition of Terms

H . RELATED LITERATURE...... 18

National Character The American Character American Character through Mass Media

III. PROCEDURES...... 3k

Approach to the Stucfcr P re lim in ary Stucfor Categories Used by Other Authors Revised Evaluation Fora First Test of Validity Second Test of Validity Viewing Quids Reliability Summary

i i i FINDINGS 60

External Data on the Prograns O pposition Themes and Problems Description of Leading Characters Motivation of Characters Relationships Attitudes toward Values Black and White Characters Less Valid Findings

V. INTERPRETATION...... 101

Social Milieu The Family C o n flic ts Motivations Other Attitudes Rewards and Punishments Summary

IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...... 135

Implications for Television Writers Implications for Educators Implications for Educational Broadcasters Implications for the American People Recommendations for Further Research

APPENDIX Ha

HCmiOORAFHY 180

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 182

iv LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1. Viewing Time Devoted to Dramain Average TV Home .... H

2. Comparison of Behavioral Areas ...... 1;0

3. Degrees of Variation...... U3

U. Frequency of Variation by O bservers...... Ill;

5. Degree of Variation by Q uestions...... US

6. Degree of Variance...... $0

7* Frequency Variation by Q uestion...... Si

8. Programs by N etw ork...... 60

9. Programs by Length ...... 6 l

10. Programs by types ...... 6 l

11. Programs by Settings ...... 62

12. Contemporary S ettin g...... s 62

13. Type of Adversary...... 63

Hi. Sex Opposition...... 61;

1$. Relationship Opposition...... 65

1 6 . G e n era lised T h em es...... 67

17. Solution of Problem by Character ...... 68

18. Solution of Problem by Method...... 69

19. Protagonist-Adversary Sympathy S w itch...... 70

v Table Page

20. Protagonist — Adversary by Age...... 70

21. Protagonist — Adversary by Marital S ta tu s...... 71

22. Protagonist — Adversary by N ationality...... 72

23. Protagonist — Adversary by Sympathy and Race .... 73

2b. Protagonist — Adversary by Occupations...... 75

25. Protagonist — Adversary by M otivation...... 76

26. Money M otivation ...... 77

27. Desire for Group Acceptance ...... 77

28. Protagonist-Under dog A Ligm ent ...... 76

29. Parent-Child Relations...... 79

30. Family R ejection...... 80

31. Parental Ambition ...... 81

32. Rusband-Vdfe Dominance ...... 6 l

33. Sibling Relationship ...... 82

3b. Basis for Protagonist’s Friendships ...... 83

35* Portrayal of Foreign N ationalities...... 8b

36 . Solutions of Crimes ...... 85

37. Punishment of C rim e ...... 86

38. Image of the L aw ...... 86

39. Crime by Type and Punishment by Agent ...... 87

i;0. Valued Siough to Risk L ife ...... 88

hi. Reaction toward D eath...... 89

h2. Attitudes toward Success ...... 90

v i Table Page

1*3. Source of Success ...... 91

hk. Attitudes toward Success ...... 91

h$. Positive Attitudes toward F a ilu re ...... 92

1*6. Causes of F a ilu re ...... 93

1*7 * Romantic Love by T y p e ...... 9U

ii8« Reasons for Qrinking ...... 95>

1*9* Rewards and Punishment ...... 96

50. Relativity of Rewards and Punishment ...... 97

51. Social Class of Protagonist — Adversary...... 97

52. Sympathy toward C lasse s...... 98

53. Upward M o b ility ...... 99

51*. Dominance of Women...... 99

v i i INTRODUCTION

The study of the American character has long been a favorite subject for writers of other countries. From de Tocqueville and

Dickens to Gorer and Bruckberger, European w riters have speculated on the question, "What Is an American?"

Self-analysis being more painful than evaluation of others, it is understandable that Americans have been less interested in this question. Unaware of, or unwilling to admit the existence of, an

"American character," Americans rarely have taken the time or the trouble to vL<3* themselves objectively.

World War II, however, with its problems of morale and national cooperation, brought government officials to the realization that a better picture of the American people was needed. Within the diverse culture that is America, What characteristics do the people have in common? Do they react sirdlarly? Are they motivated consistently?

To answer these questions, the government turned to American cultural anthropologists, notably Margaret Mead — and scholarly and public attention was focused briefly on the American character.

Yet in mid-century America, despite the fact that the United

States has had world leadership thrust upon it, despite the fact that

"images" of Americans are circulated abroad constantly, and despite

the fact that Americans themselves are subjected more than ever before

to these images, few Americans seem much concerned with the image of

A m erica. 1 2

Contemporary mass media, such as newspapers, magazines, motion pictures, radio and television disseminate instantaneously, con­ stantly, and widely picturizations of the American culture and the

American character, Ihese media simultaneously reflect the culture and condition the culture; and their prevalence, at home and abroad, makes more significant the need for understanding of the American character.

For, as David Riesman points out in The Lonely Crowd,

. . . population curves and economic structures are only a part of the ecology of character formation. Interposed between than and the result ant social character are the human agents of character formation: the parents, the teachers, the members of the peer-group and the story­ t e l l e r s . 1

Today’s storyteller par excellence is the omnipresent television set. Constantly it pours into the American living room (or even the

TV room, so great is this medium's influence on our living and our architecture) pictures of Americans. And as we view these image

Americans over a period of years, our own expectations of what

Americans are, are likely to be conditioned.

Referring to philosophy Alfred North Whitehead, Bernard

Kandelbaum stated,

In one of his dialogues with Lucien Price, he seys that there is only one way to convey the ideas and ideals that hold sway in America. It is by telling the stories of the experiences of human beings.2

1 David Riesman, Nathan Glazer, and Reruel Denney, The Lonely Crowd (Garden City, New Tork* Doubleday Anchor Books, 19^3)> p.'5k» 2Bernard Mandelbaum, "Mass Media and the American Image," address at Institute for Education by Radio-Tel evi si on, Ohio State University, May 1U, 1956. 3 Stories of the experiences of human beings — largely American human beings — are presented weekly, daily, hourly through the medium of television. Although these stories are presented in a variety of formats, we see them most often and most clearly in television drama.

Therefore, can we not study the American character effectively through television drama?

In the belief that this question can be answered affirmatively, and in agreement with Pope that the "proper study mankind is man," this study attempts to find an image of the American character in television drama.

If one of those visitors from outer space who are so popular in contemporary science fiction were to cruise invisibly in our American air apace for several weeks, watching only our television programs, how would he describe Americans v:hen he returned to his home planet?

It Is hoped that this study v.ill prove as rewarding as this question is intriguing. CHAPTER I

THE STUDY

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to determine whether any consistent image of the American character is presented in contemporary network television drama, to describe that image if it is found to exist, and to raise questions regarding any differences between this image and existing descriptions of the American character.

Importance of the Study

Charles Siepmaim has stated that "in adjusting its program services to our apparent needs, radio has taken us for what we are, and denied that which we have in us to become."^

In this instance, what was said of American commercial radio could also be said of American commercial television. Hy attempting to reach people where they are, broadcasters have been guilty of assuming to know where people are and have disavowed any responsi­ b ility for leading them toward that which they might become.

Yet, it is acknowledged that television programs, taken cumula­ tively, do influence Americans, and contribute toward making them

■^Charles Siepraann, class notes, New York University Summer Radio Workshop, 19U6.

k $ different in the future from what they are in the present. In Maas

Ccmmunic a tio n s , W ilbur Schramm p o in ts o u t,

The cumulative effects of mass communications are power­ ful. The connainications blend into and form a large part of the individual's environment, and contribute to the attitudes and opinions which remain as the facts are forgotten.^

This principle undoubtedly applies to television, the most power­ ful of our mass communication media. Hence, it seems that there can be little question that television helps condition the "pseudo-environment#1 which Walter Idppraann refers to in Public Opinion.

It is the insertion between man and his environment of a pseudo-environment. To that pseudo-environment his behavior is a response. But because it is behavior, the consequences, if they are acts, operate not in the pseudo­ environment where the behavior is stimulated, but in the real environment where action eventuates.3

Today, none is more fully aware of this effect than that astute student of the American character — the advertising expert. Con­ stantly advertisers create on television a pseudo-environment which stimulates responses in the real environment.

Today motivational researchers are learning which psychological button to push in order to elicit the response they desire from the

American people — in terms of purchasing, thinking, and even voting.

Evidence of the latter is given in Vance Packard's book, Pie

Hidden Persuaders, in which he recounts the case of the California husband-wife team of public relations counselors.

^Wilbur Sc hr aim, "The Effects of Mass Connnuni cation," Journalism Quarterly, December, 19U9.

^Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922), p. 1$. 6

Between them they hare managed seventy-five political campaigns and won seventy of them. Time credits than with "creating" many of the many recent political eminences in California. . . A reporter once asked them if they would have had their record of seventy suc­ cessful campaigns if they had worked for the other side. Baxter said: "I think we could have won almost every one of them. . .

Allowing that this statement may bespeak overconfidence on the part of these counselors, still it is indicative of an increasing ability to manipulate the American people thrcxigh skill in using the mass media, increasing knowledge of human psychology, and an under­ standing of the basic motivations of the American character.

If the manbers of the American television audience respond by their purchases and their votes to an image of what they are, it seems a safe assumption that they w ill respond in other ways to the mental image they develop concerning the American character. Subconsciously they may attempt to became that which the cumulative effects of the mass media say that the American character is. For, as Geoffrey Gorer points out,

. . . an image of an ideal world may be more potent in influencing contemporary conduct than the objectively viewed reality. 5

Therefore, it seems to the author to be important to many groups to know whether there is a consistent image of the American character being portrayed on television, and if so, what that character is.

^Vance Packard, The Ridden Persuaders. (New York* David McKay Company, Inc., 1957), PP. 189-190.

^Geoffrey Gorer, The American People (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 19U8), p. 176. 7 If television writers and producers are contributing to this

image without knowing it, they are wielding a great influence

unknowingly. A clearer picture of the effect their work is having

should cause them to take more seriously, and develop more con­

sciously, the writing through which this image is perpetuated.

American educators, working at all levels, from pre-school to

adult, are concerned with developing reflective thinking in people whose lives are being influenced constantly by television. Television viewing is the third most prevalent activity of adults in the United

States today (surpassed only by working and sleeping as the single

activity on which most time is spent). Children spend more time before

the T7 set in a year than they cto before the teacher. If educators are

to continue to help Americans become strong, independent individuals,

then it is essential that these educators be aware of any American image which television may be creating and perpetuating.

Especially should those educators who are engaged in broad­ casting be aware of the nature of such an image, if it does exist.

Fifty-two educational television stations are now on the air, providing

a programming service which is both supplementary to and competitive with commercial television programming.

Most of the drama carried by these educational stations is pro­ vided as part of the program service of the National Educational Radio

and Television Center. Both Center personnel and administration and

the directors of these ETV stations need to be aware of television1 s

image of the American character, so that they nuy help reinforce it, 8 if they find it sound, or to provide a dissenting voice on the busy air if they do not.

Wien the United States assumed world leadership following World

War II, our government became concerned increasingly with the image which America presents to other nations of the world. Hie United

States has planned a program of international information through the mass media (such as Voice of America broadcasts), and in order to carry out effectively such a program, those who prepare broadcasts about America need to know more about the American character.

The importance of such study is emphasized by Ruth Benedict, one of the ablest of cultural anthropologists.

One of the handicaps of the twentieth century is that we still hare the vaguest and most biased notions, not only of what makes Japan a nation of Japanese, but what makes the United States a nation of Americans, France a nation of Frenchmen, and Russia a nation of Russians. Lacking this knowledge, each country misunderstands the other.

In addition to official government programs, which are designed to present a certain image of America abroad, commercially produced motion pictures and television programs are exported daily to other countries. These products of our entertainment industry, produced with no conscious attempt to present the American character in one way or another, do present to the world a picture of the American.

It would seem imperative, then, in these days of international rivalry and tension that we know more about this image of America which is being exported on film and on tape.

6Ruth Benedict, Hie Chrysanthenum and the Sword (Boston: Houghton M ifflin Company, 19U6J, p. 13. 9

Finally, the American people themselves are not (the author hopes), and should not beccme, a conformist society which is molded by the mass media into an American character which neither they nor the producers of the programs consciously intend* If self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom, then Americans need knowledge not only of themselves as individuals, but of themselves as Americans, for these two selves are inextricably interwoven.

If Americans are to control their own destiny, as individuals and as a nation, at home and abroad, they ratst be aware of any and all influences 'which condition their self-image* Taking the hypothesis that there is a consistent image of America being presented by tele­ vision drama, and taking to heart St. Paul's advice, "Test *11 things," the author seeks to clarify this image*

The author firmly believes that the problem is serious enough to warrant a careful search for answers*

Any search for answers to a question is based on certain basic assumptions. Some of the assumptions in regard to this, study are implied in the nrevious section, "The Importance of the Study."

To make the assumptions underlying this search for the tele­ vision image of the American character more specific, they are categorized on the following page. 10 Regarding National Character

1. That there is such a thing as "national character."

National character. . . describes the organization of motives and pre-dispositions within a society. *

Regarding the American People

2. That people tend to think of themselves partly in terms of

an idealized self-image.

. . . an image of an ideal world may be more potent in influencing contemporary conduct than the ob­ jectively viewed reality.®

3. That, in part, the self-image of Americans will be con­

ditioned by their image of the American character.

The action of mass comnunications on society is an interaction. The content of mass communications affects the public; the needs and wants of the public affect the content of communications.°

Regarding Television

U. That television reaches a high percent of the American

people.

TV homes in the ttxited States . . . 1*7,570,330 S a t u r a t io n...... 89.

^Geoffrey Gorer, "National Character," The Study of Culture at a Distance, ed. Margaret Mead and Rhoda Metraux (Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1953), p. 58.

^Geoffrey Gorer, loc. c it.

W ilbur Schramm, loc. c it.

Standard Rate and Data Service, Vol. 1:3 #5 May 15, 1961 p. lli. n Regarding Television Hr ana

5. That a significant amount of television drama is viewed

re g u la rly by th e .American p eo p le.

TABLE 1 Viewing Time Devoted to ttrama in Average TV Home Type Percent G eneral Drama (60-90 K in.) 7 G eneral Drama (30 M in.) £ Westerns (30 Min.) ill Westerns (60 Min.) 10 Adventure 5 S itu a tio n Comedy 12 Suspense 6 T otal 6l% Non-Drama 39% 100 %

Source: Sponsor Air Media Basics, Winter 19f>8-5>9.

Hence, there is a greater possibility of television drama in­ fluencing the viewer than non-drama, since the former is viewed more frequently.

6. That the cumulative effect of television drama is powerful.

The cumulative effects of mass comnunic ations are powerful. The communications blend into and form a large part of the individual's environment, and con­ tribute to the attitudes and opinions which remain as the facts are forgotten*11

Since the average American views drama more frequently than non- drama, he is more subject to this cumulative effect from drama programs,

7. That television contributes to the images that

Americans have of the American character in action, and

hence, of themselves.

^Wilbur Schram, loc. cit. 12 . . . of all types of television programs those in the dramatic format seem most likely to depict social v a lu e s. Drama n e c e s s a rily d e a ls w ith p eo p le in s o c ia l situations; the characters and their behavior are con­ stantly being evaluated as good or bad, admirable or despicable, better or worse, desirable or undesirable.^

It could also be stated that not only does drama provide the viewer with a social situation — it also gives him a greater sense of

Identification with that social situation than when viewing other types

of programs. He becomes emotionally involved; his self-image is more influenced than if it were presented on a factual, Intellectual level*

Regarding the Combination of the Previous Three Categories

8. That if thero is a consistent image of the .American charac­

ter running through network television drama, that image

w ill condition the self-image of large numbers of Americans*

This final assumption is based on the previous seven

assumptions, and is the basic assumption for this study*

Limitations of the Study

In attempting a study of this sort, it becomes apparent that unless stringent lim itations are imposed the author will find himself

exploring almost lim itless ramifications and by-ways of this large and

complex subject. Therefore, this study is conducted within certain

self-imposed limitations*

The study atteiqpts to determine, through a stu

of selected television drama, whether the sum total of network

12Sydney Head, Television and Social Nomas, doctoral dissertation, New York U niversity, 1953, p* ^>* 13

television drama is presenting a consistent picture of the American character, and if so, what that character is*

Biis is an attempt to study the American character entirely through television drama, as if the author's only acquaintance with the

American scene were obtained through viewing America on the kinescope.

Prom the study of -this body of television drama the author w ill

attempt to deduce a description of the American character. Since the

American character exists not merely in isolated Americans, but in in­ dividuals living together in a society, some description of the

American culture, as presented on television drama, will be considered.

This study does not a tte s t to prove what the American character is. Noted anthropologists and sociologists have attempted this formi­ dable task with varied results, and the author makes no claim to be able to improve on their efforts.

However, if there appear to be differences between the television presentation of the American character as shown in this study and the

American character as it has been described by other first hand studies of the culture, or studies of the culture made through the mass media — then questions 'ill be posed as to whether this represents inaccurate portrayal on television, or a shift in cultural characteristics.

The sampling of television drama studies is lim ited to two pro­ grams from each network dramatic series on the air in the Phoenix area during the 1959-60 season. Programs from9h such series were viewed twice and four were viewed once. All three national networks have out­ lets in the FhoerrLx area, and programs from all three were included* lU

This sampling was taken over a five-month period, in order to avoid any seasonal emphasis. The period from March 21* to August 23»

I960, is a typical portion of the broadcast year.

A total of 192 programs were viewed (two programs from each series) which provided data from the equivalent of two weeks of tele­ vision drama, or 3*6 percent of the total universe of network television drama for one year. The size of this3 arapling inposes certain lim itations on this study. However, it is felt that since these programs were viewed over a five-month period, with the nights for viewing selected at random, this sampling should be indicative of the total universe.

Only network dramas are included, since these are seen regularly and nationally, and presumably would have the greatest exposure of all television drama.

Only programs presented in a dramatic format are studied, as the drama is that form in which American character is most vividly displayed, with the greatest emotional impact on the viewer.

One lim itation inherent in this type of study lies in the fact that television drama (or any drama) cannot be expected to reveal a literal image of the culture it reflects. The drama form has technical requirements which necessitate sketchy characterization, emphasis on the extraordinary, economy of word and action, and dramatic license.

However, the fact that drama is a creative, and not a literal, expression of the culture, may mean that we catch more of the sp irit 15 of the society in a good half-hour drama than ve would from a longer

expositional presentation.

Feature films, originally made for theatre presentation, shown

on television are not included in the sampling because,

1. Most are at least five years old, and hence do not reflect

current picturizations of the American culture.

2. They fall more logically in the category of films as mass

media, rather than with drama written for television.

3. They are not regular series, therefore are not produced by

the seme company, end could not be expected to show the

consistency of image which television series may.

This study is not lim ited to television drama which portrays

the contemporary American scene, as it is felt that dramas dealing with an earlier America (i.e., the Western) do influence the present-

day American's view of himself.

The West is our Youth, the youth of our nation and, by translation, the youth of us all.1^

When an individual looks at his youth, personal or national, he

sees an image of that which he was which can be presumed to influence

his image of that which he may become.

No drama is included wiiich deals exclusively with a culture

other than American. In most instances, even if the action took place

abroad, the leading characters were American, and were included in the

sam pling.

^A , B. Gutherie, "The West is Our Great Adventure of the Spirit," Life, April 13, 1959, p. 9h. 16

In the few instances in which an anthology series presented a program dealing almost exclusively with a foreign culture, that pro­ gram was omitted, and a later program in that series was viewed*

In most items covered by the survey, the attitudes, motivations, and description of major characters only are included. The author made notes on minor characters as well, but the valid information seamed to result from limiting consideration to the protagonist and to his adversary.

With these lim itations in mind, the study was undertaken.

D e fin itio n o f Terms

1. National character isolates and analyses the principal motives or

predispositions which can be deduced from the behavior of a society.

2. Culture consists of the non-biological traits and behavior coimon

to a group of people.

3. Consistent image is a characteristic which prevails in a signifi­

cant number of television dramas. h. Television drama i s that form of television which presents a story,

real or fictitious, in dramatic format, with actors playing the

parts of the characters.

5. Manifest theme is the theme of the drama in terms of the observable

events shown or implied. 6. General •< zed theme is the underlying broader theme of which the

manifest theme is one eKample.

7. Problem is the conflict of interests which provides the essential

plot of the drama. 17 8* Major characters are the one or two characters vho occupy the cen­ tral positions in the drama, around whom the story evolves in most

casts. These major characters are the protagonist and adversary* 9. Protagonist is the person vho is the central character.

10. Adversary is the figure who opposes the protagonist.

11. Assumptions are those ideas inherent in the story which the audience is expected to accept without explanation. 12. Symbols are those objects or the use of objects which have a larger meaning in the context of the drama than is intrinsic to them* 13* Behavior is the overt manner in which a character acts or reacts

to people and situations. ll±. Life refers to life-attitudes (i.e., acceptance of, participation in, rejection of, etc.), as shown in behavior.

15* Success is the achievement of goals, which are generally accepted

as worthy of achievement (i.e., money, power, status, survival). 16. Failure is the unsuccessful attempt to achieve these goals.

17. People refers to individuals. The people refers to a society as a w hole. 18. Things include material objects, personal belongings, property.

19. Love is considered in two categories — romantic love (as between

a man and a woman) and human love, the broader love of humanity. 20. Sex is the physical manifestation of physical passion, with or

without love. It also refers to the characteristics of a par­ ticular sex (i.e., she uses her sex to good advantage).

21. Slack and white characters refers to characters in the drama who

are not well-rounded portrayals, but tend to be shallow stereo­ typed pic tu ri zati ons • CHAPTER I I

RELATED LITERATURE

Existing literature relative to this study falls into three general categories:

1. Methods for Determining National Character

2. Descriptive Works on the American Character

3. Studies of America through the Mass Media

National Character

In the field of cultural anthropology Margaret Mead and

Ralph Iinton are two of the major contributors.

Ralph Linton's chapter "The Concept of National Character" in

Personality and Political Crisis raises some serious questions con­ cerning the study of national character. He states,

. . . even the establishment of value-attitude systems involves considerable use of subjective approaches. Conclusions as to national character are even more intuitive and are bound to be influenced to an uncom­ fortable degree by the investigator's individual experience. 1

The author does not contend that a study such as this can be completely free of subjectivity. However, as will be pointed out in the following chapters, everyattempt is made to reduce the

1Ralph Linton, "Hie Concept of National Character," Personality and Political Crisis, ed. Alfred H. Stanton and Stewart E. Perry (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1951)* P* 1^2.

18 19 subjectivity to the point where the findings and conclusions regarding national character can be considered to have some Validity.

Summarizing his concern, Linton states,

Recent w riters on American national character have had first-hand acquaintance with certain American sub­ cultures. Some of their conclusions reveal striking insight, but most of their conclusions might have been phrased more effectively in cultural rather than in psychological terms. Ihe use of psychological, or, more frequently, psychoanalytic terminology makes such works appear more authoritative without contributing toward the validity of the results.^

In this study, no attempt w ill be made to appear authoritative

through the use of psychoanalytic terminology. For the most part the findings are stated in cultural and sociological terms* Linton concedes that, At the same time a considerable number of cultural patterns are normally shared by the members of any modern nations, irrespective of their class or regional differences. Frcan these, the existence of certain com­ mon value-attitude systems can be deduced*3

In this stucfy the deduction of certain value-attitude systems from these common American cultural patterns as portrayed in tele­ vision drama w ill help to identify this electronic image of America*

In a chapter entitled, "National Character," contained in

Anthropology Today, Margaret Mead takes a more positive approach to the study of national character. She deals with the types of culture and character research, the assumptions on which they are based, and the contributions of this type of research.

