The moral imagination in primetime television

Abstract

In this article, we discuss how primetime programming is unjustly the subject of the moral panic constructed around television, a moral panic that seems primarily useful to maintain the high vs low culture dichotomy. To assess the moral content of primetime television, we used a framework derived from literary culture, since narratives’ content and morality (or, rather, [moral] imagination) are primarily discussed within this tradition. We will argue that primetime television (news, soap operas, sitcoms, and so on) is not only rife with reflections on what counts as a moral issue, who we are, who the ‘other’ is and various ways of deliberating moral issues, but also that the content of primetime programming contradicts the arguments used in the moral panic surrounding primetime television.

Full text

ARTICLE
INTERNATIONAL
journal of
CULTURAL studies
Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications
London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi
www.sagepublications.com
Volume 8(3): 353–374
DOI: 10.1177/1367877905055682
The moral imagination in primetime
television
●
Tonny Krijnen and Irene Costera Meijer
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT
●
In this article, we discuss how primetime programming is
unjustly the subject of the moral panic constructed around television, a moral
panic that seems primarily useful to maintain the high vs low culture dichotomy.
To assess the moral content of primetime television, we used a framework
derived from literary culture, since narratives’ content and morality (or, rather,
[moral] imagination) are primarily discussed within this tradition. We will argue
that primetime television (news, soap operas, sitcoms, and so on) is not only rife
with reflections on what counts as a moral issue, who we are, who the ‘other’ is
and various ways of deliberating moral issues, but also that the content of
primetime programming contradicts the arguments used in the moral panic
surrounding primetime television.
●
KEYWORDS
●
genre
●
morality
●
narrative analysis
Introduction
Since its early days, television has been closely linked with public morality
and specific concerns about it. Many have accused television of contribut-
ing to the construction of a moral panic, but others have also singled out
television itself as a subject of moral panic,
1
notably the content of television
with respect to public issues such as the degradation of family values, civil
conduct and democratic values (Tavener, 2000). Most recently, for instance,
the media have addressed once more the issue of teenagers’ sexual
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behaviour and their watching sexually explicit programmes on television.
Although the research involved suggests the contrary (Collins et al., 2004),
the public debate centres on the idea that watching television causes
teenagers to engage in sexuality too early in their lives (ANP, 2004; Picaver,
2004).
If, during the past decades, television has gradually become accepted as
an object of serious academic study and as one of the primary storytellers
in contemporary society (see Allen, 1992; Coolen, 1997; Gerbner, 1999),
scholars have focused in particular on concerns associated with the external
qualities of this popular medium. They have explored the significance of
television, for instance, in terms of its usefulness for identity building
(McKinley, 1997), as a form of resistance to dominant ideology (Fiske,
1987), for its role in enculturation (Allen, 1992), as a domain of emotional
realism (Ang, 1985) or for its potential to structure unstructured time
(Gauntlett and Hill, 1999). Whenever scholars considered television in a
positive light, such an assessment was largely tied to its impact rather than
its content. Lusted (1998: 176) has suggested that in regard to popular
culture, ‘residues of suspicion can still be discerned’ in academia and that
‘sympathy is extended less towards the forms of popular culture them-
selves’.
Indeed, in cultural studies, many scholars still seem to hold back from
engaging with the content of television. Although authors such as Jenkins
et al. (2002) argue for a new cultural studies in which the form of popular
culture is explicitly taken into account, the apparent interest in popular
culture generally hides a deepseated dichotomy between culture and
Culture. Its persistence reveals itself in several ways. For example, Cohen
(1999) notes that academics who study movies tend to present themselves
as critics of art rather than as scholars of popular culture. Interestingly,
Jensen, in her study on the mass culture debate in the United States, argues
that textual readings of television are legitimate, especially when they are
done in conjunction with the theoretical canon. It allows academics to
demonstrate their sophistication – that they are ‘not brutish, doltish, or
barbaric’ (Jensen, 2002: 136). According to Jensen, this ‘legacy’ of the
Culture vs culture debate prevents us from studying the intrinsic value of
culture. In this context, Hartley (1992: 153) observes that the intellectual
and aesthetic history of popular culture is ‘too often lost in the perennial
arguments about high and low culture’. It is these perpetual arguments that
Tavener (2000) rephrases as the moral panic that is constructed around
popular television. According to Tavener, this moral panic seems especially
useful for sustaining and perpetuating the high vs low culture dichotomy.
In a similar vein, Jenkins et al. (2002: 27) argue, a common thread in the
Culture vs culture debate involves the use of the culture concept ‘as an
instrument by the educated and middle classes to maintain their ideologi-
cal authority by defining “good” and “bad” culture’.
