Running head: COMM 350: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS MEDIA LAB REPORT

COMM 350: Textual Analysis Media Lab Report

Christopher Newport University

Kilie Rosson
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Text
The “Law and Order: SVU” crime drama franchise is centered around an elite squad

known as the special victim’s unit, these detectives serve the citizens of New York City by

hunting down the bad guys and defending victims. “Law and Order: SVU” originally aired in

1999 and has since received twenty-five Emmy nominations, and has won six (Otterson, 2017,

par. 4). The series is currently in its nineteenth season, continuing to be one of NBC’s top-rated

programs with 5.8 million viewers per episode (Otterson, 2017, par.3). “Law and Order: SVU”

holds a special significance to the American public by using a “ripped from the headlines” tactic

to voice concerns about identifiable problems within the United States Criminal system. Harnick

describes the popularity of the series by saying, “Law and Order: SVU” is known for taking

stories from the headlines and putting new spins on the real-life situations. Our show

reverberates through the community it is more than just a show” (Harnick, 2013, par. 4). “Law

and Order: SVU” is more than just a show, which is why it offers a unique opportunity for

critique.

The specific text my group chose to analyze was an episode from Season 10 entitled,

“Selfish.” This episode aired in 2009 and served to make a connection between the infamous

Casey Anthony case and parental competence. “Selfish” begins with the Casey Anthony-esc

narrative, and then later transitions into a discussion of the ethics in the anti-vaccination

movement, calling into question parents who willingly chose not to vaccinate their children. We

chose to look at this particular episode of “Law and Order: SVU”, because of its incredible

success, receiving an eight point one out of ten rating on IMDb (IMDb, 2009). We also chose

“Selfish” because, it covered a wide variety of social topics such as, age gaps within the work

force, socio-economic status of the characters in the episode, and religious stereotypes. For the
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purposes of our textual analysis, however, we focused on the episodes intentional critique of the

anti-vaccination movement.

Textual Analysis

In order to better understand and assess the concepts depicted in “Selfish” we used a

thorough textual analysis. Textual analysis is defined as, “The method communication scholars

use to describe and interpret characteristics of a recorded or visual message” (Frey et. All., 1999.

P. 1). The purpose of textual analysis is to describe the content, function, and structure of the

messages contained in a selected text. Important components to consider in a textual analysis

include, the selection of texts, acquiring the appropriate texts, and determining which particular

approach to employ when analyzing them. My group and I chose to take an ideological analysis

approach, because “Selfish” aims to influence viewers thoughts and opinions on the cultural

practice of anti-vaxxing. Brennen describes an ideological analysis as, “The ways cultural

practices produce and develop viewer values, common sense understandings, knowledge, and

behaviors” (Brennen, 2012, p.1). The producers of the episode “Selfish” depicted anti-

vaccination in a way that perfectly fits Brennen’s criteria for an ideological analysis.

Another major component to consider when conducting a textual analysis is

McCormick’s Six Steps. These six steps include, content, conflicts or resolution, structure,

absence, style, and mode of address (McCormick, 1995). Content answers the question of what’s

happening in the text, this includes belief’s, values, and characterizations. Conflict or resolution

helps to guide us in the understanding of a selected text. Structure describes how the audience is

entered into a particular text, this includes the text’s opening and closing shots, and other

thematic choices. Absence seeks to find what is left out of a text. Is it purposeful? Does it

enhance our understanding of a text’s message? Style includes the fashion choices, design, and
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aesthetics within a text. Finally, mode of address is how the text speaks to the audience, it can be

directly talking to an audience or it can require the audience to do some sort of outside research.

Method

With our analysis, my group and I hoped to answer how “Law and Order: SVU’s”

episode “Selfish” intentionally imposes an ideological statement against the anti-vaccination

movement through the use of character portrayals to expose audiences to the dangerous

consequences of not vaccinating their children. In order to answer this question, we used

McCormick’s Six Steps, described above.

First, my group took a look at how the content of the episode “Selfish” could have

influenced viewers to take a particular side on the anti-vaccination movement. In the beginning

of the episode a young, irresponsible mother played by Hilary Duff is accused of killing her 3-

year-old daughter. The first quarter of the episode is solely focused on trying to prove the

immature mother’s guilt. The rest of the forty-five-minute episode discusses the implications that

mothers for the anti-vaccination movement can have on expected societal patterns. The

producers deliberately used these two narratives to contrast traditional ideas of irresponsible

parenting. Looking at the two mothers audiences would automatically assume that the

inexperienced, young mother would be more reckless, however the older and supposedly wiser

mother who decided to follow the anti-vaccination movement ends up being portrayed as the

irresponsible one of the two. This is done purposefully through the content of the episode to

influence audiences of the repercussions of this anti-vaccination movement.

Next, my group and I analyzed the structure and style of the episode. We discovered that

these two components also play a huge roll in uncovering the intentionality of the producer’s

messages. The episode opens with shots of New York City, crime scenes, and the New York
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Police Department headquarters, there are also time and location stamps throughout the episode.

These time stamps are used to indicate important scenes, character interactions, and locations.

