• Race and Religion

 Race and Religion

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In addition to race, gender, sexual orientation, and family, television has shaped the way that Americans think about the issue of social class. From the 1950s through the 2000s, most characters in TV programs have been upper-middle-class, professional people, such as doctors, lawyers, journalists, and business owners. Working-class and poor characters have appeared much more rarely, and they have often been portrayed in a negative manner. TV programs have often portrayed working-class men—such as Archie Bunker of All in the Family or Homer Simpson of The Simpsons—as selfish, immature clowns who have trouble seeing other people's points of view. By contrast, the women in working-class TV families have tended to be more intelligent and sensible than the men. But in the case of middle-class families depicted on television, the fathers and mothers are more likely to be presented as equally mature and responsible parents. In a similar way, television has tended to portray family life in poor or working-class TV families as full of problems and arguments, while middle-class TV families are more likely to be portrayed as emotionally healthy, with all the members contributing and supporting each other. Some critics argue that the positive treatment of the middle class in TV programming sends viewers the message that middle-class values and beliefs are somehow better than those of other social classes. Television has always featured some religious programming on Sunday mornings. These shows have ranged from discussion-based programs to broadcasts of actual church services. Religious shows expanded in number and influence during the 1970s, when satellites orbiting the Earth allowed TV signals to be broadcast nationwide for the first time. Several Christian religious leaders created special programs to take advantage of the wide reach of television and spread their religious messages across the country. This type of religious programming became known as televangelism, and the religious leaders who appeared on TV became known as televangelists. Religion started to play a more prominent role in entertainment series during the 1990s and 2000s. In the popular series Northern Exposure, for instance, several characters explored alternative and Native American religious traditions in their search for spiritual growth. The networks produced several other shows that focused on religious themes, such as Touched by an Angel, Seventh Heaven, Highway to Heaven, and Joan of Arcadia. But while the topic of religion received more attention on TV, it was still usually addressed in a general way and from a Christian perspective. In 1959 Congress passed an amendment to the 1934 Communications Act. One provision of the 1959 law was the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to present both sides of hotly debated issues. As part of a larger effort to reduce regulations affecting the broadcast industry, Congress overturned the Fairness Doctrine in 1989. The only part of the law that remained in effect applied to political campaigns. It gave candidates the right to respond to any negative reports contained in broadcast TV programming. In general, however, the FCC did not regulate the content of paid political messages, except to make sure that the sponsor of the message was clearly identified.