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What, then, is assumed to make Culture so different from culture? The
public debate on this issue suggests that high culture offers insights that
enrich us while low culture does not (see Catholic Wisdom Publications,
2003; Februari, 2004; Langerveld, 2003; McNamara, 1998). Statements
such as, ‘Recent research shows that television watching adversely affects
children’s thinking, speaking, imagination, senses, physique, feelings,
and behaviour’ (Catholic Wisdom Publications, 2003) are common and
occasionally also considered to be common knowledge (see Spigel and
Curtin, 1997). It is often argued in these public debates (and, in more
nuanced ways, in academic debates as well) that Culture, through its
complexity, offers insights that could enhance the imagination, whereas
culture, because of its simple and superficial content, diminishes our imagin-
ation. As Hakemulder (1998: 23) claims: ‘It could be countered that other
(non-literary) discourse types may have similar beneficial effects. Soap
operas might equally contribute to insight into human character. One
property that distinguishes literary narratives from other narrative
discourses, however, is its complexity.’ It is important to enrich the imagin-
ation, considered as an essential human characteristic (Hartley, 1992;
Johnson, 1993). Fostering the imagination prevents society from moral
decline; more likely than not, a well-cultivated imagination turns us into
morally mature citizens (Hartley, 1992; Rosenblatt, 1938). One could argue
that high culture is considered to offer insights that, together, construct
moral imagination. Complementary popular television is identified as the
cause for the moral decline of society because it would not offer such
insights. Hakemulder (1998: 24) continues: ‘The way popular culture deals
with such issues is hardly inducive to sophisticated moral discrimination.’
It is important to note here that the arguments are of a theoretical nature.
As Cohen (1999: 142) argues: ‘it is entirely possible to regard art itself as
a waste of time. Gallery-hopping and museum-visiting and concert-going
can seem idle activities, mainly self-indulgent and distracting.’ Cohen
concludes by claiming that the distinction between high and low culture is
an indefensible one.
Although there is much research concerning the content of popular
television (one of the most famous examples being Gerbner’s research,
1969, 1988), the moral content of popular television is underresearched.
Most research focuses on one particular element of popular television’s
content, such as family patterns, stereotypes or communication patterns
(Alexander, 2001). The rare research that does focus on (moral) values in
primetime television presents us with results that contradict the moral panic
arguments (see Bachen and Illouz, 1996; Selnow, 1990).
Given the theoretical nature of the pro-Culture arguments and the limited
research on the moral content of television, there is almost no empirical
evidence that culture, either high or low, provides insights that contribute
to the construction of the moral imagination, even if this does not
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necessarily imply that these (theoretical) arguments are invalid (Cohen,
1999). These observations prompted us to ask whether the theoretical argu-
ments that are assumed to be valid for high culture are also applicable to
popular television. Since the idea of how (high) culture adds to the moral
imagination is mostly elaborated on in what Rorty (2000) calls the literary
culture – notably, the different moral insights offered by (literary) narratives
– we have used a literary framework to assess the moral content of popular
television. Our leading question is: how does primetime television imagine
morality? Is it possible to evaluate television content without reproducing
the high vs low culture dichotomy that excludes television as a valuable
cultural form?
In this article, we explore and assess television content as serious as literary
narratives. We will analyse what moral imagination primetime television’s
narratives present. Given that, in the Netherlands, TV attracts most viewers
between 20.00 and 22.00, we concentrated on programmes in this timeslot.
Our sample consists of all the primetime programming of seven Dutch
channels:
2
three public (Nederland 1, 2 and 3) and four commercial ones
(RTL 4, SBS 6, Yorin and Net 5) broadcast during one week in May 2003,
including all programmes that started or finished somewhat earlier or later.
As we excluded programmes that ended after 22.30 (eight movies and two
soccer games), our analysis is based on a total of 81.6 hours of television.
Furthermore, Dutch primetime television is interesting because of its inter-
national orientation. From the analysed programmes, 35.5 percent were
produced in the US, Belgium, Germany, the UK and the Scandinavian
countries. This is why our results also offer an indication of the moral content
of television programmes from our surrounding countries and the US.
The imagination of television
What is this moral imagination that (television) narratives are supposed to
proffer? According to Johnson, moral imagination can be understood as
‘the ability to imaginatively discern various possibilities for acting within a
given situation and to envision the potential help and harm that are likely
to result from a given action’ (Johnson, 1993: 202). Taking narrative as one
of the basic structures through which people give meaning to their lives and
the events in their lives, imagination and narrative are closely interrelated
(Johnson, 1993). According to Johnson, narratives offer us three different
kinds of insights that together construct moral imagination: insights into
which situations are morally relevant; into possible ways of deliberation in
a certain situation; and into the consequences of actions and decisions for
both protagonists and others (see Bogdan et al., 2000; Booth, 1988;
Nussbaum, 1995, 1997, 1998; Rorty, 1989). We rely on these three kinds
of insights for our analysis of television narratives.