^Ralph Linton, ibid. p. lU3*

^Ralph Linton, ibid. p. 1J4U. 20 In this chapter, Margaret Mead makes the following statement:

National character studi.es, like all culture and per­ sonality studies, are focused on the way human beings embody the culture they have been reared in, or to which they have imn&grated.h

The focus of this study is on these observable ways (as seen in te le v is io n drama) in which the characters embody the American cu ltu re of which they are shown to be a part.

At the conclusion of this chapter, Mead divides the study of national character into a series of steps,

(1) developing in itial hypotheses in which any material which is highly patterned can be used. . . (2) subjecting these hypotheses to systematic scrutiny in the light of selected bodies of materialsj (3) the determination by extensive sampling techniques of the prevalence and incidence of the behavior which have been identified, (1*) validation of the findings through prediction and experiment . 5 The present study is concerned primarily with step 3 — determination of prevalence and incidence of behavior, hypotheses concerning the American character have been made by others (as w ill be shown in the following section), but they lack specificity. For the most part they consist of subjective insights into the American character, supported by the experience and wisdom of the observer* Although these hypotheses have been helpful in determining areas of investigation in this study, it is not limited to these areas. After conclusions have been drawn concerning the image of the American character as shown on television drama, they w ill be compared with these

^Margaret Mead, “National Character," Anthropology Today, ed. A. L. Kroeber (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1953)# p . 61*2. ^Margaret Mead, ibid. p. 662. 21 earlier hypotheses, not to test the latter, but to speculate whether the differences stem from the nature of the television medium, or whether they reflect changes in the American character.

Also helpful to this study was another chapter by Head, "Hie

Study of National Character" in The Policy Sciences.^ This is similar to her chapter in Kroeber, eoccept that here she places more emphasis on the history of research in national character, and out­ lines various approaches to this type of research.

The work on methods of determining national character which applies most directly to this study is The Study of Culture at a

Distance, edited by Margaret Mead and Rhoda Metraux. In the chapter

••National Character: Theory and Practice," Geoffrey Gorer comes to grips with the issue of national character in the manner which is of most value to this study*

After pointing out that the term "national character" suffers from considerable ambiguity, Gorer indicates that the term appears to carry three connotations: 1. National character isolates and analyzes the princi­ pal motives or predispositions which can be deduced from the behavior of the personnel of a society at a given time.

2. National character describes the means by which these motives and predispositions are elicited and maintained in the majority of the new members who are added to the culture longer than a single generation*

3. National character also refers to the ideal image of themselves in the light of which individuals assess and

^Margaret Mead, "The Study of National Character," The Balicy Sciences, ed. D. Lemer and H. Las swell (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1951), chapter IV. 22 pass judgment upon themselves and their neighbors, and on the basis of which they reward and punish their children, for the manifestation or non-manifestation of given traits and attitudes* 7

These three definitions are, as Gorer points out, "partly com­ plementary and partly contrasting," making it difficult to separate them. However, in this study, we are concerned primarily with the first definition. Using the .American society as portrayed in tele­ vision drama in I960 as our "society at a given time," we w ill attempt to isolate and analyse the principal motives and predispositions which can be deduced from the behavior of the members of that society.

At the same time, it is assumed that if a consistent image of the American character is revealed running throughout network tele­ vision drama, this may contribute heavily to the ideal image of the national character referred to in Gorer's third connotation*

Further, it was from this excellent piece of writing on national character that the author was able to select approaches to be used in this study. In discussing symbolic material — literature, drama, cinema, painting, sculpture — Gorer states,

Such symbolic material is susceptible to a variety of analytic techniques: the tendency of the work as a whole — the moral or message — can be deduced and stated; the subjects of crisis or drama can be cata­ logued; individual characters (in narratives) can be studied to demonstrate what motives are consciously considered to be the sources of what action, what types of behavior are commended and what disapproved of; the actual choice of symbols, the type of relation­ ship between symbol and referent, can be studied for

^Geoffrey Gorer, "National Character: Theory and IVactice," The Study of Culture at a Distance, ed. Margaret Mead and Rhoda Metraux (Chicago, Illinois’? "University of Chicago Press, 1953), P- 57* 23

consistent pattern; and above all, the silences and omissions can give the most important clues*

This material was essential to the author of this study in de­ termining methods by which television drama can be analyzed. However, as Mead points out in a letter to the author,

. • . you can't turn anthropological methods into an instrument, it just won't work. Gorer's list is a list o f the sorts of things an anthropologist keeps in mind as he approaches a new corpus of material. It's a check list, not an instrument. ^

It was with this understanding that Gorer's approaches were employed, not as an instrument, but as a basis for constructing an evaluation form which would serve to tabulate the American charac­ teristics shown in television drama.

The American C h a rac te r

As Linton admits,

The lack of objective, scientifically valid data on national personality norms has not interfered with the development of a considerable literature on this s u b je c t.10

As evidence of this, several works regarding the American character can be cited.

Again, Margaret Mead provides one of the earliest examples of an anthropologist looking at the /merican culture* In her popular book,

And Keep Your Pcwder Iky, she states that this is not a study of

America, but a certain way of looking at people. Nevertheless, this

^Geoffrey Gorer, ibid. p. 1$,

^Margaret Mead in le tte r to the author, November lii, 1959*

lOfctnton, loc» c it. p. ll*2. 2h

book provides a well-rounded picture of the American people, particu­

larly in regard to the ways in which their behavior reflects their

attitudes toward the issues of World War II. In this work, Mead

relates character and culture with the statm ent,

There are several ways of studying a culture. We first look at the behavior of the human beings who are representatives of that culture, and from their behavior we arrive at a systematic description — which we call their "culture."

Prom this we may assume that when we have described the con­

sistent behavior of the human beings who represent our American social

scene on television, we shall have an indication of the American cul­

ture as portrayed on television, as well as the American character.

A more detailed view of the American character is provided by

Geoffrey Gorer in his book, The American People.12 Here many

hypotheses concerning Americans are made, backed by the authority of a

trained anthropologist studying at first hand a complex modern national

culture of which he is not a native. Though not subject to proof by

scientific methods, his book contains many keen insights, and presents many of the hypotheses concerning Americans which guided the author in

this 3tudy.

More recently (1953) the American sociologist, David Kies man, de­

scribed certain aspects of the American character in The Lonely Crowd. ^

n 1 ” '...... '[our Powder Dry (New York: William

12Qeoffrey Gorer, The American People (New Yorks W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 19U8).

David Riesraan, Nathan Glazer, and Reuel Denney, The Lonely Crowd (Garden C ity , New York: Doubleday and Company, 195>0). 25 Although this work is descriptive of societies in terras of population

and economic factors, Riesraan fits the United States into the de­ scription of a nation in "incipient population decline,"

In this context, his description of "other-directed people" seesns appropriate to Americans, end this provides another helpful hypothesis for this study.

Particularly helpful is Section III of Chapter IV. In this section, entitled "ftie Hass Media in the Stage of Other-Direct ion,"

Riesraan points up the influence of the mass media with the statement,

The media have created a picture of what boyhood and girlhood are like (sis during the war they created the picture of the GI, again using the considerably edited language of the soldier) and they force children either to accept or aggressively to resist this picture of thems elves,

If it is possible to identify and describe these pictures of ourselves on our most prevalent medium — television — then perhaps

Americans will become more aware of this influence. If these pictures of us exist, they should be identified clearly for what they are, not accepted unknowingly.

More re c e n tly , R. L. Bruckberger, a French Dominic an, has written of the United States in Image of America,-^ This work shows keen insight into the American culture, but is more historical and political in its treatment, comparing American historical figures with those of other countries (Jefferson and Saint-Just, Gompers and Lenin) showing the differences between them.

David Riesman, ibid. p. 121, L. Bruckberger, Image of America (New York: Viking Press, 1959). 26 American Character through the Maas Media

Since the World War II era marked a grovrth in interest in the

American character, and also heralded the advent of television and the resultant etxpansion of interest in the mass media, it is not strange that most attanpts to analyze, describe, or compare with reality the

American character as presented in the mass media are of recent v in ta g e . Rudolf Amheim's "The World of the Daytime S e r i a l i s one o f the few which predates the mid-century mark. Written by Er. Amheim as a Rockefeller fellow at Columbia, it was printed in Radio Research, 19U2-Ii3 and was reprinted in Mass Communic ations, published in 19U 9*

Amheim describes the world of the daytime serial in terms of (l) Social Milieu, (2) Die Problems, (3) Moral Evaluation. No attengot is made to ccmpare this with any real American social scene, but his descriptions of this radio world are vivid and detailed, permitting the reader the obvious assumption that their variance from reality is considerable. Of particular interest were the following findings*

1. That the locale was mostly middle and small towns.

2. That the social status of the main characters included:

Professional 73%

Housewives (>$%

B usiness 6h%

No factory workers were included.

3. 'Qie content consists entirely of problems created and solved

■^Rudolf Amheim, "The World of the Daytime Serial," Mass Cpnymanlcations, ed. Wilbur Schramm (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 19k9), p . 360. 27 by the characters. They stem from disturbances of static

life situations rather than from obstacles to the accom­

plishment of goals* Forty-seven percent of the problems were in the area of personal relations, twenty-two percent in the area of

economic and professional problems* 5* Characters in these serials consisted of three general

groups — the Good, the Bad, the Weak. The Good and the Weak create trouble for themselves while the Bad create trouble for others. The Good suffer much, while the Bad are rarely the victims of trouble.

6. Eight-eight percent of the trouble-making planned was thwarted, and problems were never solved in "immoral" ways* Perfect Justice was provided, and the Good troublemakers

were not punished, while the Bad were*

Arnheim works out the following formula of the daytime serial:

Our psychological formula could then be stated in about the following terms. Radio serials attract the listener by offering her a portrait of her own shortcomings, which lead to constant trouble, and of her inability to help herself* In spite of the unpleasantness of this picture, resonance can be enjoyed because identification is drawn away from it and transferred to an ideal type of the perfect, efficient woman who possesses power and prestige and who has to suf­ fer not by her own fault but by the fault of Others. This enables the listener to view (and to criticise) her own personal shortcomings, which lead to trouble, as occurring in "other" less perfect creatures. S till, these short­ comings, being her own after all, are presented as springing from mere w:eakness of character; reform is possible, and often achieved. No such tolerance is needed for the outside causes of the listener*s suffering* Her resentment against them is confirmed and nourished by the introduction of the villain-type, who also personifies and 28

assumes responsibility for any detrimental effects of non-personal forces (in whose im unity the listener is interested), such as the institutions of society.-^-?

Thus does one researcher describe the success of the daytime serial, and in so doing depicts something of the character of

Americans.

Undertaking a somewhat different type of content analysis of television in 1952, Sydney Head took the approach indicated by this statement of purpose from his doctoral dissertation:

This study analyzes the social content of a sanple of television dramas to determine how the social milieu compares with the actual contemporary social environ­ ment. It was assumed that the programs tend to reflect actual social circumstances but that this re­ flection is distorted and partial. A further purpose was to infer the cause of such distortions and om issions.

His empirical findings indicated that —

1. Fifty-nine percent were situation comedy or crime programs.

Forty-four percent had a morality thane.

Twenty percent had a love theme.

2. In 75 percent of the cases the protagonist was successful.

3. Ninety percent of the major characters were white Americans

of native stock.

U. Over one-half were "independent adults," and 83 percent were

upper or middle class.

5. Occupations most commonly portrayed were police-protective

(17%) and professional criminals (l7j£).

^Rudolf Amheim, ibid. p. 378. l^sydney Head, "Television and Social Norms," doctoral dis­ sertation, New York University, 1953» p. ! • 29

6. Over three-fourths of the programs contained violence, crime,

and aggression.

Head’s conclusions were as follows:

Comparison of demographic norms of the dramas with those of actual society shows that the dramas do not reflect the literal, objective facts of social environment. How­ ever, it appears that the dramas do reflect underlying cultural norms, even though this reflection is selective. Two selective factors which seem to affect content are (l) character of the medium itself, and (2) the cormuni- cation format employed. ^

He concludes further that, "commercial television reinforces the social status quo and is likely to increase cultural inertia,

Television drama is in many respects similar to the motion pic­ ture, and techniques of content analysis in the latter have implications for the study of television.

Using all American A motion pictures released in New York for a year, Wolfenstein and Leites conducted a study, the results of which they published as Movies: A Psychological Study, in 1950*

Taking the psychological approach to which Ralph Idnton objects, these authors studied American motion pictures, comparing them to the films of other countries.

Seeing in motion pictures the "common day-dreams" of the people, the authors state*

Where a group of people share a common culture, they are likely to have certain day-dreams in common. . . The common day-dreams of a culture are in part the sources, . . in part the products of its popular myths, stories, plays, and films. . . In this book we have looked at contemporary

^Sydney Head, ibid. p. 2

^Sydney Head, ibid. p, 3 30

American films to see what are the recurrent day­ dreams which enter into the consciousness of millions of movie-goers.^1

This work contains statements of three types:

1. Statements about the manifest themes in the films studied.

2. Guesses about the psychological processes of movie makers

and audiences to account for the emotj-ona- significance of

recurrent themes.

3. Assumptions about real life patterns in American culture, at­

tempting to connect them with some of the movie thanes and

their emotional bases.

Wolfenstein and Leites feel that the first type of statements is best confimed, the third the least confirmed.

A motion picture content study which is more closely related to this one in form and structure is Dale^ The Content of Motion Pictures published in 1935* Under the auspices of the Payne Fund, a study was made of the themes of 1,500 motion pictures. Extensive analysis was made of major films of the years 1920, 1925, and 1930. More detailed analysis of content was made of 75 motion pictures, and a highly detailed narrative account was done of forty other films.

This early work in content analysis provided data in many of the categories which are used in the current study. Locales and settings; characteristics, physical and social; sex and marriage; crime; drink­ ing; goals sought — all these are common to both studies and, hence, provide the author with interesting points of comparison.

^-Martha Wolf enstein and Nathan Leites, Movies: A Psychological Study (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1950), p. 13* 31 Included in Dale's findings is the following statement:

Perhaps the most important conclusion concerning these data is the fact that in large measure the characters, the problems, and the settings are remote from the lives of the persons who view them. This remoteness is seen in the emphasis placed on romantic love, a problem which nearly all individuals must meet and face in some way, but not in the manner or to the degree indicated in the motion pictures on which we have presented data. It is seen also in the emphasis on wealth and luxury, which serves neither to point a desirable ideal nor to offer methods by means of which the mass of the people can attain that ideal.^ Thus, Dale comp^es the motion picture character, problems, and settings with the lives of viewers, which is not attempted in this study. However, such descriptive statements provide interesting con­ clusions with which to compare findings of this and other studies. From this brief review of other content analyses of mass com­ munication we can see points of sim ilarity and difference.

Amheim*s approach is descriptive and explanatory, based on tabulation of Social Milieu, Problems, and Moral Evaluations on radio drama. Head compares the social milieu of television drama to the con­ temporary social environment, assuming that this drama would reflect a distorted picture of actual social circumstances. Wolfenstein and

Leites look at the major relationships shown in motion picture drama (specifically Lovers and Loved Ones, Parents and Children, Killers and

Victims, Performers and Onlookers) comparing them to relationships shown in motion pictures from other nations. And Dale studied themes, goals, characteristics, drawing conclusions as to which aspects or

^Edgar Dale, The Content of Motion Pictures (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1^35>), p. 32 problems received much attention in motion pictures, and which problems received little.

There are sim ilarities and differences among these research pro­ jects, and between each of them and this study. The study which is most similar to the approach taken in this study is an unpublished paper by the author, "A Content Analysis of Network Television Drama,B written in 1951.

In this, television dramas were viewed and conclusions drawn; the author "seeking to analyze the attitudes reflected in these pro­ grams which adults wTatch, and to relate them to our society. "^3 Areas dealt with in this paper were: Family Relationships, Economic

Factors, Treatment of Racial and Religious Groups, the Seres, of Crime,

Treatment of Ethics, Death, Life, and Love.

The author has drawn on this earlier research in structuring the present one, and most of the areas covered by it are included in this stu d y . All of these relevant studies of the American character through the mass media w ill be referred to in the chapter on Interpretation, with sim ilarities and differences in findings being discussed.

In general, then, a survey of related literature in this field of study of the American character through the mass media reveals —

1. That little has been done along these lines, due primarily to

the fact that an objective study of the national character is

difficult since as yet we have few instruments with which to

^Richard H. Bell, "Content Analysis of Network Television Drama" (unpublished paper, Columbus, Ohio, 1951)# P* 1. 33

measure, or even to define the essentials of a national

c h a ra c te r.

2. That many scholars feel that a modem complex society is not

homogeneous enough to lend itse lf to such a study.

3* That despite these facts, attempts have been made to study

our national character or portions of it, as it is reflected

in our mass media*

U* That these previous studies, few though they may be, and sub­

jective though they may be, have provided hypotheses and shown

insight into the infinitely complex but fascinating subject

of the American character.

The author, then, is -willing to proceed with a study of the image of the American character as portrayed in selected television dramas, using such tools as are at hand. Where possible, findings will be quantified. Where this is impossible, the author will control his sub­ jective judgments rigorously so that they may be as free as possible of personal bias.

The task of development of procedures for such a study, the methods arrived at for use in this study, the attempt to distinguish the objective from the subjective — problems which have been of con­ cern to every writer cited in this chapter — are dealt with in the following chapter* CHAPTER I H

PROCEDURES

This search for an American image on television started with the

small content analysis by the author in 1951, when the excitement and potential value of this sort of study became apparent. The present study developed through the procedures outlined in this chapter.

Approach to the Study

As a beginning approach to this study, the author considered the seven ways in which cultures can be studied through their mass media, as listed by Gorer in his chapter on "National Character — Theory and

Practice" in The Study of Culture at a Distance.^ These were (l) the tendency of the work as a whole, (2) subjects of crisis catalogued,

(3) individual characters, the motivation of their actions, (1|) actions recommended and disapproved, (5) choice of symbols, (6) relationship between symbol and referent, and (7) silences and omissions.

Studying these general approaches, all seemed to have merit in terms of studying national character as well as culture. Defining cul­ ture as "the non-biological traits and behavior common to a group of people" and national character as that which "isolates and analyzes the

^Geoffrey Gorer, "National Character — Theory and Practice," The Study of Culture at a Distance, ed. Margaret Mead and Rhoda MStraux (bhicago: University of”Chicago Press, 1953 )* P* 75*

3U 35

principal motives or predispositions which can be deduced from the

behavior of a society," we find that the two are closely inter-related,

since both are concerned with the behavior of groups of individuals.

Therefore, it could be assumed that the tendency of the work as a whole would illuminate the frame of reference in which our American

operates; that the subjects of crisis would indicate what he deems important; that motivation of individual characters connotes the

national character; that actions recommended and disapproved point up

national goals and ambitions; that choice of symbols indicates meaning that things have for individuals in the culture; and that silences and

omissions give insight into those things which are ignored or assumed.

Within these general areas, therefore, a ten-point evaluation form was developed.

A. Tendency of Work as a Whole

1. What is the manifest theme of the drama? The generalized

theme?

B. Subjects of Crisis Catalogued

2. What problem creates the conflict in the drama?

3. How is the conflict resolved? Who is responsible for its

resolution?

C. Description of Individual Characters and Their Motivations

U. What is the (a) sex, (b) age, (c) race, (d) occupation of

the protagonist?

5. What motivates the protagonist? The antagonist?

6. What relationship exists between the leading characters? 36 D. A ctions Recommended and Disapproved

7. What behavior is rewarded, what punished?

8. What is valued highly?

E. Symbols and Referents

9. What symbols are used? Of what are they symbolic?

10. What beliefs are assumed in the story?

Preliminary Study

A preliminary study of six programs was conducted by the author using this evaluation form (Appendix I). Findings were compiled, generalisations drawn, and the results were sent to four recognized authorities in the field of cultural anthropology to obtain their reactions to the validity of this approach.

Dieir responses (Appendix II) to this approach to the study of I national character on television revealed some procedural concerns*

Regarding Validity

Jfy own inclination is to think the evaluation form is not so important, that the use you make of it in your generali­ zations is very important, and certainly raises many themes which would also seem to me significant.2

Now the way to communicate to me — or anyone else — what you mean by these generalizations is qualitative not quan­ titativ e documentation. 3

Generalizations drawn in this study are qualitative, but they are based on quantitative tabulation of specific Items, which, in same cases

(such as sex, marital status) have a high degree of objectivity, and in

2David Mesman in le tte r to author October lb» 195>9*

^Margaret Mead in letter to author November 12, 1959. 37 other cases (motivation of the characters, behavior rewarded and punished) are in themselves the result of a subjective judgment on the part of the author in the use of the evaluation form*

If your study is to be an anthropological one, it should place your findings on TV against other findings on movies, radio, novels, etc., and also take into account anthropological generalizations about American character based on other types of materials, case studies, opinion polls, community studies, etc. The confirmation of the worth of your study would come from the way it fit, sup­ plemented, added new light, etc., to this corpus of existing studies, not from whether it could be repli­ c a te d .^

In the closing sections of this report, comparisons between the findings of this work and those of other similar studies are made.

However, the author Intentionally has not based this stucfcp entirely on comparison with previous works, since it was hoped that by keeping the evaluation flexible, new generalizations might come to light. It is hoped that in the future a study similar to this can be done with other media to provide a basis for comparison.

Regarding Technique

The problem about generalization that I think haunts any content-analysis is the extent to which one can generalize from the drama to the attitudes of the au dience.^

In this study, the author is not attempting to generalize the a ttitu d e s o f th e audience. The o b je c tiv e o f t h is stucfcr i s to a rriv e at a descriptive picture of the American character as depicted in television drama.

^Margaret Mead, ibid.

^David Riesman, loc. c it. 38

I cannot think of anything to add to your 10 point instrument, hut I should think that more specificity might need to be given to some of the items by way of defining just what is meant by their terms. What, for example, is the referent for some of the "whats" of the,questions — things, goals, action, or be­ l i e f s ? 6

The revised form and the Guide to Viewing made these items more s p e c if ic .

One of the things I should suggest to you is to separate quite consistently the analysis of the drama from the analysis of the characters. 7

In this study, this distinction is made. Certain classifications deal with the drama (i.e., manifest theme, solution to problems, etc.) while others deal with the characters (i.e., motivation, behavior toward siblings, etc.).

Further, I should suggest that you make a real effort to deal with all the characters in the plays you analyze, not merely with the chief two.®

1M.S suggestion seemed highly desirable, and the author compiled information about the supporting characters as well as the principal characters in each drama. However, this procedure became quite in­ volved, and it became apparent that a study which encompassed the characteristics of all the characters in 192 dramas would become most complex. The author, therefore, decided to lim it the study to the major characters, on the assumption that these characters are the focus of attention in the drama and make the greatest inpact on the

^Letter from H. G. Barnett to author, December 21, 1959.

7Letter from Geoffrey Gorer to author, October 22, 1959.

^Geoffrey Gorer, ibid. 39 audience. Therefore, the image of the American character presented by these characters would be of greatest Significance.

Taking into account all reactions of correspondents, and com­ paring this approach to other similar studies, there seemed to be enough support for this approach to warrant proceeding with the study.

However, it became apparent that for the evaluation form more specific categories were needed than those general approaches given by Gorer, particularly in terms of value-attitude behavior. Therefore, a com­ parison was made to find what behavioral and attitudinal areas were covered by other works on this subject.

Categories Used by Other Authors

To determine which categories other writers have considered important in evaluating the American character, a comparison chart was drawn. It lists two pictures of American character based on direct observations: Mead’s And Keep Your Powder Dry and Gorer's

The American People; and two images based on studies through mass media, Wolf enstein & Leites1 Movies: A Psychological Study and

Bell's earlier unpublished content analysis of TV drama. Uo

TAHE 2

Comparison of Behavioral Areas

C ateg o ries Author

Rel atlonships Mead Gorer Wolf enstein B e ll

Parent-Child X X X X Husband-Wife X X S ib lin g X X X X Peers X X A u th o rity Nationalities

Social Structure

Class Structure X X Success X X Democracy X X World View X Things

Moral-Ethical

l i f e X Death X X Love X X Seoc X X Crime X X

This tabulation gave some indication of areas of attitudes, re­ lationships, and behavioral patterns into which it would be advantageous to inquire.