They serve to direct the audience’s attention to certain aspects of the episode over others. The

style depicted in “Selfish” goes hand in hand with the deliberate structure of the episode. The

main characters are all dressed in clothes representative of the twenty to forty-five age range,

which places them perfectly in the context of the episode, giving them credibility as parents and

mentor figures. A study conducted by Singer and Endreny in 1994 found that information is

communicated to us not only through blatant representations, but also non-explicit means, such

as where the story is placed on a timeline and character presentment (Singer & Endreny, 1994,

p.264). The messages the “Law and Order: SVU” producers are trying to convey truly reveal

themselves only after looking into these “non-explicit” means.

After taking a look at the episode’s structure and style my group focused on its modes of

address. This episode is unique in that it expects its viewers to understand the references made

and make decisions based upon their previous knowledge. For example, this episode aired right

after the first current major outbreak of measles in the United States (Kaplan, 2015, par.12). This

was a direct call upon real-world events at that time. If the viewers had not known about the

recent measles outbreak before viewing the episode, the episode would not serve its intended

purpose, unless the viewers took it upon themselves to conduct some outside research. It is also

important to note that this entire episode serves as a representation of actual news stories and the

knowledge of current events such as Casey Anthony case and the measles outbreaks almost

increases your likelihood of being influenced by this episode’s narrative.

Lastly, my group searched for absences within the episode. We found that these absences

appeared to be intentional and persuasive. We first noticed the absence of minorities, both in the
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police force and the surrounding supporting characters. There was one minority that played an

integral role in the plot, Maria Fernandez. Maria represents the stereotype of the Hispanic child

care-taker, she is positioned in the story to form a connection to the Casey Anthony case. This is

her only role in the show and the startling lack of diversity in the episode “Selfish” seems to be

inconsistent with the actual demographics of New York City, further proving this absence is

intentional. Another important instance of absence we found is the complete absence of the

Casey Anthony narrative in the second half of the episode. Although the Casey Anthony seemed

to be the focus of “Selfish,” a sudden twist in the plot all but forgets the original account. This

seems to be done to highlight the actual issue the producers wanted to address, the issue of anti-

vaccination.

Emergent Themes

After going through McCormick’s six steps my group and I realized that many themes

seemed to emerge. One of these themes was the judgement of mothers based solely off of surface

level understandings. A quote from the episode says, “Your FaceSpace tells a different story.

Here you are, drunk and partying it up in Cabo, gonna crown you mother of the year?” (Wolf,

2009). This quote encapsulates this recurring theme and serves as a representation for the way

young mothers are perceived in real life. Another quote from the episode states, “That lady is a

lunatic. What she’s doing is a danger to society” (Wolf, 2009). It seems unfair to infer these

things about a mother, but the purpose of the episode, “Selfish” is to show there are two types of

irresponsible parenting, but one seems to be way worse. The producers actively tried to persuade

viewers to lean a certain way on a topic, while still trying to make it seem like the viewers had a

choice.
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Another emergent theme we found through our analysis was the direct critique of the

ideological view of anti-vaccination. This critique as fueled by empirical evidence and seemingly

cold, hard facts. The producers made no effort to hide their opinions on the anti-vaccination

movement and in one quote from the episode prove the true culprit of the episode was none other

than anti-vaccination. Detective Benson says, “How does this happen in this day and age?” and

detective Stabler replies, “She wasn’t vaccinated” (Wolf, 2009). This direct statement explains

the nature of outbreaks such as measles and draws on actual statistics that prove its validity. A

CDC report found that 91% of people who got the measles were unvaccinated and 40% of these

patients chose to be unvaccinated, not because of any philosophical or religious beliefs (CDC,

2017, par.1). Although this episode aired in 2009 the relevance of it is still apparent, it is 2018

and we are still having a problem with measles, a preventable disease. “Law and Order: SVU”

came out with another episode about the anti-vaccination movement in 2012 reiterating the

seriousness of not vaccinating in American society.

Conclusion

Our first textual analysis was incredibly successful. The selection of our text proved to be

very useful for inquiry, by offering relevant and connecting themes. My group and I grew up

with general knowledge of the show, as well as the Casey Anthony and Anti-Vaccination

movement. This helped strengthen our general understanding of the episode, as well as our ideas

about the intended messages it portrayed. We also were all familiar with the crime-drama genre

and were able to use that to our advantage when trying to understand the intentionality behind

the narrative. Although we were successful in our research it was all of our members first times

conducting a textual analysis such as this. We all knew the components of a textual analysis and

in particular an ideological analysis, but we were learning the actual process as we went. Another
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issue was our lack of time to complete the analysis, we had about a few weeks in total to

complete our analysis, but a more in-depth textual analysis would require a couple of months. In

the future, we would love to build upon this analysis and maybe even branch out to other crime

drama shows to do comparison between the different series. We believe this would be a great

opportunity to expand the themes we found in just our one episode.

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References

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Frey, L., Botan, C., & Kreps, G. (1999). Investigating communication: An introduction to
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McKee, A. (2002). Textual analysis: A beginners guide.

http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~sbenus/Teaching/APTD/McKee_Ch1.pdf

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Fox, M. (2017). Anti-vax message gets meaner on social media. NBC News.
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Kaplan, K. (2015). Vaccine refusal helped fuel Disneyland measles outbreak, study says.
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Nuzzi, O. (2015, Feb 02). Christie in 2009: 'I stand with' autism-fearing anti-vaxx
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Reissman, C. (2005). Narrative Analysis. Narrative, Memory and Everyday Life.

Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield. pp. 1-7.

http://www.karanovic.org/courses/mca008/archives/1222

Blume, S. (2006). Anti-vaccination movements and their interpretations. Social Science

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