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The concept of narrative cuts across genres and therefore allows us to
compare fictional and non-fictional genres. We follow Thwaites et al. (2002)
in their conception of narrative sequence. They identify three basic phases:
equilibrium, disruption and closure. In addition, the narrative’s genre and
complexity are of importance. Although Nussbaum (1995, 1997), Rorty
(1989) and Bogdan et al. (2000) indeed suggest that narratives in general
may be morally imaginative, they emphasize the relevance of the (realistic)
fictional nature of narratives. Nussbaum argues that a narrative’s fictional
nature enables the reader to identify with a character, thus establishing a
sense of similarity or shared experience, while the realism simultaneously
allows the reader to keep a distance, so he/she can critically reflect on the
experiences presented and become aware of differences with a particular
character. Hakemulder (1998) suggests the complexity of the plotlines and
the round characters of the literary narrative to be pivotal features for the
narrative’s moral imagination. To address these issues we have included all
genres in our analysis, fictional as well as non-fictional, including news,
current affairs, talk shows and light entertainment such as game shows and
lifestyle programmes.
In order to assess moral imagination in primetime television’s narratives,
first, it is imperative to identify the moral themes found in primetime
programming. Which situations are presented as morally relevant? How is
it possible to determine ‘what counts as morality’ in a television text?
Regarding heroism as a moral theme, for instance, it is relevant to ask what
appears as truly heroic and what are the characteristics of, and conditions
for, true heroism (see Gerbner, 1969).
Second, we analysed the different ways of deliberating a moral theme, the
scope of the styles of moral reasoning that the narrative presents. As a
starting point for analysis, we distinguished two styles of moral reasoning
inspired by Carol Gilligan (1982) and Gilligan et al. (1988): rule-governed
(based on an ethics of justice) and sensibility-guided (based on an ethics of
care). In a rule-governed style of moral reasoning, the individuals involved
are presented as independent from each other and as having a sense of duty
and obligation towards each other. They rely on the application of rules and
principles to realize their goals. The sensibility-guided style of moral reason-
ing presents individuals as interdependent and focuses on their mutual
relationships. The interactions direct what is to be done while the welfare
of others and preventing others from coming to harm are central consider-
ations. Moreover, the sensibility-guided style of reasoning is contextual and
inclined towards empathizing with the Other.
It is commonly argued that women are orientated more towards an ethics
of care (and, thus, to a sensibility-guided style of reasoning) while men are
mainly geared towards an ethics of justice (hence, a rule-governed style of
reasoning). Moreover, the ethics of care are often not even assigned moral
value (Gilligan, 1982; Gilligan et al., 1988; Rachels, 2003; Tester, 2001).
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These arguments point towards the traditional (Kantian) conception of
morality and moral reasoning as based on rationality and thus excluding a
more emotional conception of moral reasoning. The power dynamics
founding this conception of morality prompted us to wonder about the
third element of moral imagination: the consequences for the Other. We
were interested to know whether television narratives reproduced these
mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in moral reasoning; in other words,
who was presented as reasoning in which style on Dutch primetime tel-
evision. If Gilligan et al. (1988) only consider the issue of gender in their
argument, we also take into account other relevant social categories, includ-
ing ethnicity, age, class and religion.
Approach
A major premise of our investigation is that a narrative’s moral imagination
is dependent upon its moral complexity, while moral complexity is a
function of two dimensions. The first dimension is thematic: how many
different moral themes can be distilled from the text? A consideration of
this concern will give us a grasp of the moral range of the text (i.e. the moral
diversity of its narratives). The second dimension is the internal richness of
the moral theme or its moral depth: how many and which varieties are
presented of one particular theme? We called these varieties ‘moral
messages’. These messages could appear in several ways within one narra-
tive. We called these variations ‘sub-messages’. A narrative’s moral
complexity is, therefore, the result of these two dimensions.
We have chosen (verbal) closure as the starting point of our analysis
because, with the restoration of the narrative’s equilibrium, (moral) judge-
ment may be passed on its preceding events. It becomes possible to decide
who was really guilty or innocent or who was truly in love or which things
are better now.
Accordingly, it is with narrative closure that the greatest pressure for the text’s
preferred reading may be activated. . . . In such celebratory endings, narra-
tive closure works as a powerful means of expressing positive cultural myths
and an attractive invitation to accept them. (Thwaites et al., 2002: 124–5)
Furthermore, using narrative closure as a starting point of analysis also
gave us a means to assess genres such as soap operas. Although the overall
narrative of soap opera is obviously not closed, singular plotlines are. By
adopting Thwaites et al.’s (2002) conception of narrative sequence, these
plotlines could be included in our analysis.
Last, but not least, narrative closure proved a useful tool for discriminat-
ing narratives with a manifest moral theme from those without one. Based
on related studies, we formulated some moral themes beforehand, such as
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family (Strom Larson, 1993), friendship (Booth, 1988), legitimate author-
ity (Vardy and Grosch, 1999), heroism (Gerbner, 1969), legitimate violence
(Gerbner, 1988), love (Bachen and Illouz, 1996), civilized conduct (Selnow,
1990) and legitimate religion (Rachels, 2003). Other moral themes popped
up during the analysis merely because we could not fit them into an already
formulated category. These included civilization, meaningful death, the
good life and fairness.
