Audience Demand in Radio

Audience demand shaped the radio industry in the 1920s by determining how radio would be used and what would be broadcast.

Audience demand is an important force in any entertainment industry. A company can produce a product or show, but if the audience doesn't want it, it would be a waste of time and money. Although the company is who's making the product, its decision in what to make is influenced by what the audience wants. This causes the company to think about what kind of product would appeal to its audience; sometimes a company will even go so far as to take a survey or measure audience reaction to the product in some way before the product is released.

The radio was immensely popular with Americans in the 1920s. It became a means of escape from the repetitiveness of daily life, and as such it created a huge demand for new and more varied programs. Americans wanted to listen to music, news, and variety programs. Not only did this demand cause more programs to be broadcast, but it also compelled many people and companies to go into broadcasting themselves. Individuals wanted to get into the radio business to gain fame and companies wanted to get into advertising on the radio to reach a larger number of people with information about their products and services. For example, Media Now talks about Westinghouse opening KDKA in Pittsburgh because they realized regular radio broadcasts could help sell radios. Ultimately, it was audience demand that had the greatest impact on the continuation of the radio industry; the industry continued and grew because American audiences wanted it to.

Cultivation Theory

According to Media Now, cultivation theory “argues that mass media exposure cultivates a view of the world that is consistent with mediated ‘reality’.”  In other words, people learn to think or act a certain way because of how the media portray a certain thing or idea. If the media portray something in the same way for long enough, people will come to accept that view as reality – even if it’s not real at all. This theory ties in with the concept of hegemony, in that someone with power in the media is choosing to portray something a certain way; cultivation theory expands on this, stating that people are highly affected by this portrayal, enough to engender or change their views on a topic that is being portrayed.

Cultivation theory explains the situation in Tough Guise where the portrayal of men as strong, tough, and violent in the media causes young men to think that to be a “real man”,  they need to be strong, tough, and violent themselves, even though the portrayal of men like this is made up or false.

  

One example Tough Guise gives that exemplifies cultivation theory is John Wayne. John Wayne was depicted in his movies as the epitome of masculinity; he oozed confidence, wore rugged clothes, was never afraid to fight, and never did anything even remotely considered “girly”. Cultivation theory would say that the constant images of John Wayne and people like him caused young men to think they had to act the same way to be considered a man. The problem with this train of thought in young men is that the portrayal of John Wayne, an example of the way men were supposed to act, was nothing like reality. The actor’s actual name was Marion Morrison, an admittedly feminine name. In addition, Marion dressed in tasteful clothes, something very different from the rugged John Wayne. Men everywhere idolized John Wayne, even though his character in the movies was totally made up; the real man was nothing like that.

Hegemony in Depicting Women

Hegemony, defined as the capacity of a ruling group that enables it to maintain its power and reinforce its ideology, is always present in the media. People in charge want to convey a message through the media to have people on the receiving end hear it and accept it. Many times we see this in the news, where news stations choose what stories and events to talk about and then put a certain spin on them. For example, a new law might be depicted as bad for the community or a certain group of people, while its benefits are never talked about; this reflects the opinions of somebody in charge.

I've mostly heard the word "hegemony" used while mentioning the news or talking about political or economic intentions, but what I thought about when I heard the word was the control over the depiction of women's roles in media. Women are constantly shown in the media as being beautiful, thin, and young-looking, even if their husbands are unattractive, vulgar, overweight, and seemingly unintelligent. Hegemony, in this case influential men in the media controlling the role of women in TV shows, effectively describes why women are being portrayed this way; men want beautiful women without having to make any effort to look good themselves. It doesn't matter what your man looks like; if you're female, you're supposed to look good no matter what. A fat guy is perfectly fine, even to be expected, but a fat woman is totally and utterly unacceptable.

For example, these promotional pictures from several recent TV sitcoms all consist of a beautiful, "hot" wife and an overweight husband. These women are totally fine with how their husbands look, which isn't bad in itself. In fact, it makes them seem like good people. However, we never see overweight women with extremely attractive husbands. It just doesn't happen.

According to Jim

The King of Queens

Still Standing

This article from Yahoo! Shine discusses the fact that there is an upcoming TV show that features an overweight man and overweight woman in a relationship.

Return of the Fat Female Sitcom Star

We've seen this before with "Roseanne". However, as far as I'm aware, there have been no TV shows where an overweight woman has been in a romantic relationship with a fit, attractive man. This fact just goes to show
that a situation where an overweight woman and a fit man are together is not normal or even acceptable. It simply does not exist according to the media.

Consumers see these shows and think that they are the social norm. TV shows like these reinforce to women the idea that they need to be thin, young, pretty, and smart, even if their man isn't. Nobody will accept them if they're anything different. This is a blatant falsehood, and yet people are made to think it's true because of men's utilization of hegemony.