“The Day Beyoncé Turned Black” – SNLPosted in Arts, Media Archive, United States, Videos on 2016-02-14 17:42Z by Steven |
“The Day Beyoncé Turned Black” – SNL
Saturday Night Live (NBC)
2016-02-13
The Rock Obama Cold Open – SNLPosted in Arts, Barack Obama, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, United States, Videos on 2015-03-29 19:36Z by Steven |
The Rock Obama Cold Open – SNL
Saturday Night Live
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
2015-03-28
After the actions of Rep. John Boehner (Taran Killam), Sen. Ted Cruz (Bobby Moynihan) and Sen. Tom Cotton (Kyle Mooney) make him lose his cool, President Obama (Jay Pharoah) turns into The Rock Obama (Dwayne Johnson).
Defining Mixed Race on Television: an Analysis of Barack Obama and Saturday Night LivePosted in Barack Obama, Communications/Media Studies, Dissertations, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, United States on 2012-04-13 03:37Z by Steven |
Defining Mixed Race on Television: an Analysis of Barack Obama and Saturday Night Live
California State University, Sacramento
Fall 2011
109 pages
Amanda Joy Davis
THESIS Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in COMMUNICATION STUDIES
This study uses a semiotic approach to textual analysis to examine social constructions of Barack Obama’s race in televised sketch comedy to discover how this construction contributes to the process of hegemony regarding society’s treatment of mixed race. Polysemy will be explored as a key contributing factor. The television program chosen for this study is Saturday Night Live (SNL); the program will be examined for visual and linguistic references to Obama and mixed race. The absence of mixed race references will also be analyzed for their contribution to the show’s overall message. This study argues that while SNL mentions mixed race, it ultimately adds to the hegemonic treatment of mixed race individuals. That is, it identifies Obama as monoracial, ignoring his mixed race heritage in favor of a neat, pre-existing category. While SNL had the opportunity to step outside of the typical dismissal of mixed race and defend their choice of actor to portray Obama, and refer to him as mixed race on a consistent basis, they opted instead to categorize him as monoracial. In doing so, SNL upholds the silent treatment given to the mixed race community, forcing a monoracial identification based on appearance, a hegemonic course of action.
Read the entire thesis here.