We identified moral closure on the basis of specific verbal statements in
our sample. According to Rachels (2003), moral statements can be recog-
nized by their use of ‘ought’ and ‘should’, their aim on conduct and a
good/bad evaluation. Of the 81.6 hours of the primetime television
programming analysed, 53.8 hours ended on a specific moral note. An
example is the current affairs programme Nieuw Economisch Peil (New
Economics; RVU/Teleac/NOS). It dealt with the pros and cons of globaliz-
ation and the solution to world poverty, while its moral theme involved
‘civilization’. After globalization activists on both sides argued their case,
the programme concluded with a statement from one anti-globalization
activist. She claimed that if we care about our future, we should do some-
thing about world poverty, thus arguing that it is our moral obligation to
help poor countries. Other programmes in our sample failed to have such
unambiguous moral closure. One example is an episode from the Canadian
series Rail Away (producer unknown), an informative travel programme
that featured a train trip from Halifax to Toronto, giving information on
the different cities along the way and closing with a reference to the subject
of the next episode. Other narratives sometimes presented a moral theme,
but did not have moral closure.
3
In this respect, some of our research data
have a limited value for our research concerns.
Of all the programmes in our sample with explicit moral closure we
identified the moral messages conveyed. These may be presented as either
a moral claim, such as ‘a child should be the number one priority in your
life’ (Birth Stories), or a specific question, for instance, how one should deal
with a relationship that has turned into a daily grind (Hearts and Bones;
BBC). From these messages we identified the moral themes involved.
Subsequently, we traced all the various arguments that were tied to the
moral message in each programme in our sample. Their logic was used
either to justify a particular message or as an assessment of the relevant
features of the moral question addressed. Next we gauged the internal logic
of the arguments and statements: were they reducible to the same moral
message? If so, it allowed us to identify the programme’s moral theme,
including potential sub-messages that could be suggestive of the theme’s
moral depth. If the reasoning was not reducible to one message, this meant
there were more moral messages and (possibly) more moral themes in the
programme. Regularly, we identified several moral themes in one
programme. Taken together, they constituted the programme’s moral range.
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The third dimension we investigated was the style of moral reasoning
presented in a narrative. Moral imagination partly consists of the ability to
envisage the range of possibilities for contemplating or solving a moral issue
(Johnson, 1993). As explained, inspired by Gilligan (1982) and Gilligan et
al. (1988), we formulated two types of moral reasoning: the rule-governed
style of reasoning and the sensibility-guided style of reasoning. Interestingly,
during the analysis, two other styles of reasoning appeared: a postmodern
self-reflexive style of reasoning that denaturalized morality and the subject’s
relation to it (see Hutcheon, 1989); and a more autonomous, self-governed
style of reasoning that presented morality as an activity itself (see Foucault,
1983). Every argument was assessed on style of reasoning.
Last, but not least, we analysed who was presented as a moral subject.
All the moral arguments and statements were traced back to whose point
of view was expressed. Where possible, we described the subject in terms
of gender, age, ethnicity, region, sexual preference, religion and class.
The moral complexity of primetime television
Our study reveals that primetime television addresses many different moral
issues (see Figure 1). We traced 114 moral messages in the 53.8 hours of
primetime television with a moral closure. The messages address a large
range of topics, ranging from how to break up a relationship to the
acknowledgement of the holocaust. Together, these messages constituted 12
moral themes: love, good family, friendship, civility, legitimate authority,
legitimate violence, meaningful death, legitimate conviction, heroism, the
good life, fairness and civilization.
The first thing that draws our attention is the uneven distribution of the
moral messages over the 12 moral themes. Three themes dominated prime-
time television: ‘what counts as good family?’ (17 messages); ‘what counts
as civility?’ (25 messages); and ‘what counts as civilization?’ (17 messages).
Concerns tied to civility, civilization and family together made up for 51.8
percent of the moral messages presented on Dutch primetime television.
A second striking feature is that the moral range of non-fictional genres
seemed equally as large as the moral range of fictional genres.
4
We expected
moral range and moral depth in primetime television to be related to genre.
After all, the literary framework (Bogdan, 2000; Nussbaum, 1995, 1997;
Rorty, 1989) emphasized the fictional character of a narrative as a condition
sine qua non for the development of moral imagination. Although fictional
and non-fictional genres differed in their moral themes, their moral range
seemed comparable.
Nevertheless, the moral messages revolving around ‘good family’ were
primarily found in fictional genres, while non-fictional genres dealt far more
often with messages involving issues of civilization and civility. As such, this
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The moral imagination in primetime television
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0
5
01
51
0
2
52
03
love
civilisation
fairness
good lifeheroism
convictiondeath
meaningful
violenceauthority
legitimate legitimate legitimate
moral theme
civility
friendshipfamily
fiction
non-fiction
amount of messages
Figure 1 Actual moral range of primetime television
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362
division suggests a difference in emphasis rather than a structural difference.
The non-fictional programming capitalized on moral narratives that invite
reflection on public issues, involving, for example, the rules of debate
(civility), the significance of democracy (civilization), the need to tackle
poverty (civilization) and the rules concerning teamwork (civility). By
contrast, fictional programmes concentrated more often on the individual
concerns of private life, such as the reciprocal nature of friendship relations
(friendship) and the significance of loyalty in familial relationships or the
emotional value of family (good family).
