Thursday, March 17, 2011

90's to now

Ideology stems from the different realities viewed and especially on television.  In the nineties political ideologies may be compared to a reference such as “too big to fail” and taking risks was expected because the government would protect you.  If you purchased to own then success was expected.  Being responsible for oneself and a privatization as well as an entrepreneurship society was in play. Later in time people unfortunately discovered these risks, the housing market, was not so protected.  An example of this being displayed in the media is a show in which is based online by HGTV called, “My House is Worth What?”  The show unveils owners who purchased homes, fixed them up, and now want to sell the homes in hope to earn a profit from the renovations.  Almost always the people see a decline in their overall house value because the housing market is not what it use to be when the owners purchased their homes.  Some of the couples are astonished to discover their renovations did not increase the overall value of their homes.  In fact,  the hoped for increase of value was intended to help some of the owners move into a news location but with the unexpected drop in the housing bubble people were forced to stay put.  


Another example of how television as changed over the periods of changing ideaologies is the aspect of  sitcomes diplaying diverse plots as well as the characters.  For example in the nineties Full House, Home Improvement, and Family Matters just to name a few were popular shows where the families were happy and faced minor struggles. After and as the recession hit the world it also was displayed through shows such as The Office, Parenthood, and Modern Family to name a few.  In the Office, Dunder Mufflin has to lay people off, a new company buys Dunder Mufflin, and the show goes into a new direction. (episode three of season six)  On Parenthhood the same occurs where people are laid off and a a company closes.


Modern Family attempts to reveal change with the ideologies that the tradition family is not always expected in current times as well as homosexual couples are also common.  This show is only a minor step in liberation of changing ideologies but yet is still an attempt.  I realized alothough Modern Family attempts to break a few molds it still sticks to the nuclear family of father, mother, and children are all under the roof.  Also the women who plays and is Latin American is displayed as a caricature of a Latin American women.  The caricature is sexual, loud, street smart, and yet ignorant towards American vocabulary as well as customs.  They display her as dumb towards American values, language, and customs. Also the gay couple has one of the men displayed as a caricature of a flamboyant "typical" gay man and the other representing features of a heterosexual man.  This reinforces the traditional roles of man and women in heterosexual relationships yet displayed through a homosexual couple. Media displays only what expected society of America is to be.  I feel that as generations grow to seek more information and accept diversity our media outlets attempt to show reinforcement of these changes yet only to the extent of the limit of a social norm.  Ideology is not fixed or permeant. Basically change is displayed with traditional values and norms depicted in order to sustain oppression in order to achieve the ideaologies expeted of society.

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