Can Unscrewed be Unskewed? Television Coverage of the Internet

ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Martha McCaughey Ph.D., Professor (Creator)
Institution
Appalachian State University (ASU )
Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/

Abstract: This paper documents one way the Internet is presented to the public by analyzing a late–night TV talk show about the Internet called Unscrewed on the TechTV cable network. I gained the opportunity to study Unscrewed, and attempt to influence its focus, when I was invited to appear as a guest on their show after having e–mailed them a criticism of their sexist coverage of the Internet — specifically their positioning of women as pretty objects to be ogled online rather than as creative participants in online culture and as authors of a diversity of Web sites. Though I liked the program’s potential to challenge some aspects of an increasingly market–driven Internet, I was unable to unskew the sexist focus of Unscrewed precisely because market forces demanded the show remain male–centered.

Additional Information

Publication
McCaughey, Martha. (2006) McCaughey, Martha. “Can Unscrewed be Unskewed? Television Coverage of the Internet,” in First Monday 11:10 The version of record is available open access from the publisher at: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_10/mccaughey/index.html or http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v11i10.1406 (October 2006).[ISSN: 1396-0458]
Language: English
Date: 2006

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