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Glee's McKinley High: Following Middle America's sexual taboos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2015

JIMI ADAMS
JIMI ADAMS*
Affiliation:
Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado Denver, Campus Box 188 P.O. Box 173364, Denver, CO, USA (e-mail: [email protected])
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Extract

Writers for popular media frequently draw on insights known about social networks in developing their plotlines and character biographies (whether in books, television, movies, etc.). Perhaps most known to network analysts in this respect, Freeman (2000) presents a collection of network concepts represented in comic strips. These depictions often are consistent with the patterns network analysts observe in real-world empirical examples. For example, the long-running sitcom Friends exhibited strong homophily (McPherson et al., 2001) or assortative mixing on race and socioeconomic status among the main characters. Other times the violation of these typical patterns can serve to generate dramatic tension or a source of comedy. For example transitivity—or the tendency of one's friends to also become friends (Holland & Leinhardt, 1972)—is absent in the movie Hush where Jessica Lange's character plots to kill the daughter-in-law she does not like. P-O-X social balance (Heider, 1948) describes the tendency for friends to share common interests, which was violated to comedic effect in the Seinfeld episode where Jerry's character simply cannot accept his date's refusal to try a taste of the pie he finds delicious, bothering him for days and ultimately leading to his ending the relationship.

Type
End Note
Information
Network Science , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , June 2015 , pp. 293 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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