Podium Session I
DSA Winner for 2010, Nancy Signorielli, Ph.D., University of Delaware
Prime Time Television in the 21st Century: Where the Past Meets the Future
Thursday, April 15, 10:30 AM-11:45 AM | LVCC, N250
Presentation Topic: Images in the media and how these images are related to people's conceptions of social reality (cultivation analysis). The presentation will focus on my research that has examined images in prime time network broadcast programming for the past 40 years. Portrayals of aging, gender roles, occupations, minorities, and violence will be discussed. The presentation will provide a historical perspective of these television portrayals. It will then examine the changes in portrayals that have taken place during the first decade of the 21st century and what might be contributing to these changes. Theoretical and policy implications will be examined. The presentation will specifically focus on cultivation theory discussing how television images continue to relate to viewers' conceptions of social reality.
Introduction by: Susan Brinson, Ph.D. University of Auburn and Editor, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.

Nancy Signorielli, earned her PhD, from the University of Pennsylvania, 1975. She has written/edited seven books, including Violence in the Media: A Reference Handbook. She has published over 110 journal articles, book chapters, grant reports, and encyclopedia entries. She has made over 150 presentations at conferences of the discipline's major organizations. She testified in May 1993 at House Energy and Commerce committee's subcommittee on telecommunications and finance oversight hearing on television violence and its impact on children. An original member of the Cultural Indicators Research Team, she published one of the very first studies of characterizations on television, "Patterns in Prime Time," Journal of Communication, 1974. She has served on the editorial boards of 5 communication journals, including the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.