Similarly, moral depth proved as much a feature of fictional as of non-
fictional genres. Fictional genres on average have 1.9 sub-messages per
moral message, while, for non-fictional genres, this ratio is 1.7 sub-
messages. We suggest that the similarity between fictional and non-fictional
genres is due to the specific themes presented and the time dimension in
their narrative development.
The number of plotlines a genre allows, it seems, determines moral range,
whereas the amount of time set aside for these plotlines to develop deter-
mines moral depth. Hakemulder (1998) describes the time dimension of a
narrative as the main feature for it to function as a resource for the develop-
ment of (moral) imagination (the longer the narrative, the more intricate its
plotlines and the larger its number of in-depth characters – the two features
of a narrative that predetermine moral imagination). The time dimension
seems to be an independent predictor of moral complexity. This becomes
apparent when we compare one week (or seven broadcasts) of the daily
evening news to one week (or five episodes) of a primetime soap opera. Both
programmes are broadcast daily and have a complex narrative structure. In
the soap opera, we identified the development and closure of seven plot-
lines. We traced four moral messages (moral range), of which each had two
or more sub-messages (moral depth). This soap opera may thus be
considered a morally complex programme. In comparison, the evening news
contained both shorter and longer plotlines. An example of a longer plotline
involved the war in Iraq and America’s intervention (‘what counts as legit-
imate authority?’) and this item included several sub-messages. The evening
news can thus be labelled a morally complex programme. These results
suggest that the time a plotline gets to evolve as the pivotal feature in
complex literary narrative is an element of both fictional and non-fictional
television narratives.
Second, moral complexity seemed also to be determined by themes. Some
themes showed greater moral depth than others, regardless of the genre in
which they were dealt with. The moral themes ‘what counts as family?’,
‘what counts as legitimate authority?’, ‘what counts as legitimate violence?’
and ‘what counts as a good life?’ were presented on average with two sub-
messages per moral message. For example, the aforementioned message in
the evening news NOS Journaal (NOS), revolving around ‘what counts as
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legitimate authority?’, dealt with the question of whether the intervention
of the US in wars and in other countries should be allowed. This message
was composed of three sub-messages: the intervention in Kashmir and
Afghanistan, the peace process in Palestine and Israel and the rebuilding of
Iraq after the war. All these sub-messages closed with statements about the
suspected hidden agenda of the US in these matters, something that was
openly condemned by the voiceover.
By contrast, the messages that provided us with answers as to ‘what
counts as civility?’ had 1.5 sub-messages on average. For example, in the
American drama series Everwood (Warner Bros), one message was about a
daughter slamming the doors in the house while having an argument with
her father. This issue was morally concluded through a conversation about
how you can have an argument in a more civilized way.
Styles of moral reasoning
To gain insight into the different styles of contemplating the moral issues
that television narratives offer, we analysed the messages and sub-messages
in terms of their style of moral reasoning (see Figure 2). Several concerns
were relevant. First, Gilligan et al.’s (1988) suggestion that sensibility-
guided reasoning is frequently not recognized as a style of moral reasoning
caused us to expect it to be under-represented in primetime television.
Second, Benhabib (1992) suggests that the rule-governed style and the sensi-
bility-guided style are tied to the public sphere and private sphere respec-
tively. We anticipated, therefore, that styles of moral reasoning were
genre-related and theme-related, with sensibility-guided reasoning more
prevalent in fictional genres such as drama and soap operas, because they
deal more often with private matters, and rule-governed reasoning more
prevalent in non-fictional genres like news, current affairs and talk shows.
We counted a total of 476 verbal expressions on moral themes in our
sample. In accordance with Gilligan et al. (1988), rule-governed reasoning
was indeed dominant on Dutch primetime television: 78.2 percent of the
moral expressions were styled as rule-governed. Of all the other verbal
moral expressions, 16.2 percent were framed in a sensibility-guided style.
The remaining ones relied on a postmodern self-reflexive style (3.8 percent)
or an autonomous self-governed style (1.9 percent).
The suggestion of Gilligan (1982) and Gilligan et al. (1988) that rule-
governed reasoning is recognized as moral reasoning par excellence is
corroborated by our analysis, even though over 20 percent of the
expressions did not have a rule-governed style. But rule-governed reason-
ing even dominated when it seemed more logical to expect a sensibility-
guided style. For example, in the Canadian docudrama Birth Stories
(Cineflix), the moral message was the overall importance of having children
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INTERNATIONAL journal of CULTURAL studies 8(3)
0
0
2
04
06
0
8
001
021
amount of verbal reasonings
love
civilisation
self-governed
self-reflexive
sensibility-guided
rule-governed
fairness
good lifeheroism
convictiondeath
meaningful
violenceauthority
legitimate legitimate legitimate
moral theme
civility
friendshipfamily
Figure 2 Styles of reasoning per moral theme
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and the question of what makes a good parent. A rule-governed style of
moral reasoning expressed itself in statements such as those from Sari, a
young woman who was in hospital for six weeks due to complications
during her pregnancy. The only thing she worried about was her son who
was left at home. Sari felt guilty for not being there. When the new baby
was born, she came home. Her son was angry with her, refused to talk to
her and disobeyed her. Sari explained that she had been a bad mother for
not being there. In other words, good parents are always available: that is
the basic right of children. If the narrative had afforded space to a sensibil-
ity-guided style, Sari would have accepted her son’s anger because he was
very young. How could a 4-year-old be expected to understand the situ-
ation? In this style of reasoning, Sari would be presented as feeling less
guilty because her situation was life-threatening. This might be considered
as more important than being available to her son full-time, especially since
her husband took care of their son all the time, so he was not neglected at
all. Strikingly, instead of offering two styles of moral reasoning (which
seemed to make sense considering the situation), only a rule-governed style
was presented: a mother should be there for her child, irrespective of the
situation.
