In conclusion...

For our project, we wanted to focus our efforts on applying a more critical eye to television shows that we regularly watch and enjoy, in order to become more active viewers. We were all particularly interested in the concept of encoding and decoding, and the way messages are intended and perceived. The idea that we could be such passive viewers was slightly disturbing, so we endeavored to analyze more closely the images presented to us. We chose television as our form of media specifically because television shows can run for multiple seasons and are flexible, allowing us to choose from a large pool of episodes and storylines. Overall, we hoped to document our individual learning processes and invite input from our peers.

For these reasons, we felt that a blog was the most effective format for our project. The blog allowed us to work around each other's schedules, to track regularly our development as active viewers, and to pursue our respective tastes in television genres. We were also able to confer with each other after posting to compare opinions. The blog format was easy for readers to engage with; they could choose which episodes they were most interested in reading about and their comments sparked further discussion.

For me, Kim, I originally intended to write all of my blog posts on episodes of Modern Family. I thought this would be the simplest place to find issues pertaining to queer theory, because of the openly gay main characters on a wildly popular, primetime show. I watch a fair amount of television, though, so as I caught up on How I Met Your Mother the week we started our blog posts, I was inspired to write about the less overt gender themes on a show based around very heteronormative ideas. The next week, I did write about the gay characters on Modern Family, but specifically about a storyline that revolved heavily around gender expression and ideals of masculinity and femininity, not just a generic storyline that happened to involve gay characters. By the time I saw the “Advanced Gay” episode of Community, I had realized that I did not need to look for gender issues on popular television, I just had to be aware of them; they would definitely be there. I did not encounter any obstacles in the course of my blogging; in fact, I was surprised by how much material I had to choose from. I did not intend to find such a distinct pattern between the shows that I watched, but I found my results enlightening for myself, personally. The shows I chose to analyze are the shows that I am generally attracted to – half-hour sitcoms, usually on a major broadcasting network – and after my experiences with this blog and this class, I will always be a more conscious and active viewer.

I, Claire, decided that I would use shows that I was somewhat familiar with, ones where I had watched enough episodes that I had a grasp on the show’s structure and a general understanding of the main characters. This let me focus more on analysis while viewing episodes. A goal I had for myself was to try and reconcile a product’s flaws with the joy it brings as a form of entertainment. Therefore I purposefully chose two shows that I am a fan of, Psych and Burn Notice. I wanted to see how they held up when watched by a viewer who was looking out for more than just a good laugh. With Psych I had intended to look at representation issues but ended up focusing on a different racial group than I had intended; Psych has no Asian main characters so an episode devoted to Asian minor characters provided a chance to see how this group was represented. With Burn Notice I originally intended to look at female representation but ended up being surprised at how relevant the narrative structure was to the show. The biggest obstacle I ran into was myself because I was doing something I had never really thought of doing before, critically considering the television I was consuming. Being so new to it I constantly felt I was “reading too much” into things. As I progressed in the project I became much more confident in my abilities, however, so I feel that while it might take some effort, people can learn to become more aware of what they watch.

We feel that we achieved what we wanted to because we were able to become active viewers, who see the way queer representations in popular media are structured. In addition, we were able to understand that there are always messages encoded in these representations, but unless viewers are cognizant of them, they will fall prey to becoming passive consumers who have no part in shaping our mainstream culture. We each individually feel that we have become more active in our viewing habits, not just in terms of television but other forms of popular media. This is not to discount the pleasure and entertainment we get from popular television, but we can enjoy it while still questioning its messages and striving for a more inclusive product.