From (l) the experience of the preliminary test, (2) the comments of experienced anthropologists and sociologists, and (3) a comparison of areas covered in other works, a revised Evaluation Form was de­ veloped. Revised Evaluation Form

Descriptive material regarding setting of the drama, and the sex, age, race, and occupation of protagonist and adversary were included. Questions two, three, and four cover manifest thane of the drama, the generalized theme, the problem which creates the conflict in the drama, how the conflict is resolved, and who is responsible for its resolution.

These items were designed to obtain information as to what issues are important to the characters, and the role American characters play in working out their own destinies.

Question five deals with motivation of the protagonist and his adversary* one of the approaches Gorer mentions for the study of cul­ ture. Question six is based on Gorer's approach to actions recommended and disapproved, with the terminology modified to make it more apparent to the viewer.

The behavior of the characters in regard to human relationships is covered in questions seven and eight, which are based on the com­ parison of areas of importance in other studies.

They cover behavior (from which can be deduced attitudes) tow ard:

1 . Parent-Child (covered in four studies compared)

2. Husband-Wif e (covered in two studies compared)

3. S ib lin g s (covered in four studies compared)

U. Peers (including class structure)

5. A u th o rity (retained though not covered before) k2

6. Nationalities (covered in three studies)

Question nine deals with attitudes (as evidenced by behavior) toward abstract concepts of:

1. Life (listed 1 time, but considered important)

2. Death (listed 2 times)

3 . Love ( l i s t e d 3 tim es)

U. Sex (listed 2 times)

5. People (included as a balance to "things")

6. Things (listed once but considered important)

Democracy and World View were omitted as being duplicated by

Authority, Peers and Nationalities, The final question relates to the area of symbolism, asking what symbols, if any, are used, and what are their referents, (Another of Gorer's approaches.)

glrst Test of Validity

In order to test the validity of this study being conducted by the author, a sampling of six programs were viewed on Thursday,

March 2ht I960, by the author, and three experts in the field of character analysis. Each viewed the six programs independently and filled out an evaluation form independently. (Ftor description of this test, see Appendix III.)

This test was designed to check the rational validity of the author's judgments in these categories, helping to determine whether his judgments would be entirely subjective, or would reflect other informed judgments on these matters. h i

Six programs were viewed, and on each program 31 items were com­ piled, making a total of 186 items, on each of which four observers had passed judgment. The following table indicates the amount of disagreement which prevailed.

TABLE 3

Degrees of Variation

Variation Items Percent

No Variance 71 3 8 .0

3-1 S p l i t 39 2 1 .0

2-2 S p l i t 50 2 6 .5

Complete Variance 26 H i.5

T o ta ls 186 1 0 0 .0

In over one-third of the items there was complete agreement, and in another 21 percent there was only one variant, (in 19 out of these 39 cases of one variant, the varying comment was made by the same person. Thus, nearly 50 percent of this variation came from one viewer.) Adding the complete agreement with the instances in which only one of four varied, we find that in 59 percent of the cases there was validation of the author's judgments.

Considering the question of which of the observers varied most

(to determine whether that variant were the author who would be doing the complete study), the information in Table U prevailed. hh TABLE h

Frequency of Variation by Observers

(3-1 or 2-1-1 Variant)

O bserver Frequency P ercen t

S ta a ts 13 7 .0

B e ll 17 9 .1

P e r r i l 30 16.1

V erg is h i 22.0

Thus, it can be seen that only one observer was more consistently in accord with the group reaction than was the author. Correlation between Perril and Vergis and the group was much lower.

One important use of this test involved compiling the degree of variation by question, to determine on which of these questions there was the highest degree of agreement, and on which the least.

The following table indicates the results of this compilation. h$ TABLE $ Degree of Variation by Questions Question Frequency of Com- Com- li—0 3-1 b in ed 2-2 2-1-1 1 -1 -1 -1 b in ed 1 . A. S e ttin g k 1 5 1 1 B. Protagonists's sex 1 6 0 age 3 1 h 2 2 ra c e 6 6 0 occupation 3 2 5 1 1 C. Adversary's sex 5 1 1 age 2 2 h 2 2 rac e 5 5 1 1 occupation 3 1 h 1 1 2

2. A. M anifest Theme 3 2 5 1 1 B. Generalized Theme 2 2 1 3 li

3. A. Problem of Conflict k 2 6 0

U. A. How Is Resolved? $ 1 6 0 B. Who Resolves? 5 1 6 0 5. A* Motivation of Protagonist k 1 1 1 B. Motivation of Adversary 1 2 3 1 1 1 3 6. A. Behavior Rewarded 0 1 5 6 B. Behavior Finished 1 1 1 1 3 5 7. Behavior in Regard to: A. Parent-Child 2 2 1: 1 1 2 B. Husband-Vdfe 2 2 U 2 2 c . S ib lin g h 2 6 0 8. Behavior in Regard to: A. P eers 0 2 li 6 B. A u th o rity 2 1 3 2 1 3 c. Nationalities 6 6 0 9. Behavior in Regard to: A. l i f e 0 2 2 2 6 B. Death li li 1 1 2 c. Love 1 5 6 0 D. Sex 2 2 li 1 1 2 E. People 2 2 2 1 1 li F. Things 1 1 1 2 2 O H • A. Symbols 2 2 1 I B. R eferen t 0 1 $ s U6

On the basis of these figures, questions were retained where there was 100 percent (6-0), 83 percent (5-1), or 66.U percent (U-2) agreement. Questions to which there was 100 percent (0-6), 83 percent

(1-5), o r 66.U p e rc e n t (2-U) disagreement were eliminated from con­ sideration. In the two cases (Motivation of Adversary and Behavior toward Authority) in which there was a 50 percent agreement- disagreement correlation, the author elected to leave them in the evaluation form, pending further confirmation of their validity or lack of it. Since there had been a high degree (&3%) of agreement on

Motivation of the Protagonist, it seemed likely that the variations in adversary motivation might have been due to carelessness or chance.

Also, the latter was needed to provide balance.

In each case of a question being eliminated, it was left in the questionnaire for the author to answer and tabulate, with the reali­ zation that unless there was an overwhelmingly prevalent pattern apparent according to the author*s subjective judgment, those questions would not be valid enough to warrant including in the final conclusions of the study.

Findings on this First Test led to inclusion in the evaluation form of several additional items that seemed likely to yield pertinent information. ttiese included:

I. Program Data: Series Title Date Station Length Program Title Time Network Setting

H . Killer-Killed column added to the descriptive material,

formerly contained in Question One, and a column entitled

"Description. " U7

The former would indicate whether the character killed anyone, was himself killed, or both. Intent of the Description column was to provide the author with a subjective reference to the character for review purposes, and was not intended to have any high degree of accuracy.

Between the questions "How is the conflict resolved?" and "Who is responsible for its resolution?" was inserted "Does death resolve it?" since the te3t indicated that in many instances the solution to the drama problem came by means of death.

Between the questions on motivation of the central characters and the questions on reward and punishment was inserted the question

"Do any of the characters switch sides?" in an attempt to find whether these dramas tend to show a switching of sides caused by character change*

In regard to Rewards and Punishments (which seemed to have lew validity, but which was left in the questionnaire), the additional question "How?" was added in order to make it more specific, with the thought that this might make it more valid.

Under the behavior of leading characters toward certain relation­ ships, Parent-Child, Husband-Wife, and Siblings were retained, and added were (l) Social Class, (2) Women, (3) "Buddies."

The first was added because it seemed apparent that both social status of the characters and attitudes toward social status might be revealing in terms of the .American character. The item on women was added, since there seemed to be evidence in TV drama of the "Good-Bad hB

Girl" to whom Wolfenstein and Leites refer.9 Hie category "Buddies11

came from Gorer's The .American Character, and its use is intended to

determine whether this unique American relationship eoclsted in our

image of the American character on television.

The question of Peers was broken down into columns to show

relationships between characters in the hope that this would make this

a more accurate item.

To the category of attitudes toward (l) Authority (which was

defined to include church or state) and (2) Nationalities were added

(3) Attitude toward Crime, since this seemed prevalent in most of the

dramas viewed, and (U) The People, since in seme instances the adversary was not an individual, but society, or The People, considered as a

group. This latter point also seemed to be current in terns of

Reisman's concern with "other-ctLrectedness" in our present society.^-

In the area of attitude toward aspects of life (i.e., life,

Death, Love) several items were added. These were (l) Success and

(2 ) Failure, in the light of the fact that previous studies had placed considerable emphasis on these in the American culture^ (3) Drinking,

in order to see whether there were moralistic attitudes of importance

toward this subject} and (U) Kissing, in an effort to deteimine whether

^Martha Wolfenstein and Nathan Leites, Movies: A Psychological Study (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1950)* p. 25.

Geoffrey Gorer, The American People (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 19U8), p. 125.

11 David Riesman, loc. cit. p. 120. h 9

the oft-discussed "dominant female" was characteristic of our television

.American character.

Finally, a concluding question was inducted, "Are the characters

'black and white'?" in an effort to determine whether our TV image of the American character is a believable one or merely a set of card­ board characters who would not be taken with a high degree of believe- a b i l i t y .

Additional Section IV, Behavioral Acts, was added to the evaluation form, with ample blank paper for outlining the action of each program, so that the author could review the programs, since it was impossible for him to view them a second time. In actual prac­ tice, a tabulation of the number of behavioral acts proved impractical, since they are not sharply enough defined. With these changes the final evaluation form was completed (Appendix IV).

Second Test of Validity

During the period of investigation, a second test was run, to define the lim its of confidence for questions on the revised form, and to obtain verification or refutation of the questions eliminated on the first test.

On this testj Dr. Lester Perril viewed five of the programs which were being viewed by the author, and each investigator tabulated

ML* answers independently on the new form.

In this instance 53 items per program were checked. With five programs considered, this gave a total of 265 items* Table 6 gives the degree of variance on this test. 50

TABLE 6

Degree of Variance

Type Variance Frequency P ercen t

No Variance 92 3U.7

V ariance — Same Meaning 56 21.1 Not Contradictory 36 1 3 .6 P e r r il HLarik 60 22.6

Contradictory 21 8 .0

T o tals 26 £ 100.0

Prom these figures it can be seen that though complete agreement

in specific terms was achieved only in slightly over one-third of the

items, conplete contradiction prevailed in only21 items, or 8 p e rc e n t

of the instances. In the other degrees of variation, different words

were used for the same meanings (i.e., Manifest Theme: Bell — mystery of a woman’s visions, Perril — a woman's fears, halluci­

nations) ; coments were not contradictory (i.e., What Behavior Is

Rewarded? Bell — reasoning, Perril — telling the truth); or the items contained no comment from Perril (i.e ., Generali zed Theme:

Bell — Life and Death, Perril — blank.

This indicated that generally the author's responses to the

evaluation form would not be grossly atypical.

In considering the degree of agreement by questions (see Table 7) verification was found for the consistent lack of agreanent on (l)

Generalized Theme, (2) Behavior Rewarded, (3) Behavior Rinished, (k)

Attitude toward Peers, (5) Attitudes toward People, ( 6 ) Attitudes 51 toward Things, (7) Authority, (8) Symbols, and (9) Referents of

Symbols*

Support was found for the validity of the item Attitudes in

Regard to Life — 80 percent (h-1). No strong support (60 percent agreement) was found for motivation of the adversary, and on this

Second Test, Responsibility for Resolving the Conflict rated only liO percent (2- 3 ) agreement.

Paring very poorly on the Second Test were the questions which had been added to the evaluation form following the First Test.

Description (as was expected) had 100 percent disagreemext. The

People, and Sex had only 20 percent agreement (possibly from lack of clarity on these subjects). Social Class, Women, and Kissing had liO percent agreement, with 60 percent either left blank or in disagree­ m ent.

TABLE 7

Frequency Variation by Question

Q uestion Frequency of

2-0 1 -1 1 -Blank Combined

1. Protagonist's Sex k l 1 Age 3 l 1 2 M arriage 3 2 2 Killer-Killed h 1 1 Nationalities 5 0 O ccupation 5 0 Description 3 2 52

TABLE 7 - - Continued

Q uestion Frequency of

2-0 1-1 1-HLank Combined

2. Adversary 1 s Sex 3 H l ^ f O O w J 2 O 4 0 H H 4 W 1 V C Age 3 2 M arriage 1 li Killer-Killed 3 1 Nationalities li 1 Occupation $ Description 1

3 . M anifest Dieme 5 Generalized Bxeme 1 C o n flic t 3 R esolved 5 Death 5 Responsible 2

!;• Motivation of Protagonist li 1 cm Motivation of Adversary 3 1 cm Sw itch 3 2 H CM CM _3-

5. Rewarded 1 li How? 3 1 Punished 1 li How? 3 2

6 . Behavior in Regard to: P a re n t-C h ild li 1 cm Husband-Wife 3 1 O 1 S ib lin g s li 1 Social Class 2 1 2 Women 2 3 Buddies li 1 Peers 2 3

7. Behavior toward:

Crime 5 p " Author 2 2 1 h v 1 Nationalities h 3 - People 1 1* 53

TABLE 7 — Continued.

Q uestion Frequency of

2-0 1-1 1- Blank Combined

8. Behavior toward* l i f e h 1 1 Death 2 2 1 3 Success h 1 1 F a ilu re 2 2 1 3 People 1 k 1* Things 2 3 5 Love 3 2 2 Sex 1 1 3 li Drinking 1 1 1 K issing 2 1 2 3

9. A. Symbols 1 3 1 li B. R eferents U 1 5

10. HLack and W hite C h aracters 3 1 1 2

In the light of this evidence, the following disposition was made

of items which rated low in degree of agreement on either test:

1. B. What is the generalized theme? Retained — Lower Degree ■ of Validity.

Retained despite low ratings, as it is needed to assist in the tabulation of 1. A. What is the manifest theme? This item also has a bearing on 2. What problem creates the conflict in the drama?

3. B* Who is responsible for resolution of conflict? Retained.

There was complete (100 percent) agreement on this question on the First Test, and a 2-3 variation on the Second Test. Therefore, this question is held to be fairly valid.

li. B. What motivates the adversary? Retained — Lower Degree of Validity. This rated 3-2 and 3-3 on the two tests, but is needed to balance the question on motivation of protagonist. 5>. A- What behavior is rewarded? How? Retained — Lower - Degree of Validity.

5 . B. What b eh av io r i s punished? How? Retained — Lower Degree of Validity*

Rated very low both times. Retained primarily out of desire to

see results of this item, regardless of validity.

6 * D. Behavior toward social class. Retained — Lower Degree of Validity.

6 . £. Behavior tow ard women. R etained — Lower Degree o f V a lid ity .

Both retained because of contributions to further inquiry which findings in these areas may produce*

6 . G. Behavior toward peers. Eliminated.

7. B. Behavior toward authority. Eliminated.

7 . D. Behavior toward the people. Eliminated.

8. A. Behavior toward life. Eliminated.

8. E. Behavior toward people. Eliminated.

8.F. Behavior toward things. Eliminated.

8. H. Behavior toward sex. Eliminated*

8. J. Behavior toward kissing. Eliminated*

9. A. What symbols, if any, are used in the drama? Eliminated*

9. B. Of what are they symbolic? Eliminated.

In Chapter IV, findings in categories retained despite low degree of agreement w ill be so designated* Viewing Guide

Hie Second Test gave rise to a conviction that accuracy of

listings would be improved if a standardized Viewing Guide were pre­

pared, This guide was prepared, and programs were evaluated in terms

of these general directives and specific questions under the various

categories (Appendix V).

Findings in the following chapter carry the number listed on the

Guide for the questions to which these findings were a response.

Reliability

The author assumes that there is no need to defend the reli­

ability of this study. Since all viewing is done by the author with

the same evaluation form, the errors in judgment, intrusion of sub­

jectivity, personal reactions — if they appear — should be consistent. Therefore, if this is a valid way to search for the image

of the American character on television (and the attempt has been made

to show that it is), then the consistency, or reliability, of the form, when used by only one observer, should be unquestioned,

Stumary

This study, then, attempts to describe the image of the American

character as portrayed in selected television dramas.

In order to accomplish this purpose, the form to be used for

evaluation is left somewhat open-ended. This is not an attempt to

test predetermined hypotheses, but an effort to describe an image.

Therefore, the author does not intend to lim it the evaluation to 56 certain predetermined characteristics of the American character, for the possible range of American behavior, motivation, and attitudes is v id e .

It vould have been possible to list the American characteristics which other authors have identified, either through study of the cul­ ture itself, or through study of the culture through the mass media, and to have tested these characteristics to see if they were apparent on television drama. In the author's opinion, however, this would have limited the study to a validation or refutation of existing evidence, whereas the intent of this study is to take a fresh look at the

American character and then to compare the results with previous find­ in g s .

Zy the use of this approach the author risks attack on the grounds that the study is not scientific enough, that it is based on subjective judgments.

This criticism can be aimed at two levels — first, in the trans­ lation of what is seen on the television screen into descriptive statements on the evaluation form and, secondly, in drawing generali­ zations from this corpus of descriptive data.

In response to possible criticism at the first level, the author has attempted to show through the use of two tests involving other qualified observers that the author's translation of data from viewing to p ap er i3 not atypical, and that what he sees is close to what others would see. In the First Test the author was at variance with the other observers in only 9.1 percent of the cases. In the Second 57 Teat there was contradictory data between the author and the other observer in only 8 percent of the cases.

Further, as has been stated, those questions on which there was a high degree of disagreement on the tests either have been eliminated from the study, or designated as bearing a lesser degree of validity.

In these ways the possible degree of subjectivity has been reduced.

However, in a study such as this it is difficult to achieve one hundred percent objectivity. If this study were a content analysis in the usual sense, it could be defined (as it has been by Berelson) as "a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantita­ tive description of the manifest content of coirrarnlcation.

In some instances the author has had to go beyond description of "manifest content." Cataloging the manifest themes of 192 dramas provides nearly 192 themes. It is only when the observer deduces the underlying, or generalized, theme that a strong pattern emerges. In th e moment o f deduction o b je c tiv ity s u f f e r s . On th e F i r s t T est th e re was 83.1* percent agreement in the tabulation of Manifest Thane; in the tabulation of Generalized Theme there was 33-2 percent agreement.

Therefore, it seems apparent that in a study such as this certain reliance must be placed in the investigator.

In regard to subjectivity at the level of generalizing,

M argaret Mead s ta te s , Now the way to communicate to me — or anyone else — what you mean by these generalizations is qualitative,

■^Bernard Berelson, Content Analysis in Communication Research (Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press, 1952), p. iff. 58

not quantitative documentation as Vfblfenstein and Leites do with their plot s. 13

Riesman echoes this with the words,

My own inclination is to think the evaluation form is not so important, that the use you make of it in your generalization is very important and certainly raises many themes which would also seem to me sig­ nificant.1^

These statements by an anthropologist and a sociologist lend support to the author*s belief that even those areas which have a lower degree of validity should be tabulated and generalized from, as long as their lower level of objectivity is identified* For from these more subjective areas may come significant insights which may- open up new avenues of further exploration*

Anther's Qualifications

Since the inevitable conclusion is that the author's accept­ ability will have a bearing on the acceptability of his generali­ zations, and to a lesser degree on his findings, the following pertinent information on qualifications is included* The author —

1. Received Master’s degree in the teaching of English, with a

major area of concentration in Mass Communications, from

Teachers College, Columbia University, 19b9.

2. Studied "Anthropology and Mass Coramunlcation" under

Dr. Margaret Mead at Columbia University in 19U9.

^M argaret Mead in letter to the author, dated November 12, 1959*

^David Riesman in letter to the author, dated October lb, 1959. $9

3. Wrote paper comparing the cultural implications of three

motion pictures — French, Italian, and American in the

above course.

li. Conducted a content analysis of television drama in

Columbus, Ohio, in 19^1, as part of a Broadcasting Seminar

conducted by Dr. I. Keith T|yler.

5. Taught Television Writing at Arizona State University from

195k to l ?6 l. In this course cultural influences in and of

television are studied.

6 . Has had fifteen years experience in educational broadcasting,

during which time he viewed motion picture and television

drama with an interest in their reflection of the culture.

7. Has written two network television dramas.

8. Has studied works listed in the Bibliography which deal with

cultural anthropology, mass communications, and content

a n a ly s is .

It is on the bases described in this chapter that the study was undertaken, and it is on the strength of these basic assumptions and procedures that it must stand or fall. CHAPTER IV

FXNDHES

Program Data (I)

A total of one hundred and ninety-two programs were viewed be tween March 2k, I960, and August 23, I960. (For list of programs and viewing dates, see Appendix V I.)

These programs represent 98 network television drama series.

In four instances only one program from the series was viewed. In th e o th e r 9k cases, two programs from each series were viewed.

All programs were network dramas. Breakdown by networks is shown in Table 8.

TABLE 8

Programs by network

Network Frequency

ABC . 33

CBS . 35

NBC ...... 30

T o ta l 96

60 61

Lengths of the programs are indicated in Table 9*

TABLE 9

Programs by Length

Length Frequency

Thirty Minutes 70 Sixty Him tee 2 $ Ninety Minutes 3 T o ta l

Programs viewed were categorized into nine program types.

TABLE 10

Programs by Types

Number o f Itonber o f Program Type Series Programs

W estern 33 66 A nthology 18 33 D e te c tiv e 15 30 Fam ily 11 22 A dventure 6 12 Situation Comedy 6 11 C h ild re n 's 5 10 Urstery-Su spence 2 h Science Fiction — Fantasy 2 h T o ta ls 9% 192

Three anthology programs and one situation comecy program were viewed only once. 62

S e ttin g s (I Q)

TABLE 11

Programs by Settings

Settings Frequency

Modern City New York City 19 Suburbia 17 Unidentified City 16 S p e c ific U. S. C itie s 10 62 Early West 60 an al l Town 2$ H is to ric a l U. S. 15 Foreign Country 15 Miscellaneous 12 Outer Space __£

T otal 192

If only contemporary settings are considered, ondtting the Early

West and Historical U. S., the locale breakdown in Table 12 is ob­ ta in e d .

TABLE 12

Contemporary Settings

Setting Percentage

Americans living in cities 53*0 Americans living in small towns 21.U Americans living abroad 12.8 Americans living in apace 2.$ O ther 10.2 Total 99.9 63

Opposition (II B)

Included In these dramas were 192 protagonists, 16 $ adversaries, and 1018 supporting characters. In 10 cases there was no adversary; i n 9 cases the adversary was a group; and in 8 cases the protagonist was his own adversary. Hence, there are 27 fewer individual adver­ saries than protagonists. ^

In 86 percent of the dramas the protagonist is opposed by a single major adversary. The remaining lli percent of the cases of op­ position are shown in Table 13.

TABLE 13

Type of Adversary

Frequency Number Percentage

Single Adversary 165 86.0

Group Adversary The American People 6 M artians 1 Northern Amy 1 R ussia 1 h .s

Adversary is Protagonist's Self 8 l u l

No Adversary 10 ^ 2

T o ta ls 192 99,8

^In percentage figures dealing i.ith adversaries, 165 is used as the base figure; for protagonists, 192 i s u se d . 6U

Rarely in television drama is the cot '..let an internal one.

Only in h*l percent or the cases is the protagonist’s real struggle primarily an internal one.

Sea Opposition (II B l)

Die most common type of opposition (57.8 percent) finds a male protagonist opposed by a male adversary, partly because the protago­ nist is male 85.1; percent of the tine. Die male protagonist finds himself opposed by a female 17.7 percent of the time, and the female protagonists face male adversaries in 9*3 percent of the cases, but only in four instances were female protagonists pitted against female adversaries.

