| Prestige is a potent mechanism of social control that encompasses the sets of practices through which men and women, individually and collectively, judge and treat one another; as a measure of social value, prestige influences the esteem, neglect, or disfavor with which we regard ourselves and others. Its significance is so deeply embedded within our lives that its role appears natural. The recognition of this influence frequently exists just beyond the fringes of our conscious perception.;The mass media are an important socialization agent within American culture. Television fiction in particular, with its constant visual and verbal reenactment of the joys, triumphs, and sorrows of everyday life, helps to instill and reinforce dominant cultural beliefs and values, including those that surround prestige.;This dissertation analyzes ways in which the symbolic world of prime time fiction portrays prestige relationships and exposes the implicit coercion within prestige hierarchies through examination of boundary transgressions and their repercussions. It extends the analysis of violence and suggests additional ways in which television programs expose viewers to messages about cultural distinctions, social structures, and power relations.;This study explores a composite week of prime time television. Through content analysis, it examines explicit boundary transgressions, their repercussions, and demographic characteristics of participants. Through descriptive elaboration, it exposes the implicit nature of these prestige relationships and practices.;Findings indicate that the powerful and powerless alike inhabit this domain where rewards and punishments vary with prestige, race, and gender. This world depicts a structured symbolic environment where races tend to be separate and adult males dominant. Most inhabitants are heterosexual and politically neutral. High prestige characters take more liberty to challenge boundaries than others; males are more likely to initiate transgressions whereas females are more likely to incur them; low prestige characters tend to overstep boundaries in public space and in view of others. They also encounter more resistance to boundary infringements while high prestige characters experience more reward. Thus, this analysis provides insight into how the meanings of television presentations are evidence of deeply embedded social beliefs and practices that control our media, workplaces, political institutions, and social lives. |