The styles of moral reasoning presented in Dutch primetime television
were only partly related to genre. Although Benhabib’s (1992) suggestion
on styles of reasoning and their specific ties to the public and private spheres
seems to be confirmed by our data, the interrelation of styles of reasoning
and genre hardly appears to be distinctive. Of the rule-governed style of
reasoning, 33.3 percent were presented in fictional genres and 66.7 percent
in non-fictional genres, which is basically in line with Benhabib (1992). Of
the sensibility-guided style of reasoning, 42.9 percent were found in fictional
genres and 57.1 percent in non-fictional genres, which contradicts
Benhabib’s claim.
Furthermore, styles of moral reasoning were only partly related to private
sphere or public sphere topics in the manner suggested by Benhabib (1992).
For example, in the evening news (non-fiction), the US secretary of state
Colin Powell requested the discontinuation of UN sanctions against Iraq.
This request was presented in a sensibility-guided style of reasoning. Powell
explicitly requested friend and foe to unite in giving aid to the Iraqi people,
thus prioritizing the relationship with the Iraqi people and their welfare –
a public topic argued in a sensibility-guided style.
In the same fashion as moral complexity, styles of moral reasoning were
related to moral themes. Whereas none of the moral themes was styled
exclusively as rule-governed or sensibility-guided, the ratio between the
styles differed per moral theme. The rule-governed style of reasoning
prevailed in the three dominant themes in particular: ‘what counts as good
family?’ (88.9 percent); ‘what counts as civility?’ (86.1 percent); and ‘what
counts as civilization?’ (82.1 percent). For the latter two, this prevalence is
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closely in line with Benhabib (1992). The moral themes ‘what counts as
civility?’ and ‘what counts as civilization?’ were often linked to public topics
in which rules and obligations were discussed. But the dominance of a rule-
governed style of reasoning in messages revolving around good family was
surprising because ‘what counts as good family?’ seemed to be the theme
most closely associated with the private sphere. Messages revolving around
‘what counts as legitimate authority?’ also conflicted with Benhabib’s
assumption that styles of moral reasoning are linked to private and public
topics. In messages about legitimate authority, 24.4 percent of the verbal
expressions were phrased in a sensibility-guided style of reasoning. Since
authority is commonly backed up by rules and arguments about duty and
obligations, this is remarkable. It can be explained by the fact that the sensi-
bility-guided style of reasoning on questions of authority was frequently
accounted for (and therefore verbally expressed) in exceptional situations.
For example, in the American drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (UPN),
the moral message of who ought to have the authority to set limits on the
use of violence was discussed in several styles of reasoning. The heroine
Buffy wants to kill a demon, who is also a former friend of Buffy and her
friends. She adopts a rule-governed style, reasoning that because the friend
is now a demon, she should be killed like any other demon. One of Buffy’s
friends counters this logic in a sensibility-guided style. He argues that since
the demon is a former friend and they all have a relation with her, the rules
do not apply as they do for total strangers. He explains that they all know
what terrible situations their friend has suffered and that they should try to
understand her and care for her: ‘When our friends go all crazy and start
killing people, we help them.’
Commonly, messages involving legitimate violence were also presented in
a sensibility-guided style (36 percent). For example, in an episode of the
popular Dutch police series Baantjer (RTL/Holland Media Group), a
murder gives rise to the moral message ‘should we excuse violence in the
context of loyalty or should we consider all violence as wrong?’. The victim
is a notorious wife beater who accidentally dies after two female friends of
his wife beat him up with a baseball bat. While a rule-governed style of
reasoning gives way to arguments about the issue that (physical) violence is
never an appropriate solution to a problem, a sensibility-guided style
prompts arguments on the wife’s position. Unable to resist her husband’s
aggression, her best friends intervened on her behalf. This female solidarity
is appreciated openly in the end, and, even though the violence was unjus-
tified, the reason for it is understood. The welfare of the victim’s wife was
taken into account as well as the relationship between the women.
