TPPM Watts: (14) A little unreal

[Paul Nightingale]

"... much of the white culture that surrounds Watts ... looks ... a
little unreal, a little less than substantial."

This issue is raised by Greenberg & Brand in conclusion:

"A more exact research agenda could begin to identify some strains not
present or insufficiently pursued to date. Absent from the literature is
the impact of television programming and other media content on minority
perceptions of the majority world. Research interests in minority
perceptions of self and majority responses to minority groups have
omitted the flip side of one of those coins: What expectations emerge
among minorities from media portrayals of Whites? Inasmuch as Whites
seldom interact with minorities on television, what do minorities
believe are appropriate behaviors when with Whites, and what do they
expect from them? What inferences do minorities derive about wealth,
power, jobs, sex roles, or even the possibility of changes in
interracial relations?" ("Minorities and Mass Media", 307)

The paragraph above, I think, describes the approach adopted by the
Watts essay.

Nor should we assume that, when the numbers change, this automatically
means the situation has 'improved'. See: "The Power of Popular
Television: The Case of Cosby" in The Ideological Octopus: An
Exploration of Television and Its Audience (Justin Lewis, 1991).

And I remember something from the mid-1990s that I've been unable to
locate: at the time of the Simpson trial, an account of the radically
different viewing practices of white and black Americans.