TABLE 11*

Sex Opposition F requency Protagonist1 s Seoc Adversary’s Sex tfcunber Percentage

H ale v s . Male 111 5 7 .8 Male v s . Fem ale 3h 1 7 .7 Female v s . Male 18 9 .3 Female vs. Female h 2 .1 H ale v s . None 8 h*2 Male v s . S e lf h 2 .1 H ale v s . Die People 7 3 .6 Fem ale v s . None 2 1 .0 Fem ale v s . S e lf U 2 .1 Fem ale vs. The People 0 ____0 T o ta ls 192 9 9 .9

Die eight cases of internal conflict were evenly divided be­ tween male and female, but only male protagonists were ever opposed 65

to The People. In no case did a female adversary stand In opposition

to society.

Relation Opposition

In only 21 cases (10.9 percent) were relatives (by birth or by marriage) pitted againi each other. These instances were fairly

evenly distributed among the relationships catalogued (which included husband and wife, as well as blood relatives).

TABLE 15

Relationship Opposition

Frequency P ro ta g o n is t A dversary Number P ercentage

F a th er vs. Son 1 .5 Son v s. F a th er 3 1 .5 Daughter vs. F a th e r 1 .5

Husband v s. Wife 6 3 .0 Wife v s. Husband 2 1 .0

B rother v s. B ro th er 1 •5 S is te r v s. B rother 1 .5 S is te r v s. S3, s te r 1 .5

Man vs. Cousin 1 .5 Man v s. Brother-in-1aw 1 .5 Aunt v s. Niece 1 .5

Governess vs. Wards _2 1 .0

T o tals 21 1 0 .5

The final category, "Governess vs. Wards," was included since in this instance (The Betty Hutton Show) the governess was in a mother- image position. 66

Most frequent relation conflict was between husband and wife (8 of 21 cases). Only other relationship with frequency of more than one was the Son vs. Father conflict, which was, in each case, a form of rebellion of son against the father.

Themes and Problems (ill 1-2)

G en eralized Bieme

Questions of Manifest Theme, Generalized Theme, and Problem

Causing Conflict merge and blend to the point where it is difficult, if not impossible, to treat them separately. The problem which causes the conflict in one drama is the failure of Joey as a trumpet player and as a person. The manifest theme deals with his eventual triumph over failure tl trough a second chance, and the generalized theme could be classified as Successful living, or Success vs. Failure*

Hrns, it can be seen that the statement of the problem often is a partial statement of the manifest theme. Since manifest themes are so numerous as to be uncompilable, when these manifest themes are grouped, the tabulator is, of necessity, grouping them by generalized themes. Therefore, these three items are combined to give the under­ lying, or generalized, theme. 67

TABLE 16

Generalized Biemes

Bierae Frequency Numberr Percentage

life and Death 135 30.7 R ight and Wrong 118 26.6 Hunan Relations 71 16.2 Successful Living 5U 12.2 Family Relations 1*6 1 0 .5 Miscellaneous 16 3.7

T o ta ls 99*9

It should be noted that in the 192 dramas there were J|Jj 2 id e n ti­ fiable themes, as some dramas exemplify several themes in the main story life (i.e., Right and Wrong, and life and Death). Percentages given are based on 1*22.

The Life and Death motif has the highest percentage primarily because of the number of Westerns (3h*3 percent) in the sampling.

The question of survival is basic to this type of story. The Right and Wrong category is large because it includes Crime vs. Law, which is a central theme of both Westerns and Detective programs.

Problem Resolution flu 3)

In stuping how the problem of the drama is resolved, the findings in Table 17 are revealing. 68

TABLE 17

Solution of Problem by Character

Problem Resolved by Number P ercentage

Protagonist 13U 69.7 A dversary 30 15.6 Other Characters 17 8.8 A ccident 10 5.2 God 1

T o tals 192 99.8

Thus it is seen that in over two-thirds of the cases studied, the protagonist controls the outcome of the story. Only in 5.2 per­ cent of the cases is the problem solved by accident or Fate* and in but one instance is it resolved by the power of God. Often the adversary influences the outcome of the story by his actions (forcing a show-down with the protagonist), but usually he does not control it.

I n $0 cases (or 26 percent of the time) solution of the problem

(regardless of who resolves it) involves death to one or more of the characters, and in an additional 21.3 percent the resolution involves violence. Together these two categories total nearly half.

Table 18 indicates the incidence of solution by intellectual means, by physical activity, or by both. 6 9

TABLE 18

Solution of Problan by Method

Frequency Method Number P ercentage

Physical Action 79 la .i Intellectual Activity 70 3 6 .5 Physical and Intellectual 16.6 PURPOSEFULLY 181 9U.2

Accidentally 10 God 1 ETTRAI'IEOUSLY 11 5.7

T o tals 192 99.9

Overwhelmingly the problem is solved purposefully, either by- physical or intellectual action, or both, with physical action pre­

dominating slightly.

In order to bring about the resolution at times one of the major figures either changes his own character, or brings about character changes in others. The protagonist does this in 52 of 192 cases; the adversary does in 39 out of 165 cases. Thus, character change on either side occurs in approidmately one-fourth of the pro­ grams viewed.

These changes bring about a revision of sympathetic and unsym­ pathetic characterisations, as Table 19 indicates. 7 0

TABLE 19

Protagonist-Adversary Sympathy Shift

Protagonist A d v ersary Number Percentage Number ' P e rc e n ta g e Beginning of EL ay: Sympathetic 161 * 85.1* 55 33*3 Unsymp ath etic 28 l l *.6 110 66.6 99*9

Bid of Plays Sympathetic 181* 99.9 90 5 b . 5 Unsympathetic 8 h . l 75 106.0 100.0

Description of Leading Characters (II)

Ago ( I I 2 )

T able 20 indicates the age groups in vhich Protagonist and

Adversary fe ll.

TABLE 20

Protagonist — Adversary by Age

Age Group F requency Protagonist A d v ersary Number Percent Number Petrcei

Under 10 1* 2 .1 0 0 10 to 20 15 7 .8 11 6 .7 20 to 30 U8 2 5 .0 33- 1 8 .7 30 t o 1*0 87 1*5 .0 62 37.1* UO to 50 28 11*. 6 U5 2 7 .2 Over 50 10 J s L 16 9 .7 T o ta ls 192 9 9 .7 165 9 9 .7

From this it can be seen that the adversaries tend to be older than the protagonists. In both instances the highest percentage fails 71

in the 30-1,0 age group. But there are 6l adversaries over 1*0, with

only 38 protagonists over 1*0. On the lower end of the age scale, 1*2

adversaries are under 30 while 67 protagonists are under 30. 'Dlls is

due in part to children's programs (Leave It to Beaver, Dennis the

Menace) where the protagonist is a child, but the adversary is an

adult. In no case was a child under 10 the adversary.

M arital Statu3 (II 3)

Total tabulation of marital status reveals that 63 percent of

the leading characters are single, 16 percent are married, 8 percent

are widowed, and .5 percent are divorced. Table 21 breaks down these

figures by protagonist and adversary.

TABLE 21

Protagonist — Adversary by M arital Status

Status Frequency Protagonist Adverse Number P e r c e n t Number P e rc e n t S in g le iI*o ' ~ 7 T .T ....BT 51.5^ M a rrie d 25 1 3 .0 32 20.0 Widowed 11* 7.3 12 7.3 Uni dentified 11 5.7 36 21.2 D iv o rced 1 .5 0 0 S e p a ra te d 1 .5 __0 0 T o ta ls 192 9 9 .9 165 100.0

In those instances where no identification of m arital status is

given it can be assumed that the individual is single, or that his

marital status has no bearing on the play. AH cases listed under unidentified are cases in which the character could have been married 72 or single, and there was no direct evidence either way. Probably most of these cases would fall in the single category, thus, increasing the g re a t m a jo rity o f sin g le c h a ra c te rs , men and women.

The number of widowed characters, though relatively small, probably is a function of the number of older characters portrayed.

(See Table 20,) A higher percentage (and higher incidence) of marriage occurred in the adversary classification than in the protago­ nist group.

TABLE 22

Protagonist — Adversary by Nationality

Nationality or Derivation Protagonist Adversary

American 173 138 Swedish-American 1 Cuban-American 1 1 Irish-American 1 1 Czech-American 1 French-Ameri c an 1 Italian-American 1 Puerto Hie an 1 German-American 1 Confederate 2 1 American Indian 5 5 B r itis h k 3 French 1 1 Hungarian l O rie n ta l l 1 Mexican l 3 Czech 1 I t a l i a n 2 German 1 Swiss 1 European 1 Gypsy 1

T o ta ls 192 165 73 Farther analyzing these nationalities as to whether they are sympathetically or unsympathetic ally portrayed, we find the data shown in Tahle 23*

TABLE 23

Protagonist — Adversary by Sympathy and Race

Protagonist Adversary Combined C ategory Number P ercen t Number P ercen t Number P ercen t

Sympathetic Anglo- Saxon 152 79.1 li 5 27.2 197 55.2 Unsympathetic Anglo- Saxon 22 11*3 90 5U.5 112 31.U Sympathetic Non- Anglo-Saxon 12 6 . 1i 10 6 .0 22 6.1 Unsympathetic Non- Anglo-Saxon 6 3*1 20 12.1 26 „ 7 s 2 T o ta ls 192 99.9 165 99.8 357 100.0

Although Head states, • • we usually have no doubt which is the protagonist and which is the antagonist because we are sympathetic toward the one and unsympathetic toward the other,1,2 in this study the matter of sympathy is not a criterion for distinguishing between pro­ tagonist and adversary. Protagonist (although more often than not synpathetic) is the central character (often a name star) who is the center of the action of the story.3

2Sydney Head, "Television and Social Norms," doctoral dissertation, New York University, 1953-

3in The Gold Shanty Errol FLynn plays an unscrupulous rogue whom v;e want to see get his "comeupance," but he is the central character in the story and, hence, is the protagonist. 71*

Whether the protagonist is judged at the beginning or at the

end of the play has a bearing as veil. Of the 28 unsyrapathetic pro­

tagonists, only eight stayed unsympathetic to the end. The other 20

changed their character so that by the end they were sympathetic.

Thus, from a beginning count of 85*U percent sympathetic protagonists,

we shift to a 95-9 percent sympathetic protagonist figure by the end

of the plays.

L ikew ise, 35 of the 110 sympathetic adversaries turned "good”

by the end. In so doing, they join the 55 a d v e rsa rie s who are sym­

pathetic from the beginning, giving a figure of 90 out of 165

(5h»5 percent) of the adversaries who are sympathetic by the end of

th e p la y ,

Anglo-Saxons are portrayed unsympathetically in36 percent of

the cases in which they are protagonist or adversary, whereas

foreigners (including Americans of foreign birth, Indians, etc.) are

shown unsympathetically in5k percent of their leading roles.

Occupation (U 6)

Table 2h shows the occupations of protagonist and adversary.

It is seen from this that the largest occupational categoiy is in

the area of law enforcement, official or unofficial. Professionals

are the second largest occupational group. This is due in part to

the basic format of Westerns and Detective stories, in which crime

and punishment is a basic theme. 7$ TABLE 2h

Protagonist — Adversary by Occupations

Frequency Occupation Protagonist Adversary

Lav: Eiiforcemerrt O ffic ia l 27 5 Investigative 8 h Independent 3h 69 _8 17

Professional 2U 13 C hild 16 11 Agricultural 11 10 Housewife 11 11 Armed Forces 10 6 Labor 10 lit Entertainer 9 7 Business Man h 11 Gambler h 1 Independently Wealthy 2 it Secretarial-Cleric al 2 7 R e tire d 1 0 Unemployed 1 3 In d ia n 0 3 Professional Criminal 0 32

Miscellaneous 18 1 1 T o ta ls 192 165

Motivation of Characters

Motivation (IH U)

Motivations of protagonists and adversaries are shown in

Table 25. Major motivations of protagonists are (l) Duty, (2) Friend­

ship, (3) Love, (It) Law-Justice, (5) Compassion, and (6 ) Money, in

that order, while motivations of adversaries are (l) Money, (2)

Hatred, (3) Creed, (It) Desire for Power, (5) Love, and (6 ) S e lf-

Preservation, in that order. Only two categories -- Money and Love — 76 are common to both protagonist and adversary, and in each case they rate differently. Love is a stronger motivation in slightly more cases of protagonist than of adversary, while Money ranks first for adversaries, sixth for protagonists,

TAK jE 25

Protagonist — Adversary by Motivation

Motivation Protagonist A dversary

Duty h7 7 F rien d sh ip 35 2 Love 31 15 Law-Justice 27 0 Compassion 20 0 Money 15 U8 Desire to do Job 12 3 Self-Respect 10 0 Fear 8 15 Self-Pr e s ervation 8 2 Adventure 8 2 L o y alty 7 3 L oneliness 7 h Honesty 7 0 Ego 7 6 Respect for life 7 1 Honor 6 1 Restlessness 5 2 C u rio s ity 5 2 Revenge 5 8 Greed 2 18 H atred 2 20 Conventionality 3 7 Sex Urge 3 8 Rover 1 17 C ru e lty 0 5 Resentment of Adults 0 5 Miscellaneous 111* J j4

TotaLs 332 255 77

The motivating power of money is investigated in Table 26.

TABLE 26

Money M otivation

Frequency Motivated Partly Protagonist A dversary by Money? Number P ercen tage Humber Percentage

Yes 38 19.7 79 U7.9 No 15U 80.3 86 J2a

T o tals 192 100.0 165 1 0 0 .0

Loking at the desire for acceptance by, and conformity to, the group as a motivation (in view of Riesman's emphasis on these a tti­ tudes), the results are shown in Table 27.

TABLE 27

Desire for Group Acceptance M otivation Frequency Protagonist Adversary Combined Number P ercen t Number P ercen t Number P ercent

Group-Oriented 71 36.9 hh 26.6 115 32.2 Not Group-Oriented 101 52.6 108 65.1i 209 58.5 Not Applicable 20 10.3 13 8.0 33 9.2

Totals 192 99.8 165 100.0 357 99.9

The protagonist was desirous of group acceptance in more instances than was the adversary. In many cases the adversary desired to domi­ nate the group, but not to belong to it, or to conform to it. 78

In checking the motivations of protagonists, the question of the

"underdog" entered into consideration*

TABLE 28

Protagonist-Underdog Alignment

Item Frequency Number Percentage

No Underdog Involved 73 37*9 Protagonist Aligned with Underdog 70 36.1; Protagonist Aligned against Underdog 6 3.1 Protagonist Is Underdog 1;3 22*3

Totals 192 99.7

Ihere is a close relationship between protagonists and under­ dogs. In over half the total samplings the protagonist either is or is aligned with the underdog. In only 3 .1 percent of the cases is he against the underdog. 79

Relationships (HI 6)

Parent-Child Relations (IU 6. a .)

TABLE 29

Parent-Child Relations

Relationship Number Percentage

None 90

F ather-S on Mutual Love and Respect 15 1*7.0 No Mutual Love and Respect 17 32 5 3 .0 100.0

Father-Daught er ttitual Love and Respect 12 33.3 No mutual Love and Respect 21 33 66.6 99.9

Mother-Son Mutual Love and Respect 7 33.3 99.9 No Mutual Love and Respect I k 21 66.6 Mother-Daughter Mutual Love and Respect h 25.0 No Mutual Love and Respect 12 1 6 J i i £ 100.0 Total 192

Percentages of the incidents in which these various relation­ ships exist indicate that there is more mutual love and respect in the

Father-Son relationship (1*7 percent), and the least in the Mother-

Dasughter relationship (20 percent). With male protagonism predominant, the number of cases of Father-Son and Father-Daughter is higher than similar Mother relationships. 80

TABLE 30

Family Rejection

Rejection Frequency Percent of Total Percent of IHxose Number Programs Showing Fam ily

Not A Factor 90 U6.9 Mutual Love and Respect 60 31•3 58*8 F a th e r R ejected 21 1 0 .9 20.6 Mother Rejected 13 6.8 12.7 Children Rejected __ 8 i u l 7*8

Totals 192 100.0 99.9

Family life is involved in the story 53.1 percent of the time,

though it may not be the central theme. When family life is involved,

good relationship is shown 58.8 percent of the time, Father is re­

jected 20.6 percent, and Mother 12.7 percent. It should be noted, further, that of this 12.7 percent Mother rejection, in only five instances were the rejected women the actual mothers of the children who rejected them. In eight cases these women were step-mothers, grandmothers, sisters, or aunts, so that although the Mother-lmage was rejected 12.7 percent, the actual Mother was rejected in only

5 percent of the total cases. 81

TABLE 31

Parental Ambition

Parents Want Biedr Frequency Itercentage of Chil d ren t o ; Number P ercentage Applicable Cases

Surpass Then 62 3 2 .2 60.0 Turn out "All Right" 31 16.1 30.0 F a il 9 U. 7 10.0

Not Applicable 90 U6.9

T o tals 192 99.9 100.0

Busband-Wlfe Relationship (IH 6.b.)

Relationships between husband and wife were shown in 99 of the programs viewed. Of this total, 53 cases showed mutual love and respect existing between husband and wife, and U6 showed a relatively unhappy relationship.

Table 32 gives insight into the question of dominance of husband o r w ife .

TAJ3J3 32

Husband-Wlfe Dominance

Domination Frequency Percent o£ Total Percent of Biose Number Programs Showing Family Wife-Mother Dominant la 21.3 1*0.2 Husband-Father Dominant 25 1 3 .0 2l*.5 Equal — No Domination 8 U .l 7 .8 Lone Male Heading Family 28 lli.6 27.lt Sub-Totals 102 53.0 9 9 .9 Not Applicable 90 U7.o

T o ta ls 192 1 0 0 .0 9 9 .9 82

Taking as the universe the 102 cases in which the protagonist or

adversary was involved with family, there is evidence of female domi­

nation in U0.2 percent of the cases, while the husband dominated only

2l|.£ percent of the time. (It should be noted that one-fourth of the

2$ cases of male domination were by Husband-Fathers of foreign birth,

not native American.) Second largest group, with 28 percent is that

of the dominant male who heads a family — alone (i.e., Bachelor

Father, Rifleman, Bonanza). This category is a substantial one, and

in the absence of female competition the male dominates.

Sibling Relationships (ill 6 .c.)

Breakdown of the various sibling relationships is contained in

Table 33.

TABLE 33

Sibling Relationship Relation Frequency Positive Negative Total Positive Negative Number Number Number P ercent P ercen t

B ro ther and S is te r 16 6 22 77 23 Sister and Sister 2 3 5 UO 60 Brother and Sister 19 _6 2*> 76 2li T o tals 37 15 £2

Although the sailing is admittedly small, the Sister-Sister relationship is a positive one in the smallest percentage of cases.

These relationships were so varied that they could be summarized only in general positive and negative terns* 83 Friendship (in 6.f.)

The next table shows the basis for the protagonist *s friend­ s h ip s .

TABLE 3k

Basis for Protagonist’s Friendships

Based on: Frequency Number Percentage

Mutual Respect and/or Affection 90 U6.7 Common Work 1*8 25.0 Self-Interest of Protagonist 16 8.6 Friend Serves as "Stooge" 15 8.2 Competition 7 3 .5 Apprenticeship 3 1 .5 Exchange of Mutual Favors 3 1 .5 No F riends Shewn 10 £ .1

T otals 192 100.1

In nearly half the cases, the protagonist bases his friendships on mutual respect and affection, and in one-fourth of the cases these friendships stem from a co-worker relationship. (Sometimes these motivations overlap, but they are tabulated only once.) In 71.7 per­ cent of the cases, either or both of these two bases prevail. Hie remaining 28.1 percent are based on something less than mutual respect. Twenty-two percent are basically selfish friendships — from the protagonist's standpoint. In only 3*6 percent are they competi­ tive. In 8.2 percent the friend serves as a foil or "stooge" for the protagonist, but is not his equal. au Strangely, however, a separate count of what motivates the pro­

tagonist's actions revealed that in 35 instances (or 18,2 percent)

his actions were motivated by friendship. This was surpassed as a

motivation of the protagonist only by Duty (1*7 times), (See Table 25,)

Attitudes toward Foreigners

In this category, minor characters portraying individuals of

foreign extraction were included in the tabulation of Table 35*

TABLE 35

Portrayal of Foreign Nationalities

Frequency Nationality Treated as P o rtra y ed Equals? Stereotyped? Syn^pathetically? Yes -No Yes Yes tk A frican 1 1 1 German 5 b 1 k 1 B r itis h 7 6 1 k 3 C hinese 3 5 7 1 7 1 In d ia n s 7 10 11 6 15 2 I r i s h 3 3 3 Scandanavian 2 2 2 Japanese 1 i 1 1 2 Puerto Bican i 1 1 Negro 3 3 3 3 6 I t a l i a n 16 5 11 12 u Melanesian 1 1 1 French 7 7 5 2 H ungarian 2 2 1 1 Mexican 7 h 11 8 3 Gypsy 2 2 2 Cuban 2 2 2 Arab 2 2 2 _1 _1 P o lish _1 - - _

T o tal Numbers 67 29 68 28 77 19

Percent of 96 Cases 69.8* 30,2SS 70.8# 29.2* 80.2* 19.8* 85

From these figures it can be seen that Italians were treated as

equals most frequently and were stereotyped least often, while the

American Indian was treated as an inferior and stereotyped most often

(along with Mexicans in the latter category). Both Italians and

Indians were shown sympathetic all y more often than not. Die high incidence of these two groups can be attributed in part to Die

Untouchables and in to to to the Westerns,

Attitudes toward Values (IH 7-9)

Attitude toward Crime (ill 7.a*)

Crime is a central ingredient in 62.1 percent (119 of 192) of the dramas viewed. Since crime and law are closely interlocked in our society, attitudes toward them will be considered together*

In terms of manifest actions, the next three tables shed light on the law-crime relationship in television drama*

TABT.-R 36

Solutions of Crimes

S o lu tio n Number Percent

Solved by Protagonist, not an O fficial Law Man 71 59,6 Solved by Law, not by Protagonist lit 11.8 Solved by Protagonist as a Law Man 3lt 28.5

T otals 119 99,9 66

TABLE 37

Punishment of Grime

Frequency Number P ercen t

Punished by; Law 62 52*1 Non-Law P ro ta g o n is t 23 19.2 Others 15 12,6 F ate 7 5 .8 Unpunished 12 10,1

Totals 119 99.8

TABLE 38

Image of the Law

Frequency Number3er Fere Pe: en t

Depicted as: Strong 50 1*2.0 Weak 17 12*.2 C orrupt 7 5 .8 Miscarrying 7 5.8 Law n o t Shown 38 3 2 .0

Totals 119 99.8

Crimes are solved o verv.helmingly (105 to ll*) by the protagonist.

In one third of the cases he is a law man — in the other two-thirds

he is not. Hie crimes are punished by law in 66.1* percent of the 119

stories of crime, by non-legal persons in 19.3 percent of the cases,

and in 10 instances the crime goes unpunished.

Further information as to the types of crime and the agent of punishment of each type is contained in Table 39. 87 TABLE 39

Crime by Type and Punishment by Agent

Number Punished Number Type of Crime Number Law - f c - F ate Unpunished

Murder 6 l 3U 20 3 B ie ft 15 12 2 1 A ttested Murder 9 h 2 2 1 Kidnapping 7 l u 1 1 Fraud U 2 2 Jail Break 2 l 1 Assault of Woman 2 1 Smuggling 2 2 Treason 2 1 1 Looting 2 2 Assault on Man 2 Shanghaiing 1 E x to rtio n Seduction 1 Crooked Q ambling Pornography 1 B u stlin g 1 E x to rtio n 1 H it and Run 1 Dope Peddling 1 Illegal Entry 1 Illegal Fishing ___ JL

T o tals 119 62 38 12

Die crime most frequently punished by a man who is not an official law man i s m urder.

