Skye
Stewart
Advanced
Mass Communication Theory
Blog
Post #1
March 7,
2016
Scandal:
Causing Distrust Among
Television Viewers
With an increase
in television shows about crime, government, and politics, more audiences are
thinking they know what is really going on in the White House and how political
campaigns, for example, are run. The key word, though, is that people are thinking they know what is going on
surrounding politics in the United States. ABC’s Scandal, a television political drama about a well-known lawyer and
crisis manager who solves both major political scandals and low-key problems,
but also has an ongoing fling with the President of the U.S., Miss Olivia Pope
is Washington D.C.’s go-to girl for all things gone wrong. Many attribute her
to fixing, or “handling” as she likes to call it, all of their problems that so
frequently seem to arise. Entertaining and dramatic, T.V. shows, particularly shows
like Scandal, are causing audiences
to distrust their local and national government officials because of all the
corruption, greed, and affairs that are present among the government and in
politics in the television series.
For beginners, Judy Smith, who according
to The Washington Post, “became America’s
best-known corporate fixer by staying out of the spotlight”
(“Judy Smith,” 2013), is the reason behind Scandal’s
stirring storyline. She is the real life Olivia Pope. While many might not know
who Smith is, many fans do, which is exactly who they are comparing the T.V.
show to, an actual crisis manager (Valiente, 2013). This is where the problem
begins. Audiences of Scandal see that
one of their beloved T.V. shows is about someone who worked right beside
political officials and their ‘accidents’ for a time. Therefore, audiences are
comparing the show to real life in Washington D.C.
To top it off, the cast of Scandal was recently visited by
Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. Clinton dealt with a
scandal herself, as her husband had an affair with a White House intern, Monica
Lewinsky, and was later impeached. Hillary Clinton’s visit with the cast was
all over social media, which caused a threat for audiences thinking anything different
about the politics they are learning about by watching Scandal every Thursday night. In audiences’ minds, Hillary Clinton
visiting the set has ‘scandal’ written all over it. Snapping photos with Kerry
Washington (Olivia Pope) imprints in people’s heads that, “Hey, this show is
kind of like real life. Remember the whole Lewinsky scandal? And now First Lady
on the show, Mellie Grant, has plans to run to become the first female President.”
Talk about similarities between real life events that have happened and are
currently happening (Sblendorio, 2016). The similarities are far too obvious
and are tricking audiences into thinking that the White House is full of
affairs, crime, corruption, and greed.
Scandal
has a strong reputation of leading viewers to believe that all political
officials are dishonest, making the entire Washington D.C. one corrupt
location. Sometimes it’s hard for TV viewers to forget that T.V., particularly Scandal, truly does not reflect what
happens among political officials. Stuart Hall’s The Work of Representation reflected this accurately. He wrote, “A
shared conceptual map is not enough. We must also be able to represent or
exchange meanings and concepts, and we can only do that when we also have
access to a shared language. Language is therefore the second system of
representation involved in the overall process of constructing meaning” (Hall,
2013). Because of this, it can be thought, then, that T.V. dramas have a language
of their own, one that audiences understand and can talk about with others.
Fans understand their T.V. show and therefore know the language, are able to
talk about it with others, and use the television show to represent real life
politics.
Examples of corruption in Scandal never seem to fall short. In the
episode Nobody Likes Babies (season
2, episode 13), the President of the U.S., Fitzgerald Grant, killed a Supreme
Court Justice who was already slowly dying of cancer. Verna, the Supreme Court
Justice whom he killed, previously tried to get the President killed.
Not far behind corruption comes
greed, which is also very present in almost every episode of Scandal. A small example takes places in
the episode titled It’s Good To Be Kink (season
4, episode 16). Cyrus Beene, White House Chief of Staff, wanted to pay the
writer of a book $3 million for her tell-all novel about several men she slept
with, all who held high positions in Washington, one being the Attorney
General. While the book was supposed to only be revenge for getting back at one
male who violated her (the author), it was on the verge of not being published
anymore. But, Cyrus being Cyrus, he wanted to pay millions of dollars just so
he could use the book in the future as blackmail if he ever needed to. Like he
really needed anymore power though, considering the book had nothing at all to
do with him. Instead of worrying about some of his staff, he was more concerned
with the possibility that he might be able to use this tell-all book against
them in the future.
An article by Connie. L. McNeely of
U.C.L.A., published in the Journal of
Criminal Justice and Popular Culture ran with the idea that most people
only know about the criminal justice system because of their “television
experience” they have (McNeely, 1995). She stated, “We might expect that
related programs typically have projected images and information about the
criminal justice system that contribute to the maintenance of the social and
political order and to social control” (McNeely, 1995). This goes to show that Scandal holds a meaning to show that
political order, control, and greed are more important than national security
issues or topics like healthcare and education. Using this “television
experience” gives audiences the opportunity to believe that political officials
do not take their jobs seriously, but instead are more concerned with the
wealth and power that comes along with them. This is what Scandal puts into its fans’ heads about Washington D.C.
Lastly, affairs are happening
non-stop in the make-believe White House of Scandal.
Throughout the series, Olivia Pope has had an ongoing relationship with the
President (they are supposedly in love), and First Lady Mellie has an affair
with the Vice President. While there are plenty more affairs, these are the
most meaningful for viewers.
All of these affairs trick viewers
into thinking something about political officials of the White House that are
not really true. Christopher J. Gilbert published an article in Communication, Culture, & Crituque where
he wrote, “…shows do espouse wit and wisdom to encourage a perverse pleasure in
never knowing which is which, the fiction or the reality. But they do little to
estrange audiences from a notion of politics as a prison house, or of
distortion as a moral category” (Gilbert, 2014). Scandal viewers know that affairs have taken place in the White
House before, so seeing it on the television show does not make them think
differently about what might be really going on among these political
authorities that are in charge of their country.
In concluding, T.V. shows such as Scandal influence greatly just what
people are thinking about political authorities that are in office. As Stuart
Hall wrote, humans all share a language and that language has to be learned by
all in order for people to communicate. Viewers of Scandal have something in common, therefore they are able to talk
about the series and make connections with the real world around them. Scandal centers all around corruption,
greed, and many affairs, and audiences are comparing these events shown on
television to real life matters.
References
Gilbert, C. J.
(2014 September). Return of the
Ridiculous, or Caricature as Political Cliché.
Communication, Culture &
Critique, 7(3). Retrieved
from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cccr.12056/full
Hall,
S. (2013). The Work of Representation. (pp. 2-47).
Judy Smith, the inspiration for Olivia Pope, talks about
life amid ‘Scandal.’ (2013, December 9).
Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2013/12/09/judy-smith-the-inspiration-for-olivia-pope-talks-about-life-amid-scandal/
McNeely, C. L. (1995). Perceptions of The Criminal Justice
System: Television Imagery and
Public
Knowledge in the United States. Journal
of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture,
3(1). Retrieved
from http://www.albany.edu/scj/jcjpc/vol3is1/perceptions.html
Sbledndorio, P. (2016, February 23). Hillary Clinton
embraces latest ‘Scandal,’ visits Kerry
Washington on set of ABC’s political
drama. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/hillary-clinton-visits-set-scandal-article-1.2540907
Valiente, A. (2013, November 12).
‘Scandal' Ripped From the Headlines: 6 Real-Life Political
Scandals
on the Show. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/scandal-ripped-headlines-real-life-political-scandals-show/story?id=20852177#1
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