Deck 7: Women Read the Romance: the Interaction of Text and Context

Question 1

As the author describes, rather than represent a wide range of "real people" who reflect the diversity of the nation, reality TV repackages ______ into comfortingly familiar stock characters and stereotypes.

A) difference
B) culture
C) people
D) social class

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Netflix has moved into territory that sets it apart from familiar structures of production, broadcasting, or branding of television. Netflix does signal a change within ______.

A) the digital creator field
B) the online streaming market
C) the digital television landscape
D) the live entertainment framework

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Under post-Fordism, capitalism responds to the global flow of labor and consumption markets within and between nation-states by transforming local and regional ______ into market segments and mobilizing citizens as consumers.

A) practices
B) cultures
C) products
D) economics

Answer 3

B

Question 4

According to the author, the networks had the money and the audience to dominate the market as the only buyers of series programming from Hollywood producers and studios.

Question 5

While virtues such as discipline and diligence are considered undesirable in the U.S. context, these purportedly "negative" traits can become positive when pushed to excess.

Question 6

At best, Gilmore Girls points to a lack of political commitment on the part of its producers, and at worst, it perpetuates a neoliberal fantasy that glosses over the harsh realities of working-class life in ways that distract from the value of class consciousness. This seemingly class-based show exploits economic disparities in the articulation of ______.

A) socioeconomic fantasies
B) a classless neoliberal middle class
C) false representations of working-class families
D) a conservative idea of middle class

Question 7

Television producers, advertisers, and networks know that programs that are too long, too difficult to comprehend, or simply too boring will lead to ______.

A) producers dropping out
B) viewers switching channels
C) writers stopping creating
D) actors performing poorly

Question 8

When television programs make race an explicit theme, it is usually an appeal to some universal, effectively White, human experience that operates to ultimately reinforce the goals of ______.

A) authoritarianism
B) liberal individualism
C) social objectivism
D) Hollywood executives

Question 9

Another factor affecting network decisions on content is the need to produce programming suited to ______ not only in decisions on new series but also in day-to-day decisions producing each episode.

A) audience's interest
B) advertising
C) production cost
D) distribution

Question 10

Donald Trump is mastering new media as well as dominating television and old media through his orchestration of media events as ______ and his daily Twitter feed.

A) PR disasters
B) false advertising
C) spectacles
D) historical significance

Question 11

At first glance, representations of female prisoners on contemporary U.S. television may indeed appear as more ______ than those of their male counterparts.

A) violent
B) sympathetic
C) helpless
D) pathetic

Question 12

Reaching the vast majority of the population for well over half a century and seeping into everyday conversation, ______ has/have made a significant contribution to our culture's attitude toward the man who makes his living with his hands.

A) sports
B) reality TV
C) sitcoms
D) documentaries

Question 13

Hung's narrative on Top Chef revealed not only how the trope of being technical but lacking "heart" and "soul" is placed on ______ but also the conflicts that racialized minorities encounter competing in fields of culture that continue to be governed by White privilege.

A) African Americans
B) Hispanic Americans
C) Asian Americans
D) European Americans

Question 14

If one accepts that television narratives articulate normative truths that enter into public discourse and reinforce or resist dominant ideologies, then Gilmore Girls is a poor indicator of and contributor to neoliberal notions of an autonomous individual made in the image of a classless middle-class American.

Question 15

Orange Is the New Black's ambition to present a different perspective on prison life appeared to be validated by ______.

A) real-life prisoners
B) television audiences
C) the production cast and crew
D) a chorus of television critics

Question 16

Rhimes's blind-casting works to acknowledge difference in ways that will cause the least amount of discomfort to White audiences while providing an illusion that under liberal individualism, the marketplace will do right by historically ______.

A) marginalized individuals
B) inaccurate figures
C) complex characters
D) significant people

Question 17

The global success of reality television is attributable to the practice of licensing the format of a show to overseas broadcasters for adaptation to specific markets.

Question 18

______ are presented as media spectacles and dominate certain news cycles.

A) Dramatic news and events
B) Pop culture updates
C) Entertainment news
D) Sports and political rallies

Question 19

Neoliberalism, characterized broadly as the "______" for global capitalism, expounds the alleged death of class; according to this mode of social organization, professional success and material security are the responsibility of private individuals.

A) secret key
B) ideological software
C) doomsday device
D) philosophical hardware

Question 20

While Netflix is accountable to shareholders and its partners in revenue sharing, it tends to be the company that advertises itself to ______ rather than ______.

A) younger audiences; older viewers
B) subscribers; advertisers
C) millennials; baby boomers
D) online viewers; network audiences

Question 21

Orange is the New Black's portrayal of women's attempts at beautification under the most dire circumstances takes a much darker approach, but it challenges stereotypes about female prisoners' priorities.

Question 22

The shift signaled by Netflix concerns issues of technology but maybe more importantly, branding and programming strategies, viewing practices independent from scheduling that lead to a complication in how audience behavior needs to be understood and "success" of a program measured, and how familiar associations with the concept of television are not "merely" subverted but changed completely.

Question 23

What factors go into developing programing and what is a consequence of those choices?

Question 24

Without a media-saturated "fast capitalism" and media-centric politics, new technologies like Twitter and social networking, and a celebrity culture that has morphed into politics, there could never be a Donald Trump.

Question 25

What are some of the media that television uses to justify social class framing?

Question 26

What is populism?

Question 27

Rhimes's approach, balking at any utterance of race talk with regard to dialogue, plot points, or character development, works to make the discussion of racialization seem unnecessary and inauthentic.