One type of violent action v.hich sometimes is a crime, and some­ times is not, is killing, which takes place in 71 of the 192 programs

(36.9 percent). A total of li;2 persons are killed, and 99 individuals do the killing (both figures include both major and minor characters)*

As far as major characters are concerned, the protagonist kills in 25 88 programs, and is killed in 3; whereas the adversary k ills in 26 pro­ grams, and is killed in 28.

in additional bit of incidental information garnered on this subject is that in 26 cases, minor characters were killed as a result of doing the light or ethical think in the face of a threat to their sa fe ty .

This fact leads to the tabulating of the values for which the protagonist is willing to risk his life.

TAOiE 1*0

Valued Biough to Risk life Frequency Percent o f Number Applicable Cases Protagonist Knowingly Risks His life for: Duty 1*3 38.0 Friendship 20 17.8 Maney 15 13.2 Love 15 13.2 Self-Respect 10 8.8 J u stic e 10 8.8

Totals 113 99.8

These values are in different rank order from the values on

Motivation of the Protagonist (Table 2 5). They are different in that the earlier listing includes motivations not carried through at the risk of death. 89

Attitude toward Death (IU 8.b.)

In 8l programs death is not a factor, but in 111 (57*8 percent) death plays a part. In these IU programs, 159 deaths occur — 15U violent, 5 natural. (These figures include all characters in the p la y s .)

Table hi tabulates the reactions of the leading characters toward death.

TABLE h i

Reaction to Death

Frequency Percentage of Death Attitude Number 128 Programs

Taken Casually 75 58.h Felt Deeply 35 27.2 Feared (Wisely) 8 7 .1 R espected h 3 .1 Speculated upon h 3.1 Treated Humorously 2 1 .0

S ub-T otals 128 99.9 Not Shown 6h

T otal 192

ftiere is little evidence that the subject or the fact of death is avoided, unless one considers that where death is taken casually

(as it is in 58.h percent of the cases) it is being avoided. In slightly over 10 percent of the cases it was feared and respected. In four cases it was the subject of speculation in the drama (i.e.,

Hanningway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro) and in two instances it was treated humorously. 90

Attitude toward Success (H I 8.c. )

TABLE U2

Attitudes toward Success

Frequency Protagonist A dversary Number P ercentage Number P ercentage

Wishes to Esc el 65 3 3 .8 125 75.7 Does not Wish to E xcel 30 1 5 .6 25 16.3 Is not Interested E ith e r Way 97 J& 8.0 T o tals 192 99.9 165 100.0

The adversary is more concerned with excelling than is the pro­ tagonist. It should be noted, however, that the protagonist to whom excelling is not of great importance, usually does not feel any guilt if he surpasses the group. The figures of protagonists who wish to excel and those who are independent of the crowd total 8luli percent.

Hence, it could be said that although only one-third of the protago­ nists had a desire to excel, even fewer of them (15.6 percent) felt any reluctanc e to excel for fear of off aiding their peers.

In regard to methods of obtaining success, the following table gives some information. 91

TABLE

Source of Success

Frequency

Success Stems from* Persistence 31 Skill, Practice 6 Luck 5 Courage h D eception h Miscellaneous 23

T otal 75

The fact that Miscellaneous has the second highest count indicates the wide range of success methods which are shown in tele­ vision drama. The largest single cause of success shown is Per­ sistence. Additionally, in 3li cases, the adversary felt that success should be achieved by any possible method, Kith no hesitation in regard to ethical values.

In 20 cases reactions to success were observed and classified.

TABLE Uli

Attitudes toward Success

A ttitu d e Frequency

Success Turns out to be Uninport ant 9 Success Is False 3 Success Is Hard to live with 2 Success Is Less Important than Survival 2 Success Is Fleeting, not Worth Effort 2 Success Is Corrupting 1 Success Wonft Come, Even for Hard Work 1

T otal 20 92

It can be seen that there are many attitudes portrayed which

question the real value of success.

Attitude toward Failure (HI 8.d.)

Attitude toward the other side of the success coin — failure — is considered next. In 91 cases it was not applicable, but in 101 cases attitudes toward failure were shown.

In 10 cases (10 percent) the adversary could not stand the pros­ pect of failure, while in 7 (7 percent) the protagonist had a great fear of failure.

Positive attitudes toward failure on the part of the leading characters are shown in Table U5*

TABLE h S

Positive Attitudes toward Failure

Attitude Frequency

You Can Win through Failure 9 You Mist Rise above Failure 7 Failure Is Relative 2 Don't Quit on a Failure 2 Failure Is Good for a Man 1 There Is Ho Failure if Hi ere Is Love 1

Total 22

In addition to these positive attitudes toward failure, there is the ample evidence in Westerns that failure (in a gun fight) can k ill you. There were also several attitudes toward failure which could be classified as negative: (l) Failure is brought by a jinx — 2 cases; (2) Failure isn't there if you don't admit it — 1 case. 93

As for what brings about failure, the range is wide, as Table 1±6

shows*

TABLE h6

Causes of Failure

Cause Frequency

Lack of Courage k Not T rying 3 Carelessness 3 Weakness 2 D ishonesty 2 Lack of Skill 2 Lack of Cooperation 1 Lack of Love 1 Pushing Too Hard 1 Being What Tou Aren't 1 Sentimentality _1

T otal 21

Attitude toward Love (H I 8.g. )

Romantic love was not a central theme in many of the programs viewed, but it was a factor in 136 programs. In 31 cases, love caused problems, and in 6 cases it solved problems. T^pe of romantic love

shown is indicated in Table li7*

t TABLE 1;7

Romantic Love by Type

Frequency P ercent o f Type Number A pplicable

Most Important Thing in World 6 li.l; Strong, Important 57 U l.7 Light, Relatively Unimportant 3U 25.0 Deliberately Used for Advantage 17 12.1; Cheap 10 8 .0 S e lfis h 7 5 .1 Mean, Petty

Sub-T otals 136 100.0 Not Applicable J § . T otal 192

In slightly less than half the cases in which love is a factor

it is shown as important, strong emotion. In 17.8 percent of the

cases it is selfish, and in 3*1; percent it is, or has become, mean

and p e tty .

Attitude toward Drinking (III 8 .i.)

In 72 programs major characters drank alcoholic beverages.

There were two alcoholic protagonists, and in 11 other instances the protagonist drank. In two cases he refused drinks offered to him.

In 17 dramas the adversary drank, often as a symbol of his villainy.

Aid In 15 instances the setting was a sophisticated one, and all drank

socially as a matter of course. 9$

TABLE U8

Reasons for Iklnking

Reason Frequency

The Thing to Do U3 For Fun 8 To Escape 8 To Get Someone ELse Drunk 2 To Relieve Tough Situation 2

Drink Rejected 6

Total 69

Drinking was not made much o f in most o f the dramas viewed.

It vas accepted and used as a symbol of sophistication.

Black and White Characters (ill 10)

In 90 cases the characterizations were two dimensional, stereo­ types of pure good or complete evil. In 102 cases the leading characters were believable, being neither all good nor all bad, but human beings with strengths and weaknesses.

Less Valid Findings

The following aspects of the American inage must be considered as having less validity than those in the previous section, as the preliminary tests shoved less agreement vith the author on these items than on the others. It is felt, however, that listing of findings in these categories may add to a well-rounded description of the American character on television, and may point the way to future research. Behavior Rewarded and Punished ( i l l 5)

Table 1*8 lis ts the various acts which were rewarded and punished

in the dramas viewed, regardless of whether the actions were taken by

the protagonist or the adversary.

TABLE 1*9

Rewards and Punishment

Frequency Rewarded Punished

Acts o f : D eception 26 25 Interference 8 U* Crime 11 71 Courage 27 1* Afcdli ty - S k ill 26 2 Persistence 1*3 3 Thinking 26 0 Greed 0 21 Honesty 39 1 Carelessness 0 21 Toughness 7 0 Friendliness 11 2 Work 5 1 Luck 5 0 C ru elty 0 16 Cowardice l 7

T otal 235 1 8 8

Table 5>0 covers the relativity of reward and punishment, cata­ loguing those items which were rewarded when committed by the pro­ tagonist and punished when done by the adversary* 97 TABLE 50

R elativity of Rewards and Punishment

Frequency Protagonist Adversary Act Rewarded Punished Punished Rewarded

Dec ep tio n 25 11 11; 1 I n te r fe r e nc e 7 9 5 1 Crime 6 1 71 3 Courage 6 1 1 3 2 Trust __ k _2 _U 0 T otals 1 0 5 2k 97 7

This information indicates a relativity in terms of behavioral

acts on which value Judgments can be placed. Whereas the protagonist

was punished for deception 11 times, he was rewarded 25 times; but

the adversary was punished Ilf times for the use of deception, and

rewarded only once. The item on acts of courage included acts of

intellectual courage as well as physical courage.

Social Class The following three tables deal with portrayal of social class.

TABLE $1

Social Class of Protagonist— Adversary Frequency Protagonist Adversary Combined C la ss Number P ercent Number Percent Number P e rc e n t

Upper Class 1 6 8 .3 Ilf 8 .5 30 8.U Middle Class lh 2 7 3 .9 89 5 3 .9 231 6U.6 Lower Class _2k 1 7 .7 62 3 7 .5 J £ l 2 7 .0 T o ta ls 192 9 9 .9 1 6 5 9 9 .9 357 1 0 0 .0 98

Protagonists and adversaries existed almost equally in the upper class, but fewer middle class characters were adversaries, and more lower class persons were adversaries*

TABLE 52

Sympathy toward Classes

Frequency Class Shown Sympathetic allEy Shown Unsympathetic ally Total Bomber Percentage Humber Percentage Number

Upper Class 8 2 6 .6 22 73.U 30 Middle Class 197 8 5 .3 3h l u . 7 231 Lower Class J l 55.2 U3 UU.8 96 T o ta ls 258 99 357

Middle class society was portrayed most often and most sympa­ thetic aHy. Second in both categories was lower class, and the least portrayed, least sympathetically portrayed was the upper class*

In terms of social mobility the middle class was most actively upward-mobile, and adversaries were more actively upvard-mobile than were protagonists. 99

TABLE 53

Upward M obility

Class Frequency

Middle Class Protagonist Upward Mobile 25 Adversary Upward Mobile 33 Combined 58

Lower Class Protagonist Upward Mobile 5 Adversary Upward Mobile 15 Combined 20

T o tal 78

Role o f Women

The role of women in our sampling is shown in Table 5U«

TABLE 5U

Dominance of Women

Domination Frequency Number3er Percentage iW c

Obviously Dominating 32 1 6 .5 Subtly Influencing hh 22,8 Subordinate to Men eu 1;U*1 Equal to Men 2 1 .0 Not Applicable 30 15.6

T o tals 192 100.0

In contradiction to the dominant role of women revealed by com­ parison of the role of husband-fat her with wife-mother, women were revealed in this tabulation as being the predominant influence only

39*3 percent of the time, while men dominated in percent of the 1 0 0 cases. It, should be remembered, however, that the former dealt with married couples, the la tte r with men and women without the bend of marriage. In only two Instances v'ere the sexes portrayed as essentially equal.

There were 27 cases identifiable as the "good-bad11 girl de­ scribed by Wolfenstein and Leites. CHAPTER V

INTERPRETATION

On the basis of the findings, what is the answer to the

question which underlies this study? "Is there a consistent image

of the American character on network television dr ana.?"

Hie answer would seem to be a qualified "Yes."

This answer is qualified on two counts: First, since not all

aspects of national character were studied, since every nuance of

human attitude, motivation, and behavior was not evident in this

sampling of 192 prograns, it is not claimed that a complete picture

of national character is given.

Secondly, the degree of confidence we can place in the charac­

teristics which are described varies considerably. Judged on the basis of frequency alone, some of these characteristics carry more weight than others(i.e., the Protagonist solves the basic problem —

9h percent; the Wife-Mother is dominant — 20.8 percent). Most percentages are based on the total sampling of 192 (or on 165 if they concern the Adversary, since in 27 cases there was no single adver­ sary). Some items carry a low incidence on this basis, because a high percentage of the programs did not deal with these aspects of life (i.e., U8.h percent of the dramas did not portray family life).

Therefore, no arbitrary figure is set as to what incidence or

101 102 percentage is required for consideration of that characteristic in this image of an American. To omit all characteristics which had a low incidence would eliminate manor items which have interesting impli­ c a tio n s .

This study is descriptive and does not attempt to prove the existence or non-existence (or the degree thereof) of certain prede­ termined cultural characteristics. As a description of the American character it should be as well-rounded as possible within the limi­ tations of the data collected. So that the reader can judge the strength of each of these characteristics, the percent of frequency is indicated in parentheses after each characteristic when it is first mentioned. If some base other than 192 or 16$ is used, it is indi­ c a te d .

This description will include items concerning the American culture as well as character, since the two are inextricahly related. Qorer states that national character "isolates and analyzes the principal motives or predispositions which can be deduced from the behavior of a society."^- Mead indicates, "We first look at the behavior of human beings who are representatives of that culture, and from their behavior we arrive at a systematic description — which we c a l l t h e i r 'culture1. Since both national character and culture

^Gmoffrey Gorer, "National Characters Theory and Practice," The Study of Culture at a Distance, ed. Margaret Mead and Hhoda Metraux (Chicagos University of Chicago Press, 1953), p. 57#

^Margaret Mead, And Keep Your Powder Dry (New York: William Morrow and Company, 19U3), p. 86. 103 are based on the behavior of representatives of a society, no attempt is made to exclude cultural considerations from this description of national character.

Wherever appropriate, reference is made to other studies of the

American character, whether done through direct observation or through study of the mass media — indicating whether the present study is in agreement on these items, and speculating as to why.

In regard to certain conclusions questions are raised which the author feels are pertinent. No answers are given, but the questions are fertile areas for speculation and further exploration.

In this chapter, all references to the American character or to the American culture '.ill refer to the "television image of the character or culture." If reference is made to the existing real-life character or culture, it will be identified as the "real American character."

This description will be organized to deal with the American character in terms of (1) Social Milieu, (2) The Family, (3) Problems,

(Jj.) Motivations, (5) Attitudes, (6) Rewards and Punishments.

Within these lim itations, the image of the American character as portrayed on television is described*

Social Milieu

The modem American is presented as a city chiaLler (53 percent).

As in Dale's study of motion pictures,3 the city most often identified

3Edgar Dale, The Content of Motion Pictures (New York: The MacMillan Company, I5J577pT76. 101* is New York (19 tim es), and Hollywood Is second (5 tim es). When the protagonist is a family man, he usually lives with his family in

suburbia. The one new locale for realistic adult drama on television

(as compared to B ell's 1951 study) is outer space (2.5 percent).

Socio-economic ally, the American protagonist is predominantly a member of the KLddle Class (73*9 percent), which is sympathetically portrayed 85.3 percent of the times it is shown* Eighty-two percent of the time the protagonist is middle or upper class -*■ a higher figure than Head's 59 percent^ f o r protagonists (though his all- character cotint showed 83 percent upper and middle class).

Although the protagonist is from the lower class only17*7 percent of the time, inclusion of both major characters brings the lower class count to27 percent — a more frequent portrayal of the lower class than was found in the author's study of 1951*^ One series,

Troubleshooters, was centered around the adventures of a construction gang. Question: Does this reflect a growing recognition of the worker in the American culture due to rise in power and prestige of organized labor?

As was the case in the 1951 study, the upper class was por­ trayed sympathetically the smallest proportion of the time. In only

8 of 30 portrayals of the upper class were they reflected

^Sydney Head, "Television and Social Norms," doctoral dis­ sertation, New York University, 1953, p. 81*.

^Richard H. Bell, "Content Analysis of Network Television Drama," Columbus, Chio, 1951-, unpublished, p. Ill* 1 0 $

sympathetic ally (26.6 percent of the times shown). Since the upper

classes are not organised and are successful, apparently television

dramatists can better afford to portray them unsympathetic ally. It

should be noted, however that 37 percent of the lower class were

adversaries, and only 17*7 percent were protagonists. This is due to

the fact that often the adversaries were small-time criminals.

Paradoxically, although the upper class is least sympathetic ally presented, some of our television Americans are trying to get into it.

Of those leading characters within the middle class, one-fourth were

striving to move up to these unsympathetic upper classes. Among the lower classes there was slightly less ambition, with 21 percent of these characters attempting to move up to middle class.

However, in our television world this upward mobility is more characterisric of the unsympathetic adversary than it is of the pro­ tagonist. Among the lover classes the adversary was upward-mobile three times as often as was the protagonist. Thus, such social ambition was portrayed as a characteristic of which society did not fully approve.

Largest age group in our televised America is the 30 to 1*0 bracket. Within this group are 1*5> percent of the protagonists and

37 percent of the adversaries. Adversaries tended to be older than protagonists, a higher percent (36.9 percent) being over 1*0 than were the protagonists (19.8 percent).

The prototype hero seems to be advancing in age in our tele­ vision literature. In only one-third of the cases is he in the 106

supposedly "golden" years of 10 to 30. In Dale's study 72 percent of

the heroes were under 30 years of age.^

Question: Does this reflect the advancing average age in the

real .America, (tie to greater longevity? Is it in­

dicative of a shift away from the characteristic

emphasis on youth which is delineated by Gorer in

his description of the American people??

The American portrayed by the leading characters in the dramas

is predominantly unmarried, whether protagonist (72.9 percent) or

adversary (51.5 percent). This higher incidence of singleness in the

protagonist probably is a function of the dramatic situation, since

his unencumbrance permits him greater freedom of action and provides

the television writer with greater flexibility in terms of plot

situations.

Of interest was the incidence of widows and widowers (7.3 per­

cent) in both protagonist and adversary classification. None had

appeared in the author's 1951 study.®

Question: Is this incidence of widowhood characteristic of the

advancing age pattern of the real American society?

Regardless of age, our hero is Anglo-Saxon American(90 p e rc e n t)

as is his adversary (61.7 percent), though the latter tends more

^Edgar Dale, loc. c it. , p. JUJU*

^Geoffrey Gorer, The American People (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 19U8), p. 121-151.

®Richard H. Bell, loc. c it. 107

frequently to be of foreign extraction or a foreigner. The former

figure parallels Head's study, where 90 percent of the characters were "white Americans of rntive stock,In the present study the

Anglo-Saxon was unsympathetic 36.2 percent of the times he was por­

trayed as a leading character, while the non-Anglo-Saxon was unsympathetic in 5U.2 percent of his appearances as a leading charac­ te r .

Apparently our television world is one in which the first generation American still is considered not fully an American and, hence, more frequently is portrayed unsympathetically than is a native,

Anglo-Saxon (or "100 percent") American. This is perhaps consonant with the "more equal than others" attitude enunciated by Gorer.-*-®

ttiere was, however, a marked spread of various nationalities and national derivations, with 20 different national groups, no one of which was portrayed unsympathetically a high percentage of the time — most frequently only once.

Including all characters, leading and supporting (since many times foreigners are shoim in the latter category), where foreigners were shown, they were treated as equals in 67 of 96 cases. In 68 cases they were stereotyped portrayals, and in 77 cases they were sympathetically portrayed.

In all of this we see an America where the foreign bom are a small percentage of the population, where they are treated as equals

^Sydney Head, loc. c it., abstract, p. 2.

■*-%eoffrey Gorer, loc. c it., Chapter VIII. 108

more often than not, but where they are portrayed unsympathetic ally

more frequently than the Anglo-Saxon American.

On the basis of these findings (which included two viewings of

The Untouchables) it would seem that the charges of unfair treatment

made by the Italian-American Association against this series are not

applicable to television drama in general.

In one respect, however. The Untouchables was typical. Our

television American lives in a world in which crime is rampant. In

6 2 .1 percent o f the dramas crime was an a ctiv e in g red ien t. To combat

this wave of crime, there are law men (of various types) who solve

the crime le s s than h a lf the tim e (1*0.3 p ercen t). F ortunately fo r

the cause of law and order in videoland, there are also protagonists who are not official lar men but who solve the crime the remainder of

the time (59.6 percent).

For punishment of the crime, once it is solved, recourse to law

takes place more frequently (52.1 percent) than in the solution

(1*0.3 percent). In 19.2 percent of the 119 crime stories, the pro­ tagonist punishes the crime himself although he is not an official law man (most frequently in Westerns where there is no other law). This punishment usually takes the form of killing the criminal in self-

defense. In 12.6 percent of the cases other non-law characters punish the crime, in 5.8 percent Fate punished, and in 10.1 percent the crime goes unpunished* 109

This is a lower percent of unpunished crime than was revealed in

Dale's content analysis of motion pictures, where 21;.2 percent of the 1 1 crimes went unpunished* It would seem that the television drama of I960 is reflecting an

American society in which crime is more frequently punished than in the America of the Twenties (when the motion pictures studied by Dale were produced).

The general image of law in this society is one of a strong, effective law-enforcement agency 1;2 percent of the time, but weak, corrupt, or inefficient in 25.8 percent of the cases, and totally absent in 32 percent of the stories where crime is involved.

This frequency of crime is somewhat lower than that found in

Head's content analysis where 75 percent of the dramas contained violence, crime, or aggression.^ In the present study, only specific crimes were tabulated, so the absence of aggression and violence cate­ gories probably accounts for the difference.

Among the 22 types of crimes tabulated (which ranged from murder to fishing without a license), murder was by far "the most frequent

(6l cases) with theft a weak second (15 cases) and attempted murder third. The incidence of murder In television drama probably should not be taken as an indication that our real American character is pre­ occupied with murder, but that this crime is a favorite of most writers because of its dramatic impact.

Edgar Dale, loc. cit. , p. ll;5.

^Sydney Head, loc. cit. 110

The Image Is one of a physically violent society, and one in which official law m a st he supplemented by individuals taking the law into their own hands. This substantiates the conclusions of

Wolfenstein and Leites in terms of the prevalence of the individual who must be his own law, rather than having recourse to law .^ As

Gorer brings out, this reflects an underlying disrespect for, and desire to flout authority,^

Q u e s t i o n : Is this continual violence an example of what Bruce

Catton describes as, "a rowdy strain in American life ,

living close to the surface, but running very deep”7^-^

In the present study l aw Is vised only half the time for punish­ ment of crimes, reflecting a certain disregard for due process.

However, one way in which recent dramas have kept the leading role of protagonist exciting, without supporting individual Justice, is by making the protagonist a law enforcement agent himself (28*5 percent).

Instances of this are The Untouchables» The Detectives, Gunsmoke, The

Deputy. Through this device the hero need not take the law into his own hands — it already is there.

Within this world of violence, it is not surprising that killing

(as distinguished from murder) takes place in 36.9 percent of the pro­ grams. Ninety-nine individuals k ill someone, and a total of one

^^Martha W olfenstein and Nathan L eites, Movies: A Pb; Study (Glencoe, Illinoist The Dree Press, 1950J, pp. l99^?

^Geoffrey Gorer, loc. c it., pp. 26-hlu

^Btruce Catton, This Hallowed Ground (Hew Yorki Docket Books, Inc., 1961), p. It. I l l

hundred and forty-two persons are killed. In these dramas, "the wages

of sin are death" only for unsympathetic adversaries. The protagonist

k ills in 25 instances, but is himself killed only 3 times, whereas the

adversary k ills an almost equal number of times (26), but pays the

penalty by being killed himself in 28 cases. These data tend to rein­

force the relativity of reward and punishment which is discussed later

in this chapter.

When a minor character in television drama is faced with a

decision as to whether to do the xlght thing in a crime situation, he

had best think carefully before siding with law and order. For in 26

cases, minor characters were killed as a result of having done "the

right thing" (i.e ., given information to the police, turned against

their colleagues in crime). In a violent world the price of honesty

conies high.

In view of the high incidence of crime, there is a need for many

men engaged in law enforcement work. This is true in our television

sampling, where 35.9 percent of the protagonists were law enforcement

men of some type (marshal, sheriff, detective, FEE, private investi­

gator, insurance investigator). This was by far the largest

occupational group of protagonists, with professional men (the second

largest group) appearing in only 12.5 percent of the 192 programs.

