Prime-Time Activism
—By Craig Cox, Utne Reader
September/October 1999 Issue
Of course, this access would mean little if Winsten didn't have a message that could be easily inserted into a prime-time story line. It wasn't a polarizing message; there were no economic interests opposing it. And it rang true to life: Many producers had teenage kids. (Winsten reinforced his message by sending producers Plexiglas paperweights with a card inside: "Choose a Designated Driver." A lot of them are still sitting on producers' coffee tables today, he says.)
Still, Winsten and his organization didn't rely solely on right-thinking Cheers episodes to move public opinion. They ran public service advertising nationwide and organized community events around the country. "This isn't a magic bullet," he says. "It's one component of a larger strategy." For more and more special interest organizations, that larger strategy involves building ongoing relationships with Hollywood producers and writers. Groups like the Kaiser Family Foundation's Program on Entertainment Media and Public Health provide a variety of resources for the networks: briefings, research services, even a hot line for writers looking for quick answers to health-related questions. While writers were putting together a recent two-part Felicity episode on date rape, they sat down with Kaiser representatives during rewrite sessions to better understand how to accurately portray the situation and its aftermath. It's at sessions like these that the organization can best influence content. "You have to approach them as storytellers," says Robert Pekurny, an assistant professor of communications at Florida State University and a writer for the 1970s hit show Happy Days. "You've got to prove that you're making their jobs easier." Of course, dropping in a line or two about date rape or drunk driving or morning-after contraception is easy compared to educating the masses about global warming or rainforest destruction. And for years, environmental groups had a difficult time making any inroads with the networks. Recently, though, groups like the Environmental Media Association (EMA) are beginning to wield more influence in Hollywood through the use of props and occasional story lines. As Kivi Leroux reports in E Magazine (July/Aug. 1999), EMA briefs television writers on environmental issues each year, offering information and story ideas. But it also provides T-shirts with environmental themes to be worn on the air, posters, recycling containers, and cloth grocery bags. When producers were searching for an electric car for the final episode of Mad About You, EMA steered them to a dealer. Despite the gains made in the past 10 years, Rosenzweig concedes that TV will never be the ideal vehicle for social change. For every positive message on safe sex, after all, there are hundreds promoting reckless promiscuity. "As long as television remains a profit-driven industry," she writes, "the best we can hope to do . . . is to work within the existing system to make it better." |