Over the past four years, I have enjoyed speaking to and moderating a number of undergraduate classes about LGBT issues in the news and in the media.
While I was researching and writing my dissertation about news coverage of the same-sex marriage debate, I often guest lectured on the topic of representations of LGBT people in the news media and in popular culture. On these issues, my teaching context has mostly been as a guest lecturer at a large state school (
Indiana
University
in
Bloomington
) and at a small, private college (
Butler
University
in
Indianapolis
). I have spoken to a variety of undergraduate classrooms, from a small, discussion-oriented gender studies class of 18 students, to a large, hot-topics-in-the-media course of nearly 500 students. Since completing my degree, I have also integrated LGBT issues into my introductory reporting class and my “Women in the Media” course.
While the classroom format always differs, my approach is similar: Introduce students to how LGBT issues have historically been covered — and not covered — in the press, and then examine the predominant images, narratives and voices that emerge in coverage of contemporary issues. My talk usually focuses on the theme of “from the margins to the mainstream.” Since this generation of college students is really the first to have grown up watching LGBT characters on television, or with out LGBT friends and family members, my objective is to contextualize this contemporary era of visibility within a larger media landscape in which LGBT people and issues were routinely excluded from media coverage.
To get them thinking and talking, I ask them to help me generate a list about media visibility: What images of LGBT life have you seen in the media? What issues or topics related to LGBT life have you seen covered in the news? I use this student-generated list to contextualize how prominent LGBT people and issues are now, but how they were routinely excluded in the media a mere 60 years ago.
Drawing mostly from the work of Lisa Bennet and Edward Alwood, I walk students through a decade-by-decade synopsis of LGBT issues in the press. I use example headlines, articles and photographs to show how LGBT people were seen as a threat to national security in the 1940s and 1950s; to demonstrate the “shocking” visibility of the LGBT movement following Stonewall; to reflect coverage of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s; and to examine coverage of civil rights issues (i.e. inclusion in military) in the 1990s. I also like to use the section from the fantastic documentary “Off the Straight & Narrow” (the original version) called “The Early Years,” which does a great job of showing television news stories from these time periods. There is something about actually seeing what was at the time mostly gay men featured on news programs, their faces and voice disguised or hiding behind potted plants, that really drives home the point of “invisibility.”
I use this historical context to set up discussion of how a contemporary controversy in cultural politics — the issue of same-sex marriage — has exploded in media and public discourse. I like this issue for two reasons. First, students have some degree of familiarity with the issue, since most remember San Francisco Major Gavin Newsom handing out marriage licenses to same-sex couples in February 2004. And of course, the issue still percolates in legislative and campaign politics. Secondly, it is a very palpable example of a change in media representation — how a group that has been historically linked to the antithesis of wholesome family values and as a threat to social institutions is now fighting for the opportunity to participate in marriage and family life.
Using news examples, I focus our discussion on two areas: Whose voices are heard in the same-sex marriage debate, and what images of LGBT life are we seeing now that are in many ways so different from images and representations used in the past? We watch a few clips and I have students literally write down the sources they see interviewed, both “for” and “against” same-sex marriage. During our discussion, it quickly becomes apparent how LGBT rights activists and LGBT couples are pitted against society’s most powerful forces — the president, Senate leaders, religious leaders, political candidates and so forth.
We use this list to talk about balance, objectivity and the power of sources. Most students are also surprised to see signage and hear sound bites (typically from conservative activists) that recycle historical homophobic rhetoric aired on primetime news — signs that read “No Homos Allowed” and “Homosexuality, Hellfire, Sin.”
Next, we take a look at the images of LGBT life that circulate around the same-sex marriage debate. I like to use news photos of what I call “poster couples” for same-sex marriage — those couples selected by news organizations that graced the covers of national magazine, for example. Asking a simple question like, “What do you notice about these images?” gets students talking. They typically notice the couples are white, young, and comment on their appearance — how they meet conventional standards of femininity and masculinity (i.e. “They look like they could be on any fashion or health magazine.”). They will often find markers of class and socio-economic status. For example, if a student says, “They are suburban,” I ask, “How do you know?” They comment on the house, the neighborhood, the stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, etc. I also use a clip of a Barbara Walters interview with Rosie O’Donnell and Kelly Carpender O’Donnell, which features their four children. This very funny, loving portrayal of a lesbian couple raising their children gets a great student response. Inevitably, students will define the family as “normal,” and even go so far as to assign Kelly the role of “mother” and Rosie the role of “father.” I have even had students say, “It’s almost like they are trying to sell their relationship to a straight audience.” We use these examples, then, to talk about issues of heteronormativity and the larger issue of how marginalized groups have to play by certain rules in order gain visibility in the media.
The thing that has surprised me the most is how comfortable students are talking about LGBT issues and representations in the press and in popular culture. Some of the same students who are resistant to or reluctant to talking about issues of race and ethnicity and/or gender inequalities are open and willing to talk about homophobia. I have received mostly positive responses; students are engaged and interested in the topic. Some ask really good questions about journalistic ethics, such as, “Well, how should the reporter have covered that story?” “How should the photographer have framed that shot?” Others have used it as an opportunity to come out to me (in private, usually, after the lecture) and to express an interest in LGBT issues in the media. I have used these encounters as an opportunity to tell students about organizations like NLGJA and to express the importance of having their voices heard in this profession.
I am in the beginning stages of my academic career, so in the next few years, I plan to develop courses along the lines of LGBT representations in the news and in popular culture. I will also integrate a section on the newsroom closet in our more general discussions of diverse voices in my reporting classes. Also, in my “Social Movements and the Media” course, I would eventually like to have students work with an LGBT group that uses the press to advocate for their community and for their causes.