Among the adversaries, fewer men were engaged in law enforcement

(10.3 percent), partly because the largest occupational group of ad­

versaries is that of professional criminal (20 percent). Though the percentages are different, these findings confirm Bead's, for he 112

found the "police-protective" and "professional criminals" to be the

two largest single categories.^ the same order prevailed in the

author's 1951 study of television drama.^

A difference in the order of occupations was found, however,

between the author's two studies. In the 1951 study journalists,

theatrical people, and the independently wealthy ranked after law en­

forcement and professional criminal; whereas in I960, professional,

agricultural, and housewife followed, with entertainers farther down

the lis t, below labor; independently wealthy showed up only twice in leading roles, and the journalist was non-existent.

Occupations in televised America today range from construction workers through farmers to circus boys to businessmen. Interestingly, in the 192 dr anas viewed the businessman was the protagr nist only U

times, but he was the adversary 11 times.

Question: Is there a more accurate dietrib tic ; -f the employ­

ment in our real society in today's television drama?

Are we, the real American people, becoming less

addicted to glamour in an era of greater conformity

and sophistication? Are businessmen less trusted

today, or just not suitable as exciting leading men?

It would appear that in one way our television America lives in a sophisticated culture. Drinking of alcoholic beverages occurred in

72 programs, and in most cases it was treated neither as immoral nor

^SJydney Head,loc. cit., p. 85.

■^Richard H. Bell, loc. c it., p. 15» 113 n delightfully wicked*n In two of the moat frequent settles — the

Early West and modem urban society — drinking was accepted as a matter of course. Ibe adversary drank in a few more instances than the protagonist, and more heavily. Sometimes heavy drinking was used as a symbol of crime and vice. At the two extremes of the protagonist scale, two were alcoholic and two refused drinks when offered. How­ ever, no drinking took place in family situations.

finally, the American on television lives in a world where religion is not a major factor. In only one program of 192 did reli­ gion play any major part — and the setting of that pl^y (MDie Juggler” on Ford Startime) was France.

Question! Despite the rumored revival of religion in our real

world, is it a non-religious society, or do drama­

tists avoid the subject as being too sacred to permit

any conflict?

Pie Fam ily

Family life is a factor in the world of television slightly more than half the time (though it may not be the dominant theme of the program in which it occurs).

Pi most of these family portrayals there is a hueband-wife relationship. In this category we find the wife-mother dominating in

1*0.2 percent o f the 102 dramas in which fam ily r ela tio n sh ip s were por­ trayed, while the husband-fat her is dominant in only 21*. 5 percent.

(Of these dominant males, one-fourth were of foreign extraction, re­ ducing the dominant Anglo-Saxon husband—father to 18.7 percent. ) n i l

This tends to support Gorer's identification of the American

Matriarchy.1® However, this female domination is tempered by the fact that in 58*8 percent of these 102 family dramas, mutual love and respect were shown, indicating that although the wife-mother may get her way more frequently, father is a respected member of the family over half of the time. In programs such as Leave It to Beaver and

Father Knows Best he is portrayed as dominant (or equal), intelligent, and considerate.

Of least frequency is the situation in which the husband and wife have real equality, with neither dominating (l;.l percent).

Equality of the sexes apparently does not apply very often in the television culture.

Question: Is this lack of equality real or dramatic?

Interestingly, the situation where a lone male heads the family

(there being no mother in evidence) occurred in lU.6 percent of the total sampling, which is a higher percentage than the 1951 atuc^y in which there were no such cases.^

Question: Is it necessary to remove the wife-mother from the

dramatic situation in order to have a strong father?

In contradiction to this female domination in the marriage situation are the findings in regard to the role of women. As is in­ dicated in Table 5U, the women dominated (either overtly or subtly) in 39.3 percent of the total cases, while the men dominated the

l^Ceoffrey Gorer, loc. c it. , Chapter II.

^Richard H. Bell, loc. c it., p. 6. 115 situation in ldul percent. The difference seems to lie in the fact that while men dominate situations, and are shown more often in key r o le s , th e y do n o t dom inate th e women. A lso, th e women seem to g a in strength when they marry. They can then dominate more openly.

Again, in only a small number of cases (l percent) was equality of the sexes portrayed.

Question: Which findings are more indicative of the reel

American situation? Is America still a matriarchy?

On the subject of women, there were 27 identifiable cases of ort Wolfenstein and Leites1 "good-bad" girl. This is the female who is a good girl at heart, even though she does bad things. This American female is in evidence in television drama as she was in motion pic­ tures. (The Western saloon owner is a natural for the good-bad girl.)

Relative to the family situation, mother still seems to be almost inviolate, still exemplifying Philip Wylie*s "Momism,n21 For whereas father was rejected by the offspring in 20.6 percent of the dramas showing family situations, mother was rejected in only 5 percent, (in an additional 6.7 percent a mother-image — aunt, guardian, grand­ mother — was rejected, but this seemed to be a dramatic device to keep from rejecting a natural mother.) This tends to support the evidence

2®Hartha Wolfenstein and Nathan Leites, loc. c it., pp. 2li-33*

21FMUp Wylie, Penetration of Vipers (New York: Rinehart Com­ pany, 1955)> Chapter iTI 1X6

of Gorer22 on the rejection of the father, although the prevalence

which he indicates does not seem to pertain in this study*

Questioni Is father-rej ection less of a characteristic of the

real American character since ve now have less im­

migration, and fewer first and second generation

Americans?

In our television image, relationships between parents and

children were characterized more by lack of mutual respect and love

than by its presence. In the case of father-son relationships, about

half were solid, positive relationships based on this mutual love and respect, but in father-daughter categories lack of this positive base existed in 66*6 percent* in mother-son this negative element was

66.6 percent; and in mother-daughter, it rose to 75 percent.

This is sanewhat in conflict with Wolfenstein and Leites, who found that "Father-daughter relations are almost without exception positive."2^ It tends to confirm, however, their statement,

"Heroines. • • relations with their mothers tend to be less Important

and l e s s agreeab le.112^ Regarding the desire of parents to have their children surpass rather than equal them (a characteristic brought out by Mead2-*) the findings Indicated that this desire existed in 60 percent of the cases

22Geoffrey Gorer, loc. c it. , Chapter I.

2^Martha Wolfenstein and Nathan Leites, loc. c it., p. 113.

2l* Ib id ., p. 119.

2^Margaret Head, loc. c it. , Chapter H I. 117 where this attitude was possible. In 30 percent of the applicable

cases the parental attitude was a hope that the children would "turn

out all right," and in 10 percent the parent actually hoped that the

child would ftil (in Restless Gun, Bourbon Street Beat, and other

instances where the child had "gone wrong," and the parents wished

for failure to return him to the straight and narrow).

The television world is a man's world, for again in relationships

among siblings, the males maintained a better relationship than the females. Brother and brother had a 77 percent positive relationship; brother and sister had 76 percent good relationship, while sister and

sister had U0 percent. This is in agreement with Wolfenstein and

Leites, who found that sisters were rivals more frequently than were b r o t h e r s .^

C o n flic ts

In facing the problems of his life the televised An eric an is most often in conflict with another individual (86 percent), but in same few cases his adversary is a nation or a society (It.5 percent).

In these cases, most frequently it is his own society -- the American people, or a portion of them — with whom he is in conflict. It is apparent from these figures, however, that rarely is he eager or w il­ ling to stand alone against his society.

^Martha Wolfenstein and Nathan Leites, loc. c it., p. Ili5. 1 1 8

Question: Is this an indication of Rlesman's “otheiv

directedness"^ where inch vi chi all sn Is lo st in an

effort constantly to conform?

Even more rarely does he stand in opposition to himself( 1 * 1

percent). Introspection is not one of his strong points, as he is

too concerned with combatting outside elements to devote ouch time to

resolving the conflicts within himself. True, the external battle may

reflect or involve an internal conflict, but the Americans portrayed

are more concerned with the outside struggle.

Question: Is this a deni al in the television world of the

Internal anxiety which is purported to be a strong

characteristic of the American character today?

Or does this lack of internal conflict stem from

the fact that this i3 a more difficult problem to

show in dramatic form?

The student of our television American would conclude that pro­

tagonists are male in most cases (85>.lt percent), and that in most

cases (57.8 percent) he is opposed by a male. Least often does the

situation involve a female opposed to a female (2.1 percent). In re­

gard to the fan ale character, she faces internal conflict as mazy

times as does her male counterpart (h each), but in no case does she

stand in opposition to the people. Though the entire American society

^D avid KLesman, Nathan G lazer, and Kernel Denney, The Lonely Crowd (Garden C ity, New Torkx Doubleday Anchor Books, 19^3), p. 33. 1 1 9 on 'television 'tends to conform to the group, the female Is more con­ form ist than I s the male*

Although parents may not have a stroig positive relationship with their offspring, rarely are they engaged in major conflict with one

another. In only 10.5 percent of the stories is the conflict between parents and children, or between siblings. The family may not be based on mutual love and respect, but it is not often split into war­ ring campus.

The television American lives in a world of important personal issues. Although some of the manifest conflicts were trivial (what to do with the latest litter of kittens, how Dobie Gill is viill take his girl to a dance), most conflicts represented underlying concerns with

Life and Death (30.7 percent), Right and Wrong (20.6 percent), Human

Relations (16.2 percent), Successful Living (12.2 percent), and Family

Relations (10.5 percent)*

The first category is concerned with survival, which is a basic concern, both in life and in drama. One-fourth of the time the indi­ vidual is concerned with ethical questions. It should be noted, however, that his concern is with specific issues of crime, ethics, loyalty, Justice, of right and wrong in his daily living, not with larger philosophical issues of Good and Evil*

One-third of the tjmo his concern is with various aspects of

Vnuwnn relations. Here is a world in which relations between individ­ uals is important, and where ethical questions, while prevalent, are not as much in the forefront as living successfully with others* 1 2 0

The protagonist's problems usually are personal and inmediate.

As was the case In Arnheim’s study of daytime serials on radio, the problems beyond the Individual (I.e., world peace, destiny of man) r a r e ly are d e a lt with.**®

Q uestion t Is this evidence of a lack of concern with questions

of real significance?

One clear-cut aspect of the American whom we see on television is his ability to resolve these problems purposefully. Utilizing physical action and intellectual activity almost equally, the leading characters resolve the conflicts. Only rarely (5.2 percent) Is the problem solved by accident, and even more rarely (.5 percent) is it solved by the power of God. This is a society in which man dominates and controls the outcome of his life . As Gorer points out, even

"Americanism is an act of w ill.

Or, as Time magazine s t a t e s ,

From the noble notion -that man is free to do anything th a t he can do, the U. S. somehcw su b tly proceeds to the notion that he most do anything he can and, finally, that there is nothing he cannot do. 30

It is the protagonist, representing law and order, or the Right, who controls the ultimate solution most often. The adversary ragy

2®Rudolf Arnbedm, "The World o f the Daytime S e r ia l," Mass CoaiMmwicationB, ed. Wilbur Schramm (Urbana, I l l i n o i s i U n iv ersity o f I*lYinois frress, 19U9), p. 367.

^Geoffrey Gorer, loc. cit., p. 196.

3°"Ihe A nataay o f A ng st," Time, March 31, 1961, p . 1|6. 121 influence the outcome, hut rarely (15*6 percent) does he control it*

Straight-shooters still win in the world of television drama.

Included in the American's ability to control outcomes is his ability to control character. In 27 percent of the cases the pro­ tagonist changes Ms character, while in 23*7 percent of the cases the adversary makes th is change*

this ability to change creates (by the ends of the plays) a world in which few are unsympathetic. Thirty-five of the 110 unsympa­ thetic adversaries turn good, and only eight protagonists remain unsympathetic. Thus, judged at the end of the dramas, figures indicate th a t 9 percent of the protagonists are sympathetic, and 51*.3> percent of the adversaries are sympathetic. This would indicate that this is a world in which everything even tu ally "comes r ig h t," and peace and amity prevail at the conclusion of every problem*

Questioni Is the real American scene so characterized by good

feeling, conversion to the right, and complete har­

mony?

It would seem that although in 1*7 percent of the total cases the characters are portrayed as "black and wMte" there exist few villains in the traditional sense — bad men who stay bad men until death.

Differences in the culture must be resolved, and the villains converted into heroes (or at least brougMinto the hero's camp).

Motivations

How are our television Americans motivated? What drives them?

Since these motivations overlap and are quite varied, there is little 122 in the way of generalizations that can be drawn frcu them, other than

to compare the frequency of certain motives in protagonist and adver­

sary. Here we see that while recognizable "good” people are motivated by duty, friendship, love, Justice, and compassion, the "bad" onee are motivated by hatred, greed, urge for power, and fear.

The first listed motives, then, are accepted by the television society as being good, whereas society labels the ones possessed by the adversary as bad. Actually, this is an inter-action — the things that the adversaries do are bad and, conversely, they are adversaries because th ey do bad things*

Ihe three most frequent motivating forces — duty, friendship, and love — coincide with the goals which were set by the characters in the motion pictures studied by Dale. In dividing his goal classi­ fication into Individual Goals, Personal Goals, and Social Goals, he found "Winning another's love" most frequent of Individual Goals,

"Happiness of friend" second in Personal Goals, and "Performance of duty" first under Social Goals.^

Looking to the materialism of Americans, of which Gorer states,

. the acquisition of money is very important to Americans, but its retention is relatively unimportant, "^2 ^ the Americans on tele­ vision have a desire for money? "Not if they are good," our television culture would answer. Protagonists are motivated by money 19*7 p e r c e n t of the time, whereas adversaries are so motivated 1;7.9 percent. Dius,

Edgar Dale, loc. c it., Chapter XT.

^^eoffrey Gorer, loc. cit., p. 177. 123 the Image of Americans Is one of a culture in which the synqpathetic figures are not motivated largely by money.

Questioni Is this a fallacy in television presentation, or Is

the average American less money-minded now that we

are such a wealthy nation?

Is money not a success symbol in America?

One of the protagonist's strong motivations is f ii endship (18.2 percent). In m any programs (Johnny Staocatto, Beatless Gun) unof­ ficial law men undertake to solve a crime, risking their lives in the process — all for friendship.

Question: Is self-interest not acceptable in the American cul­

ture today? Do we make protagonists more heroic by

having then work for friendship rather than personal

g ain ?

On what is this friendship based? Largely on a mutual respect and/or affection (16.7 percent) or on the fact that both share the same type of work (2$ percent). The remaining 23.2 percent of the motivations are less commendable. They include self-interest, need for a "stooge," and exchange of mutual favors.

In many situation comedies (Dennis O'Keefe Show. Gale Storm

Show)a and in same of the Westerns (Hotel de Fiaree, Gunsmake), the protagonist has a companion, a "hanger on" who is used for conic re­ lief. He is not an equal to the protagonist, but a foil to make the hero look even better. This is perhaps evidence of Gorerfs stataaent, 12h

"The signs of friendship, of lore, are a necessity for the American. "33

Conspicuous by Its absence was the "buddy" relationship which

Gorer also describes.^ Although characters were often Motivated by friendship, there was very little (3.5 percent) of the baddy relation­ ship (as exemplified by Flagg and Quirt of World War I fame) seen in the electronic world — primarily because the element of competition was lacking. Except for a few series with two stars (Maverick.

77 Sunset Strip) the element of competitive baddies is missing.

Question: Is this relationship no longer operative in the

American culture? Has it gone the way of all

competition?

As a measure of the intensity of motivation, what do our tele­ vision Americans value enough to risk their lives for? The answer, in terns of the protagonist, reads that of all the tilings for which he will risk his life, duty ranks first (38 percent). This duty seems not so much to be for God and country, but rather to the Job at hand. This desire to finish &ny job, once tackled, is characteristic of our protagonists in television drama.

Friendship is second, and the protagonist is willing to risk his life for it in 17.8 percent of the cases where he is willing to ride his life at all. And third in order(13 percent) in this classi­ fication is money. Therefore, it would appear that although money is

33oeoffrey Gorer, loc. c it. , p. 133.

^Geoffrey Gorer, loc. c it., p. 125. 125 not a frequent motivation for the protagonist (7*8 percent), it Is a fairly strong one when it does exist, since he will risk his life for i t .

A characteristic motivation for television .Americans is support of the underdog. The protagonist either is the underdog or is aligned with him 58.7 percent of the total cases, thus confirming Gorer's mention of American support of the underdog.^ This was also re­ flected in the social class tabulation, where the lower classes were treated sympathetically more frequently than the upper class.

In view of the previous conception of the American as a con­ formist, how often does he attempt to be an accepted part of the group? Neither protagonist nor adversary seems to be strongly motivated on this count. Only 36.9 percent of the protagonists desired strong group identification, and only 26.6 percent of the adversaries.

Of the remainder, the majority in both cases (52*6 percent of the protagonists, 65.U percent of the adversaries) were relatively inde­ pendent, neither fighting the group nor seeking to belong to it. Often the protagonist was a "lone hand" (particularly in the Westerns and

Private Detective stories), willing to help society, but not seeking to be accepted by it. In the case of the adversary, often he did not care to belong to the group, but wanted the group to belong to him.

Question! Is this atypical of the real American character? Is

i t a wish-fulfillment day-dream that takes us back

^%eofftey Gorer, loc. cit., p. 99. 126

to a time when it was characteristically American to

be free and independent?

Rlesman characterises the "other-directed" society with both a desire to conform and a reluctance to excel for fear of removing one­ self fran the group.^ Does our television protagonist fear this personal excellence? Here we find that the protagonist wishes to excel in only 33*8 percent of the cases, whereas the adversary wishes to in 75.7 percent. From these figures it can be deduced that this striving to surpass others is considered by the television culture to be one characteristic of an adversary. He is anti-social in this desire. The protagonist, on the other hand, either did not wish to excel or was not interested either way in two-thirds of the cases, a reflection of the independence mentioned previously.

Question! Is this a true reflection of Rlesraan's "other-

d ire c te d " society?37 Do cur television Americans

feel that obvious attempts to excel are repre­

hensible, or at least in poor taste?

Other Attitudes

Related to excellence and conformity as motivations is the two- sided coin of success-failure, where we find that all 20 attitudes catalogued can be summarised as tending to deprecate the importance of

^Dacvid Rlesman, loc. c it., Chapter IV.

37David Rlesman, loc. c it. , Chapter IV. success. It turns out to be unimportant, it is false* it is hard to live with, it is not worth the effort. In terns of achieving it, highest attribute is persistence, which seems to be the major criterion rather than courage, skill, or ability.

Question* Are Americans really less concerned with success in

this era of prosperity and security?

Gorer characterizes the American as seeing love and success as nearly identical. % states that love is very Important in America, and that to be loved is to be a success, and that to be a success is to be loved.^® In lj.6.1 percent of this study, his statement regarding the importance of love to Americans seemed to be confirmed. Love was strong and important. However, in 56 of the dramas viewed in this study, love was not a factor. In 73 cases it was light, unimportant, cheap, selfish, mean, or petty. Thus, in 129 cases, or 67 percent of the time, love was not important to Americans.

In the one-third of the cases where it was important, there seemed to be little evidence that it was essential to success.

Question: Is love becoming less inport ant, either in the real

American culture, or as a subject for drama •— or

both?

A8 for failure, it was feared in 10 percent of the cases by the protagonist, and by the adversary in 7 percent. Even as success was deprecated in 20 dramas, failure was shown primarily as something to

3®Geoffrey Gorer, loc. c it., p. 106* 128 overcome in the 22 dramas where it plays a part. Attitudes toward it included (l) you can win through failure, (2) you must rise above failure, (3) failure is relative, and ( k) failure is good for a man.

In light of these findings, a viewer might wonder whether success and failure are of importance as standards or goals in our culture.

Questioni Are success and failure losing their importance as

standards in American life? Do both mark indi­

viduality too much to be accepted as important in

today's real American culture?

Characteristic of American optimism, failure was never due to the nature of man, or any irrevocable factors, but from such control­ lable elements as (l) lack of courage, (2) not trying hard enough, (3) carelessness, (U) weakness.

In tens of the ultimate failure -- death — the prevailing attitude is one of casual acceptance (£8.b percent), possibly because it is so prevalent in our television world. In only four instances was death a subject for real speculation and concern.39 This would seem to characterize a society much more preoccupied with life than with death.

Quest!oni Does this apparent lack of concern reflect a tendency

to "avoid" death, characteristic which Wolfenstein and

Leites saw reflected in their motion picture studyT^O

Two of these dramas were on Alcoa Rresenta, which specialises in stories of a metaphysical nature; the other two were television a d ap tatio n s o f s to r ie s by Hemingway and Conrad.

k^Martha Wolfenstein and Nathan Leites, loc. c it., p. 233* 129

Wolfenstein and Leites also point out that "death cannot frustrate

human wishes"^ in motion picture drama, and this seems to apply to

television. The protagonist's wishes prevail in spite of death — or

because of it.

It was noted in the author's 1 9 5 1 study that there was little

dignity to death in our culture,^ and this still prevails — due

largely to the violence of death. Of a total of 159 deaths, were

killings, 12 vere violent accidental deaths, and only 5 were death

from disease.

In general, death was more a device to be used — something

which is "brought about" to achieve an end — rather than an inevitable

part of life . When deep concern about death was shown (27.2 percent),

reaction was concentrated on loss of the deceased, and the personal

implications of this loss for the living* Cbly in the Conrad story was death transcended -- and the title of this story is Victory.

Only in the Hemingway story and the Conrad story could death be considered as the real adversary (and in neither case was it tabulated in this way). Although the generalized theme of life and Death existed in the greatest number of cases (30.7 percent), the issue was man

against man, with death as the price of failure, rather than man p it­ ting himself against the power of death.

^Martha Wolfenstein and Nathan Leites, loc. c it., p. 2li0.

^Richard H. Bell, loc. cit., p. 17. 1 3 0

This would seem to be a reflection of the basically non-tragic

American outlook, in which all things, including death are tools with which to control life.

Rewards and Punishments

For what type of behavior is our television American rewarded and/or punished? The lis t is varied, and somewhat contradictory.

Deception is rewarded and punished almost equally (rewarded 26 times, p u n ish e d 2 $ times). Courage is rewarded 27 times, but punished U times. Even Crime, which is punished 71 times, is rewarded in 11 c a s e s .

Behavior which is rewarded but never punished includes thinking

(26 times), toughness (7 times). RuxLshed but never rewarded are

Greed (21), Carelessness (21), and Cruelty (16).

Key to these conflicting rewards and punishments is a concept of relativity in terms of how deserving the person is. Dividing the rewards and punishments into our protagonist-adversary classifications, we find that for using deception the protagonist is rewar do d 25 tim e s and punished only 11 times, while the adversary is rewarded but once, and is punished lh times for his use of deception.

These findings are in keeping with both the 1 9 5 1 study of the a u t h o r , ^ pnri with Amhelm’s study of the soap operass where "perfect justice is provided,*^4 the good troublemakers are not punished, the

^Richard H. Bell, loc. cit., p. 19.

^Rudolf Amh elm, loc. c it., pp. 373-37U. 131

bad troublemakers are punished, and the weak troublemakers w ill be

refo rm ed .

Thus, it is seen that in American culture few values are abso­

lute, and if a person ia "good" his actions are not as important — a philosophy which is dangerously close to the end Justifying the means.

Sumnary

Extrapolating on the basis of the data at hand, it might be possible to conjure up a hypothetical American living in the video version of the American culture.

Our prototype would be a mlddle-class, city-dwelling, Anglo-

Saxon male, probably upward-mobile, which he would deny, for fear of being thought to be striving too hard for success.

He is a mature, sophisticated Individual, acceptant of the foreign-born, of whom he knows a few, and treats them sympathetically, nearly as equals.