A comparatively large share of the messages revolving around ‘what
counts as civilization?’ was couched in a self-reflexive style of reasoning
(14.1 percent). An explanation might be that this style was often used in
satirical programmes. Such programmes often focus on social order and
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thus on ‘what counts as civilization?’. Messages revolving around ‘what
counts as a good life?’ were also frequently framed in self-reflexive reason-
ing (12.3 percent) and self-governed reasoning (10.5 percent). This can
partly be explained by the theme itself, as such reasoning basically involves
setting one’s own rules in shaping one’s life and refers almost directly to the
aesthetics of existence as formulated by Foucault (1983).
Subject and object positions and styles of moral reasoning
Our last research concern focuses on whether subject positions in television
programmes are linked to styles of moral reasoning (Figure 3). Relevant
aspects include gender, ethnicity, class, age, sexuality, religion and region.
In our sample, we identified 436 subject positions as suitable for analysis
(other subject positions involved the use of a voiceover or an institution).
Women took up 39.4 percent of the moral subject positions while men
expressed 60.6 percent of the moral concerns, which turned out to be a
significant difference.
5
However, in 2002, only 35 percent of the people on
Dutch television were identified as female (Sterk and van Dijck, 2003). This
perhaps suggests that the percentage of women on television is rising and
that, more importantly, women are not excluded as moral subjects. In
addition, styles of moral reasoning on Dutch primetime television were not
gendered. For the dominant rule-governed style of reasoning, the distri-
bution of women and men in subject positions is 39.6 percent and 60.4
percent respectively, which is an almost perfect reflection of the percentages
of men and women in moral subject positions on Dutch primetime tel-
evision. Yet we find a distribution of 46.6 percent women and 53.8 percent
men taking up subject positions in verbal reasoning styled in a sensibility-
guided way. These results suggest that Gilligan’s observation of gendered
styles of moral reasoning is not applicable to moral reasoning on primetime
television. One could argue that styles of moral reasoning on television are
more equally distributed between women and men than earlier research
would suggest.
Once more, a consideration of the separate moral themes reveals a few
striking patterns. Although it is hardly surprising that men figured more
prominently as moral subjects in narratives that dealt with public sphere
issues such as civility, legitimate authority and civilization (Benhabib,
1992), messages revolving around legitimate violence were dominated by
women. This unexpected outcome may be explained by the fact that most
of the narratives addressing violence as a moral theme took place in the
private sphere (for example, wife beating, rape and robbery) or dealt with
violent acts by women. Violent acts by men were probably considered more
common and thus less newsworthy or less interesting as a moral theme and,
hence, less visible as a morally relevant topic than the violent acts of women.
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INTERNATIONAL journal of CULTURAL studies 8(3)
0
02
theme
amount of subjects
love
family
friendsh
ip
civility
legitimate aut
hori
ty
legiti
mate viol
ence
m
eanin
gful death
legitimate convi
cti
on
heroism
good l
ife
fairness
civilisation
0
4
0
6
0
8
001
021
sensibility-guided women
sensibility-guided men
rule-governed women
rule-governed men
Figure 3 Styles of moral reasoning and subject positions
05_krijnen_055682 (jk-t) 26/8/05 11:44 am Page 368

This result does suggest that male violence is more ‘normal’, and therefore
acceptable, than female violence (see Foucault, 1976). However, it is worth
mentioning that very excessive violence, such as premeditated murder, will
exclude the perpetrator from humanity. In these cases, however, the moral
theme presented is humanity and who belongs to it rather than violence (i.e.
‘what counts as civilization?’).
Regarding the relationship between morality and specific subject features
(ethnicity, sexuality, religion, region, class and age), our study also revealed
some eyecatching results. In our sample, non-western ethnic minorities took
up 18.3 percent of the moral subject positions, while, in the Netherlands,
only 10 percent of the population belonged to a (non-western) ethnic
minority (CBS, 2003). At first sight, this over-representation of ethnic minori-
ties as moral subjects perhaps suggests a colourful picture of Dutch tel-
evision, but the over-representation is more likely to be explained by the fact
that the week included the national celebration of liberation day (5 May)
and the anniversary of the murder of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn in the
previous year. This latter event, in particular, evoked a lot of debate on multi-
cultural society in current affair programmes, in which the majority of the
interviewees or those partaking in the debates were of Moroccan descent.
Still, genres such as lifestyle programmes and sitcoms also had a large
percentage of non-white subject positions (respectively, 28.6 percent and 50
percent). Apparently, there is no indication to assume that there is a connec-
tion between ethnicity and moral reasoning on primetime television.
By necessity, the data on age are in part based on estimates, but of the
moral subjects on primetime television, some 87 percent fell in the age
category 20–65 years of age. As only 61.8 percent of the Dutch population
are in that age category, this means that children, adolescents and the elderly
were significantly under-represented as moral subjects on primetime
television (CBS, 2003). On average, women appeared to be younger than
men. While a slight majority of men seemed to be in the 40–65 age category
(51 percent), a slight majority of women looked as if they were between 20
and 40 years of age (52.6 percent). Women who used a sensibility-guided
style of reasoning were of various ages, ethnicities, positions in the family,
and so on, while the majority of the men who used a sensibility-guided style
of reasoning were white, older and from one of the higher social classes.
