Diversification, Dualcasting, and Direction

Ting Ting Liu

After reading Katherine Sender's article on "Dualcasting: Bravo's Gay Programming and the Quest for Women Audiences" and watching an episode of Ellen and Orange is the New Black, it got me thinking about a diverse and dualcast direction in which the world of TV could become. Let me explain...

Diversification:
In the article, Sender stated that Bravo used gay content not only to shift and grow audience demographics, but Bravo's bigger picture was their larger strategy of diversification. Diversification is important for Media & Entertainment due to the sheer amount of power media and entertainment has on the world, economy, and society. Media & Entertainment hold such a strong influence, thus diversification is an important subject that needs to be seen more in films and television shows. More diversification on a channel or in a movie would give more people a chance to see, learn and understand things that they probably will never know or talk about. More diverse content such as different cultures, mannerisms, traditions, rituals, and lifestyles should be shown more on TV. "Premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime have pushed the envelope on gay themes, modeling a television environment more friendly to gay characters and viewers" (Sender, 306). I believe more shows should take on Bravo, HBO, and Showtime's strategy and try to diversify their networks and TV content as well.

Dualcast:
I understand that media works in very complex and different ways. Even cable networks and broadcast networks work differently, "Cable has also been able to afford to take more risks with gay programming than the broadcast networks can, because of its different sources of revenue and types of regulations. Cable can be less concerned by advertiser backlash, because cable channels have an additional source of sponsorship from distribution and subscription. Cable channels are not subject to the same FCC regulations on content as the networks, allowing them to take greater risks with controversial content" (Sender, 306). However, I believe this is why Netflix is a great platform for a diversification and dualcasting direction for TV. Think about it: There's no way TV channels, movie studios, and such could just suddenly drop all their rules and regulations that they've built over the past few decades, and just start showing more diverse content. It would be chaos- there'll be people that aren't going to agree with this and could appeal it, rebel against it, there'll also be people who are going to argue about the way they should diversify their content, and so much more. Honestly, the best way and approach I could think of, is to slowly integrate diverse content into our society.

Direction:
The direction I would like to see in future Media & Entertainment is a more diverse and dualcast type of direction. Netflix is a great starting platform that could bring this direction forward. Netflix isn't like normal TV, it doesn't follow rules and regulation of the FCC, Netflix as a media platform is a great start on showing, supporting, and promoting shows that  involve gay and lesbian content, interracial content, cultural content, and so on. Netflix is a big enough platform that it would reach to many people across the country. Look at the success they've had with their original TV series, Orange is the New Black. Yes, there are a lot of articles out there discussing certain controversies of Netflix's original show, but the point is, Netflix is also promoting a dualcast viewership. It is important to diversification, and it is important to the society.

I do hope to see that TV and Film content in our society would grow in diversity and this could hopefully help create a tremendous social change in our world.