Esra Özcan, LA Communication
Over the air broadcast TV is still the main medium of entertainment for millions of American viewers who cannot afford subscription and streaming services. Yet, the programming and the content of broadcast television receive little scholarly attention because of the growing interest on streaming services like Netflix and similar digital platforms.
This project aims to bring the broadcast television back into the conversation by focusing on crime dramas. No other genre dominates the prime-time schedule of the broadcast TV as much as programming about crime. These programs have long been considered as spaces where racial and ethnic stereotypes have been reproduced in the United States. Yet, a brief look at the contemporary crime dramas on broadcast television seems to suggest otherwise: today’s crime dramas feature a wide variety of progressive and successful African American, Asian, Latinx, LGBTQ and Middle Eastern characters, among other previously excluded characters.
This project aims to find out whether racial and ethnic stereotypes in crime dramas have indeed changed and if yes, with what potential implications for the audiences.
The project outcome is an article in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.
Time, eligibility, and other details
| Expected workload | Data collection: Monitoring TV schedules until the end of Spring season, pulling data about crime dramas. Half an hour (or less) per day over a month. Data entry: Entering the data in sheets/tables |
| Skills required | Interested in TV studies, attention to detail, patience for tedious tasks |
| Who is eligible | Juniors and seniors |
| Core partners | N/A |
| Sponsoring party | Faculty |
| Volunteer, Paid, or Credit-eligible? | Paid |
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