Copyright by Sarah Anne Murray 2011 The Thesis committee for Sarah Anne Murray Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: The Raw and the Cooking Channel: Gender and the Branding of a Niche Cable Identity APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: _____________________________________ Mary Celeste Kearney _____________________________________ Michael Kackman The Raw and the Cooking Channel: Gender and the Branding of a Niche Cable Identity by Sarah Anne Murray, B.S. Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2011 The Raw and the Cooking Channel: Gender and the Branding of a Niche Cable Identity by Sarah Anne Murray, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 SUPERVISOR: Mary Celeste Kearney The proliferation of niche cable programming in the U.S. post-network era includes a meteoric rise in food television. Indicative of this move toward an increase in food-related programming is the recent unveiling of the cable offering Cooking Channel. Creators behind Cooking Channel have worked to establish a distinct brand, describing the channel as a place for ―food people‖ who are authentically and passionately ―interested in upping their food IQ‖ (Scripps). The discourse surrounding the Cooking Channel launch is further complicated by the fact that men have an ostensibly larger presence on the channel. Men are featured in promotional spots, press releases, and on programs that take viewers on quests to increase their cultural food capital. This project works to unravel the gendered discourses surrounding the U.S. launch of Cooking Channel, asserting that the discursive site of the foodie is leveraged in an attempt to construct a foodie identity via gendered social distinction processes. The project initially analyzes the paratextual dialogue produced by mainstream press in order to highlight the negotiation among voices charged with creating the channel‘s brand. The press – spearheaded by Cooking Channel parent Scripps Networks Interactive – provides an introduction to the channel that invokes consumption of new foodie content and a streamlined branding process that is divided along historically gendered binaries. The project then considers the ideological structures that underpin Cooking Channel‘s programming and reinforce its identity as steeped in the pervasiveness of perpetual normative gender ideology. In turn, the final portion of the project uproots normative and hegemonic ideals with its focus on gender liminality, considering Cooking Channel as a conflicted site of negotiation that reflects shifting discourses of masculinity and femininity. These analyses merge to form a compelling look at how gender is situated in Cooking Channel‘s construction of a niche cable brand. iv Table of Contents INTRODUCTION: THE RAW: INTRODUCING COOKING CHANNEL ..........1 Literature Review............................................................................................4 Theoretical Perspective and Methodological Approach ...............................32 Chapter Overview .........................................................................................34 CHAPTER ONE: FROM THE RAW TO THE COOKED: COOKING CHANNEL'S EMERGENT IDENTITY ......................................................36 Mapping the Fractured Society of the Post-Network Era .............................37 Building From a Theory of Paratextuality ....................................................39 Entryway Paratexts and the Interpretive Perimeter ......................................42 In Medias Res: Promos and Programming Schedule ....................................53 A Network by Food People, For Food People .............................................54 CHAPTER TWO: "COOKING" WITH INFORMATION: STAY HUNGRY, FOOD PEOPLE ........................................................................................................61 Foodie Discourse: Objects of Study and Method .........................................63 Structure and Visibility: Cooking Channel Style and Substance .................65 The Trivial Pursuit of the Foodie: Information without Instruction .............68 Trailblazing an Adventurous Path to the Original, Unique, and Artfully Obscure ................................................................................................80 Reinforcing Identity: The Purposeful Supplement of Reality Programming........................................................................................92 CHAPTER THREE: THE POSTMODERN MAN, THE BITCH IN THE KITCHEN, AND THE LIMINAL HOST ........................................................................97 Gender and Postmodern Foodie Television ..................................................98 The Postmodern Man in the Kitchen ..........................................................100 The Bitch in the Kitchen .............................................................................111 Foodographists and Food Detectives ..........................................................115 CONCLUSION: ASSESSING TO THE COOKING CHANNEL BRAND: MEDIUM RARE OR WELL DONE? ........................................................123 Contributions...............................................................................................125 v Limitations ..................................................................................................126 Future Directions ........................................................................................128 Bibliography ........................................................................................................130 vi Introduction The Raw: Introducing Cooking Channel A frequently airing Cooking Channel promotional spot begins with a deep crimson screen with white block text that reads: ―Introducing Cooking Channel.‖ A chef and teacher, Alison, appears on screen in a talking head medium shot: ―What I like about the term ‗food people‘ is it‘s inclusive, right? It‘s either the people who do it, who make the food, or, it‘s the people who love the food‖ (―Introducing‖). The camera cuts to solid neon green backdrop with dark green block text that reads: ―A New Network for Food People.‖ A black bar wipes the screen and replaces the text: ―By Food People‖ (―Introducing‖). In late May 2010, Scripps Networks Interactive (hereafter Scripps) launched Cooking Channel, a cable spin-off of the long-running U.S. cable channel Food Network.1 Cooking Channel joins Scripps‘ family of niche channels – Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel and the DIY Network – in an attempt to meet what the lifestyle media giant considers to be an overwhelming demand for food-related programming (Stelter 1). Creators behind Cooking Channel have worked to distinguish the brand from its sister lifestyle channels with a carefully constructed image. In a number of press releases and interviews leading up to its launch, network executives declared Cooking Channel to be ―cultural‖ television specifically for ―food people‖ who are authentically and passionately interested in raising their ―food IQ‖ (Levine; ―Scripps Networks…‖). According to John Lansing, SNI‘s executive vice president, Cooking Channel viewers will become ―a little smarter about food‖ (―Scripps Networks…‖). This branding effort is evident in the channel‘s slogan – ―Stay Hungry.‖ In the press, the new channel was described discursively as edgier, grittier, younger, hipper, authentic, original, smarter, more serious, and 1The conspicuous absence of ―the‖ as an article preceding Cooking Channel (e.g., The Cooking Channel) is intentional throughout. Although this is occasionally counterintuitive, I have tried to remain consistent so as to refer to the channel with its official title. 1 most often as a place for foodies, despite the channel‘s conspicuous avoidance of the term and their presentation of the tagline ―By Food People, For Food People.‖ One New York Post article reported Cooking Channel to be a place for the ―science and sociology‖ of food, a site for ―well- traveled foodies interested in things like food origins and cultures‖ (Homewood). Food has long been ―in the grip‖ of cultural practice, and television has long reflected that preoccupation (Foucault 155). Cooking Channel is the newest iteration of food-related programming in a history that is nearly as long as the history of television itself. In part, the channel diverges from the traditional domestic instructional format of how-to cooking. But more important, what distinguishes Cooking Channel from its predecessors is its effort to construct a brand for viewers that hinges – as this thesis argues – on what Josée Johnston and Shyon Baumann assert as the pillars of foodie culture: education, identity, exploration, and evaluation (61). Significantly, this branding effort is in tandem with the departure of Cooking Channel‘s gendered discourses from the long and well-established relationships among men, women, food, and television. What is the relationship, then, between gender and Cooking Channel’s work to brand a foodie identity? Put another way, what is the gendered nature of Cooking Channel’s branding strategies? Borrowing anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss‘s foundational premise that there occurs a ―cultural transformation of the raw‖ into the more socially salient cooked, this thesis aims to explore how gender informs Cooking Channel‘s construction of a cable