“Lights”: Contemporary Images of Rural America in the Series Friday Night Lights
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University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2015 Small Town America Under the “Lights”: Contemporary Images of Rural America in the Series Friday Night Lights Heather K. Smith University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Heather K., "Small Town America Under the “Lights”: Contemporary Images of Rural America in the Series Friday Night Lights" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1049. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1049 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. Small Town America Under the “Lights:” Contemporary Images of Rural America in the Series Friday Night Lights _____________________________________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Social Sciences University of Denver _________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts ___________________ by Heather K. Smith August 2015 Advisor: Rodney Buxton Author: Heather K. Smith Title: Small Town America Under the “Lights:” Contemporary Images of Rural America in the Series Friday Night Lights Advisor: Rodney Buxton Degree Date: August 2015 ABSTRACT What is Small Town America? The answer to this varies based on a person’s experiences. This is not always from real-world exposure, but often vicariously through television. For some, television is the only opportunity to create a perception for such areas. For others, television could reinforce or sway their perceptions of Small Town America. Therefore, a comprehension of the identity for Small Town America broadcasted through the small screen is important. This research utilized the theory of semiotics to analyze cinematography and mise-en-scene in the opening credits of Friday Night Lights to unearth the themes and overarching ideology for Small Town America conveyed by the series. A modern depiction of rural America that played on considered “traditional values” arose. Unexpectedly, the research also unveiled the inability for an “authentic” or cohesive identity for Small Town America, or any person, location or group for that matter, to exist. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Small Town USA and Rurality in the Media……………………………....1 Small Town USA: A Definition……….…………...……………………………..3 Friday Night Lights: More Than Just Football……………………………………6 The Little Series That Could: Studies & Criticism………………………………..7 Literature Review: Media Stereotypes, Common Sense, Ideology and Small Town America…………………………………………………………....……………..11 Research Techniques………………………………………………….................15 Rural America and Media Research……………………………………………..19 Hillbillies Forbidden: Rural America’s Backlash………………………………..21 Initial Common Sense and Stereotypical Reaction to Friday Night Lights……....23 Research Questions……………………………………………………................27 The Study………………………………………………………………………...28 Chapter Two: The Initial Construction of Small Town and Rural Identity in the Season One Opening Credits……………………………………………………………………..30 Ethnicity………………………………………………………………………….30 Gender……………………………………………………………………………32 Social Class……………………………………………………………................36 Religion…………………………………………………………………………..48 Militarism………………………………………………………………………...49 Football: More Than A Game – It’s Life………………………………………...50 Theme Music…….……………………………………………………................59 The Series vs. the Sequence: The ideological Dissonances……….……………..60 Chapter Three: Season Five: Ideological Shifts from the Perceived to True Audience…67 Rurality…..……….……………………..………………………………….....…68 Ethnicity………………………………………………………………………….76 Change in Gender……….……………………………………………...………..81 Football – From Series Focus to Series Backdrop………………………….…..100 Social Class………………………………………………….………………….118 Theme Music………….…………………………………………………...…...124 The Series vs. The Sequence: Ideological Dissonance………………….……...125 Chapter Four: A New Identity for Small Town America……………………………....131 What themes about Small Town USA are portrayed in Friday Night Lights?....133 Do the themes and constructed meanings change from the first season, which targets a red state male viewership, to the last season, which targets an urban professional thirty-something female viewership?..............................................134 Does Friday Night Lights construct new meaning and associations for the classic Small Town America identity?............................................................................144 A Coherent Small Town Identity: Does it Exist?................................................148 Rural America: From A Viewer that Fits Both Audience Demographics……...151 iii CHAPTER ONE SMALL TOWN USA AND RURALITY IN THE MEDIA Introduction What comes to mind when we think about “Small Town USA?” A secluded little city surrounded by farmland? Somewhere where everyone knows each other? Perhaps the rural South or maybe the Midwest? Undoubtedly, each person’s interpretation of what identifies Small Town America will vary. For one, our personal knowledge and experiences help create our perceptions about America’s little towns. It is possible this comes from real-world exposure. This could include living in or visiting such a locale. Our interpretations are also influenced vicariously, and perhaps even subconsciously, through the opinions of others or through facets of the media such as photography, texts, film or television. Television has been and still is a pervasive means through which an identity is created for Small Town America. Today, more than 95% of American households have a television, in addition to the use of streaming technologies from the Internet such as Netflix or Hulu (Stelter, 2011). This media facet is the dominant source of imagery for us to develop an understanding of not only towns, but also entire regions or cultures. For some, this may serve as the only point of contact with such an area and as the only opportunity to create a perception of theses locales. For those with prior experience to 1 such areas, this could reinforce or perhaps sway their perceptions of what constitutes Small Town America. Therefore, a comprehension of the themes and images associated with such areas broadcasted through the small screen is important. Before delving into this topic any further, disclosing my personal interest in this subject is paramount to maintain the credibility of this research. Hailing from a town of 1,200 in the rural Midwest and an interest in mass communications led to my intrigue with the media’s depictions of Small Town America. Based on my own viewing experiences, I felt the televised depictions of Small Town America were inaccurate. I interpreted the portrayals as feeding into negative stereotypes, such as the small town residents being uneducated, uncultured and ignorant, with the ultimate goal of the characters being to get out of such an unpleasant area. For me, such illustrations overshadowed what I considered more positive representations of what I felt truly reflected rural America. Rural America was safe and clean, the residents were friendly and the area had just as much to offer as any urban locale in my opinion. To understand if my feelings on the matter were justified, I began looking into research on televised portrayals of rural America. However, very few media studies relating to these rural areas exist. No comprehensive review of the televised themes or imagery associated with these locales is available, meaning we have little grasp of the identity being created for these regions. Regardless of my personal affiliations, the lack of relevant studies on this topic warrants its research. This specific research focuses on the series Friday Night Lights (2006-2011). Set in contemporary West Texas, the series gathered a dedicated following. This included an audience of those presumed to have an association with America’s little towns, and 2 viewers with little or no personal experience with Small Town America. For both of these audiences, the portrayals in Friday Night Lights may have served as a basis of what Small Town America, more specifically, rural West Texas, is like. Hence, an understanding of the themes and images presented in the series is a relevant and important topic for research. From this, it will be possible to unearth the identity the series helps create for Small Town America. As noted earlier, each person’s perception of Small Town America differs. Before moving forward, a grasp of the common definitions of and related to Small Town America is necessary. The following section provides an overview of its defining elements based on population, values, modernity and geography. Small Town USA: A Definition The definition of Small Town America is quite vague. Many associate “rural” with a low population. However, the exact population size is unclear. Some consider it settlements with less than 2,500 residents (John, 2008). Others coin it as anything that is not metropolitan, perhaps with populations of 50,000 or more (John, 2008). Ergo, defining Small Town America solely based on population is highly debatable. Instead, additional factors must be taken into consideration. Along with population, the evolution of values associated with the rural identity in contrast to those