Viewing Race in the Comfort Zone

Brenda L. Hughes

SAGE Open, 2014, vol. 4, issue 3, 2158244014549151

Abstract: Carter suggests the concept of a “comfort zone†to explain the inability of dramatic African American programs to be successful on television. He argues that a workable formula has been developed for successful African American series, “portray black people in a way that would be acceptable to the millions of potential purchasers (whites) of advertised products. That is, non-threatening and willing to ‘stay in their place.’†. Using a data set constructed from television ratings and shares, this study examines “black-centeredness†within the context of program success and failure. The comfort zone concept argues Black-centered television series are only successful in a comedic genre because White audiences, who have the majority of the ratings power, will only watch Black-centered series with which they are comfortable. The findings suggest that, in general, race, that is Black-centeredness, did not negatively influence program ratings or shares.

Keywords: communication; culture; technology; communication technologies; mass communication; social sciences; radio/TV/film; journalism; media and society; media consumption; sociology of race and ethnicity; sociology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:4:y:2014:i:3:p:2158244014549151

DOI: 10.1177/2158244014549151

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