Professionally, he might be most anything, for his world has many and varied occupations — but he would most likely (in our tele­ vision universe) be a law-enforcement officer of some type. If he is, he lives in a world of violence, and takes death casually. If he is not a law-enfor-cement officer, he probably fed s that the law w ill work effectively most of the time, but not all the time. In the latter case he might be a bit suspicious of authority and skeptical about sticking his neck out to help the regularly constituted authority.

If he has a family, his chances are about 5 0 - 5 0 to have a good relationship with his wife and children; he is a fairly good father, 132

but is dominated, either overtly or subtly, by his wife; he has

respect for his mother; may have rejected his father; probably gets

along well with his brother. Now his best relationship is with his

son, whom he hopes will achieve even greater success than he has.

Concerned with daily personal issues, he is not very intro­

spective, and not too concerned with the greater world outside his

immediate environment; he is confident that he can solve his problems

or even change his character, if necessary, and he has little concern

about success or failure; he has friends, but no "buddies,n and for

them or for duty he will do many things (including risking his life on occasion), but w ill not do some of these things merely for money.

He has a weakness for the underdog, and likes to finish a job once he has started it*

Love may be an important element in his life , or he may take it lightly or routinely as part of life.

Basically, he is safe in the assumption that if he is generally

"good," and a "good guy," his actions (whatever their intrinsic moral, value) w ill be rewarded and not punished*

This is not an heroic figure we are describing — nor is his so c iety *

He lives in an American society that has achieved some degree of maturity. It is an established, prosperous society that has passed its "Green Tears." It is less competitive, more assured, more con­ formist, and within it our hero lives a comfortable and secure life* 133

W.thtn 'this America on the picture tube* we rarely see portrayed world tensions; contemporary man's basic insecurity In his enlightened, free world; or the Interplay of conflicting basic ideologies, reli­ gions, and philosophies which are dashing in the minds of men*

This probably marks the most atypical quality of our televised

American — he lives in a cosy world of action, suspense, violence and death, secure in the knowledge that Justice w ill always triumph (ex­ cept on Alfred Hitchcock Presents). But the real anxiety, the not knowing whether perhaps this time the evil within himself or his fellow man may triumph, is missing*

Perhaps this is the fantasy-world in which we seek to escape from the complex realities of today. The same television set which brings vast world problems into our lives more vividly than ever be­ fore also brings us the imaginary America of our dreams where the hero (the projection of each viewer) still can control his environ­ ment.

One of Gorer's methods for studying a culture at a distance is to acknowledge that "above all, the silences and omissions can give most important clues.

In these areas of world issues and the nature of man we find almost complete silence in the television America. Our electronic

American is a hero in the contemporary drama of the richest, most pow­ erful nation on earth, but he has little of real importance to say.

^^Geoffrey Gorer, "National Characteri Theory and Practice," Pie Study of Culture at a Distance» ed* Margaret Mead and Hhoda Hetranx (CETcago: U n iversity o f Chicago fr e e s , 1953 ), P* 75* 13U

So the American character exists, in indistinct, fuzzy fora, on television, and we see ourselves in a distorted mirror. The man looking back at us from the electronic mirror is neither very bad nor very good* He is middle class, middle aged, and middle of the road*

If this image is accurate in any degree, we should be aware of him, be alert to his conditioning effect on us, and decide whether we, the American people, want to be more like or less like this image of the American Character* CHAPTER VI

IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In light of the findings and interpretation of this study, the

author would like to point out some Implications for four elements

in our society, and make recommendations for further research*

Implications for Television Writers

A study s^h as this reveals fertile areas for new television writing. Through organized analysis of television drama the most

coimaonly used themes and characterizations and the most frequently

osdtted are revealed.

As was indicated at the conclusion of the previous chapter,

real issues of world-wide importance are not being portrayed on tele­

v is io n drama. On documentary programs and sp e c ia l news broadcasts,

yes; but in drama, the form which has the greatest emotional impact,

they are missing — except on an occasional outstanding program.

This is due in part to the fact that such major issues tend to be controversial, and the television industry rarely seeks contro­ versy. However, it is possible for the skilled writer to create

stories that are popular even though they deal with vital issues.

Dramas viewed in this study such as Alas Babylon, Separate Parents,

ftnrf Trial by Fear give evidence that subjects of national survival,

13? 136

divorce, and defense of the unpopular can be dealt with successfully.

If he Is to make a real contribution to his culture, the television writer most strive more often to illuminate the real problems of modem man rather than dealing with trivia and omitting basic issues as themes for his stories.

Many current American prototypes are rarely portrayed in tele­ vision drama — the disillusioned business man, the confused career woman, the adolescent, the capable but drifting housewife, the states­ man with his endless task, the scientist faced with the social implications of his discoveries.

Stories of Americans working abroad, stories of ministers in an irreligious age, stories of the struggle for individuality in a con­ formist society — these are needed if the American is not to become more like his present image on television. Writers of the popular commercial television programs can te ll these stories to more members of our society than can any other contemporary artists.

Implications for Educators

Educators are concerned with helping Americans of all ages see themselves, their country, and their world more accurately; and with tremendous influence and impact television drama is doing the same thing, either supplementing or contradicting this teaching*

If Americans view these television images without being aware of the Impact of what television is s^lng about them, they may be motivated and conditioned by unconsciously developed American images as much or more than they are by what they learn consciously. 137 If the picture of the American character, as deduced by this

study, is not a satisfactory one to the educator — if he would see

a more d ed ica ted , more cfynamic American.— th en , he should be a le r t

for evidence that confirms or refutes this image. Within his class­

room, then, he may work to counteract this picture of American

complacency.

Capitalizing on the American's assumption that he can and does

control his environment and his own character, perhaps educators can

present challenges to stir their students, to bring them to grips with

vital issues, and to cause them to question, rather than imitate the

self-image they see on television.

Implications for Educational Broadcasters

Here lies one of the greatest challenges and responsibilities*

Educational broadcasters have at their disposal the seme powerful tool

as do the commercial broadcasters. Although their impact has not yet

been felt fully, the educational television stations can and do reach

and influence Americans today.

The educational broadcaster has the opportunity to present pro­ grams in general, and drama in particular, that w ill stir and challenge people, not lu ll and satiate thee. It behooves every educational

station manager and program director to be aware of what aspects of

the American image are being presented by network television drama,

and by all other types of television programs, so that educational

television, with the mandate to educate and infom , can fil l in the 138

blanks, or correct the inaccurate images created by ccranercial broad­

casting, whose raison d'etre is to entertain and to sell*

Free of commercial obligations, the educational broadcaster can

create new, more accurate, and more thought-provoking images of the

American character.

Implications for the American People

"Know thyself" is sound advice whether the self is an individual

or a culture. Unless the people see themselves clearly, see their

culture clearly, see their relationship to it, they w ill be afflicted

with mankind's age-old, yet timely question, Who am I?

There seems little doubt that absence of an answer to that

question is causing anxiety in our modern America. Any effort to

throw a little more light on the related question, What is an American?

should help in some small way to answer the larger question.

Today, Americans must try to answer that question by thinking# by observing, by discussing. For their own sakes, and for the bene­ fit of the millions in other countries who are looking at the American image through radio, television and motion pictures, we need to knew quite clearly, as Americans, who and what we are.

To help work toward this answer, and to pursue other avenues which were encountered, but not explored, some suggestions are made for further research. 139

Reconaeadations for Farther Reaearch

First, there Is a great need for refining the methoctology used in content analysis. Books on content analysis and cultural anthro­ pology give ample evidence that although some progress has been made along these lines, much needs to be done in refining these techniques*

Because of the infinite variations in human character and culture, it is not easy to develop a completely objective instrument for measure­ ment of these characteristics* However, based on what has been done, farther steps should be taken to devise more accurate methods for this important work*

I t i s recommended th a t further stu d ies be done w ith a narrower range, using current or improved methodology* Certain aspects of the

American character could be studied more thoroughly and more effec­ tively if the observers were looking only for those aspects.

With this more concentrated approach, the following aspects of the American character might be examined:

1* Bole of the woman in contemporary American culture*

Is this still a matriarchy?

2, Study of the relativity of reward and punishment.

Does it reflect an attitude of the end justifying the means?

3. A study of ambivalences in the American culture*

Do men both accept and reject success?

lu A study of the dichotomies between what Americans profess to

believe and what their actions indicate they really believe.

5* What is the contemporary attitude regarding material!am? 11*0

Are American males s t i l l more at ease w ith th in gs than with

people? Do we place a high value on material things and

money?

A third study which could be carried out through television con­

tent analysis would be a study of American symbolism* In preparing

for this study it became apparent that there was little to guide a per­

son today in setting rep any criteria for identifying symbols and their

referents* A carefully done study of symbolism in television drama

could contribute not only valuable information but an important

measurement device*

A most productive type of content analysis would be a cross-

media study of the American image as presented by television drama,

motion pictures, and popular magazine fiction* Urns, the combined

impacts of three influential mass media could be studied with the sane

instrument and on this broader base a more accurate image of the

American character might be obtained*

These are but a few of the future research projects which might be mentioned* Any of the questions raised in Chapter V could provide

the basis for another study.

It is hoped that this study, which has been a very broad over­ view w ill stimulate further research along these lines, for raxch needs to be done with what Max Ways ca lls, "The Confused Image America

P resents*"

1Max Ways, "The Confused Image America Presents," L ife, October 5, 1959, PP. 157-172. APPENDIX I

THE FREL2MINAHX STUD!

1l a THE PRELIMINARY STUDY

A. The Instrument

Evaluation Pom

1. What Is the manifest theme of the drama? The underlying theme?

2. What problem creates the conflict in the drama?

3. How is the conflict resolved? Who is responsible for its resolution?

h» What is assumed in the story?

$. What is the (a) sex, (b) age, (c) race, (d) occupation of the Protagonist? Of the Antagonist? What is the setting?

6* What motivates the Protagonist? The Antagonist?

7. What relationship exists among the leading characters?

8. What behavior is rewarded, what punished?

9. What is valued highly?

10. What symbols are used? Of what are they symbolic?

This form is based on the listin g of ways in which cultures can be studied through their mass media as listed by Gorer ("National Character — Theory and Practice" in The Study of Culture at a Distance, p. 75>)*

1 . The tendency o f the work as a whole* 2. Subjects of crisis catalogued* 3* Individual characters, the motivation of their actions* ii* Actions recommended and disapproved* 5. Choice of symbols* 6. Relationship between symbol and referent* 7* Silences and omissions*

Taking these subjects as a base, the author developed the above form from experiments in evaluating programs* This 10-point evaluation form uses all of Gorer*s techniques except for relationship between symbol and referent, which seemed too subjective to offer much promise of results* Sampling

The following six programs were included in the preliminary s a i l i n g . They were s e le c te d a t random.

Playhouse 90 CBS July 2, 1959 "Bomber's Moon" Union Pacific NBC July 21, 1959 _ Alcoa Presents ABC July 21, 1959 U. S. S te e l Hour CBS July 29, 1959 nVfl.sh on the Moon" The David Niven Show NBC August It, 1959 "The Twist of the Key" The Bob Cunnings Show NBC August U, 1959

Findings

1 . Themes

The following underlying themes were identified (there being more than one theme in acme programs):

Man is subject to Fate (or chance) U Tou can't change what you are 2 Men must trust each other to survive 1 There are unknown elem ents in l i f e 1 We don't always get what we strive for 1 Violence breeds violence 1 Deceit does not pay 1

2. Problems

Froblan of life and death It Probians within the protagonist 1: Male against male 3 Male against female 2 Female against female 1

Four involved violence in the problem and its resolution.

Five of the problems directly concerned the protagonist's occu­ pation . Conflict Resolution

Resolved by x Protagonist alone 1 Bie Arn^y 1 Fate 1 Chance 1 Chance and Protagonist 1 U nresolved 1

What Is Assumed

The job most be done 3 Men can change 3 Workers are a commodity 1 Right of rebellion 1 Love is sadden 1 Marriage is better than career 1 Beauty brings success 1 A girl doesn*t tell a boy she loves him 1 Mirder is punished 1 Men pursue; women are chaste 1

Characters

Protagonists Antagonists

Sex: h males - 2 females h males - 2 fem ales

Age: 2 in 20*s 2 in 20»s 2 i n 30*s 3 i n 3 0 !s 1 i n 1*0*8 1 i n l*0!s 1 i n 6 0 *s

Race: All were White All were White

Occupations: Fair cross-section of occupations

M otivation 12 major characters

D esire to do th e job 6 Fear of death k Desire for love 1 Possessiveness 1 H i5

Relationships

between protagonist and antagonist

Persecution Dom ination S u sp ic io n Competitive friendship H atred Romantic conquest

8. Behavior

Rewarded P unished

K indness Persecution Humanity Self-deception M arriage B itte r n e s s T rust S u sp ic io n Interference Ambition for success Persistence A "pi atonicn affair Attempted murder D e c e it

9. Valued Highly

Courage 3 D ity 3 L ore 2 H u m ility 1 Trust and Cooperation 1 Acceptance of life 1

10* Symbols

Sjymbol S y m b o liz e d

Suite in a fancy hotel S u ccess Picture in magazine S u cc e ss War medal S u cc e ss

O uns Power Honey Power

Learning to smoke Tension — unhappiness

I c e Danger — death iU5»

10. Symbols (continued)

Symbol Sym bolized

Key P o ssessio n Taking cigarette from another P o ssessio n

Han's constantly crumpled hat C asualness

Bathing suit 3a*

D. Generalisations

The following are some of the generalisations which might be drawn, subject to the lim itation of the sd.se of the sampling in this preliminary study:

1. Americans seen to believe that fate or chance plays an important role in their destinies. There seems to be an indi­ cation that we cannot change what we are, that we don't always get what we want, that there are unknown influences in life*

(This would seem, to be at variance with earlier pictures of the American with a firm belief in his control over his own destiny.)

2. Problems of life and death are of concern to Americans. Also, there is a recognition of the internal nature of most prob­ lems — the individual split against himself.

(Is this & new depth in Americans or merely greater insight of current writers?)

3# In only one case did the Protagonist himself solve the problem. Americans will try to solve their problems, but recog­ nize that there are factors over which they have no control.

(Another example of decline of American belief in control? Is this symptomatic of the confusion and insecurity of life in the ndd-20th century?)

U. Only major new assumption that Americans are expected to make is that married women do have affairs.

(Decline in Ptuitanism in America?)

5. The picture of the American population is still that of a white, fairly young population, with more males than females doing important things in life. 11*6

6. The desire to do a job is strorgin Americans. The fear of death seems to be openly recognised.

(Is this a swing away from the supposed "hard" American male who would not admit fear since it seemed to Mm a sign of feminity or weakness? Is fear beiftg admitted during the Cold War?)

7. Human relationships between Americans are potentially violent. Participants in a relationship hare strong, potentially explosive feelings toward each other.

(Is this just a necessary ingredient in drm&a, or symptomatic of American human relations?)

8. Human virtues are rewarded; human weakness is punished. Biere is some evidence that interference (by a secretary in her boss's life) is rewarded rather than punished. Also, evidence that ambition and success may bring punishment rather than reward.

(Is this evidence of RLesman's other-directed society, in which it is better to conform than to - surpass?)

Though it was assumed that married women have affairs, the affair is still something that Americans want punished — like any im­ moral or illegal act.

9m Americans still value the virtues of courage, duty, love. Perhaps there are indications that cooperation and acceptance of life are rising on the scale of virtues.

10. Americans still believe that force (guns) and power (money) rule men — unless one carries them too far, in which case it is ruthlessness which is punished. A belief in human dignity and rights seems to co-exist with the belief that men can be frightened or bought.

No validity is claimed for these generalizations because of the lim ited size of the stucy and the newness of the instrument. Thtty are, however, indicative of the types of generalizations which can be drawn from data colhcted by use of the instrument. appendix n

REACTIONS TO RESULTS OF

THE PRELIMINARY STUDY H a r v a r d u n i v e r s i t y DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL RELATIONS 118

E m e r s o n H a l l Cambridge 38, M assachusetts

October 14, 1959

Dr. Richard Bell Radio-Television Bureau Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona

Dear Mr. Bell:

Thank you for your letter and the m aterial from your study which I have read with interest. I am sedding them on to my colleague here^ Dorothy Le^, who was involved in the work reported irf ^he {study of Cu lture at a J^Lstance and who might have some additional helpful suggestions.

My own inclination is to think the evaluation form is not so important, that the use you make of it in your generalizations is very important and certainly raises many themes which would also seem to roe significant. Thus I feel that your note under Question 6 about the admission of fear during the Cold War is extremely impor­ t a n t .

The problem about the generalization, that X think hauntB any content-analysis is the extent to which one can generalize from the drama to the attitudes of the audience. For instance the punishment of the affairs of married women might reflect the fear of the Legion of Decency, might it not? On the other hand, when you speak, under your second generalization, about an increasing perplexity of problems and then ask whether this is "a new depth in Americans" or merely greater insight of current w riters, I would think here it was legiti­ mate to think the two went along toop ther: the w riters are no doubt unrepresentative, but perhaps not that unrepresentative.

Though I am afraid this is not too much help with reference to your direct questions, I like what you are trying, and hope you w ill keep me in touch with it.

S i n c e r e l y ,

David Riesman

DR: s v 1 )* 9

Sunt* HottNf Bujmrdi Heath SUMX| K n |1«n H

October 22nd,, 19$9

Dear Dr* Ball,

Thank you for your latter of October 9th*, which has been forwarded to m and for the copy of the Instrument yon plan to use for the evaluation of network television dr ana*

Although I cannot help being flattered by your uee of the paragraph I wrote in the paper for The Study of Culture at a Distance, I feel I should point out that I hairs done relatiVely little work on such type of content analysis} whereas very sophisticated work has been done by Gregory Batesons (see particularly ■Cultural and Thematic Analysis of Fictional Filne* and "An Analysis of the Has! Film Hitler- lunge Qucx* - references in bibliography of Study of Culture at a bis- iance) and by Martha Volfensteln and Mathan Leites in their book The Movies and in sons shorter studies. I think these workers would probably be very helpful to you*

One of the things I should suggest to you is to separate quite consistently the analysis of the drama from the analysis of the characters. (You could use cross-references to show how they link up) * In any nass-produced media these two cross-cut in a very odd way* the stereotyped characters who appear in a variety of situations but always act in the same way - stars who exploit their personalities, good Indians, understanding aunts etc. etc*} and also dramas which are re­ dressed by being given novel settings - e*g* the "adult Western* which takes city drama and puts it into cowboy clothes* I think if you try to explore character-in-drama you are going to land in very great complications, if your sample is any site*

Further, I should suggest that you make a real effort to deal with all the characters in the plays you analyse, not merely with the chief two (May I, as a classical-educated pedant. Implore you to avoid 'Protagonist* and 'Antagonist1 as contrasting terms? The prot - in Protagonist comes from the Greek protos 'first* and means first actor, as contrasted with deuteragonist 'second actor1 etc*} it is not a pair of pro- and anti- )• When we were looking at Japanese films <4uring the war, for clues on Japanese character, we found that there was much more to be learned from careful attention to the secondary character - the hero's friend, the ocmic relief, the sub-plot - than the hero/heroine/ villain who were often falsified to make the film acceptable to large and/ or foreign audiences or to exploit the personality of the stars* lU 9a

A farther point about these secondary characters is that they are often freer fro* the dictates of the censorship - I don*t know what is the American T,V, equivalent of the Hays Office but I a* sure there Is acsuithing - a producers' code? - which would need to be taken into explicit account.

On your generalisations, the only one which scans really curious to no is U "•••that narried wonen do haws affairs”* Nearly a ll draaa uses adultery, but I question whether that can be taken to r e flect on the audience.

I hope these randan thoughts are of use to you, I shall look forward with great in terest to seeing your further resu lt.

Tours sincerely,

Geoffrey Gorer N RE Cobh Add™** "MuMotogy N*w Verb"

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY CENTRAL PARK WEST AT 79™ STREET ISO NEW YORK 24, N. Y.

MMtTMMT OF tNTNUrOlM T K. L SHAflKOj Ph.D., Choirmo a, Curator of Pliyikal Anthropology SELLA WBTZNER, Associate Curator Emeritus of Ethnology and Comuftant JUNIUS ft. BIRD, D.SCv Curator of South American Archaeology N. C NELSON, M.L, Curator Emeritus of Prehistoric Ardtaedogy GORDON F. EKHOLM, FtU), Curator of Mulcan Archaeology CLARENCE L HAY, A-M„ Research Associate MARGARET MEAD, Ftii), D.Sc^ Auockfi Curator of Ethnology ROBOT VON HBNE-GELDERH FKD, Research Associate JAMES A. FORD, FkD, A uodatt Curator of North Amorlcan Archoeology WILLIAM DUNCAN STRONG, PW>„ Ret*arch Aiiodote ROBERT L CARN8RO, FhDt Anktont Curator of South American Ethnology FREDERICA H. OSBORN, Utl.D„ ScJ>, Li-D„ Honorary Associate JANE ft, ORTTUNG, BJL, Sdantffic Auktont ANTOINETTE 1C GORDON, Associate FHIUF C GIFFORD, Jr., M A, Scientific AwMont EDGAR M. QUEENY, A J„ Field Associate

November 12,1959

Dear *r. Bell,

I am sorry to have been so long In replying to your letter. Frankly when it first came, I found It very discouraging, but I finally succedddd. In digging out the paper you wrote for me In 1949 and Its sensitivity restored my faith.

But you see you can't turn anthropological methods Into an Instrument, it just won't work. Gorer's list Is a list of the sorts of things an anthropologist keeps In mind as he approaches a new corpus of m aterial. Its a check lis t, not an Instalment, ‘‘’here would be no hope - I would think - of any two anthropologists arriving at the same results by using such a list. Furthermore I think it most unlikely that you can get a group of people to use this instrument or any other on the study of such time consuming m aterial a s TV.

To make a study of TV dramas, you would first, yourself have to look at a large number, selected in some arbitrary way, such as every drama for 2 weeks, or three months, or every 10 drama, etc. - this to protect your sample from one kind of bias. Then you would have to kinescope the sample you plan to use, because one viewing is seldom adequate. The kinescope would be useful also because you could get a group of fellow students or colleagues, to look at one or two anyway, discuss them together, and test out categories. But you yourself would have to develops your themes from the m aterial. And it would have to keep close to the m aterial. Take (1) for example. W olfenstein end LBfttes and I have all spelled this element of luck out, and they document it fully in MOVlhS. (2) seems to be suspect for the opposite reason; we have an enormous body of m aterial showing how Americans dodge considering death in any. The phrase " life and death11 obscures this, etc. Then in (4) you speak of "only major new assumption" - new in inspect to what: other media, earlier periods, e t c . Now the way to communicate to me - or anyone else - what you mean by these generalizations is qualitative, not quantitative documentation as W olfenstein and Leites do with their You'd have to show how people who never solve their only problems feel their "internal nature" Then you have to discrim inate the " image presented on TV" and the "inferenc s about American character" which can be drawn from this image, and what it omits, etc. I realise that you may be subject to a variety of departmental demands, but it would be better to use some other method of content analysis that will meet them than to call this plan &s it stands 151 Richard Bell - 2- November 12,1959

the use of cultural anthropological methods.

In addition to the W olfenstein and i>eites book, you might also look at the way m aterials are discussed in Mead, M. and W olfenstein M, CHILDHOOD IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURES, th e a r t i c l e s I n th e 195M autumn special edition of Che American Scholar, and the copy of Daedalus I sometime last winter) In which Clyde Kluckhon had an article on American culture. If your study Is to be an anthropological one, it should place your findings on TV against other findings on movies, radio, novels, etc. and also take into account anthropological generalisations about American character based on othar types of m aterials, case studies, opinion polls, community studies, etc. The confirm ation of the worth of your study would come from the way it fit, supplemented, added new light, etc. to this corpus of existing studies, not from whether it could be replicated.

