Politics and Politicians in Contemporary US Television

Washington as Fiction

Betty Kaklamanidou, Margaret Tally, Betty Kaklamanidou, Margaret Tally

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781472486042
• eBook ISBN: 9781317078487
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Popular Culture
• Index: Social Sciences

Bringing together well-established scholars of media, political science, sociology, and film to investigate the representation of Washington politics on U.S. 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 programmes 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 public's 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 U.S. 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 fascinating study that sits at the intersection of politics and television, this book will appeal to scholars of popular culture, sociology, cultural and media studies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgement
• List of contributors
• Foreword: Television criticism and contemporary US politics
• Introduction: American television in the 2010s
• 1. The political TV shows of the 2010s: showrunners, reality and gender
• 2. “The last hurrah”: The West Wing and the future of American politics after 9/11
• 3. “Stand up, fight back”: race and policing in The Good Wife and Scandal
• 4. The Leader of the Free World? Representing the declining presidency in television drama
• 5. Would Niccolò Machiavelli endorse House of Cards’ Frank Underwood?
• 6. House of Cards – House of Power: political narratives and the cult of serial sociopaths in narrative politics in American quality dramas in the digital age
• 7. The Cold War (re-)visited in House of Cards and The Americans
• 8. “Call it the Hillary effect”: charting the imaginary of “Hillary-esque” fictional narratives
• 9. Veep’s poetics of omnishambles
• Index