katie callison's midterm

Katie Callison

Macdonald and Conway

Home Improvement could be considered a classic American sitcom that uses humor to draw in viewers. The television show that originally aired on ABC has won many awards since it’s beginning over a decade ago. But what exactly makes this comedy series so popular? Do audiences actually find Home Improvement funny? Author of Against the American Grain (1952), Dwight Macdonald, would defiantly have answers to both those questions.

First, Macdonald (1952) might pick at the point that Home Improvement is a prime example of a Masscult television show. The plot of each episode is very predictable and is always very simple. This means that anyone in the audience will understand each episode without much thought. Also, each of the characters in the sitcom plays stereotypical roles. This helps audience members easily relate to the various cast roles. Macdonald would say that it is features such as these that have enabled Home Improvement to become so popular among children and adults alike for so many years. However, Macdonald would defiantly not approve of this show being so popular.

Next, Macdonald (1952) might argue that audiences may not find Home Improvement funny at all if they weren’t exposed to the laugh tracks entered into the show to that instructs them when to laugh. This show has been standardized so audiences know and expect what is coming next. This type of television is “easy” to consume. Audiences don’t have to think about when to laugh because the laugh track helps them realize when something is funny. Macdonald defines this as “The-Built-In-Reaction”. The audience’s reaction has been built into the sitcom (Macdonald). Those at home viewing the show do not have to come up with their own response to the dialogue or events throughout the show.

Much of Macdonald’s (1952) essay is a critique of Masscult, a genre of culture that Home Improvement and most everything else in the mass media slides nicely into. According to Macdonald, works of art that would be considered High Culture are no longer being produced. Instead, Masscult is filling the radio, television, and movie screens (Macdonald). Masscult entertains the mass man while High Culture is for the elite (Macdonald). For this is because not everybody can enjoy High Culture or even appreciate it. The works of art that are contained in High Culture are often ordinary, but are also authentic, educating, and challenging. In many cases they aren’t understood after the first view (Macdonald).

The circuit model for media study was talked about in great detail in Kyle Conway’s, Technology/Form (2009), and describes the relationship between the receivers, distributors, and the producers in television production. This model highlights the importance of producers understanding viewers’ tastes so that they can create programs that the viewers will be likely to watch (Conway). Producers must also use the model to determine where to distribute the show in order to attract the target viewer (Conway). A producer's ultimate goal is to obtain revenue and money is made through advertising (Conway). Producers will know when the model has failed because revenue is lost (Conway). Advertisers will no longer pay when they feel their commercials aren’t being watched because viewer numbers drop too low (Conway). Understanding the circuit model for media helps to realize what constitutes the success or failure of a program, and also recognize why certain genres of programs are made and aired on specific channels at particular times.

The media’s drive of producing a television show is to take in revenue. They try and create programs that will attract the largest possible audience because shows with a large or committed following will earn them the most money. The smart producers who wish to be successful know the tricks that will create programs that will sell and what has happened is that these programs have lessened our individuality and turned us into the mass man (Conway, 2009; Macdonald, 1952). Macdonald is angry that modern industrial societies have created the mass man, but what readers have found out in Conway’s book is that through processes such as the circuit model society receives the shows they want to watch on T.V (Conway; Macdonald). Producers may look at an audience as a whole without taking each of us into account, but through that we receive entertainment.

Macdonald (1952) feels that Masscult is taking over High Culture. What Macdonald doesn’t address is technologies interaction with audiences. Before the mass media, dramas performed in Britain were intended for the upper class (Conway, 2009). The invention of film helped bring drama for the masses to enjoy (Conway). Television has done the same. Technology has helped bring drama out into a scene that allows more than just the elite to experience. This reveals how entertainment for the masses began. Entertainment had once been only for the wealthy but with the help of technology ordinary people could view drama as well.

Technology such as television provides entertainment to ordinary people because it is cheap. Events such as plays, operas, and orchestras are special and usually aren’t attended to everyday. In general, people have easy access to television. Families can come home from their daily activities and sit down, relax, and enjoy an episode of Home Improvement together. The option of attending a play as a family on a weeknight just isn’t very possible in modern societies. Easy and cheap entertainment is sought after.

Macdonald is obsessed with the notion that Masscult is ruining everybody’s minds. Through Conway’s work we can see how Masscult has risen from technology and found a niche in society. Masscult aims at the ordinary man because so many people have the opportunity to enjoy the cheap entertainment. High Culture is for the elite and is created rather than manufactured (Macdonald). Through these two authors readers are able to understand how Masscult and High Culture serve different purposes. High Culture is not meant to be enjoyed by the masses so it does not need to serve the lowest common denominator. The purpose of Masscult, however, is different. It is put out for the masses to view. The “Built-in-Reaction” is important and expected. Macdonald fails to realize the importance of producing work that people will want to consume so that profit can be made just as Conway ignores other forms of mass media besides television. By reading these two works together readers begin to understand their place in the media system. Macdonald helps readers realize that there are other ways besides just television that make a viewer stream into the masses while Conway gives readers a glimpse into the reality of the media system and a producers ultimate but legitimate want of wealth.

Conway, Kyle. Technology/Form: An Introduction to Media and Cultural Studies. Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota Communication Program, 2009.

Macdonald, Dwight. “Masscult and Midcult.” Against the American Grain. New York: Random House, 1952.