Politics and Politicians in Contemporary US Television
Bringing together well-established scholars of media, political science, sociology, and film to investigate the representation of Washington politics on US television from the mid-2000s to the present, this volume offers stimulating perspectives on the status of representations of contemporary US politics, the role of government and the machinations and intrigue often associated with politicians and governmental institutions. The authors help to locate these representations both in the context of the history of earlier television shows that portrayed the political culture of Washington as well as within the current political culture transpiring both inside and outside of The Beltway. With close attention to issues of gender, race and class and offering studies from contemporary quality television, including popular pro-grammes such as The West Wing, Veep, House of Cards, The Americans, The Good Wife and Scandal, the authors examine the ways in which televisual representations reveal changing attitudes towards Washington culture, shedding light on the role of the media in framing the publics changing perception of politics and politicians. Exploring the new era in which television finds itself, with new production practices and the possible emergence of a new political genre emerging, Politics and Politicians in Contemporary US Television also considers the humanizing of political characters on television, asking what that representation of politicians as human beings says about the national political culture. A fasci-nating study that sits at the intersection of politics and television, this book will appeal to scholars of popular culture, sociology, cultural and media studies.
Betty Kaklamanidou is a Fulbright scholar and Assistant Professor in Film and Television History and Theory at Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece. She is the author of TheDisguisedPolitical Film in Contemporary Hollywood: A Genres Construction (forth-coming, 2016), Genre, Gender and the Effects of Neoliberalism: The New Millennium Hollywood Rom Com (2013) and two books in Greek on adaptation theory and the history of the Hollywood rom com. Betty is also the co-editor of The Millennials on Film and Television (2014), HBOsGirls (2014), and The 21st Century Superhero (2010). Bettys articles have appeared in Literature/Film Quarterly, Celebrity Studies and The Journal of Popular Romance Studies
Margaret J. Tally is Professor of Social and Public Policy at the School of Graduate Studies at Empire State College, State University of New York, USA. She is the author of Television Culture and Womens Lives: Thirtysomething and the Contradictions of Gender, and co-editor of The Millennials on Film and Television: The Politics of Popular Culture and HBOs Girls: Questions of Gender, Politics, and Millennial Angst.
Routledge Advances in Television Studies
1 Parody and Taste in Postwar American Television Culture
Ethan Thompson
2 Television and Postfeminist Housekeeping: No Time for Mother
Elizabeth Nathanson
3 The Antihero in American Television
Margrethe Bruun Vaage
4 American Militarism on the Small Screen
Edited by Anna Froula and Stacy Takacs
5 Appreciating the Art of Television
A Philosophical Perspective
Ted Nannicelli
6 Politics and Politicians in Contemporary US Television
Washington as Fiction
Betty Kaklamanidou and Margaret J. Tally
7 Contemporary British Television Crime Drama
Cops on the Box
Edited by Ruth McElroy
Politics and Politicians in Contemporary US Television
Washington as Fiction
Edited by
Betty Kaklamanidou and Margaret J. Tally
First published 2017
by Routledge
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2017 selection and editorial matter, Betty Kaklamanidou and Margaret J. Tally; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Betty Kaklamanidou and Margaret J. Tally to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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ISBN: 978-1-4724-8604-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-60128-1 (ebk)
Betty dedicates this volume to a wonderful partnership!
Peggy dedicates this to her husband Bill, who has been a tireless cheerleader, advocate and partner through lifes journeys.
This timely collection of informative and insightful essays helps us to make sense of early twenty-first century American TV serials from The West Wing and Veep to Scandal and House of Cards that grapple with the potent drama of party politics during the Bush and Obama years.
Michael Z. Newman, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, U.S.A
The essays in this volume offer engaging analyses of recent fictional political TV shows. Collectively, they persuasively argue that depictions of U.S. political culture on entertainment television have never been more relevant while making insightful connections to contemporary political campaigns.
Chuck Tryon, Fayetteville State University, U.S.A
Betty and Margaret would like to thank the contributors for their wonderful work and cooperative spirit; Neil Jordan from Ashgate for his professionalism and helpful advice; Nick Craggs, our Routledge production editor for always being there and everybody who worked on this collection, from copy-editing to typesetting; and their families for their unconditional love and support.
Gregory Frame is Lecturer in Film Studies at Bangor University. He is the author of The American President in Film and Television: Myth, Politics and Representation (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014), and continues to work on various facets of the politics of American visual culture.