The only form of replication that is very useful in work of this kind - as far as we know at present - is to present trained people inGependantly, with a large enough sub-sample ( either the same one or different) to work on independently and come up with an analysis. (This was one of the methods that we used in our Image of the Scientist study ( Mead and Metraux, SCIENCE, August, 1957.) where skilled people took eparate batches of the m aterial. The material itself was very str kingly uniform, and also quick to work on. Unless you can afford to pay collaborators, or are in a position to get your students to work at it, I don't see getting trained people to give the time necessary to go over a long set of TV dramas. It would be much easier for you to find the time to look at other m aterials on American culture and test them for iit.

I am afraid this is discouraging, but for a dissertation its important to have a project pretty foolproof.

Sincerely yours,

M argaret Mead ra PS I am sorry to make these references so vague, but I writing away from home and have no bibliography by me. UNIVERSITY OF OREGON C ollege op Liberal A rts

E u g e n e . O reg o n 152

DEPARTMENT OP ANTHROPOLOGY December 21, 1959

Richard H. Bell, Director The Radlo-Televialon Bureau Arlsona State University Tempe, Arlsona

Dear Mr. B ell:

Your analysis of TV drama affords an opportunity to evaluate the merits of the Indirect approach to national images proposed In "The Study of Culture at a Distance.n 1 will be interested to know how reliable you find it, since by Mead's statement (P. 11) special skills or talents are necessary.

1 cannot think of anything to add to your 10 point instrument, but I should think that more specificity might need to be given to some of the Items by way of defining just what Is meant by their terms. What, for example, Is the referent for some of the "whata" of the questions - things, goals, actions, or beliefs? I assume that you have them pretty well fixed In your own mind. They may need to be made explicit to others.

I think, too, that there must be a pretty clear under­ standing of what Is meant by drama. Would you include westerns along with the Loretta Young show and Young Doctor Malone - or exclude all? This raisea the further question as to whether there is social class differences with respect to American character Images. You may not want to get Into this, but I think the position taken on it should be stated.

S incerely,

H. G. B arnett

HGBxlf AFranni m

FIRST VALIDITT TEST

153 15U

A STOUT OF THE IMAGE OF THE AMERICAN CHARACTER

AS REFLECTED IN SELECTED NETWORK TELEVISION DRAMAS

A Dissertation by Richard H. Bell In partial .fulfillment of the require­ ments for the Ph.D. in Radio-TV Education at Ohio State University

Pre-Test to Check V alidity of Evaluation Form

I . BACKGROUND INFORMATION

A. Cta 'Qiursday, March 2h, I960, four individuals, including the author, w ill view six half-hour network television dramas, each applying the same evaluation form independently. Each viewer w ill n il out one evaluation fonrt for each of the six programs. The author w ill then compare the evaluations of each program to see if there is a high enough correlation in the responses to indicate that the evaluation form is valid enough for use by the author in the main sampling.

B. The four viewers, all members of the faculty of Arizona State University, arc:

1. Dr. Lester S. Ferril, Ri.D. — Professor of Sociology; Chair­ man, Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

2. Dr. Crrolyn K. Staats, Ph.D. — Assistant Professor of Sociology and Psychology

3* Dr. John P. Vergis, Ph.D. — Professor of Education; Head of Audio-Visual Instruction

U. R ichard H. B ell — Assistant Professor of Education; Director Radio-TV Bureau The programs to be viewed In this pre-sampling are:

6x30 p.m . Johnny Staccato NBC KVAR Channel 12 7x00 p.m . Betty Hatton CBS KOGL Channel 10 7 :3 0 p.m . • The Real McCoys ABC KTVK C hannel 3 8x00 p.m . The Donna Reed Show ABC KTYX C hannel 3 9 :0 0 p.m . MLke Hammer NBC KVAR C hannel 12 9:30 p.m. Zane Grey Theatre CBS KOQL C hannel 10 H . EVALUATION FORM

a. What is the setting of the drama?

b. What is the of the central character? Principal adversary?

se x ______

age______

race ______

occupation ______a* What is the manifest theme of the drama?

b. What is the underlying (generalised) theme?

What problem creates the conflict in the drama?

a* How is the conflict resolved?

b. Who is responsible for its resolution? l£7

a. What apparently motivates the central character?

b. What apparently motivates the central character's principal

ad v ersary ?

6. a. What behavior is rewarded?

b. What behavior is punished?

7. What behavior do the leading characters show in relation between:

a. parent-child ______

b. husband-wife ______

c. siblings ______

8. What behavior do the leading characters show in regard to:

a . p e e rs ______

b. authority (church, state) ______

c. other nationalities

9. What behavior do the leading characters show in regard to:

a. life b. death 158

9* c. lore d. sex

e. people ?. th in g s

10. a. What symbols, if any, are used In the drama?

b. Of what are they symbolic? 159

H I . INSTRUCTIONS TO VIEWHtS

A. This evaluation form is intended to make possible the tabulation of definable behavior*

B. It is assumed that the viewer has an experiential background which w ill enable him (or her) to identify and categorize the behavior shown.

C. No attempt is made in this study to compare the behavior shown in television drama with accepted or practiced behavior in the American culture. We are attempting to categorize only that be­ havior which takes place in television drama.

D. Generalizations w ill be drawn in the main study by the author, but the purpose of this pre-test is to determine whether the evalu­ ation form is a valid device for listing behavior.

E. Insofar as possible, inferences should be avoided and shown behavior should be identified* Only in questions #5 and #6 is the viewer asked to infer motivation and reward-punishment, respec­ tively, from behavior; and these are closely related to the behavior and action shown*

F. Symbolism (listed in question #10) is somewhat subjective. Re­ sponses to this question should be lim ited to fairly well accepted or obvious symbolic interpretations.

G. Definitionss

1. Leading characters — those characters in the drama which carry the essential part of the story, those without whom the story would not move forward.

2. Underlying theme — the basic theme, of which the specific plot is but one example,

3. Symbols -- those objects or actions which obviously signify deeper meaning in the context of the story than they would have under other circumstances*

U. T hings — inanimate, material objects* APPENDIX IV

EVALUATION FORM

1 6 0 l 6 l

ANALYSIS OF TELEVISION DRAMA

I . PROGRAM DATA Series Title ______Date Station______Length

Program Title ______T im e_____ Network ______S e ttin g _____

H . CHARACTERS Name . Sex Age M-S Kd Nation- Occu- Description Kr a l i t y p a tlo n Protagonist ; i P rin c ip a l

Supporting

Adversary P rin c ip a l

i

i

Supporting 1 1 1 ; f _ _ J__...... M i ------i------1------1------1______162

I I I . EVALUATION 1 . a * What is the manifest theme of the drama?

b. What is the underlying (generalised) theme?

2. What problem creates the conflict in the drama?

3. &• How is the conflict resolved?

b. Dees death resolve it?

c. Who is responsible for its resolution? ______

U. a. What apparently motivates the central character?

b. What apparently motivates the central character's prin­

cipal adversary? ______

c. Do any of the characters switch sides? 163

a . What beh av io r i s rew arded?

( l ) How?

b. What behavior is punished?

(1) How? ______

6. What behavior do the leading characters show in relations

betw een:

a. parent-child ______

b. hnsband-wif e ______

c. siblings ______

d. social class ______

e. women ______

f. "buddies" ______

g . p e e rs Character Relation Character 16U 7. What behavior do the leading characters show In regard tot

a. crim e ______

b. authority (church, state; ______

c. other nationalities

d. the people ______

8. What behavior do the leading characters show In regard tot

£Le l i f e b. death

c. su ccess d. f a i l u r e

e . p eo p le f . th in g s

g . lo v e h# sex

1. drinking j . k is s in g

9. a. What symbols, if any, are used In the drama? 1 6 5

9• b. Of vhat are they symbolic ?

10. Are the characters "black and white?"

11. Comments:

17. BEHAVIORAL ACTS A. Protagonist B. Adversary APPENDIX V

GUIDE TO VIEWING

166 167

GUIDE TO 7ISONG

f o r

THE IMAGE OF THE AMERICAN CHARACTER

GENERAL

A. Viewing is to be done without interruption. An outline of the events of the drama is recorded during the program.

B. The Evaluation Form is to be filled out immediately following the program.

I . PROGRAM DATA

A. Series Title

B. Program Title

C. Date

D. Time

E. S ta tio n

F. Network

G. Length

H. S e ttin g

I I . CHARACTERS

A. Protagonist’s Name The protagonist is the person around whom the story centers, whether sympathetic or unsympathetic.

B. A dversary’s Name The adversary is the principal person in opposition to the pro­ ta g o n is t.

Data on Protagonist-Adversary

1. Sex -- Apparent. 168

2. Age -- To be estimated in ten-year brackets (i.e., 10-2 0 , 20- 3 0 , 3 0 -U0 , e t c .) .

3. Marital Status — If marital status of protagonist and/or adversary is clearly indicated, record it. If it is indicated referentially (reference to his children, proposal to a woman, etc.;, it can be recorded. If there is no evidence as to what his marital status is, it is to be recorded as unknown.

U. Killer-Killed — Character is to be recorded as a killer only if he does the killing, not if he plans it for some­ one else to carry out. It should be entered as killing only if it takes place during the time of the action of the play, though it need not happen on camera. Include all killings — both major and minor characters.

5. Nationality -- Include characters who are citizens of other nations, racial groups such as American Indians, Negroes. Include American citizens who are identified as first-generation Americans; do not imply foreign birth because of appearance or name.

6. Occupation — lis t characters' occupations if they are known (i.e., clearly identified, verbally or in action). Otherwise, indicate as unknown.

7. Description — Not used.

I I I . EVALUATION

1. a. Manifest theme

Identify theme in terms of major problem around which the action centers, with reference to the outcome. (i.e ., Not just "stolen money," but "Recovery by the law of stolen money.")

1. b. Generalized theme

State in one sentence the basic concept which is illustra­ ted by the manifest theme. Again, the resolution of the problem should be included, (i.e., Not just "Crime," but "Crime does not pay.") If several generalized themes are illustrated by the drama, two themes may be listed. 169

2. What problem creates the conflict?

This should be the basic problem, the resolution of which ends the story. There may be sub-plots within the story, but only the central one is to be listed. Who opposes whom in terras of sex? Relationship?

3. Resolution of the conflict

a. In what way is the conflict resolved? — The action which resolves the problem should be stated.

b. Does death resolve it? — It should be so listed if death, either accidental or intentional, provides the ultimate solution of the problem. If the detective finds the guilty party, but has to kill him, the ultimate resolution is death, not merely finding the guilty party.

c. Who is responsible for its resolution? Although several characters, including both protagonist and adversary may influence the outcome, the person who has ultimate con­ trol over the conclusion should be listed.

U. a. What motivates the protagonist? — List what seem to be the major motivations of the protagonist. Several moti­ vations may be apparent, and more than one may be listed, but they should be the dominant forces which seem to in­ fluence him. Does he strive to excel? Does he try to conform to the group? Does he defend the underdog? Is he the underdog?

b. What motivates the adversary? — Same criteria should apply as for the protagonist.

c. Do any of the characters switch sides? — Such a switch should be Indicated by action, not just words. If a criminal aids the police, he can be considered to have switched, but not if he merely indicates regret for his crime. Does either protagonist or adversary undergo a character change?

5. a. Behavior rewarded — What actions of the character bring good results for him? Those actions which result favor­ ably for the character should be listed as being rewarded; those which result in bad things happening to him should be listed as punished. This item should be judged by the action, not by the approval or disapprobation of the peers in the drama. 170

a. (l) How? — Specify the ways in which each action was rewarded*

b . Behavior punished — Same as 5*a* Do th e same a c tio n s bring reward for the protagonist, punishment for the adversary?

(l) Hew? — The same as 5.a. (l).

6. What behavior do the leading characters show in relations betw een:

a. Parent-Child — The relationship existing here must be Judged on the basis of the action and reaction between parents and children* The Judgment may be made if the parent is a guardian or relative who is rearing the children. Both attitude of parent toward the child and the child toward the parent should be listed* Is Father rejected? Mother? Children? Do parents want their children to surpass them?

b. Husband-Wife — Again, relationship should be based on behavior acts, modified by the viewer's knowledge of intent. If a husband slaps his wife to bring her out of hysteria, this is not a sign of hatred* .Actions must be Interpreted in light of the situation and listed ac­ cordingly. Is husband or wife dominant?

c. Siblings — Record underlying relationship, identifying whether it is between brother-brother, brother-sister, or sister-sister*

d* Social Class — Indicate attitude of characters in the drama toward social classes. Use common divisions of Upper Class, Middle Class, Lower Class. Are leading characters upward-mobile? Are certain social classes consistently sympathetic or unsympathetic?

e. Women — Include the role of wcmen in the drama, and the attitudes shown toward them. Record any examples of the "good-bad g irl,"

f. "Buddies" — This item a strong friendship be­ tween two men ( i . e . , th e classic Flagg and Quirt, o r th e more recent Lone Ranger and T on to). Identify the b a sis of their relationship.

g. Peers — Not used* 171

7* What behavior do the leading characters show in regard tot

a. Crime — Tabulate the central crime for each program* Is there respect for law? Are all crimes punished? I$r whom? Is the protagonist the law? Are official law enforcement agent* shown as strong or weak?

b. Authority — Not used*

c. Nationalities — Do characters in the play show hostility or intolerance toward members of other nations, Negroes, Indians or hyphenated Americans? Are they treated as equals in the play? Include minor characters as well as major ones. Are these groups consistently shown as pro­ tagonist? As adversary?

d. The People — Not used*

8. What behavior do major characters show in regard to* a* Life — Not used*

b. Death — What attitudes toward death? Do leading charac­ ters fear it, avoid it? Use it? Is it usually violent?

c. Success — Tabulate instances where an attitude toward success is clearly identifiable. Success here carries the usual connotation of power, wealth, recognition*At what cost is it to be achieved?

d* Failure — Is it considered a sin? Is it to be avoided at all costs? What constitutes failure?

e. People — Not used*

f. Things — Not used*

g. Love — Include both romantic love between man and woman and love of mankind, but identify which is which* Family love is covered by 6*a*b.c. Do not include it* What value is placed on love? What attitudes toward it pre­ vail? Does it cause trouble? Solve problems?

h . Sex — Not used*

1. Drinking — This item should include instance of drinking on the part of major characters. Do they, or do they not drink? Also, is drinking a natural part of the social scene portrayed? 172

Kissing — Not used*

9. a . What symbols, if any are used in the drama? — Not used*

b. Of What a re th ey sym bolic? — Not used .

10. Are the characters "black and white"?

This is a somewhat subjective Judgment, based on whether the leading characters are all good or all bad, and hence "black and white" or whether they show the characters of real human beings, with strengths and weaknesses intenroven.

11. Comments — Not used*

IV. BEHAVIORAL ACTS APPENDIX VI

LIST OF PROGRAMS VIEWED

173 171*

PROGRAMS VIIWED

Length Dates Network (Hours) Type Viewed

1* Dsnnis O'Keefe Show CBS £ SC 5/3

2. Sunday Showcase NBC 1 AN 3/27

3 . Art Carney Show NBC i£ AN li/8

li. Buick ELectra Playhouse CBS i * AN 3 /2 6

5. Betty Hitt on Show CBS h F 6/23 6/30 6 . The Real MsCoya ABC ia F 6/23 6/30

7 . Zane Grey Theatre CBS W 5A 9 7/7

8* Donna Reed Show ABC * F 6A 6 7/7

9. Producer's Choice NBC £ AN S/19 7/7

10. Rawhide CBS i W 3/25 5/3

11. TWilight Zone CBS * SF-F 3/25 5/20 12. Bonanza NBC i W 3/26 U/2

13. Overland Trail NBC i W 3/27 U/3

11*. P e te r Gunn NBC * D 3/28 liA

1?. Bourbon Street Beat ABC i D 3/28 li/25

16. Adventures in Paradise ABC i AD 3/28 li/25

17. Ford Startime NBC i AN 3/29 li/5 CO H

• Hawaiian Rye ABC i D 3/30 li/6

19. Wagon T rain NBC i W li/2 5/28

20. Man from Interpol NBC * D li/2 6/7 21. Gunsmoke CBS i W li/2 6/7 22. Playhouse 90 CBS i* AN li/3 5/2 175

PROGRAMS VIEMSD ( c o n tin u e d )

Length Dates Network (Hours) T ype Viewed A 23. L o re tta Young Show NBC 2 AN V 3 6/19

2k. W yatt Earp ABC 4 W U/5 5/3 25. Wichita Town NBC W h/6 8 /5

26. Ozzie and Harriet ABC * F U/6 5A 8

27. Bronco ABC i W 5/3 8/23

28. 77 Sunset S trip ABC i D y e UA5 1 29. The D etectiv es ABC 2 D U/8 UA5

30. Black Saddle ABC * V V 8 UA5

3 1 . Hotel de Paree CBS * W U /l5 6 /3 32. Desilu Flayhouse CBS 1 AN a/1 5 5A 3

33. Mr. Lucky CBS * D 5AU 6A 6

3lu FU cka ABC \ CH 5 A 5 A i

35. Have Gun — Will Ti CBS \ W y i 6 5/H i A 36. The Rebel ABC 2 W y i 6 V 2 3

37. M averick ABC 1 V U/23 6A 7

38. Lawman ABC \ w U/17 U/23

39. The Alaskans ABC 1 w y i 7 U/23 A UO. Johnny Staccatto ABC 2 D li/17 V 2 3 l a . Men into Space CBS * AD U/20 5/U

U2* The M illionaire CBS A2 AN V 2 0 5 A

1*3. U. S. Steel Hour CBS 1 AN V 2 0 5 A

liU. R e stle ss Gun ABC * V 5/2 5A 7

U5. Cheyenne ABC 1 W li/25 6/6 176

PROGRAMS VIEWED (co n tin u ed )

Length Dates Network (Hours) Type Viewed

U6. Hie Texan CBS * V V 2 5 6A 3 U7. The U ntouchables ABC 1 D h/28 6 A 6

1*8. Laramie NBC 1 W 5/3 5A 7 1*9. Ann S othern Show CBS 4 SC 5/2 6 /9 50. Love That Bob ABC 4 sc 5/2 5A 7 51. December Bride CBS 4 F 5/2 6 /9 52. I Love Lucy CBS 4 F 5/2 6 /9 53. Markham CBS 4 D U/21 6A 6 5U. Riflem an ABC 4 W 5/3 7/19 55. C olt .U5 ABC 4 W 5 /3 6/21 56. Wanted — Dead or Alive CBS 4 w 5/11* 6 /7 57. Perry Mason CBS i D 5/m 6 /7

58. Alfred Hitchcock Presents CBS A2 M-S 5/29 6 /8

59. L a ssie CBS Aa CH S/29 6 /8 60. The Lone Ranger ABC 4 W 6 /8 6 /2 6 6 1 . General Electric Theatre CBS 4 AN 5/15 6 /8 62. Hermes sy CBS 4 SC 5/16 6 /9 63. Father Knows Best CBS 4 F 6/9 6 /2 0 61*. Danny Thomas CBS 4 F 6 /9 5A 6 6 5 . June Allyson CBS 4 AN 5A 6 6/9

66. RLverboat NBC i AD 6 /6 6 /9

67. Circle Theatre CBS i AN 5/11 6/22 68. Showcase NBC i AN 5A 3 6 A 3 177 PROGRAMS VIEWED (co n tin u ed )

Length Dates Network (Hours) 2 D £ Viewed

69. Rin-tin-tdn ABC * CH 5A 3 5A 6 70. Walt Disney Presents ABC 1 AN 5/20 5/27

71. Man from Hfeckhawk ABC * D 5/20 5/27

72. T ightrope CBS * D 5A 7 6/26 73. Die Mary L ores o f Dobie G illis CBS * SC 5/17 6/28

71*. Alcoa Theatre NBC * AN h /h 5/16

75. Tales of Wells Fargo NBC * W 5/16 6A 3 76. Dennis the Menace CBS F 5/15 6/19

77. Comedy Playhouse — The Thin Man NBC i D 5/30 6 A 78. Adventure Time — Yancy Derringer NBC A2 W 5/30 6 A

79. Bachelor Father NBC A2 F S/26 6A 6

80. The Deputy NBC * W 5/28 7/9

81. Troubl eshoo t ers NBC i AD 6 /3 6 A o 82. Alcoa Presents ABC i SF-F 5A 7 6/21 83. True S tory NBC i AN 6/1* 7A 6 1 81*. Fury NBC 2 CH 6/1* 6 /1 8

85. C ircu s Boy NBC CH 6/1* 6A 8

86. Man and the Challenge NBC * AD 6/1* 1/9

87. Goodyear Theatre NBC i AN 6/6 6/20

88. Steve Canyon ABC i AD 8 A 6 /1 6 89. Sky King CBS i W 6 A 8 7/9 PROGRAMS VIEWED (C o n tin u e d )

Length Dates Network (Hours) Type Viewed

90. Leave It to Beaver ABC * F 6/18 7A6

91. Gale Storm Show ABC \ X 6/20 6/21 92. Bat Masterson NBC i w 6/28 7/19

93. Broken Arrow ABC i V 6/19 6/26

9k. Mystery Theatre NBC i M-S 6/19 6/26

95. Sugar fo o t ABC i w 6/21 7A9

96. Johnny Ringo CBS i w 6/23 7/21

97. M Squad NBC i D 6/21 6/28 1 98. Law of the Plainsman NBC 2 W 6/23 8 A

Ijype Code*

AD — Adventure AN — Anthology CH — Children's D — Detective F — Fam ily M-S -- Mystery-Suspense SC — S itu a tio n Comedy SF-F — Science Fiction-Fantasy W — Western BIBLIOGRAPHY

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. "The Study of National Character" in The Policy Sciences. Edited by Daniel Leraer and Harold D. Las swell. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1951*

Packard, Vance. The Hidden Persuaders. New York: David McKay Com­ pany, 1957.

RLesman, David; Glazer, Nathan; and Denney, Reuel. The Lonely Crowd. Garden C ity, New York: Doubleday and Company, 195b.

Rueach, Jurgen; and Bateson, Gregory. Ccmmunic ation: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1951.

Sc hr sum, Wilbur (ed.). Mass Communications. Urbana, Illin o is: The University of Tliinols Prens, T9J;9.

______. The Process and Effects of Mass Coniaunication. Urbana, Illinois: The University of Illinois Press, 1955*

Slepman, Charles A. Radio Television and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1956.

Skoythe, Dallas W. "The Content and Effects of Broadcasting" in Mass Madia and Education, The Fifty-third Yearbook of the National Society for tbe Study of Education, edited by Nelson B. Henry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 195U.

Ways, Max. "The Confusing Image America Presents." life , October 5, 1959. Wolfenstein, Martha; and Leites, Nathan. Movies: A Psychological Study. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1950. autobiography

X, Richard Henry Bell, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, July 17,

1921. I attended Upper Arlington High School from which I graduated in 1939. In 19U3 I received the Baccalaureate degree in history and political science at Miami University, from v.hence I went directly into the United States Navy. Released from active duty as a Lt. (Jg) in 19U6, I worked as Director of Press and Radio for the First

Community Church, Columbus, Ohio, u n til 19U7, when X went to New York to attend Teachers College, Columbia University. While working as a

Director of Press and Radio for Church World Service, New York City, I completed the Master of Arts degree in mass communications at Teachers

College in 19^9.

That year I returned to Chio State University, where I worked as a Graduate Assistant under Dr. Milton McClean, Religious Coordi­ nator for two years; and as a Research Associate under Ik*. X. Keith

T|yler, Director of the Office of Radio-TV Education, for one year*

During that period I took the course work for a post-graduate degree, and produced the first educational television series for the Thai var­ s i t y .

In 1952 I was made Director of the Radio-Television Bureau and

Assistant Professor in Education at Arizona State University. I have

182 held that position since that time. In 1958 I returned to Chio S t a t e on a Sabbatical Leave, and attended the Fall and Winter Quarters, p a ssin g the Spanish examination in November, 1958. In January, 1959,

I passed the comprehensive examination and was accepted as a candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in radio-television education*