538 Appendix B Understanding Mass and Mediated Communicationoffend their viewers or sponsors. If network executives believe a show’s script
is too explicit or its message is too morally risky, they may insist on rewrites or
prevent the show from airing altogether.
The fear of offending viewers or advertisers does not mean that media avoid
controversy. Indeed, controversy can be used to increase ratings. We discussed
earlier that lurid, sensational coverage is common across news media outlets,
whether about celebrity sex scandals and drug overdoses or political corruption
and gruesome murder cases. Entertainment programming can also benefit from
controversy—two weeks after singer Miley Cyrus gave a sexually provocative
performance at the MTV Music Awards in 2013, the “Wrecking Ball” video she
released on YouTube received more than ten million hits in a matter of hours
(“Back to Twerk,” 2013). And her subsequent appearance hosting Saturday
Night Live boosted that show’s ratings to its highest in months (Alter, 2013).
But controversy doesn’t always translate into high ratings or long-term success.
Perhaps the most prominent way media industries try to minimize risk is
to repeat what has already proven to work. Although they do aim to discover
some fresh new idea that will lead to the next big blockbuster or hit TV show,
that kind of success is difficult to predict in advance. Media professionals often
count on the sure thing: the products or ideas that have already been successful.
Thus, profitable films—from Iron Man to Toy Story—are usually followed by a
sequel (or two, or three... ). Popular films are also frequently derived from suc-
cessful novels (Hunger Games), graphic novels and comic book franchises (The
Avengers), or previously made films (Carrie, RoboCop). For television, this means
copycat shows (the hugely successful American Idol is an Americanized version of
the British hit Pop Idol) and spin-offs (Family Guy begat The Cleveland Show).
Although some such outings are failures, studios continue to mine familiar sto-
ries and characters that they know audiences already know and enjoy.Free Speech and Media Bias
The infamous 2004 Super Bowl halftime show featured a moment that
entered the cultural lexicon as a “wardrobe malfunction” when performer Justin
Timberlake pulled off part of Janet Jackson’s bustier, exposing her breast. CBS
stations around the country faced major fines for indecency. After years of legal
battling, CBS eventually prevailed and did not have to pay the fines, mainly
because the courts found ambiguity in how indecency rules were being enforced
at that time (Denniston, 2012). The debate continues today over how much
right the government has to fine networks or censor objectionable messages—a
controversy rooted in competing interpretations of constitutional law.The First Amendment
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make
no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” The principle
here is that news media and individual citizens of a well-functioning repub-
lic need to be free to criticize their government and speak their views. This
means that, even when speech is offensive, the government cannot ban it,
punish it, or restrict it, except under very rare circumstances. Interestingly,
this doesn’t mean that the U.S. government hasn’t tried to exercise controlRATHER THAN diminish-
ing her fame, Miley Cyrus’s
behavior brought her more
notoriety. Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for
MTV/Getty Imageso i p c e w a c p r ( NAre you more likely to spend
your moviegoing dollars on
a known entity—a sequel to
a film you love, a retelling of
a favorite story, or a movie
adaptation of a television
show you loved as a child—
than you are on an original
concept? Of the movies you
saw in the theater over the
past year, how many were
truly original?AND YOU?
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