International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

The focus of this entry is upon representations of masculinity in one medium only, television, while making it evident that the approach adopted could be applied equally well to newspapers, magazines, radio, and film (→  Television as Popular Culture ). Three broad phases can be identified in the evolution of televisual masculinities , a term coined to reflect the breakup of the stereotypical masculine narrative over the past three decades (→  Sex Role Stereotypes in the Media ). It acknowledges that masculinity is far from monolithic and uniform but is rather composed of a number of “masculinities,” of ways of “doing” masculinity. Another factor that should be borne in mind at the outset is the massive growth today in the amount and variety of television (including the current development of Internet-delivered television) increasingly available to viewers throughout the developed world. What Creeber (2006) aptly terms “tele-visions” are a barometer of social and cultural change, and any assumption that the medium today remains male-dominated (or its representations of masculinity unchanged) should be treated with considerable caution. Finally, reference below is made to many programs that, although originating in the US or Britain, have subsequently been dubbed and exported and have thereby contributed to the emergence of an embryonic global media culture (→  Globalization ... log in or subscribe to read full text