These men were in general presented in positions with a more varied style
of moral reasoning than younger, lower-class or black men. These observa-
tions suggest that instead of being related to gender, styles of reasoning are
related to class, ethnicity and age. In the American sitcom Friends (NBC),
for example, one moral message involved the notion of good family. In a
sauna, one of the main characters, Chandler, accidentally sits down on the
lap of his father-in-law. Chandler feels the need to apologise to his father-
in-law face-to-face because that is how it should be done (an example of rule-
governed reasoning). His father-in-law responds as follows: ‘I understand
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completely, there’s nothing more horrifying than embarrassing yourself in
front of your in-laws.’ Later in the episode, he promises never to mention
the issue again because he understands Chandler’s embarrassment and does
not wish to harm their good relationship as in-laws. In our sample,
this sensibility-guided style of reasoning was typical for white, upper-
(middle-) class men over 65 years of age.
Conclusion
In this article, we have explored the moral imagination of primetime tele-
vision narratives. What kind of issues and questions does contemporary
primetime television present as morally relevant and with what level of
sophistication? Which styles of moral reasoning are used and by whom?
Our analysis shows that in primetime narratives, over 50 percent of the
moral messages focused on three moral themes: family, civility and civiliz-
ation. It is exactly these three moral themes that are often the topic of the
moral panic constructed around popular television: the loss of family
values, dysfunctional behaviour and the weakening of democratic values. In
primetime television, these values dominate the moral landscape. Moreover,
the content of these moral themes conflicts with the arguments used to
enhance the moral panic around television content. In other words, prime-
time television frames these particular themes in their positive sense, as pro-
family, pro-democracy and pro-civility values. The theme of ‘good family’
is dominated by messages such as, ‘family should never be let down’ and ‘a
child is the number one priority in life’. Instead of devaluing family values,
these messages reinforce the idea of the family as the cornerstone of society.
Second, the moral theme of ‘civilization’ contains messages that reject non-
democratic forms of organizing society and celebrate (the western idea of)
democratic values. Examples are statements such as, ‘we ought to live
together peacefully’ (Israeli-Palestinian conflict) and ‘democratic freedom
ought to be estimated as the supreme good in society’. The weakening of
democratic values, it seems, is less likely to be part of the content of tel-
evision. Finally, the moral theme of civility, or civil conduct, contains
messages such as, ‘arguing is done verbally, not physically’, ‘you should not
lie’ and ‘you should always keep your promises’. These messages seem to
promote ‘functional behaviour’ instead of ‘dysfunctional behaviour’. When
we look at the other themes potentially tied to ‘dysfunctional behaviour’,
such as the contemporary discussion of random acts of violence, we find
similar results. For example, in general, violence is judged as bad in prime-
time television unless exceptional circumstances are at stake.
In conclusion, our evidence suggests that the moral panic around the
content of primetime television is unwarranted. As indicated by Tavener
(2000) and Jenkins et al. (2002), this moral panic is especially useful for
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sustaining the high vs low culture dichotomy. However, by insisting on this
particular distinction between culture and Culture, we not only keep
ourselves from studying the intrinsic value of popular culture in critical and
productive ways, but, for no good reason, we also discard television narra-
tives as a useful tool in the larger cultural effort aimed at raising and educat-
ing morally mature individuals who can act as responsible and socially
involved citizens.
Notes
1 We follow Hall et al. in our conception of moral panic: ‘When such discrep-
ancies appear between threat and reaction, between what is perceived and
what that is a perception of, we have good evidence to suggest we are in the
presence of an ideological displacement. We call this displacement a moral
panic’ (1978: 29; emphasis in original).
2 We selected only those television channels that had a market share larger than
5 percent during the year 2002.
3 For example, an episode of the sitcom Frasier (NBC) dealt with a conflict
between Frasier and his brother that could only be resolved by the interven-
tion of their father. Since this episode did not have a verbal moral closure, it
is excluded from our analysis. However, this exclusion obviously does not
mean that the programme does not have moral significance.
4 Non-fictional genres took up to 1.76 times more hours in the analysed week
than did fictional genres.
5 For this analysis, a χ
2
-test is used, resulting in χ
2
(1.423) = 3.85, p < .05.
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●
TONNY KRIJNEN is a PhD student at the Amsterdam School of
Communications Research. Her thesis reflects on the value of television
narratives for the development of moral imagination. Address:
Amsterdam School of Communications Research, University of
Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands. [email: a.f.m.krijnen@uva.nl]
●
●
IRENE COSTERA MEIJER is a senior associate professor in media
studies. She is a researcher at the Amsterdam School of Communications
Research and teaches courses on popular culture, ethics, qualitative
interviewing and journalism studies at the department of
communications studies of the University of Amsterdam. Her
publications include books and articles on the production and reception
of soap opera in relation to questions of ethnicity; the rise of reality
soap, the question of quality and citizenship for popular journalism,
advertising and TV journalism. Address: Amsterdam School of
Communications Research, University of Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal
48, 1012 CX, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
[email: i.costerameijer@uva.nl]
●
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