Sitcoms and Culture

Does it matter what television we watch? Despite their stodgy reputation among many consumers of television, sitcoms, or situation comedies, have stuck around as a cornerstone of the television landscape.

Sitcoms and Culture examines sitcoms as cultural artifacts ripe for exploration as they reflect the shifting landscapes of our society. From questions of social change to the portrayal of women and other racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities, sitcoms have evolved alongside the major social changes of the last half century. Using an interdisciplinary approach, author James Shanahan combines research on cultural indicators with an empirical methodology and cultural analysis to examine over 50 years of sitcoms to discern the reality of how these comedies have portrayed life to us across generations of television.

Sitcoms and Culture helps us gain a deeper understanding of how sitcoms mirror and shape societal norms and of the pivotal role they have played in reflecting and influencing cultural trends.

James Shanahan is Professor in The Media School at Indiana University, where he was Founding Dean from 2015 to 2021. He is author of Media Effects: A Narrative Perspective and has co-authored and co-edited several books focused on the effects of media, especially television, including (with Michael Morgan) Television and Its Viewers: Cultivation Theory and Research and (with Janet McCabe, Kimberly A. Novick, and Gabriel M. Filippelli) Climate Change and Resilience in Indiana and Beyond (IUP, 2022).